Defying Convention

Trump just canceled the planned Republican National Convention in Jacksonville.  (He will still accept the Republican presidential nomination at a smaller event in Charlotte, the original site of the 2020 GOP convention.)  He cited the virus and the risk involved in an effort to make himself look on the ball with the COVID-19 crisis.

Don't you believe it.  Trump is doing this to make himself look more politically palatable to those center-right voters who might be leaning to but are not entirely sold on Joe Biden.  Every move he makes from here on should be taken with more than a grain of salt.

We should just get rid of political conventions anyway.  I know they're sort of the equivalent of party congresses in Europe, but European party gatherings are more about setting the course for the party and planning policies than for nominating candidates for office; they tend to be held every year.  American national political conventions, held quadrennially, are mostly pep rallies; the platforms have already been worked out, and the presidential and vice presidential nominees have already been secured by the pledged delegates elected by rank-and-file party members in primaries and caucuses.

That said, when you consider the fact that the presidential nomination process is not unlike the general election - rank-and-file voters choose delegates to nominate a candidate the way all voters choose electors to elect a President and Vice President in November, maybe the delegates should do what the electors do - meet in small rooms somewhere and pick the candidate.  The party committees can count the ballots in a solemn ceremony at their Washington headquarters the way Congress counts the electoral votes before the inauguration.  And if no candidate for the nomination gets a majority on the first ballot . . . well, let the parties figure out how to decide the nominee.   But whatever they come up would be better than having delegates in an arena wearing funny hats and carrying signs.

For the record, the 2020 Democratic National Convention will be held in Milwaukee, but in a small venue with only a few party bigwigs.