The Tale of Two Conventions

Every four years we witness the two major parties throw extravagant, multi-day events to prop up their chosen candidate and to state where each party stands in the zeitgeist of the day, and this year was no different-we saw a divided political class put on two very different shows, with two vastly different visions of America.

While the Libertarian National Convention had some excitement with Donald Trump actually pitching himself as the best Libertarian candidate, which got the proper "Boo!" that idea deserves. Disgraced independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also made his own pitch for support- to no one's surprise, the delegates actually voted for the candidate of their choice, Chase Oliver, who actually holds Libertarian ideals (what a notion!). Meanwhile , the Green Party National Meeting went off without a hitch, and was again contained to a virtual meeting this election cycle, seeing Jill Stein easily secure their nomination. The big parties though, they went all out.

First up were the Republicans, who despite a valiant-early effort from Nikki Haley to give Trump a run for his money and disgruntled Republicans an option, had Trump locked up as their nominee for months, only inviting Haley to speak after Trumps assassination attempt. What was promised as a convention focused on unity and healing quickly devolved into the MAGA fest we all knew it would, complete with dog whistles and not so subtle references to America being better when it's whiter and kids can read less books. Trump and his allies gave the speeches you would expect- demonizing the Democrats as communists who want to destroy this country, your family, your religion, and your bank account. Conspiracy theories were abound, from election denial to political witch hunts, all the typical things one would expect from Republicans in 2024, except maybe the odd fashion choice Trump ran on his ear...didn't seem to catch on with the youth of the movement, though we'll see about his choice of youthful-ish JD Vance also turns out to be a miss or not.

Next, we saw the Democrats put on a star-studded event that was an attempt to highlight their position in the mainstream and the diversity of their political coalition. We had family members who humanized the top of the ticket, policy experts who warned of deterioration in public institutions and democracy itself if Trump and friends gets elected (quite a Trumpian line of attack, but when fire begets fire I suppose). We met the homely VP candidate Tim Walz, meant to ease that Midwest panic, and we finally saw Kamala Harris give a speech meant to champion America's diversity, take back pride in America and put to rest concerns that the United States is losing its place in the world...all to the backdrop of Pro-Palestinian protesters and the fact that Joe Biden secured enough delegates to become the nominee before dropping out after his disastrous debate performance earlier this summer. Kamala was the quickly and questionably anointed candidate, and she made the most of it to give a rousing and potentially unifying speech, anchored by the fact that a few Republicans spoke and endorsed the Democratic nominee.

Now, national conventions and their viewership don't generally predict who will, win, they do show where each party is in the moment, and here is where we can extract some takeaways. Where one convention used fear mongering and exclusion as selling points, the other made an effort to bring everyone back into the fold we know as the United States and oppose a cult of personality- One of these seems a healthier approach to large-scale electoral politics and getting back to the trust in elections and minimal civility we had grown to expect from serious candidates-I'll let you figure out which one.

@mamontano2