Both Parties Wonder: How Much Do Conventions Even Matter Anymore?

Political conventions have been a balloons-and-bunting mainstay of American campaigns since the Republican Party gathered in Baltimore to nominate Henry Clay for president in 1831. But this year, they may join the list of crowded events — concerts, baseball games, movies and Broadway shows — forced off the stage because of the coronavirus.

The parties themselves have become far less influential, particularly since Trump overcame the Republican power structure to win the nomination in 2016. They have been weakened by rising anti-establishment beliefs on the left and the right, notably among younger voters, and by the sentiment that parties are not as essential to ideas or governing anymore. The waning significance of conventions, long the grandest symbol of old-guard party-building, would appear to be of a piece.

“Our political memories have become so short that we can barely remember Trump’s monthslong impeachment saga, let alone a weeklong infomercial for our party’s nominee,” said Zac Petkanas, an aide on Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in 2016. “The dirty little secret of politics is that 80% of what everyone thinks is important in campaigns doesn’t matter one little bit.”

There is certainly a constituency for this kind of American tradition, particularly among political leaders who have spent a lifetime attending these quadrennial gatherings. “Despite the fact that we’re not selecting our nominees there anymore, they can act as a final stopgap if a nomination is in question, and it can go to the floor,” he said. “Those rules still exist. It just hasn’t happened for a long time.”

Asked whether the Democratic convention was ultimately helpful to Clinton, Leah Daughtry, the event’s chief executive, paused. “I think so,” she said. “When the balloons are dropping and the nominee is out onstage, there’s a certain amount of closure. Of course, there were those for whom that was not a satisfactory outcome. I don’t know that anything would have been a satisfactory outcome.”

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