Quadrennial political conventions were seldom exciting

 This post was published in the Wilson Times Aug. 28, 2020

            You might say that I grew up on televised political conventions. Just as the nation’s two major parties have presented their platforms and candidates for the 2020 elections, I’m remembering what it was like to watch the fuzzy black-and-white, sometimes raucous, seemingly never-ending party conventions of the 1960s and ‘70s.

            The pre-cable television networks of that era staffed the conventions as if they were covering World War III. Sometimes it seemed that they might have been covering a war. The networks aired hours and hours and hours of programming, during which very little was happening on the convention floor and podium.

            There was little drama in most conventions, although in those days before  primaries took over nominations, the conventions actually chose party nominees.

In 1960, the youthful, handsome John F. Kennedy defeated Lyndon Johnson, the most effective and productive Senate majority leader in history, for the Democratic nomination. In 1964, NBC reporter John Chancellor was detained on the Republican convention floor for refusing to give up his assigned stand-up position on the floor so the “Goldwater Girls” could dance through. One of the most memorable scenes in convention history was Chancellor being escorted off the floor. It was amazing enough that Chancellor was suited up with a huge backpack of batteries and electronics that was supposed to keep him in touch with the network anchors in a studio high above the convention floor. He used the new technology to announce as he was led away, “This is John Chancellor, somewhere in custody.”

            The 1964 GOP convention also had another political drama. With Barry Goldwater the presumptive nominee, some “moderate” Republicans (to the left of Goldwater), tried to swing the nomination to former Pennsylvania Gov. William Scranton, but the last-minute ruse failed, and Senator Goldwater went on to the largest defeat in presidential history.

            The 1968 Democratic Convention was full of drama, but much of the drama took place outside of the convention hall in the streets of Chicago. Roving battles took place between well-armed police and well-prepared protesters opposing the Vietnam War and grieving over the murders of Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. Mayor Richard Daley defended police conduct, but Sen. Abraham Ribicoff, inside the convention hall, accused Daley’s police of “Gestapo tactics” on the streets.

            The horror and mayhem of the Democratic Convention helped ensure the election of Richard Nixon. The networks had most of their cameras and reporters inside but managed to show some of the relentless violence sweeping the streets outside the convention.

            Thanks to COVID-19, neither of this year’s conventions will be as exciting as these past gatherings. I watched several swatches of the Democratic Convention last week and found the digital format in some ways superior to the old, in-person crowds. But television in the cable and streaming era can’t spend whole afternoons and evenings on the coverage of an event that everyone knows how it ends before it begins. Hour-long convention speeches, one after another, put Americans’ attention spans into a coma. The COVID-19 convention strategies may become the norm.

            Years ago, I suggested that the presidential State of the Union address had become theater more than political information and should be replaced by the State of the Union email or text message to members of Congress. The public would enjoy reruns of “Father Knows Best” more.

            Democrats this year focused on the experience and empathy of nominee Joe Biden in contrast to President Trump’s frequently unruly reign and his need to disrupt, lie, insult and antagonize. Republicans will claim for President Trump every good thing that has happened in the past four years.

            Voters will get the final say (we hope) in another five weeks.