Political convention

American presidential candidates and their running mates for vice president are selected by majority votes of delegates to the political conventions that the parties convene. These are nominating conventions. Political conventions are also held to select candidates for state and county, candidates for offices such as governors, county board members and chairperson, and Senate and House candidates.

Republicans and Democrats convene the largest political conventions, but other parties also choose candidates to run in the general elections at political conventions. For instance, the Libertarian Party holds its political convention in May. It is America’s third largest political party. Its delegates will also choose nominees. Likewise nominees from the Green Party, Socialist Party, Constitution Party, and Reform Party will be selected at political conventions.

Political conventions are held several months before a general election for president and vice president. Delegates also write a party platform detailing the party’s position on issues of national and international importance.

Background

Delegates from all fifty states to party political conventions are elected in primary elections before the political convention. Party candidates electioneer in every state to garner party member votes. Delegates are selected by parties and are committed to a candidate later to be named at the political convention to represent the party. If no candidate receives a majority of votes to be the party nominee, delegates at each political convention are allowed to vote for whomever they want to be the nominees from their party to campaign for president and other elected offices.

The Founding Fathers of the United States envisioned candidates pitching to voters, and the one with most votes wins the office of president. Supporters circling around their favorite candidate formed parties to raise money for travel, newspaper ads, forums and debates, and glad-handing events. By 1800, political parties tore the selection process for nominees from the hands of congressional caucus members and turned the process over to state legislatures. In the 1830s, both the Republican and Democratic parties began holding political conventions. This move was spurred by the public to remove power concentrated in the hands of a few elected officials and bring the nominating process to the grassroots electorate.

Political conventions lost their luster and became looked upon as venues to calumniate opponents and trade deals for personal power and wealth. They were characterized by cartoonists and pundits as a venue for rich people to dominate smoke-filled rooms. Smithsonian.com reports the nominating process was born at the 1831 Anti-Masonic Convention, making this one of the ten most important political conventions in US history. The 1856 Republican Convention discussed a platform to end slavery at some point and was the birthplace of the "birther" movement. Their candidate was accused of being born in Canada. In 1860, slavery dominated. Southern Democrats walked out and held their own convention in support of extending slavery. Republicans chose Abraham Lincoln with only 40 percent of the vote. These stories about former political conventions reflect their importance to national identity, the direction of the country, and the way democracy is played out.

Political Conventions Today

In the 1930s, America was in a deep depression with so many people out of work and living in poverty that the country was on the brink of collapse. The Democrats made the economy their argument, nominating Franklin D. Roosevelt. Once he was elected president, Roosevelt’s policies dragged the United States out of the depression and paved the way for America’s entrance into World War II on the side of the Allies. The 1960 Democratic Convention was televised like the 1940 Republican Convention, but now a plethora of Americans owned television sets to watch the show and feel part of the process. Television was the means of bringing the anti-Vietnam War movement into every living room at the time of the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Viewers witnessed a police riot outside the convention building attacking those demonstrating against party leaders supporting the war. Mayhem permeated inside the convention as well, with viewers witness to Connecticut Senator Abraham Ribicoff and Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley verbally attacking one another over the war and police in the streets.

In 2004, a little-known senator from Illinois delivered the keynote address at the Democratic Convention. He mesmerized the crowd and television audience with his oratory. That convention spotlight made Barack Obama a rising star. It launched him on the interview, speaking, and writing circuit where he built his reputation. It became known as the Obama phenomenon, culminating in the nomination at the 2008 Democratic National Convention of America’s first African American candidate for president by one of the two major political parties’ conventions. When his opponent for the nomination, Hillary Clinton, suspended her campaign and asked delegates to nominate Obama by acclimation at the convention, the full weight and good faith of the party underpinned this historic event and time. A divided or contested convention might have derailed Obama’s run for the presidency. This show of unification made him a viable candidate, giving respect and gravitas to him as a man and to the concept of equal opportunity in a democratic society.

The foremost purpose of a political convention has changed little. First, it is the obligation of the parties to nominate a candidate for president. Second, the convention must produce a platform detailing its stance on domestic and foreign affairs. Third, the political convention provides a safe place for political debate. Fourth, convention delegates are the linchpins in the democratic process. Television and ongoing in-depth media coverage changed the nature of political conventions, exposing them to spectator scrutiny and creating an interactive environment for all Americans to feel a part of the democratic process in action.

Bibliography

Burns, Robert M. "Barack Obama: How an ‘Unknown’ Senator Became President of the USA." E-International Relations Students. E-International Relations, 12 Dec. 2014. Web. 25 April 2016.

Crowley, Candy. "CNN Explains: Conventions." CNN. CNN, 22 Aug. 2012. Web. 25 April 2016.

Davis, Kenneth. "The Top Ten Political Conventions That Mattered Most." Smithsonian.com. Smithsonioan.com, 26 Aug. 2012. Web. 25 April 2016.

Hartfield, Elizabeth. "What is a Political Convention?" ABC News. ABC News, 28 Aug. 2012. Web. 25 April 2016.

Heilbrunn, Jacob. "The 5 Craziest Presidential Conventions in American History." The National Interest. Center for the National Interest, 19 April 2016. Web. 25 April 2016.

Kreiss, Daniel, Laura Meadows, and Remensperger, J. "Political performance. Boundary spaces, and active spectatorship: Media production at the 2012 Democratic National Convention." Sage Journals. University of North Carolina, 24 March 2014. Web. 25 April 25 2016.

Parker, Brett. "Back to the Future: 2016 and the 1968 Democratic Primary." The Stanford Political Journal. The Stanford Political Journal, 31 Oct. 2015. Web. 25 April 2016.