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Nothing surprising has happened, Koppel continued. Nothing surprising is anticipated.

Surprise was an interesting metric for assessing value. Not significance. Not importance. Not expectation that reporters report. Just a demand for surprise, like a 7-year-old might make after giving a grudging kiss to Great Aunt Mary.

Its painful to think what Koppel and his viewers might have learned, the foreshadowing of foreshadowings, had he not grabbed his condenser mic and gone home. Would Koppel have been able to connect the language of the 1996 platform with the rhetoric of the 1992 Republican Party convention, a platform which now not only demanded full constitutional rights for the unborn, but denied them to the just-born? Could he have seen the significance of the platforms proposed constitutional amendment denying automatic citizenship to infants whose parents who are either not legally present or not long-term residents of this country? Could he have projected that far forward, and imagined implications for 2016 or 2020?

After all, it was in 1992 when the Republicans met in Houston and heard failed candidate and very successful influencer Pat Buchanan warn of the dangers that lay ahead in what was framed as his Culture Wars speech.

My friends, this election is about more than who gets what. It is about who we are, cautioned the future Patron Saint of Hanging Chads. It is about what we believe and what we stand for as Americans.

There is a religious war going on in this country, " Buchanan continued. It is a cultural war this war is for the soul of America. And in that struggle for the soul of America, Clinton & Clinton are on the other side.

Its 1992, and Pat Buchanan has already painted an indelible bulls-eye on Hillary Clintons back. Its 1996, and the sound of silence is 15,000 credentialed media not following Ted Koppel out the door.

I get the need for pageantry, the need to distract from such grim messengers. I have seen my share of balloon drops. (Indeed, I was once caught in a blind corner in the Astrodome during the balloon drop when an overhead net of balloons got stuck, relentlessly dumping its entire load in one spot. When the high tide mark passed 5 feet with no end in sight, a woman from the Michigan delegation took a deep breath, dived into the balloons, and emerged moments later, waving her shoe victoriously over her head. She then proceeded to methodically puncture each balloon with a swift swack of her stiletto. Years before Romneycare, Mitts sister-in-law saved my life.)

And I get the need for excitement.

My first convention was Detroit in 1980. I was only 23, and by the time the Republican convention was gaveled into order, Ronald Reagan still hadnt picked his running mate. During pre-convention negotiations, an unorthodox proposal emerged: Former president Gerald Ford would join the ticket as Reagans vice president, but with unspecified expanded powers. Fords representatives in these negotiations reportedly included Henry Kissinger, who would become secretary of state in the co-presidents Cabinet. Rumors of the possible deal began to leak did I mention Henry Kissinger was involved? but in those pre-cell phone days, the best delegates and reporters could do was try to puzzle out the body language as Ford and Walter Cronkite settled down in the CBS skybox for a friendly chat.

In the end, of course, it was George H.W. Bush, but not before there were some spectacular multi-reporter pileups as people ran back and forth through the narrow corridor connecting Joe Louis Arena with the media workspace in Cobo Hall.

Conventional wisdom among the regulars reporters, campaign staff, and consultants who have inhabited the same bubble long before COVID is that this will be the year that the nominating conventions are finally finished off.

No business gets done at a national convention that couldnt be done remotely, Steve Grossman, a former chair of the Democratic National Committee, told the Globe recently, a sure sign hes getting a bit socially distant from reality.

This has been a hard year. Social distancing has exposed the limitations of social networking. We need to gather. Four years from now, when the parties must select their nominees, there will still be much rebuilding to be done. To do that, people need to come together all the people who see a chance to be part of something bigger than themselves. That includes the protesters, the true believers, and the T-shirt vendors. The numbers crunchers and the no-free-lunchers. The retired and the dead tired. And of course that guy with the boot on his head.

Individuals without community are without substance, while communities without individuals are blind, observed the great 19th century philosopher Josiah Royce. It will be as true in 2024 as it is today.

Margaret Doris is a Boston-based writer.

See the article here:
The community of political conventions - The Boston Globe