Tom Nichols is a professor of national security affairs at the United States Naval War College and the author of The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why It Matters.
I am a political scientist, a veteran of state and federal politics, and a political junkie who has been watching conventions for 40 years. Not once did I ever see a convention and want to be a part of one. They were not for people like me but for the loyalists, the people who were there because they had power somewhere in the party or because they had spent enough time sticking leaflets under windshield wipers in wintry parking lots to earn their ticket into a sweaty, booze-drenched bash. This year was different, in ways we should welcome and make permanent.
Both conventions have been looking outward, toward the nation, rather than inward. The Democrats did it better than the Republicans, but even the personality cult that has formed around Donald Trump seemed to understand that they had voters out there beyond the state and local faithful. This was the first time I felt involved in any political convention, and that’s saying something. If conventions are no longer contests for the nomination, maybe we can think about whether we ever really needed the signs and the big hats and corn pone speeches affirming foregone conclusions. This year, the parties had to use the power of technology to come into our homes and tell us who they are. That should become a new ritual.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member