No political convention is worth loss of lives
This is a tale of one president, three governors and what appear to be incompatible values in the face of a pandemic.
President Trump, deprived of the mass rallies that energize his campaign and feed his spirit, is desperate for a mass audience and thunderous ovations at the Republican National Convention, presently scheduled for Charlotte, N.C., in August.
But that state’s Democratic governor, Roy Cooper, won’t commit to relaxing strict social distancing regulations that are saving lives from the coronavirus.
So Trump is threatening to yank the convention from Charlotte and find another place to host it, perhaps in Florida. Cooper is unmoved, unbluffed.
“It’s okay for political conventions to be political,” he remarked Tuesday, “but pandemic response cannot be. We’re talking about something that’s going to happen three months from now, and we don’t know what our situation is going to be.
This virus is still going to be with us in August, and we’re going to have to take steps to protect people.”
That’s how any governor should talk. The government has no higher duty than to safeguard health and lives.
Cooper explained that he had asked the Republican National Committee to say how it would attempt to minimize risk, and whether the president was still set on attendees not wearing face masks or practicing social distancing.
Without waiting for Cooper’s response, the Republican governors of Florida and Georgia seized the moment to offer their states in the event Trump isn’t bluffing.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis qualified his bid with a remark about safety precautions, but left the clear impression that Trump would get whatever he wants.
He said he’d even welcome the Democratic convention because “it would be good for us … in terms of the economic impact.”
The Democrats, as it happens, aren’t talking about moving their convention, which is also scheduled for August, in Milwaukee. However, they are seriously considering limiting the size or even conducting it virtually, on the internet. Good for them.
Meanwhile, DeSantis and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp jumped the gun on some serious questions, among them whether any of their communities could prepare on such short notice for a convention drawing at least 25,000 people. The political parties typically require immense subsidies from local governments and private contributions, premised on the idea that a convention is good for local businesses.
“It would be irresponsible to consider hosting a convention of that scale at this time,” said a spokeswoman for Tampa Mayor Jane Castor. Bob Buckhorn, a former mayor, remarked that it took “literally two years and, between us and the federal government tens of millions of dollars” to prepare to host the 2012 Republican National
Convention.
Politico reports that Jacksonville would likely be the host city, though it’s hard to imagine a Jacksonville host committee raising enough money to meet its required share. Plus, contracts have long been signed in Charlotte.
A more basic question, of course, is whether either party should proceed with a business-as-usual convention in the face of a lethal epidemic for which there is still no vaccine and no cure.
Health scientists regard mass gatherings, such as either party’s quadrennial convention, as “super-spreader” events. Delegates and guests who arrived in good health would be vulnerable to infection owing to the crowded conditions, and would take the virus home to all 50 states and beyond.
Some in Charlotte, a Democratic stronghold where the city commission approved its bid by a 6-5 vote, would be happy to see it go elsewhere. When the Republicans chose Charlotte two years ago, the Los Angeles Times noted that the city “faced little serious competition.”
There’s a question underlying all the others, and it predates the coronavirus: Why persist in holding enormous conventions that have outlived their original purpose?
It has been quite a while since there was any doubt about who had already won their nominations. For the Democrats, the last time was in 1972, when an “anybody but” movement failed to displace George McGovern.
The Republican convention of 1976 featured Ronald Reagan’s unsuccessful attempt to replace President Gerald Ford as the party’s standard bearer. Both nominees, it should be noted, lost in November.
Ever since, nominations have been decided far in advance by state primaries and caucuses. No suspense remains but, occasionally, for the nominees’ announcements of their running mates.
The conventions have become so dull, in fact, that the television networks no longer bother with gavel-to-gavel coverage. Only the delegates — and even very few of them — pay attention to the mind-numbing succession of speeches.
It’s great theater, of course, for those who care — not to mention a fine opportunity for endless partying.
Most of all, they provide the nominees with the largest free media exposure of their entire campaigns. But it’s free only in the sense that others are paying for it.
This time, the price of that mass event would include lives needlessly lost to a dangerous contagious disease.
Neither convention could possibly be worth it.