The word “convention” comes from Latin roots for “together” and “to come,” meaning that a convention is something—be it a gathering or a system of standards—that facilitates interaction and mingling. Wow, that was as boring as I thought it would be…
You see, I watched very little of the DNC last week, and I plan on watching very little of the RNC next week. I remember watching intently in ’88 and ’92, and even in ’00, but I can’t take it anymore.
Here’s my issue with conventions—the speeches. Despite my earlier praise for cool candidates’ ability to speak rousingly to people, I have come to despise political speeches. The main issue to me is applause. I know that to be in politics requires a certain level of self-importance, but I would much prefer a politician who said at the onset of a speech, “Okay, hold your applause until the end.” To me, that would be the ultimate in political cool.
Instead, what we get is a world in which every stump speech, acceptance speech, concession speech, State of the Union address, and county fair pie baking contest results announcement is punctuated by ridiculous amounts of wasted time. If you have something to say, in my mind, you don’t have time for sycophantic clapping. That’s why I prefer the post-State-of-the-Union rebuttal. One person, a camera, and no applause. For me, that is much more meaningful.
This brings us to the real issue I have with both political conventions specifically and contemporary politics generally, one that in some ways counters yesterday’s rant on coolness. Style over substance. To me this was epitomized in the primaries by Romney and Edwards, whom I find entirely devoid of substance, but who can talk slick and wear their hair even slicker. This is certainly not a new complaint; people have argued this angle for a long time. But in a postmodern world a sound bites, YouTube mash-ups, talk radio, 24-hour cable news, and, of course, insipid bloggers, we seem to expect this.
Here’s my hope. I see a lot of intelligent dialogue among all the inane drivel in new media, and as young people raised online come of age, they will expect not just slogans, but accomplishment, not just attacks, but action. I think you’re seeing a glimpse of this in the campaign, as both candidates have gone out of their way to say nice things about the other (McCain’s ad Thursday night was radically different than the GOP strategy of ’00 and ’04, and if I hear one more nice thing about McCain from Obama, I might adopt the AZ senator as my grandpa). I’m sure the gloves will come off soon, but for now, it’s been refreshing, and I think at least part of that is due to a changing electorate.
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3 comments:
The talking heads and 24 hour news networks have done more to undermine democracy than anyone else in either party. It's because of them that we have 2 year long presidential elections. Because they make it seem necessary they force states and politicians to start the process earlier and earlier. They were talking about the 08 election after the 06 election! Yet so long as money is considered speech, what a Republican idea, by the Supreme Court. Tucker Carlson, Bill O'Reilly and their army of sophists and hacks will keep destroying America.
That's the angry Stew I know. Nice. My question: will "new media" change this situation, and, if so, how?
Not yet. But in a generation or two I think it just might. So long as we can preserve net neutrality.
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