海角大神

Americans are now one week and two days into the new world of virtual presidential conventions. So are balloons and streamers and halls filled with unreasonably exuberant people now a thing of the past? Or are we desperately awaiting their return?

The general consensus is (shockingly) that perhaps trying new things isn鈥檛 a completely terrible idea. The fact is, for the average American, conventions have for many years simply been a weeklong advertisement. That鈥檚 not a bad thing. In a time when the media is seen as being only slightly more trustworthy than Lord Voldemort, conventions give the candidates an unfiltered platform beyond Twitter or county fairs in Iowa. Stripping away the pomp has in some ways magnified the conventions鈥� message. 鈥淎nd here鈥檚 the surprise 鈥� they really grabbed our attention,鈥� wrote .

Yet presidential conventions are, in the end, conventions 鈥� like any badge-wearing, Applebee鈥檚-going gathering of accountants. They are places to meet and network and do the work of sustaining and sharpening the parties. They are, as said, 鈥渢he must-attend quadrennial gathering of the clan, a holy rite, a raucous politifest.鈥�

So don鈥檛 expect conventioneers to forgo the chance to gather in some swing state and wear silly hats four years from now. But do expect the parties to have a better sense of what the rest of us really need to see.