How To Fix America’s Dull, Corrupt Political Conventions

A couple of years ago, I attended for the first time a British political party conference. I secured an invitation to the conference’s most exclusive private reception. The party leader and half his front bench mingled with the stars of British political media. I had a colloquy with the leader myself.How glamorous was it? This glamorous: The party took place in a suite of conference rooms in a 1970s-vintage slab concrete hotel in Birmingham. Waiters circulated with plates of microwaved canapés: soggy little mushrooms, limp miniature hot dogs on toothpicks, greasy vegetable tempura. OK, granted, there was a lot of excellent champagne, proving once again that the British people can exist on virtually no food at all provided they get enough good booze. All in all, the evening’s total cost could not have exceeded 10,000 pounds.

The best party I ever attended at an American political convention took place in San Diego in 1996. Some corporate sponsor had rented the entire San Diego zoo. I don’t remember the food, although it was surely lavish, but I certainly remember the beguiling waitstaff who must have been sent over from some modeling agency.

The morning after the British party, business resumed in the Birmingham conference center: a full day of meetings, discussion, and debate. Delegates rose to their feet to tell party leaders what they thought of the election just passed. The leaders answered. Off-site, think tanks and nongovernmental organizations sponsored even more wide-ranging discussions on issues ranging from health-care service delivery to fighting crime.

Read more: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/08/18/how-to-fix-america-s-dull-corrupt-political-conventions.html