Three days after the end of the Republican National Convention and ten days after the Democratic conclave adjourned, there is widespread discussion over whether the 2024 conventions will be repeats of 2020 and “retros” of the quadrennial extravaganzas of years before.
The conclusion of several observers and “conventioneers” who spoke to Newsmax over the weekend was mixed — that the Hollywood-style presentation of speakers would be used from now on, but the crowded, in-person conventions of the past would return.
Prof. Dan Schnur of the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Communications and a veteran of four presidential campaigns and three campaigns for governor of California, told us that “while in-person conventions will return, they will never be the same.”
Specifically, Schnur explained, “both parties learned the benefits of taped and video conversations— both in terms of impact and message control. So digital programming will dominate conventions in the future, but the in-person audiences will definitely return.”
Schnur’s view was strongly seconded by historian David Pietrusza, author of six books on presidential election years.
But what will likely change, Pietrusza emphasized, “is the sophistication of the presentation presented to viewers on television and the internet. The amateurishness of previous conventions in this regard and of the Democrats this year will probably become a thing of the past. Which is not such a bad thing at all.”
“I don't see the conventions becoming totally virtual any more than Congress would become totally virtual or the school system similarly being disconnected from all human contact,” he said, “Humans are a social species. We are not designed to be isolated from each other as we have been in recent months.”
“A hybrid of the present and past,” is how former Tennessee State Republican Chairman Chip Saltsman envisions future party conventions.
Saltsman, manager of Mike Huckabee’s 2008 presidential campaign, told us by hybrid, he meant “the last two hours will be Hollywood-style movie production and lots more video and produced content rather than speech after speech.”
He also stressed that the Platform Committee, which historically met a week before the convention opened to hammer out a party manifesto, “is very important to the delegates.” (This year, Republicans broke precedent and simply reissued their platform of 2016).
“I think that conventions can still be run with unregulated and corporate money,” said former Sen. Spence Abraham, R.-Mich, a past Republican chairman of his state, “If so the parties will have no disincentive to holding big events.”
Conventions, in Abraham’s view, “are useful vehicles for state parties to hear from national speakers, raise money at events and receive other benefits that would go away if the [traditional] conventions end.”
He recalled how during his tenure as state chairman, “the 1984 convention gave our attendees the chance to see Jack Kemp, Al Haig, Bob Dole and other [future presidential hopefuls] at our functions. Getting these folks to visit Michigan was practically impossible.”
In forecasting a return to the traditional convention in 2024, Abraham nonetheless suggested that “what may change is the programming. I think the Republican convention demonstrated that replacing speeches by uninteresting office holders with average American’s telling their stories worked very well. I think we will see a lot more of that in the future.”
Abraham told us he expects “to see party bosses and campaign consultants turning over the convention programming development and direction to specialists who will develop a four-part mini series for the convention program. Trump started this a bit last time and they improved on it last week. Going forward I see even more advanced versions of this approach.”
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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