Democrats decided months ago that there wasn’t going to be an in-person convention, and they set out to produce the convention we watched this week: professional, tight, well-produced, with moments of outright amazement, like the live 57-state-and-territory roll call vote, an amazing feat of technical choreography. It was a deft pivot to what conventions should be anyway—a made-for-video production highlighting the best of the party. There’s no need to spend $60 million for in-person conventions anymore. Do them this way, with a grand finale rally for the presidential nominee at a stadium on the last night.
But this story isn’t about the great DNC convention this week, but instead aims to speculate about whatever clusterfuck Trump’s Republican Party will put on next week at its own convention. Because if I had to bet, it’ll be a hilarious disaster.
I’m not even talking about content. You know those cabinet meetings where everyone around the table took turns to praise their Dear Leader Trump? This will be 1,000 times worse, a three-day festival to a single man and the deplorable people who idolize him. For a campaign and party bleeding critical suburban support among college-educated white women, we can fully expect Trump and company to double down on the very bullying, racism, xenophobia, and misogyny that drove those voters away in the first place.
Nah, I’m taking about production values. Remember, it wasn’t even a month ago when Trump finally conceded that no in-person convention would take place. Up until that point, he insisted that a regular convention was in store. Therefore, planning for a whole new convention, one almost exclusively online, didn’t even start until late July. That means Trump Republicans, not paragons of efficiency and effectiveness (everyone who is competent at their jobs isn’t eager to get stiffed by Team Trump), will have had to plan three days’ worth of programming in just four weeks—a near impossible task for the best teams.
That’s common sense, right? And as expected, we hear that the Republican National Convention is still struggling to figure out programming for next week’s big event. CNN reports:
President Donald Trump, a television producer at heart, is hoping for a convention next week that looks vastly different from the all-digital event Democrats have staged over the past days -- including an emphasis on live programming and at least some type of audience who can respond to the multiple appearances he is planning.
Calling aides at all hours from Air Force One or the White House residence, Trump has conveyed last-minute ideas on venues or gimmicks and demanded progress reports on the speakers he wants during his nominating extravaganza, which he hopes will provide a boost to his poll numbers [...]
Details for the week remain fluid and some of the central elements were still being worked out between the White House, Republican National Committee and convention planners. [Emphasis mine.]
The event is next week, and they still are trying to work out some “central elements.” And convention planners, already dealing with an impossible task, have to deal with Trump harassing them “at all hours.” You just know they have scripted something out just to have Trump come in, oblivious to the realities of the time-space continuum, and torn the script up, demanding something different. In fact, we can easily imagine a cadre of planners utterly paralyzed by fear of a Trump tantrum.
Go to the convention website, and don’t expect to see signs of a successfully pivoted convention. As of this writing, their most recent content in “Category: The Latest” is from August 11. Before that, August 5.
For whatever reason, Trump has decided that live TV makes it somehow better. But with scant planning, an impossibly short time span, an erratic boss, and an inability to attract top talent, those are ingredients for something truly special—an unexpected comedy romp further highlighting the problem with Trump-style “leadership.”
Who knows, maybe they will pull it off. But that’s not a bet I would ever take.
