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Remembrance of Conventions Past
FRENETIC POLITICAL FIREWORKS IN THE PRE-COVID DAYS
By Ed Tant news@flagpole.com
H. L. Mencken was a caustic and controversial columnist
for The Baltimore Sun who covered every national politi
cal convention from 1904-1948. His commentary about
American politics and reporting of such events as the
1925 “monkey trial” that pitted the science of evolution
against the doctrines of religious fundamentalism earned
him the sobriquet “The Sage of Baltimore.” Today, the old
sage might be saddened by the conventions of both the
Democratic and the Republican parties, which have become
socially and politically distanced affairs in this age of
coronavirus.
“There is something about a national convention that
makes it as fascinating as a revival or a hanging,” Mencken
wrote in 1924. “It is vulgar, it
is ugly, it is stupid, it is tedious.
It is hard upon both the higher
cerebral centers and the gluteus
maximus, and yet it is somehow
charming.” The old newspa
perman might be dismayed by
today’s political conventions,
which have become glitzy TV
shows and online infotainment.
I attended my first political
convention in 1988, when the
Democratic Party held its qua
drennial gathering in Atlanta. At
the time, I was a writer for the
Athens Observer weekly paper,
and I was elated that a convention
would be held only an hour away
from Athens. It was a heady expe
rience for a small-town scribe to
have a floor pass at such an event,
and I was not disappointed. As I
walked onto the floor of the con
vention, a band was blaring a Sousa march and delegates
wearing eccentric hats were hoisting placards representing
the 50 states of this sprawling republic. The frenetic scene
was like a pop-up civics book come to life.
The Democrats in 1988 nominated Massachusetts Gov.
Michael Dukakis as their presidential standard-bearer,
but the candidate’s dull demeanor was fodder for his GOP
opponent, Vice President George H. W. Bush, and for polit
ical satirist Mark Russell, who dubbed Dukakis “Zorba the
Clerk.” It was the soaring rhetoric of civil rights firebrand
Jesse Jackson that brought life to the Atlanta convention.
Speaking for more than an hour in the rhythmic cadences
of a pulpit-pounding preacher, Jackson exhorted his audi
ence in the convention hall and across America to “never
surrender... keep hope alive.” Then as now, Jackson was
both revered and reviled, but his
1988 speech in Atlanta remains
one of this nation’s great
orations.
Prowling the hallways of the
Atlanta convention site after
Jackson’s speech, I got quotes
and notes from a cross section of prominent Democrats.
Texas politician Ann Richards, who had wowed the crowd
with her own speech lambasting Bush as “born with a sil
ver foot in his mouth,” called me “Honey” as she drawled
that she found Jackson’s speech “fabulous and inspiring.”
Florida congressman Claude Pepper told me, “It was an
innovative experience to see a Black man speaking at the
national Democratic convention, a serious candidate for
president talking about American democracy and about
a greater and better America for the future.” Senator and
future Vice President A1 Gore said to me that his party
would “go all the way in November.” Former Vice President
Walter Mondale echoed that optimism, telling me, “I can
smell victory in 1988.” Such optimism proved unfounded,
as Dukakis lost a double-digit lead in the polls and ended up
on the losing side in the general election—an electoral fate
that should be a cautionary tale for today’s Biden/Harris
campaign.
In Atlanta in 1988, as at most pre-COVID conventions,
the protests and speeches outside the convention often
were more exciting and relevant than the events inside the
hall. Atlanta police pushed back crowds of protesters during
a street confrontation with white supremacists during the
1988 convention, but unlike the tempestuous demonstra
tions during the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago,
no tear gas was used and no arrests were made. At a speech
at an “alternative convention” at an Atlanta nightclub,
fireworks blazed in the night sky as activist Abbie Hoffman
told his audience, “It’s up to the people who care about
America” to seek change by both voting and protesting.
Hoffman—who was arrested during the 1968 Chicago con
vention and was later a defendant in the Windy City show
trial of American antiwar leaders—got laughs from his
listeners when he was asked if there were fireworks at the
Chicago convention. “Yeah, but they were at ground level,”
he responded.
The 1988 convention in Atlanta was my first convention,
but it was not my last. I was on the scene with pen and
camera documenting political conventions and protests
in Chicago in 1996, when the Democrats nominated Bill
Clinton for a second term. In 2000 I was in Philadelphia
when George W. Bush accepted the GOP nomination while
police and protesters clashed outside the convention hall.
In 2004 I was in New York City
when Bush was nominated for
his second term. While taking
notes and photos during non
violent protests outside that
convention, I was arrested and
jailed overnight along with
more than 1,800 activists, journalists and bystanders who
years later won a class-action lawsuit against New York
authorities that resulted in cash settlements for the citi
zens who were unlawfully jailed during the convention. I
gave part of my payment to Habitat for Humanity, a wor
thy charity that former President Jimmy Carter supports
today. In 2012 I took the train from Georgia to Charlotte to
attend the Democratic convention that nominated Barack
Obama for a second term.
Conventions may be forever changed in style and for
mat during this age of computers and coronavirus, but
one thing that will not change is the wisdom of the words
of Army General and Republican President Dwight D.
Eisenhower, who said, “Politics should be the part-time pro
fession of every citizen.” O
Jesse Jackson speaks at the 1988 Democratic National Convention in Atlanta.
There is something about a
national convention that makes it
as fascinating as a revival or a hanging.
6 FLAGPOLE.COM | SEPTEMBER 2, 2020
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