Sebastian White :: Democratic Convention About Politics or Parties?

OPINION

Democratic Convention: About Politics or Parties?

August 2, 2004
By Sebastian White

Note: This article targeted a Canadian audience.

BOSTON—The well-orchestrated, star-studded and sometimes bizarre Democratic National Convention officially ended here Thursday, with an energized and more relaxed-looking Sen. John F. Kerry walking away with his party’s official presidential nomination and the backing of devoted party faithful intent on unseating President George W. Bush this November.

It’s an election year on both sides of the 49th parallel, and while the excitement of the Canadian campaign seemed to climax with the sponsorship scandal and short-lived bilingualism repeal threats, the U.S. election is barely 90 days out and already there have been nasty accusations of dereliction of military duty made against Mr. Bush and moral crusades waged against Mr. Kerry, a senator Republicans try to denigrate with the label “Massachusetts Liberal.”

But there’s not much of that at the conventions themselves, which are tightly controlled and diplomatic affairs aimed at appealing to the diverse ideologies of the 51% of the national electorate a candidate needs to win office. There was no mention of same-sex marriage, the hot button issue roiling conservatives, little talk of Iraq, and only a few backhanded jabs made at Mr. Bush’s questionable record of truth (or lie) telling.

Authors Will and Ian Ferguson have written that Canadians define themselves in terms of negation. The elections are not any different. In Canada, Conservatives made their case by saying “We’re not the Liberals,” while south of the border, supporters of the ho-hum Kerry tell his detractors, “Hey, at least he’s not George Bush.”

Only one speaker—the unapologetic Rev. Al Sharpton, whom a friend in Toronto considers a religious June Callwood—freely spoke his mind, revving up a show that at times verged on the catatonic.

He provided the most vociferous Bushwhacking of the week, veering from his script and taking aim at what he considers hypocritical and racist policies. Rev. Sharpton even mentioned Canada, saying the promise of America “guarantees health care for all its citizens and doesn’t force seniors to travel to Canada to buy prescriptions drugs they can’t afford here at home.”

Democrats projected a very American tableau stacked high with success, promise, and a healthy dose of celebrity, relentlessly positioning themselves as the party of the people (read: party of undecided “swing state” voters). And in case you missed the dozen or so references to Vietnam each evening, the convention was also about casting Mr. Kerry as a war hero fully capable of taking on the national security issues for which Mr. Bush maintains he is unqualified.

After watching four days of proceedings, a lesson to the uninitiated: it may be an impressive show on TV, but there is really nothing glamourous to a political convention, even a mud-slinging American-style one in a curiously close election year. Something about being corralled into secure “hard perimeters” and “soft zones” and squeezed into seats so narrow and so lacking in legroom they make airline economy class seem downright decadent, makes it seem like a lot of effort for a glorified pep rally.

What’s worse is that a party’s presidential candidate isn’t even selected at the convention. It’s a preordained pick established months in advance dictating who in U.S. politics is hot this year and who’s not (it’s been years since there was a contested party race that actually extended into convention season). No business is conducted here, with thousands of delegates spending most of their time being wined and dined around this sophisticated city.

Admittedly, this type of political theatre that only America—for better or worse—can produce makes for great television (I can’t tell you how many times “We are family,” the convention theme song, was blared over the loudspeaker with images of gyrating Midwesterners splashed on the Jumbotron). But I couldn’t help but feel a little bit let down that this affected and excessively showy display is what politics have come to in America.

Maybe it was the superabundance of television cameras or the fact that the show’s producer is an Emmy-award winning Hollywood star. Maybe it’s because the passionate activists outside the arena who wielded placards declaring, “Democracy always requires the truth,” were penned in an imposing barbed wire cage and guarded like hawks by military police, memories of Quebec City and Seattle protests still weighing heavy on the minds of convention organizers.

The other night, as I sat slouched in my narrow press section seat, my attention wandering while waiting for the convention to end, I turned to the 12 delegates who traveled 23 hours through 10 time zones and across 13,000 kilometres of open ocean from America’s territory of Guam to cast their vote (for a pre-picked candidate they won’t even be able to vote for come November!)—and prayed they thought it was worth all the fuss.