"DEMOCRACY'S JAMBOREE"

New Zealand Listener, Volume 11, Issue 264, 14 July 1944, Page 12

"DEMOCRACY'S JAMBOREE"

How Parties Pick Representatives in the cites United States

(Described for "The Listener" by

A.M.

R.

WO weeks ago, the National Convention of the Republican Party of the United States assembled in Chicago and chose Thomas E. Dewey for Presidential candidate. In a week’ or two the opposing Democratic Party ; will reply with a convention somewhere else. No man who is not chosen at one or other of these quadrennial conventions ever has any possibility of becoming President. Yet conventions’ them-' selves are "mass dementia . . . hokum and hogwash .. . hypocritical slaver . . . a flow of drivel and a paroxysm of din," @ccording to one American writer. "Raucous farce" foams another. "Orgy of inanity" explodes a third. The "degradation of democracy . . . haywire and hogwallow .. ." contributes a fourth. The writers of textbooks on political science are more restrained. "This typically American institution,’ Dr; Overacker explains, continues very largely because it "offers a variety of popular amusement very dear to American hearts." "Big Show," laconically comments Charles A. Beard. And Professor Harold Laski, observing from Britain that "the critics of the system have exhausted the language of vituperation upon it," nevertheless opines that "its fantastic . . . incredible . .. hectic . . . character can never suffer: exaggeration." 4 Well, after all that, what is, what cah be, a convention? How Conventions Began Briefly put, conventions are the gatherings, some four months ahead of each Presidential election, at which American political parties write their ' platforms, pick their candidates for President and Vice-President, and appoint their National Executives for the next four years. They date to 1832,

when President Andrew Jackson resolved a stalemate between himself and three other ,Democratic candidates (different sections had nominated them all) by calling a monster nation-wide congress of party delegates. Jackson was a picturesque figure. His election marked the upsurge of the uncouth Western pioneers against the Republic’s earlier geriteel traditions. These "Kain‘tuks" celebrated his election by a night of. bonfires "and keg-parties on the immaculate lawns of White ‘House. Jackson himself turned out "the old gang" from every office down to village

postmaster to put in good "party men." His invention, the Party Convention, bears the imprint of its founder and of its birth times. The delegates are chosen democratically by the party organisations in each State. They assemble in some huge hall-a, round thousand of them, plus another thousand "alternates," plus ten to twenty thousand spectators. Chicago, New York and Philadelphia ere the frequent venues, not merely because they have halls of sufficient size and a convention tradition, but because they usually bid highest. Chicago contributed 130,000 dollars to get the Democrats in 1940; Philadelphia 250,000 dollars to attract the Republicans. The tale of the hill billy delegate who sold a cow for four dollars on leaving home to pay his expenses and was charged four dollars for his first breakfast explains this eagerness. The Show Itself One-third professional politicians, one-third lawyers, and one-third mere people, the convention seats itself by delegations, each under its State banner and led by its chairman or "keynoter." Most carry symbols and transparencies., Many include hired singers. Some have brass bands. Prayer opens each session, discreetly distributed among Catholic, (continued on next page)

(continued from previous page) Protestant, Jewish and (sometimes) Negro clergy. Then an operatic soprano will probably sing "America" or the "Star-Spangled Banner," enormously amplified and accompanied (more or less) by a band a tenth of a mile distant and the entire assembly as their voices and memories allow. A hymn follows. Party heroes are cheered as they appear. Rival factions raise cries of "Do It With Dewey" or "Who But Hoover?" or "Keep Cool with Cal Coolidge," or "Hoover Will Sweep the Country" according to the year. Democracy’s Jamboree has begun. However, business-and excitementreally begins on the third or fourth day, when, credentials having been fiercely contested and a_ please-all-sec-tions Party Platform evolved, the chairman calls nominations for Presidential candidate. First on the alphabet, the Alabama delegation steps forward, unless (having no "favourite son" this year) it has given way to some other State anxious to get its candidate named early. "Manwhoing" follows a set pattern. Each "keynoter" describes at immense length his candidate’s early life, struggles with poverty (if possible), military and/or legal prowess, current offices and income,, and only as final word reveals his name. Though this has been known to the convention all along, since delegations in general are "solid" in advance, it releases a torrent of demonstration. Delegations in favour shout, whistle, cheer, stamp, parade the hall, turn on their bands, and, in total, do everything possible to impress the Press and the radio. listeners with America’s enthtsiasm for this man. For 15 minutes at

least they must maintain it. When McAdoo’s partisans in 1924 milled and shouted for one hour 17° minutes, : Al Smith’s had to outdin him with a neat hour and a-half. But mere length is not everything. A 10-foot high "roarmachine" records the volume also, When Landon in 1936 hit 85 three times against. Hoover's mere 78, the latter seemed as good as beaten already. After each nomination, the seconders speak. Roosevelt had 55 in 1940. They lasted nine hours, but grew discouraged by a thinning gallery. in the early hours of the morning. Fortunately, in the balloting that follows the exhaustion of the alphabet, delegations voting on’ the platform State by State, usually give a block

vote. But sometimes, when they afe unable to agree internally, each person ballots separately, verbally justifying his choice’ to the entire convention. Several ballots are needed until "deals" between, delegations give some candidate a clear majority. At Philadelphia in 1924 there were 103. Often in the end, the candidate chosen is one who polled very poorly at first. This occurs when the main men are too evenly matched for either to lose ground to the other. But though delegates see from the voting in convention how the "dark horse" is forging forward, it is from the newspapers that they learn how it is happening. Daugherty, Harding’s \campaign manager, gave the classic description! "At the proper time after the convention meets, some 15 men, bleary-eyed with loss ‘of sleep, and perspiring profusely with the excessive heat, will sit down in seclusion around a big table. I will be with them and will present Senator Harding’s name, and before we get through, they will put him over." It happened as he prophesied. In "The Back Room" What considerations move these "boys! in the back room"? They are of two sorts---one personal and one geographical. First, a candidate must have no record so active or characteristic or unpopular as to create enemies. No outstanding senator’ is ever chosen. Al Smith has been the only Catholic. Second, a candidate ought, if possible, to be a successful soldier, or failing that, a lawyer, and to have risen against (continued on next page)

(continued from previous page) heavy odds: only Harding — (editor), Hoover (engineer) and Wilson (professor) have been neither. Roosevelt's paralysis was an-asset in that it offset his weathly origins. Thirdly, candidates must, if possible, come from important "doubtful" States which local patriotism may then swing to the party, Since the Civil War, no Southerner has been elected: 11 out of 18 Republican candidates have come from Ohio, and all successful ones-except Hoover, the only Westerner ever elected-from Ohio or its two neighbouring States. Can this system of calculated bargaining and fevered excitement really elect the right men for President? Lord Bryce, in Modern Democracies, held it could not, But Laski, while admitting that "to the outsider it seems almost the worst possible way to choose a man to occupy the highest executive position," contends that, in practice, the American people get the very man they want. When they are for "normalcy" and let-slide politics, they get a Buchanan, a Harding, or a Coolidge. When letslide has brought them to a crisis, they get a Jackson, a Lincoln, or a Roosevelt. Laski is certain that the collective judgment of people plus politicians, exercised. in such conditions, very well senses the qualities that Presidents, being primarily political leaders, require.