Dem
47
GOP
53
No, that headline is not a typo. Back in the 1970s and 1980s, the Democrats sometimes held conventions in midterm years. The good news is that they got some free PR out of it, and a few extra headlines. The bad news is that it took a fair bit of time and energy to stage the events, and viewership was generally pretty flaccid, and mostly limited to True Believers, anyhow. So, the midterm conventions were 86'ed back in, well, '86.
Now, the blue team is tentatively thinking about bringing them back, at least for this cycle. The notion is that it would be a good platform for getting some messaging out there about what the Democratic Party stands for, and also about the evils of the Trump administration. Since the Democrats' approval rating is very poor right now, you can understand why the pooh-bahs are trying to think creatively.
Details are sparse, since the idea is only in the formative stages, and may not come to pass. For our part, however, we will say that if the Democrats try to stage something that looks like a traditional televised political convention, we think it will go over like a lead zeppelin. We suppose there might be some small "novelty" factor that drives some small amount of interest, but if people weren't willing to tune in back in the '80s, when there were basically only three channels, they aren't going to tune in during an era with hundreds of channels, plus streaming movies, plus YouTube and other Internet sites, etc.
If we were advising the Democrats, we would say the very best way to approach such an event is not "How can we get some free PR?" but instead "How can we get everyone in the tent on the same basic page, messaging-wise?" In other words, we'd advocate something like a version of the platform-writing process, where representatives of the various factions within the Party could be heard as to what particular lines of attack Democrats will focus on in the midterms, from things like "The minimum wage must go up!" to "Donald Trump is taking away your healthcare." It's not easy to herd cats, but if the Party could collectively agree on a basic set of messages, that would help a lot when it comes to making clear what the Democrats stand for.
Heck, if they really want to think creatively, we could even imagine them "electing" people to be the "face" of the party for the next calendar year. Ostensibly, the "face" of the party is the sitting chair of the DNC, but do you even know the name of that person right now? We don't. It's a bland white guy from the Midwest, but if we needed his actual name, we'd have to look it up. And certainly, he's not a standard-bearer who is going on TV each week to sell the Party.
As a real, publicly forward alternative to the chair, the Democrats could create a role with a title like "Secretary for Public Communication" and then appoint three prominent members of the party to fill the role through Election Day. Those folks would be expected to coordinate regularly with each other, and also with party leadership. Think Gov. Andy Beshear (D-KY) might be interested in such an opportunity? Or maybe former senator Sherrod Brown?
In an alternative version of this plan, and one that actually has been mentioned a bit, if fleetingly, the Democrats could use a convention to elect a "Shadow Cabinet," in the style of the Brits (and some other countries). The British Shadow Cabinet actually gets to go to intelligence briefings, and meetings, and so is much more in the loop on what's going on than the Democratic Shadow Cabinet would be. Still, it would be pretty good for party messaging if the Democrats had a single, go-to person for interviews, etc. on Treasury Department matters, or Homeland Security matters, or State Department matters.
We don't expect the Democrats to do these things, though the Shadow Cabinet idea is out there, and it's not totally impossible. In fact, we'll revisit the Shadow Cabinet idea in some more depth, starting next week. Meanwhile, for the rest of today, we'll talk about some of the messaging-related issues that the Democrats might discuss, if they do hold a midterm convention (or even if they don't). (Z)