Election 2020: The Year of Weird

One of the strangest years in American politics keeps getting stranger. One example is what’s happened to the quadrennial national party conventions, which have been an integral part of American politics since 1831, when the parties replaced the old system in which members of Congress selected the nominees.

Many exciting elements of the conventions long ago disappeared with the advent of primaries, the decline of party influence and the emergence of television. No more 103 ballots to select the Democratic nominee as in 1924. No walkouts like Theodore Roosevelt’s progressive Republicans in 1912. No contested vice-presidential nominations: That last happened at the 1956 Democratic convention.