Don’t Call It a Convention

Turn any article into a podcast. Upgrade now to start listening. Members can share articles with friends & family to bypass the paywall. Republican National Committee Chairman Joe Gruters says the GOP midterm election “convention” will be a “Trumpapalooza.” It’d be better if everyone called it that. American political conventions are one of the best examples—among way too many—of American institutional decay. In the 19th century and much of the 20th century, the quadrennial party conventions were indispensable pieces of political technology. Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief and co-founder of The Dispatch, based in Washington, D.C. Prior to that, enormous lizards roamed the Earth. More immediately prior to that, Jonah spent two decades at National Review, where he was a senior editor, among other things. He is also a bestselling author, longtime columnist for the Los Angeles Times, commentator for CNN, and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. When he is not writing the G-File or hosting The Remnant podcast, he finds real joy in family time, attending to his dogs and cat, and blaming Steve Hayes for various things. More We Think You’d Like