By Dale Lucht

This year’s presidential conventions will be held soon. The Republican Convention will be held in Milwaukee starting July 15^th to the 18^th. The Democratic Convention will be held Aug 19^th-22^nd. In Chicago.

Nether city is new to the game. Chicago has hosted 25 major party conventions, 14 Republican Conventions, 10 for the Democrats and one for the Progressive Party In 1912. The 1912 Republican Convention was also held in Chicago, when Theodore Roosevelt failed in his attempt to win the nomination, he ran for President in the Progressive Party. My research shows that 2024 will be the fourth national convention. In 1932 and again in 1942 the Socialist Party held their conventions in Milwaukee. The Democratic Convention was held in 2020, but because of Coronavirus, it was extremely curtailed and was viewed remotely. Even Joe Biden didn’t attend. This year the Republican Convention will be held, and after Donald Trump called Milwaukee a “Hellhole” it’s debatable whether he will show up.

Who ran for the presidency was originally decided by a group of men in smoke-filled rooms based on who would do the best job of protecting their interests, financially and physically. The political parties have changed through the years, but we’ve basically had two primary parties and some fringe parties. Since 1860, we’ve had the Democrats and the Republicans. The electorate became so disenchanted with the political bosses deciding who would run, that a primary system was developed. Of course, the bosses didn’t always agree with them and stepped in, take the aforementioned 1912 convention. Teddy Roosevelt had more Primary votes, but the bosses stuck with William Howard Taft. The 1952 Democratic convention bosses picked Adlai Stevenson, even though Estes Kefauver had more primary votes.

It wasn’t really until the 1960 convention that John Kennedy leveraged his strong showings in the primaries into the nomination. The final crack in the process came in 1968 when Sen. Eugene McCarthy won the most primary votes but lost to Hubert Humphrey. Both parties initiated reforms to ensure that more voters had input in the nomination process. In 1976, Democrats selected 73 percent of convention delegates and Republicans chose 68 percent.

Now we have states jockeying primary and caucus dates to make their states more relevant. The cost of running is so high that many candidates cannot afford to stay in the race to the end. Someone from Kansas may have no support in Wisconsin, but have overwhelming support in Oklahoma. It still is not a good system, in my opinion. It has to change, but I’m not smart enough to figure out how. For one thing the primary season is too long, with the internet and 24-hour news cycles we probably decided 6 months ago who we’re going to vote for.

Having said that I’m not smart enough to figure this mess out, I would like to offer some suggestions: first of all, term limits. Term limits for every elected official. Congressmen maybe 5 terms, Senators 2 terms, and Presidents, well I think we should follow Mexico and have 1 six-year term. Ethical standards should be enforced on all elected officials and appointed judges, and they also should have term limits including the Supreme Court. And of course, strike down the Citizens United case and get the shady money out of elections.

I believe that it is very important to vote in the primary elections, that is where it is decided who will be running in the general elections. Wisconsin will be having a primary vote on August 13^th for Congressmen. In my first district there are four democrats running and 2 republicans. The primaries are where we can winnow out the bad ones. Too many times I hear that we have to vote for the lesser of two evils. Well, if you vote in the primary, you might be able to have a good person run.

One more thing about the conventions, let us hope that we have peaceful conventions. The country does not need violent and confrontational conventions. Peace!