Delegates opposing Donald Trump disrupted the choreography at the Republican national convention. They booed, yelled (“shame!” “roll call vote!”), and walked out after their petition to have the convention vote on freeing the delegates was gaveled down without a roll call vote.
In other news, Donald Trump defied the tradition that the candidate only appears on the last night to receive the nomination, showing up to introduce his wife Melania, who was the main speaker of the night.
After the jump, Jonah Goldberg argues that picking a candidate at an open convention, with pols negotiating in smoke-filled rooms, is a superior way of fielding a strong candidate, as opposed to all of the primary mini-elections, in which even non-party members can often have a say.
From Jonah Goldberg, GOP convention is already a failure, USA Today:
Originally, the conventions were a way for the party bosses and activists to reach consensus. Until well into the 20th century, you really couldn’t get much of anything done long distance. You couldn’t count votes, lobby, wheel-and-deal by mail. Even phones weren’t reliable until fairly late in the game. You had to meet face-to-face and work it out.
Technology eroded this unifying function, and the primary process gutted it. But no one really cared. Smoke-filled rooms and party bosses had bad reputations and democracy has a good one. Also, no candidate was so controversial that the party couldn’t close ranks and cheer the presumptive nominee by the convention. . . .
It’s well and good to celebrate how democratic the GOP is today compared with bad old days of smoke-filled rooms. But those old bosses understood something many of us don’t. Just because the party competes in a democratic election doesn’t mean it has to be internally democratic to get the strongest nominee.[Keep reading. . .]
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