WHY DO POLITICAL PARTIES HAVE CONVENTIONS?
The time is almost upon us, when the Democrats and Republicans will get together for their respective conventions. Each candidate will get a post-convention polling bounce that will fade a week later. It happens every year. It is a ritual that sometimes seems irrelevant — and other times seems important? Do political conventions still matter? It is said that initially, the purpose of a political convention is to give the citizens more of a say in selecting their parties’ candidate. Is this really true? And worse of all, we are the ones paying for this huge, big, all scripted, good for nothing parties!
According to Brian Faler (http://go.bloomberg.com/political-capital/2012-06-08/who-pays-for-the-conventions-we-all-do/) the events where President Obama and Republican Mitt Romney will receive their parties’ official nominations costs $136 million. And Congress doles out the money.
Where does the cash go? Faler explains $100 million pays for security at both conventions, plus $18 million for each party to pay for such things as balloons and signs — and even alcohol. The money was designed to reduce the influence of campaign contributions. But with lawmakers’ promises to cut the government’s $1.2 trillion deficit, Senator Tom Coburn said both parties ought to say “no thanks” to the cash.
Think of this…with all the problems we have in this country; the economy in shambles, unemployment and an inoperable Congress, look where all this money is going! Especially when we don’t need any convention…WE ALREADY KNOW WHO THE CANDIDATES WILL BE!
This is just another example to show you that, we live in a ME world where greed, power and stupidity tend to use and abuse all of those out of Washington, no matter the party. By the way, the County is spending 400k for the inaugural party to promote Hillsborough County Tourism. That’s good, except THE PARTY IS IN ST. PETE!
See you next week.
