August 27, 2012 by Akim Reinhardt As the Republican Party begins
its national convention today in Florida, I offer this brief
history of political conventions and examine their relevance to
modern American politics. The generation of political leaders
who initiated and executed the American Revolution and founded a
new nation, believed in the concept of republican virtue. That
is, they felt it the obligation of every citizen to give of
themselves to the welfare of their new, shared political
endeavor. That their definition of citizenship was quite narrow
is very imoprtant, but another matter altogether. The founders
believed that in order for the republic to survive and be
healthy, citizens must sublimate their selfish interests for the
sake of the general welfare. In line with this, they imagined
that the nation’s politicians would be citizen servants: men,
who for a temporary period of time, sacrificed the profits and
joys of their personal pursuits so that they might shoulder the
responsibility of governin