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  • The Atlantic

    I Know What Makes Conventions So Maddening

    And it’s not the air horns and <em>vuvuzelas</em>.
    by Andrew Ferguson Aug 29, 2020 4 minutes
    Source: Alex Brandon / AP

    Having been to many political conventions over the years and watched many more slumped on the sofa bed in my home bunker, and now having watched two mostly remote events courtesy of Republicans and Democrats, I have finally isolated the element that has historically made these occasions so maddening and unpleasant: people.

    Specifically, I have in mind the people who go to political conventions. Every four years, their unquenchable ardor for partisan expression leads them to pack up their air horns and and drive or fly to an uninteresting hotel in some faraway city so that they might jump up and down on cue in a packed sports arena. The attitude of

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