The Democratic Convention Rhetoric and Reason in the Windy City
BOHN, WILLIAM E.
Rhetoric and Reason In the Windy City By William E. Bohn These political conventions are the most American thing about America. They are ridiculous and wonderful, low-down and democratic,...
...The Democratic National Convention is the only place where such an agreement could be reached, for it is the only place in which the South is adequately represented...
...I must rise to defend William Jennings Bryan against the charge that he bore any sort of resemblance to this man...
...Bryan, when he was 35, was tall, slender, graceful, with a deep rolling voice the various tones of which he managed with artistic skill...
...I may be going out on a limb, but it seems to me that they are less given to talking bunk...
...I hopefully opined that we might expect improvement in political oratory...
...The Northerners, for their part, promise not to use force...
...Whether you agreed with his political theories or not, you could listen to him for hours as to a masterly performance on a fine musical instrument...
...On Tuesday afternoon, a row of Democratic women delivered speeches of which any party might well be proud...
...The final outcome was a demonstration of democratic mass action of which we all may be proud...
...This Vice Hatchetman slinging slander and the top man peering down the green fairways of indifference...
...In a single days program, the eager listener is presented with an astonishing number of psychological museum pieces...
...The Democratic party, as exhibited in Chicago, is national in more than a geographical sense...
...After watching this Chicago show for almost three days on television, I was all set to write a column of ridicule...
...Four years ago, in optimistic mood, I wrote a piece in which I suggested that television would force political leaders to plan their conventions measurably in accord with modern thinking and technology...
...Each one had a different topic, each one stuck to her assignment, and each one spoke honestly, straightforwardly and, obviously, out of abundant study and experience...
...He did habitually refer to God and the Bible, but, it seems to me, his references were far less crudely irreverent...
...It is a thousand pities that the Lord had no chance to express his opinion of the business...
...Before impatiently shaking off the notion of a compromise with Southerners, I hope my Northern readers will carefully read the platform plank covering the problem of segregation in our schools...
...Now I must report that my bright dream has been only partially realized...
...In it the Southerners agree that decisions of the Supreme Court are part of the law and acknowledge that sooner or later they must be put into effect...
...Keynoter Clement was touted as the "Boy Orator of the Cumberland," and he flaunts all of the bad qualities which are associated with that sort of eminence...
...He was not allowed to do so...
...What improvement has taken place is partly due to the fact that the women now take a larger part than they did in the old days...
...Governor Clement, the "keynoter" who was so proudly played up in advence, was not the only terrible speaker, but he was the most conspicuous one...
...Between Governor Frank G. Clement of Tennessee and Senator Wayne Morse of Oregon is a great gulf...
...I confess, sorrowfully, that the worst of them came from the South...
...There were a lot of lusty shouters whose adenoids need attention...
...But now, having paid tribute to the good features of the convention program, I must confess that about half of the performance was pretty low-down...
...There was no abuse of the Republicans and no attempt to rouse mob spirit...
...They are ridiculous and wonderful, low-down and democratic, machine-ridden and magnificent...
...Even his humor is unhumorous and sour: "He cannot Jim Hagertize his way through this whole campaign...
...Lincoln wanted to understand the South and think things through with the Southerners...
...There was plenty of sound and color with items to suit any taste from the top to the bottom of the cultural scale...
...He spoke sharply, rapidly and realistically...
...And on this compromise platform will run the compromise candidate, Adlai Stevenson...
...My readers will have known long before these words are delivered by the postman that Adlai Stevenson was nominated to run for the Presidency on a platform the chief feature of which represents a compromise between the North and the South...
...In that great hall are represented every age of history and every IQ rating from the lowest to the highest...
...The whole thing looked and sounded cheap and phony...
...I could understand why some British correspondents thought the spouting and the shouting fell below the old Anglo-Saxon tradition...
...Senator Morse, for example, delivered an address covering foreign affairs and the conservation of natural resources...
...After this sort of mutual statement, we are all better set than we have been to go forward with the gradual introduction of change...
...If he is elected, it is possible that the fates will be kinder to him than they were to his great Illinois predecessor...
...But this Clement is hard, monotonous, nasal...
...Imagine a man who has been ranting, waving his arms and wiping away sweat for 45 minutes closing his tirade with: "Precious Lord, take our hand...
...Why bad speaking should go with bad thinking I don't know, but it does...
...Women are more realistic than men...
...The convention was a gorgeous show made up of things good, bad and indifferent...
...Bryan never flung his arms aimlessly about in the Tennesseean's revivalist fashion...
...Antediluvian ideas seem to seek ungrammalical and nasal expression...
...In the present struggle, Stevenson has the same attitude...
...His attitude is much like that of Abraham Lincoln in his first campaign...
Vol. 39 • August 1956 • No. 35
