Fourth Estate

“Fourth of July 1916” by Childe Hassam

I thoroughly enjoyed the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland, and I fully expect I will also enjoy the Democrat Convention in Philadelphia next week. For political junkies and public policy wonks (and I’ve been something of each over long stretches of time in my life) these quadrennial events are analogous to the Olympics or the World Cup. They show the American political process of selecting our principal Presidential candidates at its ultimate frenzy, in all of its glory, its hokey pageantry, and all of its travesty. It is a thing both beautiful and ugly to behold by the truly objective eye. Principles, promises, and puffery all choreographed to ostensibly inform and deliberately incite potential voters. Of course, for committed partisan viewers, only the convention of their affiliated party will likely be appreciated, the other being despised as so much deviltry.

But what…