Two Conventions

From Harry Truman to Bernie Sanders - the arc of Presidential election politics from 1948 to 2016. Using the 1948 Conventions as benchmarks, Cutler explores the changes since the first televised nominations. Why campaigning for the Presidency has become a reality show, why that's been bad for democracy, and feasible innovations that will restore the political ecology to better health. 1. TWO DEMOCRATIC CONVENTIONS - setting the scenes, focusing on the influence of media executives 2. A SPEECH THAT MADE YOUR SOCKS ROLL DOWN - the impact of Hubert Humphrey's civil rights speech on convention votes and in shaping the postwar Democratic Party 3. SMARTPHONE POLITICS - how messages are structured to suit media 4. RIDING ON THE OUTCOME - reasons for the steady decline in public interest in conventions 5. LET'S GET RICH: POLITICAL CAREERS - the rise of the modern elections industry, the profitability of political communication, and a case for cost reforms as a more feasible approach than the failed attempts at finance reform 6. RULES OF ORDER - how the formal rules of debate once influenced public arguments and democratic culture 7. THE GREATEST FUNERAL - FDR's funeral oratory exemplifies political conventions as a venue for national rites, and comparison to Super Bowls 8. AMAZING WOMEN - the significant influence of women in 1948, and the historical potential for the 2016 event to be a watershed for female equality 9. A PECULIAR CHILDHOOD - the influence of Jewish voters on national politics through a memoir about my father's influence on me 10. LABOR UNIONS AT THE CONVENTIONS - how the white working class exerted influence through unions, the demographic changes in union membership, and the effects of those changes on elections 11. THE FEMININE ETHOS OF 2016 - explaining how ethos, the character of a speaker, has subconscious persuasive force, and gender-based assumptions influencing voting behavior 12. FLYING THE FLAG - the evolution of American patriotism and militarism as partisan definitions 13. WHY WOMEN VOTE FOR DEMOCRATS - explaining the steady shift of women away from Republican allegiance as discomfort with machismo patriotism 14. WILLIAM PENN'S CITY - the Quaker influence on American political discourse and Philadelphia's unique role in historic decisions 15. POLITICIANS IN THE HEAT - consideration of the heat wave and absence of air conditioning on the conduct of the 1948 convention 16. PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN RHETORIC - how political rhetoric is organized in databases using the classical formula of rhetorical criticism 17. THE REPUBLICAN AND DEMOCRATIC BRANDS - politics as a form of marketing, brand loyalty, and how the personalities of candidates reinforce brand identity 18. RELIGION AT THE 2016 CONVENTIONS - organized religious participation in Party politics as a force for social change, and why an Imam is unlikely to deliver and invocation in 2016 19. TRUMAN AND CONGRESS - the similarities between 1948 and 2016 in terms of Republican Congress, Democratic President, issues, and how Truman's acceptance speech employed the rhetorical strategy for winning a majority in Congress and the Presidency despite long odds 20. SLOGANS - an exploration of "Give 'em hell, Harry," the symbolic value of slogans and how they convey deep meaning 21. TAOIST POLITICS - the adversarial imperative of Anglo American political and legal institutions in contrast with the balance imperative of Taoist concepts practiced in Asian governments 22. THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT - the author's personal experience with Big Government and why the challenge of reforming politics is separate from the challenge of reforming government
About the Author: Stanley Cutler is a novelist, author of mystery thrillers set in mid-Twentieth Century America. In writing TWO CONVENTIONS, he draws on academic training in history, rhetorical criticism, on the skills of an educator for universities and public schools in the USA and abroad, and a career as a strategic planning and information technology management consultant for major corporations and the Federal Government.