What If They Called a Convention and Nobody Came?

The Independence Day festivities are out of the way and now the Republicans have to turn their attention to where and how they'll stage the convention to annoint Donald Trump their presidential candidate in this November's elections.

It's an elaborate, time-consuming and very, very costly endeavour at the best of times. However, Trump's fetish for pomposity could be the straw that broke the GOP camel's back.

It was originally to be staged in Charlotte, North Carolina, the city where you'll find the NASCAR Hall of Fame. A lot of money was pumped into the preparations by the city, by the state and by the GOP.  Charlotte was counting on bringing at least $100 million, perhaps up to $200 million into the local economy.

There was just one snag, Covid-19, the coronavirus that's now spreading through Dixie like Sherman's march through Georgia.

Donald Trump and the coronavirus are simply not compatible. He's made a complete mess of the whole thing and now America, with five per cent of the global population, has reaped 25 per cent of global deaths and they're still on a roll.

Donald Trump doesn't like wearing protective masks. He doesn't like social distancing. He doesn't like the advice he's constantly getting from his own Covid-19 Task Force. I suppose it doesn't help that Don doesn't like reading either.

So, when  the governor of North Carolina, a Democrat, insisted that the convention would have to adhere to masks and social distancing, Trump flew into a rage and announced they were pulling the convention and moving it to Jacksonville, Florida. Trump's coronation would settle for nothing less than a free-breathing horde of acolytes standing on the convention floor, shoulder to shoulder, shedding virus like there's no tomorrow (a self-fulfilling prophesy, I suppose).

No one in the Republican party crosses Donald Trump. What Trump wants, Trump gets. Only this time there are snags. GOP fund raisers are now having to make a second round of appeals to the 'donor class.'  Jacksonville isn't exactly a rail siding town but it is a big step down from Charlotte. The money those donors delivered for Charlotte has already been spent. Oooh, ouch.

Time to stage a Trump-standard convention is running out.  When you're trying to do it on the cheap in a second-tier venue it's that much harder. I'm not sure William Tecumseh Sherman had such a daunting challenge.

Then  I caught a story last night on NPR news that, as the pandemic rages through Florida, Republican organizers may be having second thoughts. No convention. Some "call it in" sort of deal instead.

No pomp and pageantry for the Mango Mussolini? Trump humbled by the very virus he's struggled so hard to shirk? Apoplexy anyone?