An Open Convention? I’m not always in tune with what Ezra Klein proposes, but this at least deserves consideration:
In “The Hollow Parties: The Many Pasts and Disordered Present of American Party Politics,” Sam Rosenfeld and Daniel Schlozman tell the history of how the strong parties of yesterday have become the hollowed-out vehicles for presidential ambition we see today. The ethos of the early American political parties was that they were a bulwark against politics becoming about one person. “The idea,” Rosenfeld told me, was “that parties subsume individual ambition, that you commit to the party and to the cause, never to the man.”
The best case against replacing Biden is that doing so at this late hour would be riskier than keeping him. But that is a choice the Democratic Party made.
It was a choice to support Biden in running for re-election, despite poll after poll showing supermajorities of the American people thought he was too old to serve a second term.
It was a choice, if an understandable one, for zero major Democrats to run against him in the primaries, even as polls showed majorities of Democratic voters didn’t want Biden to run again.
It was a choice, if top Democrats and the White House believed Harris too weak to run or govern in Biden’s place, to do nothing about it.
Democrats have spent all this time choosing to do nothing to solve the most obvious problems they faced in 2024, and now the argument is that there is nothing they can do; it’s too late. Now to even admit these problems is “unhelpful.”
What do political parties do? One thing they do — perhaps the most important thing they do — is nominate candidates. We have a two-party system. Voters will have two viable options in November. The Democratic Party is responsible for one of those options. It needs to make that choice responsibly. What is its job if not that?
Politically, I am more optimistic about a convention than some. It carries risk but also possibility — the possibility of a ticket that re-energizes the Democratic Party, that excites voters who currently feel they have no good choices. But it could go badly, too, just as Biden’s campaign is going badly now. And so what tips me is not really the politics. It’s that I don’t actually believe Biden should be president for another four years. I don’t believe he would be better than the alternatives.
Biden Family Meeting Today? I don’t look for anything other than a ‘rally ’round the (con)flag(ration)’, but you never know:
President Joe Biden is expected to discuss the future of his re-election campaign with family at Camp David on Sunday, following a nationally televised debate Thursday that left many fellow Democrats worried about his ability to beat former President Donald Trump in November, according to five people familiar with the matter.
So far, the party’s top leaders have offered public support for Biden, including in tweets posted by former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. Senior congressional Democrats, including Reps. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, Jim Clyburn of South Carolina and Nancy Pelosi of California, have privately expressed concerns about his viability, said two sources apprised of those discussions, even as they all publicly back the president.
At the same time, there is an understanding among top Democrats that Biden should be given space to determine next steps. They believe only the president, in consultation with his family, can decide whether to move forward or to end his campaign early — and that he won’t respond well to being pushed.
“The decision-makers are two people — it’s the president and his wife,” one of the sources familiar with the discussions said, adding: “Anyone who doesn’t understand how deeply personal and familial this decision will be isn’t knowledgeable about the situation.”
Notably absent from the discussion, the national Democratic Party.
How Live Nation Takes Over Cities. It’s now coming after Portland, the last Live Nation-free city in the US:
The city is known for its fiercely self-sufficient music scene, where local venues keep ticket prices low and artists experiment for curious audiences. It’s also the only major US city without a venue owned or operated by Live Nation, the controversial entertainment conglomerate that dominates the US concert-going experience.
Proponents say the venue, which is making its way through zoning reviews now, will bring new jobs and fill a gap for mid-sized gigs. But many Portlanders feel the price of letting Live Nation in the door to the venue market is too high, and could crush the homegrown scene they love.
“[It] would be a death sentence for the music scene,” says Colescott Rubin, a jazz bassist who got his start busking on streets and booking shows in Portland as a teen. Thanks to Portland’s independence, he says, “you can talk with the people who are calling the shots on the spaces you’ll be performing in directly.” The arrival of Live Nation, he and others in the city’s music scene fear, would send Portland the way of cities such as Austin and Boston, where independent venues have shuttered and local journalists and musicians have lamented the corporatization of scenes that once felt organic and unstoppable.
The concerns of people like Rubin are carrying extra weight amid a regulatory crackdown by the US government: last month, the Department of Justice and more than half of US state attorneys general sued Live Nation, arguing they stifled and bought out competition to gain a monopoly over the concert industry. And it’s not the first time the company has been taken to task. In 2019, the DoJ found that Live Nation – which merged with Ticketmaster in 2010 – had violated a consent decree that spelled out merger terms that the newly combined behemoth must follow to avoid monopolizing the industry.
Ticketing debacles, exorbitantly high costs and slapped-on “convenience” fees have garnered the most buzz. But there is a lesser-known lynchpin of Live Nation’s power: its ever-growing portfolio of concert venues across the country.
Controlling venues and concert promotion is a part of Live Nation’s business that at least one executive has referred to as its “moat” – in essence, the less profitable scaffolding surrounding its ticketing syndicate. Here’s how it works: Live Nation owns, operates (via long-term contracts with existing venues), or has financial interest in hundreds of venues, giving them control over an estimated 60% of major-venue concerts in the US. According to the DoJ and many venue owners, it then forces venues to use the ticketing service that makes it rich: Ticketmaster.
Not to belabor the point (he lied), we’re headed out to Portland in September. We got tickets for what I consider may well be the best rock band in the world right now. (You’ll find out who that is tomorrow, when I post my Fave Tunes Of The Month). $46 bucks a pop, including fees. Unbelievable. Triple figures under Live Nation for sure.
Coming soon (as in as soon as I post this): A great Guest Post from The MoMo, focusing on some malign neglect from the General Assembly. Meaning–I’ve gotta format it. Meaning–I’m outta here.
What do you want to talk about?