Top Ten Dueling 2024 Political Conventions

Top Ten Dueling 2024 Political Conventions
Num	Republican National Convention	Democratic National Convention
10.)	Kid Rock	John Legend and Sheila E.
9.)	"TRUMP" in bright lights	"FREEDOM" signs in white and blue
8.)	Hulk Hogan	Oprah
7.)	An orderly, well-behaved roll call	A rockin roll call
6.)	A 93 minute acceptance speech	A 37 minute acceptance speech
5.)	Safety	Central Park Five
4.)	Strength	"Too fragile, vain, and weak to accept defeat"
3.)	Speaker of the House Mike Johnson: "Maintaining order during the roll call is extremely important"	Lil Jon: "Yeahhhh...Turn down for what"
2.)	Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA"	Beyonce's "Freedom"
1.)	Our opponent hasn't done anything about inflation and the border	Our opponent only cares about himself

Posted August 25, 2024

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Commentary

In this top ten list we attempt to create a side-by-side comparison of the 2024 national conventions of the two key U.S. political parties. The Republican National Convention (RNC) was held July 15th to 18th in Milwaukee, while the Democratic National Convention (DNC) was held August 19th to 22nd in Chicago.

Some items on the list feature a few examples of the various celebrities who attended, spoke, performed, or whose music was played at the conventions (items 10, 8, 3, and 2). For example, Kid Rock performed "American Bad Ass" at the RNC, while John Legend and Sheila E. performed Prince's "Let's Go Crazy." Both conventions featured patriotism as a theme, as Lee Greenwood performed "God Bless the USA" as Donald Trump appeared on the stage for his acceptance speech, while a recording of Beyonce's "Freedom" served the backdrop for Kamala Harris's appearance for her acceptance speech (item 2). Admittedly, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is a Republican politician rather than a celebrity, but his very nerdy warning about maintaining order during the roll call seemed like something one might say at a convention of elderly librarians, especially when contrasted with the "Yeahhh" that Lil Jon belted out when reporting Georgia's electoral results at the DNC (item 2). We also called out the contrast between the two roll calls again on item 7.

The RNC seemed tightly themed around the Republican Party as the party of Trump, as the themes for various nights were variations on Make America Great Again (MAGA), including the themes of wealth, safety, strength, and greatness. There were relatively few Republican notables in attendance who hadn't embraced Trumpism, as (for example) former Vice President Mike Pence and Senator Mitt Romney were not there.

The DNC had its share of Democratic Party notables, as both of the Obamas and both of the Clintons spoke. As usual, Bill Clinton went on for too long, but even notoriously longwinded Clinton didn't go on as long as Trump did in his acceptance speech (item 6), where he broke the previous record of 75 minutes, which also happened to be held by him. The DNC included a few rogue speakers from the Republican Party, including former Representative Adam Kinzinger who supplied the zinger shown in item 4.

We're not sure if it was just the radical difference between the roll call vibes that made the RNC seem like a meeting of retired librarians and the DNC seem like a fun rock concert, but that's the overall impression we're left with.