LA Confidential: An Unconventional Convention Report (BARRY BUCCANEER: 2000)

They say national nominating conventions used to come with all the drama of Survivor, the back-stabbing of The Sopranos and the sleaziness of Jerry Springer. They also say that they were fun. Now they say they look like infomercials: TV-hungry parties use every frame of free airtime to hawk their wares and introduce their shining stars. After 40 years, the DNC once again jump-started its road show in Los Angeles. The last time the Democratic convention had been held in this town, the star had been a certain JFK.

The week before, one experienced city hurriedly tried to put its best foot forward.
More lights were added to Los Angeles International Airport (coincidence, according to the officials), and adjustments to public transportation were made (no coincidence). And the media was there to give folks back an appraisal of the city’s preparation. Los Angeles has a Republican mayor. By mid-week, 15,000 members of one of the most hated professions were descending upon the city. The camera presence was over-whelming, even for L.A. In that respect, political conventions are more like Big Brother: Participants, from delegates to balloon blowers, had their sound bites down pat.

Speculation was making the rounds as to the Vice Presidential selection that the sitting VP would make. The Republicans had gone for a veep candidate to assure the public that there was someone watching over Junior. For obvious reasons, local pundits favored local girl Diane Feinstein. At a time when Gore was trailing badly in the polls, he needed to make a selection that would cause a stir rather than a murmur. If Vice Presidents have a reputation as funeral goers, Al Gore had a reputation as a corpse so definitely he needed to stir things up. Feinstein, female and Jewish, would have been big. But Gore did a 180 in his grave. He went for an Orthodox Jew in Joe Liebermann: A move that was to jumpstart the emergence of the ‘real’ Al Gore. Jesse Jackson set the tone for the show with his “Stay out of the Bushes” line. Same venue, four months prior, and Al would have been Shaq and Joe, Kobe. But the crowd was no less fired up.

Two blocks down the street at the Patriotic Hall the Shadow Convention had started a day before the DNC’s convention. Orchestrated by independent commentator, Arriana Huffington, the first-ever shadow convention brought together mavericks such as Harvard professor Cornell West, Minnesota Senator Paul Wellston, a campaign finance reformer, and Ethan Nadelmann, who called for the decriminalization of narcotics. This reporter actually smelt ‘pot’ at one session. According to its organizers, the shadow is a reaction to the unwillingness of both Republicans and Democrats to address and solve the real issues of America. Their main belief was the corruption of the political process by the corporate America. It was mainly composed of people who would otherwise be on the extreme left of the Democratic party – those who think the party is selling out to the center. They are the same people that are boosting Ralph Nader’s stock. The shadow convention was apparently deliberately poorly organized on a shoestring budget. Each day’s activities were capped with a performance on the convention floor by Public enemy and free Ben and Jerry’s ice cream.

If the shenanigans at the Staples center were the big Hollywood productions, the shadow convention would be the Indie movie and the Internet movies would be the protests. Confined in a specially designated area marked by barbed wire and surrounded by a heavy LAPD presence, thousands of protestors cried themselves hoarse in the general direction of the Staples Center and into any microphone that was pointed at them, even the ones not pointed at them. The protestors could be collectively described as “Americans With Issues.” But the issues were as diverse as geographical and ethnic backgrounds; situation that robbed them of any cohesive and unified action. Terry, a substitute elementary school teacher from