Republican midterm convention will be ‘Trumpist pageantry’ – at the party’s own risk

Donald Trump speaks during an ‘End of Summer BBQ’ with Republican lawmakers in the Rose Garden at the White House on 2 September in Washington DC. Photograph: Abaca/Shutterstock

It seemed like a good idea at the time. In December 1978, Jimmy Carter, a US president besieged by inflation and energy crises, watched as thousands of Democrats descended on Memphis, Tennessee, for a rare midterm convention.

“It was wild,” recalls Elaine Kamarck, who attended as a 28-year-old working for the Democratic National Committee. “It became a forum for Ted Kennedy to informally announce his opposition to President Carter. There was a lot of hostility to the president there. The Democrats have sworn ever since never to do anything this stupid again.”