Politics & Power Quote by William Greider

Greider is doing something bracingly unfashionable: he’s demoting politics at the very moment political journalism most wants to feel indispensable. The jab lands on “ritual.” A party convention isn’t presented as a neutral information dump; it’s theater with rules, cues, and a pre-agreed ending. When reporters “no longer understand” the ritual, he implies, they mistake choreography for revelation, reading omens in applause lines and seating charts like Kremlinologists scanning parade photos.

The phrase “tepid events” is a quiet insult with a bigger charge behind it. It’s not that nothing happens; it’s that the meaningful decisions have already migrated elsewhere - to primaries, donor networks, consultants, smoke-free backrooms, or the broader media ecosystem. By the time the convention arrives, the suspense is gone, leaving journalists to manufacture significance from stagecraft. Greider’s subtext is a critique of a profession trapped by its own genre expectations: political reporting wants discrete “political meanings” (strategy, leverage, policy signals), even when the product on offer is mood, identity, and narrative closure.

Calling the convention “essentially a human drama” reframes the assignment. The convention becomes less about governance than about belonging: the family reunion, the redemption arc, the grieving parent, the rising-star speech that provides catharsis. Greider is arguing that the real power here is emotional - not in the sentimental sense, but as social technology. It binds factions, rebrands candidates, and gives the audience permission to feel a certain way about the future. The reporters aren’t wrong to look for meaning; they’re wrong about what kind.