...a gang; if you don't get some dirt on your finger nails, how can the rest of the mob trust that you are really one of us? At some point, you have to prove you are in or out.
That is the fundamental problem with both national parties; the words and rituals you MUST perform to prove you are on the team come BEFORE the words and rituals and actions that prove you are on the bigger team; The US as a whole.
This is we, the people, at our worst, gatherings like this where your primary function is to prove your ability to completely turn your brain off and act like a lemming. Every single person there is expected to toe the line.
In this age of information, wired together, the ability to form your own support group DIRECTLY to the people, to their minds and to their wallets and their physical support, the national parties are dinosaurs. The conventions are ALL about the parties, party unity, party discipline, party preeminence. The nation comes last.