It’s a rare feat to write a book about politics that lines up perfectly with the needs of the moment, and John Patrick Yob has done it with Convention Chaos: The Outsiders Guide to a Contested Republican National Convention. A political convention expert—and an elected delegate to this summer’s convention from the Virgin Islands—Yob perfectly lays out how blunders by Establishment Republicans have increased the likelihood of a contested convention in Cleveland and explains how conservatives should view such an event as an opportunity. Convention Chaos outlines how the Republican Party became divided, profiles the important players at the National Convention, and gives hope to those who fear the gains conservatives have made over the last few years might be washed away by a handful of political power brokers pulling the strings behind the convention’s curtain.
If you want to be able to understand what is happening during the raucous meeting in July, Convention Chaos serves as a much-needed guide. Explaining how technology has allowed stronger challenges to the established powers of both parties, Yob opens his book by charting the rise of the Tea Party as a force in American politics and views the contested convention as the culmination of the protest group’s positive disruption of the political status quo in the United States. With history serving as his foundation, Yob clearly explains how the convention will be governed and which players on the floor should be watched. Finally, Convention Chaos concludes by sketching out positive reforms the Republican National Committee could make to regain the trust of its voters and ensure that July’s convention creates a stronger party that can win in November. While most political pundits focus on the division of a contested convention, Convention Chaos offers a path for the contest in Cleveland to make the Republican Party more unified and more capable of offering solutions to the problems facing our country.
As a historian, I found Yob’s appraisal of the events that led to this moment to be clarifying, especially his discussion of how contested political conventions have functioned in the past. As a political watcher, however, the section of Convention Chaos that proved most illuminating was the breakdown of the important consultants from each campaign, the rules that bind (or unbind) delegates, and the profiles of leaders within the RNC who will shape how the convention operates. His ability to put the various GOP factions, which he calls “tribes,” into context will prove useful this summer to pundits and voters alike. If the convention in July is the Republican Super Bowl, Convention Chaos is the program and player guide. If you want to know what to expect at the contested Republican National Convention, John Yob’s work is a must read.
Carl Paulus is a political historian who has worked on a number of campaigns ranging from local to presidential. His book, The Slaveholding Crisis: The Fear of Insurrection and the Coming of the Civil War, will be published this fall.
AAN Staff
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