10 Apr The Short Version: White Whale of Politics

Last week, Cleo Abram blogged about the controversial tampon tax. Do tampons fall under the category of  “necessities,” which in most, read 45, states are not taxed? This week’s subject is no less, ahem, taxing: As The Donald gets closer to his pot of gold, the Republican nomination, somewhere over the rainbow lies what? a brokered convention. The smoking hot topic is the feature of this week’s “The Short Version,” that real, but rare possibility, “The White Whale of Politics.”

Note: If you missed any of Cleo’s blogs, just go to our Home Page, type “The Short Version” into Search (magnifying glass icon) and poof, like magic, the stories appear.

Cleo Constantine Abram of the “The Short Version,” offering densely packed spins on issues of national and global importance.

What’s happening?

Donald Trump is getting much closer to the Republican presidential nomination. He now has a 7% polling lead and 867 of the 1237 delegates he needs to win.

As Trump gains ground, many Republican leaders and donors are considering a highly controversial tactic to prevent him from earning the nomination. Their plan? A contested convention.

Why is it important?

A contested convention occurs when no individual candidate has a winning majority of delegates before the nominating convention begins. If that happens, most delegates are free to vote for any candidate—and can coordinate to agree on a nominee. This is also sometimes anachronistically called a “brokered convention.”

However, contested conventions are extremely rare. The last time a Republican convention began without a presumptive nominee was 1976. One party leader called it “the white whale of politics.”

But most importantly, contested conventions call into question the primary process itself. For many, the idea that the nominee may not receive most—or even any—of the primary votes is antithetical to the democratic process.

Debate it!

Continue reading here.

Why “The Short Version” on TIO:

Eight+ years ago, Telluride Inside…and Out began as a lifestyle webzine. Today, in the full knowledge that Telluride is a window on the world, we continue to bring the “zazz” (short for “pizzazz) of the region to a local, national, and global audience by covering everything from Telluride’s robust cultural economy – major events and festivals – to health and fitness and outdoor adventure. When Telluride travels, we write about places to go, people to meet too. (That’s part of the “Out” part of our handle, the other, obviously, Outdoors.)

And now, this new weekly column, “The Short Version,” which offers simple summaries of issues of national and global importance. (Though we won’t go political, or rather we won’t show bias in the upcoming election.)

“The Short Version” is written by Cleo Constantine Abram, the daughter of Telluride locals Eleni Constantine and Jonathan Abram (and therefore an honorary local and regular visitor) and a digital strategist at Precision Strategies, a political consulting firm.

Why “The Short Version”? Because, though we live in Shangri-La, our bubble is not impermeable and the rest of the world is only a click away. Because there is no inconsequential action; only consequential inaction. And because information is power in a moment so many of us are feeling powerless.

More about Cleo Constantine Abram:

Cleo grew up in Washington D.C., lives in New York City, and loves to visit her parents in Telluride. She authors “The Short Version,” a newsletter that explains each week’s most important issue and both sides of the debate around it.

Cleo is a digital strategist at Precision Strategies, a political consulting firm born of the Obama 2012 presidential campaign.

Cleo’s work focuses on ways to share, educate, and inform using online platforms. While in college at Columbia University, she guided the school’s entrance into online education through her role as the youngest elected representative to the Columbia Senate, which makes university-wide policy.

She continued her work on online education at TED-Ed, the educational branch of the nonprofit, building new programs and online tools to support high school teachers worldwide.

Continuing her work with TED, Cleo founded and led an early TEDx conference, the organization’s community-specific series.

Most importantly, Cleo loves to ski!