Diana Sanchez Zevallos

The Stockton Delegation was a panel of students who attended 12-day seminars. This one-time event took place on September 15, 2016.  Five of them went to the democratic convention and two students went to the republican convention. Each student proceeded to speak about their personal experiences and the responsibilities they had to fulfill. Some students worked alongside news reporters and even got to take selfies with politicians! It was very difficult to get into the convention; therefore, some students where in charge of checking passes. One student had the opportunity to work alongside the CNN crew and interview some important people.
All throughout this panel I learned many interesting facts that I didn’t know prior to attending. I will admit that I’m not as politically aware as others. However, attending this panel shined a bit of light on the ambiguous topic of politics. First I learned that the reason that these conventions are held is primarily for advertisement. Each convention is like a get-together for the supporters of each party to meet up and rejoice in each other’s company. Another reason is to influence those that are in the neutral position to vote for their respected candidates. The dark side to these conventions according to one student is that a lot of the food is not donated afterwards. Millions of dollars are thrown at setting up these conventions which just seem like a bit of waste to me. Also, third-party candidates can’t afford these kind of conventions unless they are wealthy to begin with. Many of these third-party politicians actually attend either the DNC or RNC to promote their own party and ideas. Even when they are successful in gaining entrance, many big-time media platforms don’t even give them 2 minutes of air-time. Rather, news stations like CNN and NBC focus on the bigger profiles and have obvious bias. This makes it very difficult for third-party candidates to achieve anything when the democratic and republican party overshadow their efforts.
If you think these conventions are all rainbows and cupcakes, then you would be wrong. There is a lot of hostility in each convention, especially in the DNC. Multiple students spoke about their experience with protestors rudely chanting “Bernie Bernie Bernie!” while Hillary was trying to give her speech. Also, many of them were yelling profanities at Hillary all throughout her time being on stage. It just goes to show how strongly committed Hillary is for peacefully dealing with these protestors. There were many people kicked out and some had to be restrained. Before this panel I was already aware of the divide between the Hilary supporters and the Bernie supporters although I didn’t think it was that chaotic. On the other hand, the RNC was described as peaceful with good vibes all through out. However, Ted Cruz did get some hostility thrown at him because he apparently refuses to support Trump.
All in all, all the participating students seemed grateful and delighted to have gotten that opportunity. Many of them spoke with such passion and expressed themselves well. I had a wonderful time listening to their interesting experiences. In the future, I would love to attend one of these conventions because I don’t have a clear-cut favorite so I would attend to learn more about their future plans and ideas. Even if I come across ideas that I don’t necessarily agree with, it’s good to be exposed to individuals that have different ways of seeing things so I don’t stay myopic about certain topics

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