This would be Milwaukee’s week in the sun.
When it was elected in March last year to host the Democratic National Convention – the largest city in a state the Democrats are desperately hoping to claim back from Donald Trump – local leaders and business people are standing up for the excitement surrounding the mega-event of four days would bring. Local politicians are preparing for the national spotlight. That is what the Protestants did. Then the coronavirus pandemic struck.
In June, the DNC said it would rescind its convention, and in July it announced it would go fully virtual. No more would swarms of speakers, delegates, journalists and others flock to Wisconsin, making the restaurants, hotels and breweries of Milwaukee famous. Celebrities and VIPs would stay home. “A gut punch,” a local steakhouse owner told NPR. “A virtual convention is about as happy for its host city as a virtual bratwurst is for a hungry man,” a Milwaukee author wrote in The New York Times.
