Why are there political conventions?

I know journalists like getting drunk, but why are there still political conventions? Voters don’t watch them (I couldn’t even find the Dems on broadcast last night), they turn cities into war zones and they cost a lot of money.

Now of course the cold hearted republicans should be expected to waste millions on a worthless week (and if what the Dems say is true, they will likely hire handicapped black women to serve their rich corporate donors at their parties), but why is the sensitive liberal throwing all the money away? Why not put kids in afterschool programs? Or send kids to college. How about medical care for homeless? There are a lot of uses for the money. I thought libs were supposed to care?

Political conventions are worthless in the modern age. Set up a big website for $1 million and webcast all the speeches. It’s not like you’re preaching to the choir anyway…