I don't want to underestimate the difficulties involved in holding such a convention, but it seems to me that the case for doing so is a powerful one. Surely it would be preferable to the current alternative, in which Republican candidates for Congress and state offices try desperately to save their individual hides while the party as a whole says nothing.
And it would serve to put the Democrats in a bind, for they would either have to yield the national spotlight to their hated rivals or try to cobble together some collective reply of their own, with all the difficulties that would present.
If a "convention" sounds too complicated to try to put together at this late date, there are less intricate alternatives. How about a four-day "convocation" of thoughtful Republican spokesmen for the various major viewpoints within the party, designed to appeal to the American people as a gathering of basically like-minded patriots?
Almost anything that suggested there is a party out there, with views and purposes on which most Americans can agree, would be better than the present gaggle of uncoordinated office-seekers, each chasing his or her own will-o-the-wisp.