What is the purpose of political conventions?

In earlier generations, political conventions were often full of conflict and secret deal-making to decide whom the nominee would be. These days, conventions are much less controversial. The main purpose of the conventions now is to officially nominate the candidate. Delegates from each state meet at the convention to cast their votes for the candidate. Delegates are expected to support the candidates that voters in their home states chose in the primaries or caucuses. A candidate needs more than half of the votes to win the nomination. At modern conventions, candidates already know before the convention that they have a majority of delegates. When one candidate gets a majority of delegates, the other candidates in that party usually "release" their delegates -- that is, they allow their delegates to vote for the winning candidate. That's what Democratic runner-up Hillary Clinton did this year with her delegates. Candidates release their delegates as a show of party unity.

Another purpose of the conventions is to create a party platform. In this case, the platform is a statement of the party's goals and values. The party platforms usually include general statements written to appeal to groups of voters that each party specifically wants to convince to vote for their candidate. What goals and values do you think each party should include in its platform? Why?