Wait a minute, I'm a Democratic Delegate now???

[elfs]

So, since it was just up the street and I'm committed to electing ABB (anyone but Bush), Omaha and I went to the Democratic Caucus, the girls in tow. It was held at the King County regional law enforcement training center, in the lobby, which was a space that epitomizes routine lobby-and-auditorium architecture from 1985-200 or so-- granite and steel, quarter-face construction. The weather was cold and overcast.

Omaha and I went in and announced that, at least for the purposes of this event, we were Democrats. (I don't think either Republican or Democrat is the right label these days; now, the battle is between libertarians and communitarians.) We found our table and discovered that we were with a party of ten people from our precinct.

Then we discovered that there were six delegates in our precinct. Which meant that out of the party of ten, six of us would have to agree to go to the legislative caucus in May. The people around the table were a mix-- retirees, union workers, veterans, the local fire district commissioner, and one painfully earnest "vote my conscience, not my pragmatism" man. We joked about our local sewer district, so riddled with corruption that it seems like the keystone cops meets the mafia some days, and the Des Moines city council, which is just batshit insane.

Most of the people there were older. We were pretty young ourselves, Omaha and I, compared to a room full of The Democratic Faithful. We had compliments from others about how well-behaved Kouryou-chan and Yamaarashi-chan were.

The girls took a quiet corner and played in the coloring books. They were pretty good as we went through the process of picking candidates. I initially voted for Dean, but ultimately switched to Edwards, convincing another along the way until we had as many votes as Kerry. We were split-- two delegates for Kerry, two for Edwards, one for Dean, and one "uncommitted."

And it looks like Omaha and I will both be going to the Legislative Caucus as delegates. I'm going for Edwards (although I can change my vote for any reason at any time), and Omaha is going as the power bloc known as "uncommitted." From a quick survey about the room, Dean was not doing well. Again and again, it was the "electibility" issue.

It takes a strong personality to go through that. Because it is not a secret process, the quieter folks got steamrolled by those of us with an opinion.

Which is why I had a harder time during the "Resolutions" phase, in which the precinct captain read off a list of proposed resolutions that, depending upon how wide a topic they addressed, could be adopted by county, state, or national Democratic platforms. I had trouble with the language on many of them, especially the universal health care issues, and like most platforms they left completely unaddressed the issues of how their resolutions would be paid for, implemented or regulated.

I've never been anything but an Independent voter, but if being "a Democrat" is what it takes to restore the balance of power, then that's what I'll be until November.

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/dominic-m-/]

indeed even the democratic way is not free from its own set of confusions. But i have to say i like the fact that you are siding with the big D for this election even if the only reason is to ban the bush. thats what made me a democrat...the first bush made me retch and now the second does that even moreso.

Ah, the joys of the democratic process...

[(Anonymous)]

This is the first time I've participated in a caucus. Interesting change from the primaries I'm used to voting in, where everything's secret, quiet, and electioneering at a polling place is a crime.

This morning there were buttons, banners, stickers and t-shirts everywhere (most of them Dean-themed), and the grandmother in possession of the PA microphone was actively pointing out which precincts had undecided voters so that the rest of us could attempt to sway them -- even those from different precincts. (There were about a dozen precincts meeting at the local high school cafeteria.)

I actually enjoyed myself; met some very nice people, though I was ashamed to see how few younger people (under 45 or so) were in attendance. Similarly to you, we had only 11 people show up to represent our precinct, and needed to assign 5 delegates to represent our voice in the next-level caucus.

I'd dragged my wife along... I thought I remembered her filling out one of the mail-in voter registration forms about 6 months ago, but I guess I was hallucinating; her name wasn't on the voter registration list. Fortunately, she could fill out the form at the door and be eligible for the caucus -- which is what she did. Boy, I'm glad she came. If she hadn't, our choice of Wesley Clark (now there's an underdog!) would have been excluded as not meeting the 15% minimum for a 'viable candidate'.

Yay. Clark gets one delegate -- me. Too bad this is Snohomish county, or I'd be looking forward to seeing you at the next caucus!

And how did the other candidates fare?

 Kerry:     62 (delegates) 

 Dean:      33 

 Kucinich:  3 

 Edwards:   2 

 Clark:     1 

(and no mention of any of the others.)

I'm sorry, Elf, but for some reason Edwards scares me. It's because of that "Crossing Over with" John Edwards guy, and that's not "Presidential Candidate" John Edwards' fault, but still... it's spooky.

Now that I've got all that out of my system... can we please see a picture of you now that you've got a new 'do? I'm dying to know what you look like with short hair!

Re: Ah, the joys of the democratic process...

[solarbird]

It's because Edwards looks like the guy who played the antichrist in Omen III.

Which isn't to say Dean looks better. Dean's like John McCain in the "no neck whatsoever" department. I'd love to get the two of 'em into a boxing ring. It'd look like Rock-em-Sock-em robots all over again.

(And somehow, I ended up a Dean alternate. And precinct chair. WTF?)

Re: Ah, the joys of the democratic process...

[http://users.livejournal.com/dominic-m-/]

hahaha.you gotta luv the deanster cause he loves to hate bush like most of us and he looks like he lost his mind most of the time. I think dean is a friggen funny guy but has no chance anymore winnin this poor thing.poor guy....heh oh well.

[kitsap_charles]

Congratulations! riverheart and I are also going to our own county convention, as Dean delegates.

um lol

[warstoke.livejournal.com]

Come on now cant we get some decent candidates cause all of the Demoncrat candidates just to put it bluntly
Suck
I really don’t like any of them even edwards who is from my own state
i want some one to run who has views like mine that we need to put funding into the tech center create incentives for companies to bring jobs here improve our educational system and tell the RIAA what they can do with an mp3 player and im not talking about going out and listening to "bowling for soup"
::this post is duplicated in my LJ::

Re: um lol

[http://users.livejournal.com/dominic-m-/]

how about we focus on getting rid of good ol bush for now and when he is canned lets focus on getting more liberal candidates into the office.For now we just hafta trounce bush and not much more.(and BTW dean was as close as it gets to your kind of candidate.not to the letter but still good).Too bad dean is suffering in the polls pretty badly right now. As long as bush is out im a happy man for now.

Re: um lol

[wendor.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, the way our political system works is that you vote FOR someone, not against someone.

You are basically saying (it would appear) that you want to focus on getting anyone but Bush into office and then worry later on about how bad or incompetent the new villain you put into office is.

While I do not support Bush, I also refuse to support anyone who refuses to tell me why THEY specifically should be elected, but instead focuses all of their effort on telling me why Bush needs to be replaced. That kind of rhetoric would be appropriate in a recall campaign or an impeachment process...not a presidential election. They are running FOR office, not for "removal of Bush".

So I will not support Bush, but I also will not support any of the Democratic candidates until one of them can tell me, clearly and concisely why I should vote for him WITHOUT using the words "Republican" or "Bush" anywhere in the statement.

In other words, tell me what you will do if elected, not what you won't do.

Re: um lol

[http://users.livejournal.com/dominic-m-/]

owwwee.such cutting words.ok. I was not saying i will not reasearch my candidate before voting for him.I knew my candidate the moment he entered the race.DEAN.i know he wont win now but meh. And the anbody but bush thing works pretty damn well considering most of the democratic candidates have offered up pretty ok plans.Not all but most of em. I am an unregistered voter leaning usually towards the democratic side.I will vote for whom i think is more competent than the other guy.and in my opinion almost any candidate offered forth as opposition for bush seems to fill that role quite nicely. And the fact is I dont worry if the next prez will screw up our country because democrats smooth things over and dont start wars.to my knowledge we already have two running of our current prez.so in finality im going to vote for kerry(whom is most likely going to win and has proven himself a viable candidate).