Caucuses are cool!

[Egnever]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chuck-lippstreu/in-nebraska-its-not-jus_b_85890.html

I guarantee that everyone sitting at caucus sites across Nebraska yesterday had a really jarring, really crucial epiphany as they filed in to caucus: "Yes, there are other Democrats here!"

Voting doesn't have to mean sneaking into a polling place, requesting the Democratic ballot, being treated the same polite courtesy as a man whose cat just died and slithering out without a word. Even if fewer people can participate in person at a caucus (although Nebraska did have an absentee system Saturday), 15 percent caucus turnout benefits us far more than 20 percent primary turnout, if those 15 percent leave invested in the future of the party.

Voting in a red-state primary is like drinking fish oil and prune juice just because they're supposed to be good for you. Going to a red-state caucus is like throwing away that foul juice and drinking beer to make everything feel all right again; everyone's together in the same room, debating and laughing, feeling for a few minutes that the Democrats have a chance.

[Yael]

1. This is excellent!

I have been enjoying all of the caucus stories and pics.

One thing that struck me about Nebraska was all of the people commenting, "I had no idea there were this many Dems in the state, much less in my district".

:woohoo:

[Zueda]

2. I wish my state had caucuses.

[Yael]

5. Same here. PA may actually count for something this year, but

we are a priimary state. I would LOVE the excitement of a caucus as opposed to the dull primary.

Seeing all the people standing for their candidate carries a whole lot more weight than a ballot behind a curtain.

[Tom Rinaldo]

3. You really have to factor in the self screening aspect

People who find the nature of a caucus experience to be over stimulating, overwhelming, far too public, far too inconvenient, and overly revealing to certain other people who they secretly prefer for a given office, are far less likely to be at those caucuses having a great time that they can go home and write about later.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

8. Depends on how it's done. In my state, Minnesota,

and in some others (WA is one, I think), the presidential preference vote is by secret paper ballot. You do not have to publicly state who you voted for. The rest of the caucus is where you select delegates to district conventions and vote on resolutions to be passed on for party ratification. It's a very interesting process and it gets people involved. I understand the criticism that not everyone can participate because caucuses don't run all day like primaries (although at my caucus the participants were distinctly non-elite and non-rich), but the positive side is that you get a sense of real involvement and reinforcement. They tend to attract the activists -- the people who will dig in and work for the down-ticket candidates and party platforms, not just presidential candidates. They are really empowering. I like them.

Oddly, although I've been participating in caucuses (cauci?) since 1972, this is the first election where any presidential candidate or their campaign has criticized them for being allegedly undemocratic. Dean didn't complain about the process after he lost the Iowa caucus, but Clinton's people all of a sudden are bashing them. Maybe she doesn't win with enthusiastic grass-roots party activist types?

[Tom Rinaldo]

9. I don't think Clinton has directly attacked caucuses

I have been critical of them, and I do support her. My bottom line is that I lean mostly negative against them.

Just to be clear, I posted on DU before the Nevada caucus (the only caucus Clinton has won so far) that whatever the results from it turned out to be, I did not think they rated the type of serious attention that a primary result deserved.

I have a fond spot for the Iowa caucus to this day, even though the results there this year did not favor my candidate. My only real problems with the Iowa caucus are 1) that Iowa is so overwhelmingly white and 2) that the results from it get blown so totally out of proportion, because it goes first.

Iowa does caucus about as well as caucus can be done in my opinion. For one thing the citizenry there takes it all so god damn seriously. They run almost as well as a swiss watch, and participants rarely fear chaos at them or feel overly pressured by supporters of other candidates any more than is inevitable for that type of process. Maybe that has something to do with the personality of the average Iowan.

Even more important though, essentially all of the candidates spend a whole lot of time inside Iowa before that caucus is held, and it seems like virtually all of Iowa's citizens spend a whole lot of time getting to actually know those candidates before that caucus is held. That is the key for me, and that is why I am fond of Iowa's caucus.

If the caucus goers in Iowa get really enthused about a candidate it is because they have gotten a lot of exposure to that candidate, but even more important, they have had a chance to be really exposed to all of the candidates first before locking into any one of them to support. It is an egalitarian equal opportunity to become deeply informed environment. And because retail campaigning is so prolonged and the candidates are so accessible to all of Iowa's voters, it means something to me when one or more candidates build a strong and informed base of support there.

It is not only the hard core self starter political junkie types who go out of their way to look hard into who they want to support in Iowa. It comes closer to a real cross section of the full electorate, and that matters to me. The activist core of our Party, folks like us here, are a key Democratic constituency but we are not a representative cross section of Democrats. We allot our personal time differently then most, we spend more of it online for one thing, but I'm sure a demographic study would reveal a lot more differences than that.

Caucuses work best I thinnk in states where all of the candidates actually spend a large amount of time there in person doing retail campaigning. Nevada maybe can grow into that over time with practice.

Later date in the primary season caucuses it seems to me were mostly designed as a low cost means of selecting specific delegates to go to the Democratic National Convention to represent their state there, compared to the much larger cost of staging a primary. And thoes caucuses usually reflected the sentiment being expressed at the national level with natural regional variations. Now though, in this very tight election, every candidate in every caucus state needs a fine tuned get the voter to the caucus on time machine.

[IDemo]

4. For the first time in 30 years, I learned I'm not alone here

Anything but!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=4503818&mesg_id=4518615

[Yael]

6. 8,300? Holy wow

:wow:

I would say that you certainly aren't alone. LOL!

How on earth did they count the votes?

[IDemo]

11. These were hand-written paper ballots, not them newfangled e-things

:-) It took most of an hour to count the first ballot. I wasn't there to see the process, but I'm sure they had many people involved. There were nearly two thousand people huddled outside in freezing temps and occasional snowfall as well.

They have announced that there won't be a 'super caucus' next time, but I'm sure going to miss the noise and emotion of an arena packed full of Democrats here in neon red Idaho!

[marlakay]

7. Thats how I felt

People who live in a blue area wouldn't know what we mean. I am in a blue state but a pretty red town so it was great to Caucus (WA) and see who all my dem neighbors were.

[grantcart]

10. This email I received from a fellow Buddhist for Obama

In the end, I feel I should leave the phone calling to others who are
more aggressive in approach. I may have spent too long chatting with
folks, "wasting" valuable time. However, when I got to the caucus,
there was a woman there who told me I had called her, and she thanked
me for being so "human". Funny comment, but it is making me re-think
my position on not participating in any more phone banks.

As to the caucus in my rural community: It was a beautiful experience!

One woman cried as she talked about her hopes of having a woman in
the White House at long last. Those who didn't want (or like)
Hillary Clinton expressed sympathy and kindness towards this woman
whilst still making it plain that they felt strongly about Obama.
And in the end, this woman, who was so passionately for Hillary,
stood alongside the Obama group.

As a small group of thirty people (which was a lot for this very
small town), we actually tried to reach consensus. Though that
didn't wind up happening - three people would not budge, noone
treated anyone with disrespect. There was disagreement, yes, but it
was obvious that everyone was trying to communicate without harmful
language.

This is not like my previous experiences at caucuses where there was
rancorous debate and hostility that took my breath away (though in
another town for any of you reading this from where I live!)

I do believe that Barack Obama is setting the tone. As a Buddhist,
this makes my heart soar.

No, Obama is not the messiah and we are not part
of some cult, as many of those who don't "get it" have mockingly
accused us of believing or being. One woman at my caucus who had gone
to the rally said to me "I went to the rally totally undecided. I
didn't get in. When he came out and spoke to us, I felt emotions
that I didn't understand. I got all choked up and it took me until
the next day to figure out what those emotions were. I'm embarassed
to say it, but it was love."

Love and hope can change the world. With an open heart, we can move
mountains, not just make incremental changes.

loving kindness to you all

[IDemo]

13. That was a terrific post. Thank you for sharing.

[Egnever]

16. Thanks for that

Nice post!

[TexasObserver]

12. Caucuses build the Democratic Party activist structure. Primaries don't.

In primaries, anyone can register by mail and vote by mail, or absentee. That requires almost no investment of time or effort. It doesn't show any commitment beyond the primary. They may be voting to hurt the Democrat they like least. They may be Republicans or Independents who haven't voted for the top of the Democratic ticket in 40 years. These people are over the country in rural areas, and they don't typically vote Democratic in the general election for president.

Primaries are more easily stolen, because they're run by a few party types, some of whom are always doing a little too much to help their candidate, usually an incumbent or old guard pol.

Caucuses build the party and prepare us for November. We'd never be hearing this meme except Hillary is getting her ass kicked all over the country, so Team Clinton has dreamed up one more Rovian scam to push their "let the party superdelegates pick, instead of the young upstarts!"

Bill and Hillary came to Washington as upstarts, but they have become George HW Bush and George W. Bush, respectively. Time for them to leave.

[Hoof Hearted]

14. Absolutely correct! We caucused in Nebraska and it was a giant mess but it was FUN

I absolutely LOVED it! It was empowering and uplifting. I hope we do it from this day forward.

YAY DEMOCRATS! :dem:

My candidate didn't even win and I STILL had a great time!

:dem:

[IDemo]

15. A small snapshot from my experience --

Behind us in the huge line for the caucus was an older couple from Bosnia. The caucus included parts of both congressional districts in Idaho (yeah, all two of them!), and volunteers were asking people in line to identify which district they lived in. When one volunteer asked the gentleman which district he lived in, he didn't understand the question. When she asked "where do you live?", he answered proudly "America, of course!"

[Tom Rinaldo]

18. Just to pass on a snap shot from the other side of the coin

"I can vouch for that
Submitted by LSophia on February 11, 2008 - 12:24pm.

two Obama guys tried to get in my face, including one that said that "Hillary only got back in bed with Bill to get power" or some such thing.

Fortunately, I don't intimidate that easily - but I will say, some of the older female Hillary supporters seemed to be clustered together in a bit of a protective huddle."


This was written in response to a posting of this OP:

Women and Caucuses
http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2008/02/women-and-caucuses.html

[suston96]

17. Not alone? Yeah you were....thousands missing who could not attend and cast a ballot....

...but hey, your candidate won so screw those who couldn't show up, eh?

Caucuses are very democratic. Everyone gets to vote and those votes count equally and fairly.