Last night I attended my first caucus, and from the news reports I've seen since then I wasn't along by any means. Turnout for Colorado's caucuses was massive, far more than anyone ever expected. My precinct captain, a 30-year veteran of caucuses and primaries in Colorado, was totally flustered and told us she'd never seen this many people come to caucus. She told us that typically there were about 4 from our individual precinct; last night there were 35. It was standing room only in the high school cafeteria where we all gathered to register and hear brief speeches before dividing into our individual precincts to caucus. There had to be at least 500 people there just for the Democratic side; don't know how many were there on the Republican side. Here's an indicator though: as we entered the school there was a sign directing the Republicans upstairs, and there were people there on the Democratic side doing crowd control and directing us to the cafeteria.
(I found out this morning from a local news outlet that 119,000 Democrats in Colorado participated in caucuses last night, and on the Republican side there were 55,000. Sounds like there are a LOT of dissatisfied Democrats out there ready and willing to work for change!)
The procedures for the caucus were interesting and entertaining. Once we were divided by precinct and began the actual caucus process, the first thing we did was take a preference poll, a binding vote to see what percentage of people present supported which presidential candidate. That turned out to be the only poll we took because an overwhelming 80% of those present voted for Obama. The Clinton supporters looked a little defiant, and isolated, on the other side of the room. (Okay, I just tipped my hand - I'm supporting Obama. I even signed up to be an alternate delegate for Obama to the county convention, and did phone work for MoveOn.org to support Obama last weekend. There, no more secrets.)
After that, we considered various resolutions that, if passed, would be forwarded on to the county convention next month, and may ultimately wind up as part of the Democratic Party platform. The resolutions were a lot more time consuming because many of the members of my precinct were trying very hard to be informed voters (that warms my heart!) and had lots of questions, which led to interesting discussions on the merits and drawbacks of each resolution. I was sad that my particular precinct didn't pass a resolution calling for impeachment hearings for Bush and Cheney. The rationale of those opposing this resolution was that it was a pointless gesture that would just tie up Congress from doing more important work. That is a valid point, but at the same time I would like for history to record that the people realized that Bush and Cheney committed crimes against the US government and the people of the United States, and we at least attempted to call them on their actions. I hope that enough of the other precincts passed this resolution so it can move to the next level.
I did manage to get in there and do some personal rabblerousing (and wow, it was fun!) on one resolution calling for the establishment of universal health care and a single-payer health care system. Being a veteran of the health insurance industry as well as a documentary fiend and student of the human condition, I was well-equipped to speak in favor of this resolution. It was amazing to hear conservative propaganda against socialized medicine being repeated almost verbatim (scare stories about Canada's health system) by otherwise well-informed liberal democrats. It was even more amazing to be able to counter this propaganda with fact and directly make a difference in the outcome of the vote. Not meaning to brag, but I managed to convince enough people in that room to change their opinions, and therefore change the outcome of our precinct's vote, and as a direct result of my grass-roots rabblerousing my precinct approved this resolution. I'm going to feel good about that for a while!
My overwhelming sense of last night was one of awe and wonder, joy at seeing so many people come out on an icy-cold Tuesday night to participate in the political process. It was humbling and awe-inspiring. I couldn't shake the feeling that we were being watched over by the spirits of the founding fathers, the suffragettes and the civil rights workers, all of whom risked "their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honors" so that we the people of today could make our voices heard as a part of the democratic process. And they were smiling proudly. It was beautiful.
Okay, since I outed myself a couple of paragraphs ago, let me just confirm: I have decided to support Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination. Up until just over a week ago I was an Edwards supporter, but when he dropped out of the race I had to do some quick reassessment. This was a painful choice for me because as a lifelong feminist I want to elect a female president so badly that I can taste it! At the same time I believe the time is right to elect an African-American president. But do you know the problem with both of those beliefs? Neither one leads to choosing the best-qualified candidate; they simply rationalize using prejudice as a decision-making tool. In order to make up my mind I had to set aside gender and race, and examine each candidate's stand on the issues I believe are most important (the decision-making process I outlined in an earlier post - I walked my own talk). By this measure it wasn't hard to choose Obama over Clinton, and the issue that made the difference for me was the war in Iraq. Now Senator Clinton says we need to get out of there, but just a few weeks ago she was advocating a "stay the course" policy. Senator Obama, on the other hand, has always opposed the war in Iraq. I prefer a candidate who isn't going to change his stand on such a crucial issue simply to conform to the prevailing winds of opinion. I also believe that Obama is more likely to create a national health-care system that will produce affordable health care for all US citizens, while Clinton will be more inclined to create aid programs to help the poorest citizens but the middle class will be largely excluded. I also don't like something I heard Clinton say about working with health insurers to create a plan - haven't we had enough cases of the foxes controlling the henhouses under Bush? We need something different, not same-old, same-old, politics as usual. To me that's what Clinton represents, while Obama represents hope, change and sorely-needed unity for the people of this country.
Here is something I saw this morning that I was simply dying to pass on to anyone and everyone that I could. This video is simply beautiful in its message of hope. It's an independently-produced video that popped up on YouTube about 4 days ago in support of Obama, and its message brought tears to my eyes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjXyqcx-mYY
Click on the above link, the video lasts about 4.5 minutes, and it's time very well spent! Nearly 2 million views already, this thing is flying around the net.
"Yes we can." - Barack Obama
For the record, I don't intend to let this blog become a running commercial for Obama, but since this blog is my platform for my views, from time to time I will discuss matters related to the campaign. My reason for writing is not to shill for any candidate. The main purpose of this blog, as I stated in my very first entry, is to advocate for positive social change. This blog will continue well past the end of the presidential campaign, because the battle will not be over on election day. There will be times that I choose to make the case that Obama is the candidate who is most likely to produce positive social changes, and there will likely be times that I disagree with his actions or proposals and give voice to those opinions as well.
Peace,
AuntieM
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment