Frustration and the political process

This morning I went to my county Democratic convention/assembly as an alternate delegate for Obama. I was all excited about taking part in this process for the first time, especially to represent a candidate in whom I truly believe. So I was pretty excited to get up before the sun and show up at the Colorado School of Mines around 7:30am. I got even more excited when I saw the traffic jam leading onto campus and the tremendous number of people who had also turned out early on a Saturday morning to make their voices heard. I knew going in that since I was an alternate, there was no guarantee that I would get to participate in the convention/assembly. I was prepared to be philosophical about it, to be turned away after a couple of hours instead of being seated as a delegate and take the attitude of "at least I tried". Funny how things just don't go anywhere near the way you imagine.

First off, according to Jeffco Dems they are used to dealing with around 500 delegates and alternates. Today they had 4000 delegates and 1500 alternates. The process broke down under the sheer weight of numbers. At the beginning we were told we should know by midmorning whether or not we alternates would be seated as delegates. Midmorning came and went. Around 11am they told us they were still trying to sort things out and it was likely that anyone who registered after 7:30 would not get seated, but they should know around 12:30. Since my registration time was so close (8am) I decided to stick around and try my luck. Around 1pm they came out again and said they would need lots more alternates than they thought and the majority of us would be seated as delegates. Yay, we all cheered, we haven't wasted a pretty Saturday sitting in an auditorium for nothing.

We all had to register when we arrived, and turn in a preference poll card that indicated our binding vote for the Democratic presidential nomination. Once we checked in, there was nothing to do but find a semi-comfy seat and hang out. I took textbooks and tried to study. During all this time the Jeffco Dems did all they could to keep us entertained - we listened to lots of speeches, some of which were pretty interesting, and the mistress of ceremonies did a heck of a job trying to do standup comedy and keep well over 1000 sleepy, Starbucks-deprived and politically-opinionated people placated.

Anyway, around 2pm they announced that they woudl begin seating alternates, but the method which they proposed to use drew official protests from both campaigns, because they were going to seat alternates according to time of check-in instead of replacing one Obama or Clinton delegate with a corresponding Obama or Clinton alternate. They finally came to a decision that I found rather upsetting considering the events of the day - they decided not to seat any alternates, period. Thanks for coming in and giving up your Saturday, drive carefully, please leave now. I felt pretty used and abused.

You know those preference cards I mentioned that we turned in during the registration process? What they're going to do is match up which candidates' delegates did not show up and insert the appropriate number of alternate votes for the same candidate. So I'll never ever even know if my vote today counted or not! I find that incredibly frustrating. If I could just know that my vote meant something, then I wouldn't feel like I'd wasted my day, especially in a rather busy week in which I've hardly even been able to see Hubby. I did manage to race home in time to see him for 10 whole minutes before he left for work.

Yes, yes I know, participating in our political process is never a waste of time. It's a privilege which we should value and perform with pride and honor. It was just really frustrating. At the same time I had some interesting conversations, got lots of exercise wandering all over the CSM campus, and picked up some cool bumper stickers (I even found one that was irreverent enough to float Hubby's boat, which is a rarity because he normally disdains stickers on his vehicle.) I would be willing to do this again, but I have to say that next time I'll only go as a delegate, not an alternate.

On a lighter note, I'm meeting my friends M and S for dinner tonight, girls evening out! I can't wait! We start out talking about what's going on in our lives but we always work our way around to figuring out ways to change the world. Like the Margaret Wheatley book I wrote about a few weeks ago, changing the world starts with a few friends sitting around talking. Can't wait to see what kind of world-changing ideas we come up with tonight!

“Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; Small minds discuss people.” - Eleanor Roosevelt

I'm off to dinner with great minds!

Peace,
AuntieM