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This morning (well, yesterday morning, but I haven't gone to bed yet so it's still Saturday, dammit) was the I'm sure you didn't really hear about it at all, because it's not like the outcome wasn't a foregone conclusion (shock: we caucused for Obama), but going to a caucus in a reelection year was just fascinating compared to the caucus last election.
In 2008, they were done by precinct, and there were a ton of people there, and I found the whole process interesting in general, mostly because I had only done primaries before and caucuses are just kind of neat. I enjoyed the whole arguing over candidates and trying to persuade more people to your side until one candidate had a majority. It was fun. (Yes, okay, I'm weird.)
Today, I think there were around 15 or 20 precincts that met together for my caucus, and probably about 100 people were there, maybe 125 tops. It was still interesting, but in a completely different way - it was much more about thanking people for showing up and volunteer pitches and listening to speeches. The actual caucusing part basically consisted of the leader saying "Is anyone caucusing for non-committed? No? Great."
The part I found especially interesting is that because so few people showed up, basically everybody there got to be a delegate to the county convention in April if they wanted to be. My precinct is entitled to 14 delegates based on the number of registered voters in it. 9 people from my precinct showed up to caucus. Which on the one hand is depressing as hell, but it was a foregone conclusion, so, whatever.
But because of that I... guess I'm going to the county convention as a delegate. I'm far more excited about going to what's basically a day of meetings than anyone has any right to be. Politics is (are?) fun! I may be warped.
I'll put up some festivids recs in the morning, but so far everything I've watched has been awesome.
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In 2008, they were done by precinct, and there were a ton of people there, and I found the whole process interesting in general, mostly because I had only done primaries before and caucuses are just kind of neat. I enjoyed the whole arguing over candidates and trying to persuade more people to your side until one candidate had a majority. It was fun. (Yes, okay, I'm weird.)
Today, I think there were around 15 or 20 precincts that met together for my caucus, and probably about 100 people were there, maybe 125 tops. It was still interesting, but in a completely different way - it was much more about thanking people for showing up and volunteer pitches and listening to speeches. The actual caucusing part basically consisted of the leader saying "Is anyone caucusing for non-committed? No? Great."
The part I found especially interesting is that because so few people showed up, basically everybody there got to be a delegate to the county convention in April if they wanted to be. My precinct is entitled to 14 delegates based on the number of registered voters in it. 9 people from my precinct showed up to caucus. Which on the one hand is depressing as hell, but it was a foregone conclusion, so, whatever.
But because of that I... guess I'm going to the county convention as a delegate. I'm far more excited about going to what's basically a day of meetings than anyone has any right to be. Politics is (are?) fun! I may be warped.
I'll put up some festivids recs in the morning, but so far everything I've watched has been awesome.
comments on Dreamwidth