Politics: February 2008 Archives
Small 'd', even though I am a Democratic. I attended the caucus on Saturday here in Washington, and I must say that if you're feeling kind of down about the state of democracy, this is just the kind of thing you should get out and do to cheer yourself up. I was very impressed at the level of discussion (although, it's easy to have a civilized discussion when you know you won't, for example, be getting in any debates about whether or not gay marraige should be banned or the country should "stay the course" in Iraq, etc) and had a lot of respect for the Clinton voters. I support Obama, and was even elected as a delegate (a classic case of the squeaky wheel getting the grease, I assure you), but my primary motivation isn't that I believe Obama is more suited to be president, it's that we need to move the country away from its current oligarchy status. Even if I KNEW that Hilary was the most capable person on the planet, I wouldn't vote for her, because I believe the principal of not setting the "ruling family precedent" is more important than putting the most competent person into the oval office (assuming a certain "baseline" competency exists -- I'd rather have a benevolent and competent Monarch than an imbecile running things, a choice that we were unfortunately not given anytime in the last 7 years).
One thing that did depress me is that our district sent an "uncommitted" delegate. In the final tally, 44 voted Obama, 17 voted Hilary, and 7 voted uncommitted. So 10% of our district gets to send one of 5 delegates (20% of the delegates, for those of you doing the math at home). It's very hard for me to understand how this is a) fair or b) even in the interest of those 7 undecided voters.
Help me out here. You're an undecided voter. Fair enough. Why send an undecided delegate to the convention? It's not like he's undecided for the same reasons you are. It's also not likely that he will use the same values as you would in coming to a decision in the next couple of months. You are basically abdicating your decision-making power to the delegate. So, tell me: how is this different from staying home on caucus day?!? How is this different from letting the superdelegates decide things for you?
I feel that as an undecided voter, if you attend the caucus, it should be with the purpose of using the caucus proceedings to decide. Anything else is just a cop-out, and, quite frankly, unfair to the rest of the voters -- your vote, apparently, is worth twice as much as mine. Hmmm. In fact, the Clinton supporters agreed with me, here. All of them said that they would rather send an additional Obama delegate than an undecided delegate. It's a bit of a mystery to me how an undecided voter would not be swayed by THAT argument.
One thing that did depress me is that our district sent an "uncommitted" delegate. In the final tally, 44 voted Obama, 17 voted Hilary, and 7 voted uncommitted. So 10% of our district gets to send one of 5 delegates (20% of the delegates, for those of you doing the math at home). It's very hard for me to understand how this is a) fair or b) even in the interest of those 7 undecided voters.
Help me out here. You're an undecided voter. Fair enough. Why send an undecided delegate to the convention? It's not like he's undecided for the same reasons you are. It's also not likely that he will use the same values as you would in coming to a decision in the next couple of months. You are basically abdicating your decision-making power to the delegate. So, tell me: how is this different from staying home on caucus day?!? How is this different from letting the superdelegates decide things for you?
I feel that as an undecided voter, if you attend the caucus, it should be with the purpose of using the caucus proceedings to decide. Anything else is just a cop-out, and, quite frankly, unfair to the rest of the voters -- your vote, apparently, is worth twice as much as mine. Hmmm. In fact, the Clinton supporters agreed with me, here. All of them said that they would rather send an additional Obama delegate than an undecided delegate. It's a bit of a mystery to me how an undecided voter would not be swayed by THAT argument.
