I live in WA and today was the first experience I had with caucus. And I didn’t like it one bit.
It is a gorgeous spring day here in Seattle. I couldn’t attend the last relevant caucus that was held here in 2008. My second child was born in 2007 and most likely I missed the caucus on kids duties. I supported Obama at that time and in any case, he sailed through the caucus here pretty easily.
Even though I had to take the kid for the soccer game today, the game was scheduled early in the day and I was able reach the school by 10:45. After running around a bit, I found my caucus group. There were about 30 people, a good mix of old, young, gender diverse. The leader guy seemed unhappy to take my preference, may be because I was late. In any case, the lady next to him said, let us include the vote in the next round. People were talking and I casually listened and quickly realized that almost all of the folks there were Bernie supporters. They were talking about the drug prices, income inequality, how doctor visit in Europe costed nothing. I wasn’t intend on speaking — public speaking is torture for me. Explaining my preference in front of strangers felt like anathema to democratic participation. But I couldn’t hold it any more after listening to 10+ minutes of stream of nonsense and stupidity. I raised my hand.
I don’t think I did a good job explaining why I prefer Hillary. There is lot to be said of policies and practical aspects and GE politics. There is lot to be said about foreign policy. There is lot to be said about numbers and political reality. But none of it seemed to matter to this crowd. I said I am just a huge fan of Hillary for the last 8 years and prefer her anytime any day to ideologues. After I was done, immediately 3 more Hillary voters spoke and that was it.
In the end, we basically got one delegate to Sanders 4. I expect it to be a bad night for Madam Secretary.
