Well that's stupid... would I do something like that? Oh yeah, because I live in Washington State and we have a fracking caucus here. It was on February 9th. I know this because I went to it, voted for Obama, ran for precinct delegate and won, went to my Legislative District caucus, ran for delegate and lost (couldn't figure out how to answer the phone at 3am). Turnout was massive. The crowds were spilling out the door.
But, Washington State also has a primary election. It was on February 19th.
It is a non-binding, beauty contest of a primary and counts for absolutely nothing. No delegates, no nothing. Bragging rights. Should I have voted? In hindsight, yes. Hillary is now using it as PR. And honestly, [sheepish]I kinda forgot about it until it was too late in the day[/sheepish]. Luckily, Obama won the primary as well, though not by nearly as big a margin as the caucus. In the caucus, it was overwhelming. Hillary was unable to carry a single county. And let me tell you, Washington State outside of King County is lily white and working class.
So, as I'm sitting here watching that bloated sack of poo, State Senator Geller discuss his lawsuit on behalf of the Florida primary voters and I'm about to lose it altogether. His argument is about disenfranchisement. That we should be counting every vote, reminiscent of 2000. There should be no 50% weighting, no compromises, just count every vote. Essentially, reward the child throwing a temper tantrum with a big bowl of yummy ice cream with unicorns on top.
Well, what about people like me? What about people in Florida who were told that their primary was a big fat beauty contest that would count for NOTHING and chose not to vote? How many of those would have voted for Obama? How many for Clinton? We have absolutely no idea! How is this not disenfranchisement? What if Hillary started to say that Washington's caucus shouldn't count and the primary should? (oh, she is? crap.) Aside from the complete insanity of changing the rules mid game, how does this not rob the people who didn't vote in a non-binding contest of their rights? This is tantamount to voter disenfranchisement... the old fashioned way. The call up people and tell them the election is canceled way. The tell people that their polling location has changed when it hasn't way. Tell people that the election doesn't count... until it does. Didn't vote? Too bad.
Something tells me that the Hillary camp won't see it this way. They'll make up intellectually dishonest arguments about the record turnout in FL and MI, or they'll go completely hypocritical and say that the people who did vote are the true party activists and their votes are more important (unlike the true party activists who participated in their caucuses).
Ugh. I don't even know why I'm surprised anymore.