My wife and I attended the Morrill County, Nebraska Democratic Caucus today. I thought I would drop a few lines about the process, as I have never voted in a caucus state before. Since I was unfamiliar with how caucuses occur in real life (not according to the rule books), I went looking for articles on both the left and the right about past caucuses for the Democrats and Republicans. (I also had the benefit of my wife’s experience, as she formerly caucused with the Libertarian Party in Colorado.)
Needless to say, things I read from Websites such as Daily Kos, Democratic Underground, RedState, and GOPUSA did not fill me with longing to go to a caucus. Horror stories abound on both the left and the right about shouting matches, miscounted votes, overt lying about candidates’ positions, &c.
What I read on various Websites did not match what happened today in Bridgeport.
At the Community Centre where the caucus was held, there was also a regional high school basketball tournament going on. (Several people joked about mugging spectators and dragging them into the caucus.)
The caucus started right on time, and proceeded to the selection of a chairman and a secretary (the chairman is a Sanders supporter, the secretary is a Clinton supporter). It was agreed that the supporters would divide into separate groups for discussion, the undecided and observers in a third group.
After discussion, everyone in each group who wanted to present a case for their candidate (either Mrs. Clinton or Mr. Sanders) would be allowed to do so, followed by a vote. Anyone who registered late would be allowed to participate, as long as they registered before the actual vote.
Discussions about selecting new party officers were set for June. My wife volunteered to work the party Website (which is an absolute disaster now; she is a software engineer).
The two groups were close enough we could hear each other’s discussions (there were no objections to this).
When it came time to present the case for each candidate, the discussions were civil. No attacks of each other’s candidates, simply making the case as why a person supported the candidate they did. (No neo-con talking points against Mrs. Clinton, no red-baiting of Mr. Sanders.) All agreed from the outset that regardless of which candidate ultimately wins the nomination, a get-out-the-vote drive would be crucial for the general election (as there are hundreds of registered Democrats in the county). The choices on the Republican side would simply be too horrendous to contemplate (a fascist, two theocrats, and an Etch-a-Sketch).
When the groups split up after meet- and-greet, the original mix was: Sanders 12, Clinton 9, undecided 3. (Morrill County does not have a lot of people.)
The demographics of the groups were interesting.
Those who originally sat with Mrs. Clinton’s supporters were largely (but not exclusively) elderly. Those with Mr. Sanders were of all age groups. Only one elected official in the county was present (me).
There was only one African-American attendee; he sat with the Sanders camp. (He also noted his father, a staunch Republican when he was growing up in Brooklyn was disgusted with the Republican Party and would be voting for Mr. Sanders in New York. He noted the GOP had been bad for his father’s business.) Native American attendees also sat with the Sanders group.
Of military veterans, all but one sat in the Sanders camp.
Of note, as the presentations proceeded, a long-serving schoolteacher at Bridgeport High School in the Clinton camp noted three of her former students that came to the caucus (all sitting in the Sanders group). She praised them for their choice to become involved in the caucus and participate.
Much of the discussion in both groups centred around the talking points the Republicans might use against either candidate, and how to best refute them (the caucus seemed more like a planning session for the general election rather than a primary).
Presentations from Mrs. Clinton’s supporters included her foreign policy experience, support for LGBT rights, feminist causes, and Senate record. Presentations from Mr. Sander’s camp included staunch opposition to the Keystone XL Pipeline project, support for LGBT rights, veterans affairs, his Senate record, and education. (Both camps had people who had personal stories about LGBT fights: Mrs. Clinton’s camp had a supporter who discussed her daughter struggling with discrimination, I discussed my sister’s marriage the second California’s Proposition 8 was struck down and her discharge from the US Army under Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.)
Each camp disabused the other of certain talking points (Sanders has no foreign policy experience? He’s been around the House and Senate for quite a while. Clinton voted for the Iraq War? She got the same dubious information all of the Senate did. Et cetera . . .)
As I said I would do as a disabled Navy veteran, my presentation was on Mr. Sanders’ record on veterans affairs (support for the Post 9/11 GI Bill, authoring the current VA legislation to construct new hospitals, a proposal to extend dental care to all veterans eligible for VA medical service, restoring cuts to military retiree pensions, &c). I also spoke of my own mother (a Navy veteran who was never much into politics at all but will be voting for Mr. Sanders in Illinios).
I’d come in my car with the Gold Star Family plates, and wore my Congressional Gold Star Family Lapel Button to the event. I noted that my father was killed in Vietnam when I was only seven. While Mr. Sanders is not opposed to warfare in principle, he is opposed to useless warfare, and my hope was no others would be getting this lapel button for a cause we didn’t belong in like Vietnam.
There was discussion on both sides about Mr. Sanders’ position versus Mrs. Clinton on guns. This being an extremely rural area, you are not going to get people to give up guns, and such talk needed to be short-circuited as it has dogged President Obama throughout his administration (funny, everyone who wants a gun still has them). The consensus from all was that “no one is coming to take anyone’s guns away”: What is needed is to clamp down on such things as buying loopholes, registrations, and other things that allow guns to go into the wrong hands. Several people noted that buying guns is easier to do than buying medications (I also raised this point with my epilepsy drugs, which are Schedule II drugs).
There was also a BNSF railroad worker in the Sanders camp who spoke about the need to improve rail infrastructure, and a couple ranchers and farmers noting that on the issue of the scary word “socialism,” the Grange and Co-Op are both in their essence such organisations already. My wife also weighed in on the Nebraska Public Power District, which provides some of the cheapest electric service in the nation (and we get to vote on the board members). One of the former students mentioned above noted the red-baiting scare of socialism was not an issue for them; they did not grow up in a world of duck-and-cover like many of the rest of us did.
After some ninety minutes of discussion and everyone got to make their pitch, the vote was taken:
Sanders: 16
Clinton: 11
Undecided: 0
(The remaining veteran had come over to the Sanders group.)
So, Morrill County, Nebraska went for Mr. Sanders. Afterward, the chairman called my wife and me over to talk: He noted that Dawes County (which includes Chadron State College some ninety miles to our north) had just gone for Sanders 3:1 and asked my wife for more information so he can get with her about the party Website.