Hits and Misses...

As you may or may not know, last Saturday was the Republican and Democratic Caucus’ held in Nevada. The week that led up to it was marred a bit by some court controversy between Clinton and Obama. The Nevada caucus’ took the place of the Primary elections for this election season. Because I feel it is a necessity to vote, I made sure to attend my precinct’s caucus. But before I get into that, let me bring you up to speed on my political leanings... I am an Anarchist of the Emma Goldman variety. Deep down I believe that if we can achieve a strong sense of personal responsibility, we do not need to be governed (Read the Tao Te Ching for another insight to this but of course, like Karl Marx’s dream, this seems impractical on a widespread scale). I also believe in the Republican ideal as it pertains to a German business model that creates a corporation that works for the community, not individual share holders thereby reducing the need for big government (although this practice is in place in India, it remains to be seen how it will work on a large scale). While it can be argued that these (like religions) are in fact similar in overall goals and practices to socialism, it is the details in which so many people disagree. Therefore, I am a registered Democrat. I know, seems like some goofy joke. Anyway, I attended my precincts’s caucus with a little background as to how it went and a few arguments ready to convince non-viable groups to join my group. I went in with as open a mind as I could. Every group was viable except the lone Kucinich supporter and he decided to leave once everything started instead of joining another group so I never got to argue anything. Turnout to the caucus was much greater than expected. The few older people running things were simply overwhelmed with the amount of people and didn’t have enough supplies to keep up. I have two feelings on this, 1.) Wow, it was great to see such passion for this election, and 2.) Like Karl, I felt these fucking moobs won’t give a shit in four or eight years and are only passionate because they hate (or resent voting for) Bush and/or either hate the idea of a woman running, a black man running or both. Despite this I secretly harbor hopes that maybe more people (because of this current knee jerk voter/candidate empathy) will continue to vote after this and continue to get more involved. A few observations about the process... Clinton supporters in my precinct are bullies and tried to bulldog the older people running the show. Thankfully there also were a few of us willing to speak up and keep these ex-Bush supporters in check. Edwards, Obama supporters and the lone Kucinich supporter, on the whole seemed very open to discuss, talk, debate, listen, keep a clear head and remain positive during the hour or so leading up to the proceedings. Clinton supporters stayed quite, did not want to engage in anything and seemed more comfortable casting dirty looks. A few were open but not most of them. For this reason it further cements my belief that Clinton is part of the original "Reaganomics" conspiracy and her propaganda is fomenting fear in most people making them unwilling to actually think. Like my friend Karl Bakla, I hate the media and how they portray candidates, it focus’ on the money race and only gives the highest earners any real coverage. Even my beloved NPR was terribly deficient in this way. After attending the caucus I can say I’m not sold on the idea and still lean towards regular Primary elections. I am a reserve Delegate and may get to cast my final vote in March but at least I am vested in seeing this process through even though I don’t really like it as any delegate can really vote anyway they please regardless of which group they supported during the caucus. At least with the Primary election, one vote is one vote. On State of Nevada the other day one caller complained that now neighbors won’t talk to each other because of the caucus and their individual leanings, and she said it as a negative. I myself thought of it as an incredible positive, because they obviously weren’t talking about this stuff before so maybe they’ll get over their hurt feelings and actually begin a dialog about the issues and such. Another caller made the statement that despite the issues, organization is easier to fix than voter apathy. I really hope she’s right.