Report From the Frontlines of the Washington Caucus

We here at Pundits-Smundits had heard of these caucus things and always watched curiously as voters gathered in homes in Iowa every four Januaries or so to pick a president. True they have had them here in Washington for quite some time but who wants to go sit in a school on a Saturday (we have a lot of coffee shops around up here in the great Northwest.) That was until Super-Duper Tuesday wasn't the clinching night it was supposed to be and suddenly, the Washington Caucus got interesting. As a result we decided to embed a Pundits-Smundits reporter in the 36th District's 1763 Precinct to see what they were all about. Here's our intrepid reporter's thoughts, enjoy.

The caucus this afternoon was held at a school less than a block from my house, so arriving on time was the easy part. Getting in and signed up was a lot more challenging. The line into the gymnasium stretched out and down about a block (I wished it had gone the other direction because I could have stood in my living room.) After quite some time I got inside and waited in another line (you have to love democracy.) That line led to a table where I could pledge my love to a candidate or declare that I was bachelor to the rapture (aka undecided.) I chose to marry myself to Obama (it wasn't that tough, he does afterall have some good lines and he is a lawyer, just my type.) After that I could have left and my vote would have counted. Instead I wandered through the gym listening in on both congenial and heated conversations between neighbors and friends. As a social studies teacher, I was totally geeking out on all of this. It was an amazing display of civic action and discourse. I'm pretty sure that most people were not swayed one way or the other but still it was great to see people from the hood talking about something other than the latest house project or who the really good nannies are.

Another hour or so passed and then we got to break up into our precinct for a little small sided caucusing. We exited the gym and convened in the adjacent outdoor play court. Our precinct captain read through the arcane rules (boring, even to a history teacher...) and then we divided up into shirts and skins for a couple rounds of half-court ball, tossing the Barack around....okay we didn't but that would have been sweet...instead we divided into corners to show our support. After a few moments it was clear that Obama had carried the day in our little precinct...the vast majority stood around me (which was good because it was an unusually brisk day) and then we got the officially tally. Obamaphiles accounted for 50 of the 78 votes in our precinct. There were 16 for Hillary and 12 undecideds. Each group got to give a one minute speech, which I'd say was a waste of time but it was only a minute (and it would take me longer than that to complain.) Finally we were allotted 15 minutes to try and use peer pressure to get people to switch. This was when the young Obama dude who was looking for a fight pounced on the older Hillary Dudette about health care. Things got quite heated which I didn't really understand seeing as debating the differences on their health care plan is like debating whether Howie Mandel is bald or balding.

Regardless, the Obamaphiles convinced enough of the undecideds to come over to our corner that we picked up an extra delegate. Ultimately our little caucus' job was to pick delegates for the legislative district convention. Obamaphiles got to pick 4 and Hillarylovers got to send 1. Sensing an important story opportunity I embedded myself even further and ended up as an Obama delegate at the Legislative District Convention. Stay tuned for the story during the slow news week of April 5th.

In all seriousness, I was more inspired and impressed and excited about our democracy today than any other political event I've been a part of. I've read a lot of chatter about how lame the caucus system is and that it only represents 10 percent, and so it's undemocratic. I couldn't disagree more, what I saw today was democracy, unfiltered, and vibrant. I think a couple hours in a school on a Saturday in February isn't too much to ask. In fact, I propose we have a caucus style system for the general election (imagine the lines.)