Democracy Made EZ
Feb. 9th, 2008 03:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tikistitch...or, The Tikis Go to the Caucus Races....
So, as all know, in addition to a presidential primary, Washington state has a caucus system. No one quite knows how it all works, but as the primary apparently does not count, Mr. Tiki and ourselves decided to hie us to the caucus races.
At first, we thought it would be organized. And then, we remembered, we're Democrats. Oh, shit.
Can you see our precinct? No, we couldn't either. but at length, we found our space. I actually wasn't a room, but a breezeway outside the Community college's library, so the entire process was occasionally interrupted by students rushing to return overdue books. (The state GOP, we decided, have their caucuses at the Ramada, where they are served hors d'œuvre made of fresh baby harp seal.)
We found chairs. And sat. And waited. And waited some more. More and more people kept filing in, until we ran out of chairs. Some women from a local paper we'd never heard of arrived and started taking pictures from selected artsy angles and asking to interview Undecideds. And then we sat some more, until we started realizing that at some point we needed to go to the bathroom.
At length, nearly an hour after the posted start time, we decided to put democracy in action and start doing stuff. We first divided into groups for a count of political noses, and then returned to the main group for some Airing of Grievances (it was kinda like Festivus, only without the pole). It was during this time period of free and open political discussion that one learns our nearest neighbors are completely screaming batshit. One Obamite told those assembled that Hillary couldn't be president due to being a girl. "She would have to act tough!" he explained. And, no, we are absolutely not making this up.
At length the Democratic party hacks found us and made rousing if vague speeches. It was here we learned that after all the sitting and waiting and caucusing and speechifying, the only thing that was actually going to count was the candidate preference we'd already written down on the signup sheets back when we first arrived, over two hours prior.
As we were filing out, guy supporting The Other Candidate came over to Mr. Tiki and thanked him for his comments on Our Candidate (our spouse had roused himself to make a 30 second mini-speech, which, we report in a completely unbiased manner, received applause from across room). Mr. Tiki immediately decided that he needs to run for something. We assured him he'd have our vote, now could we please leave, as Tiki really needed the bathroom??
So, as all know, in addition to a presidential primary, Washington state has a caucus system. No one quite knows how it all works, but as the primary apparently does not count, Mr. Tiki and ourselves decided to hie us to the caucus races.
At first, we thought it would be organized. And then, we remembered, we're Democrats. Oh, shit.
Can you see our precinct? No, we couldn't either. but at length, we found our space. I actually wasn't a room, but a breezeway outside the Community college's library, so the entire process was occasionally interrupted by students rushing to return overdue books. (The state GOP, we decided, have their caucuses at the Ramada, where they are served hors d'œuvre made of fresh baby harp seal.)
We found chairs. And sat. And waited. And waited some more. More and more people kept filing in, until we ran out of chairs. Some women from a local paper we'd never heard of arrived and started taking pictures from selected artsy angles and asking to interview Undecideds. And then we sat some more, until we started realizing that at some point we needed to go to the bathroom.
At length, nearly an hour after the posted start time, we decided to put democracy in action and start doing stuff. We first divided into groups for a count of political noses, and then returned to the main group for some Airing of Grievances (it was kinda like Festivus, only without the pole). It was during this time period of free and open political discussion that one learns our nearest neighbors are completely screaming batshit. One Obamite told those assembled that Hillary couldn't be president due to being a girl. "She would have to act tough!" he explained. And, no, we are absolutely not making this up.
At length the Democratic party hacks found us and made rousing if vague speeches. It was here we learned that after all the sitting and waiting and caucusing and speechifying, the only thing that was actually going to count was the candidate preference we'd already written down on the signup sheets back when we first arrived, over two hours prior.
As we were filing out, guy supporting The Other Candidate came over to Mr. Tiki and thanked him for his comments on Our Candidate (our spouse had roused himself to make a 30 second mini-speech, which, we report in a completely unbiased manner, received applause from across room). Mr. Tiki immediately decided that he needs to run for something. We assured him he'd have our vote, now could we please leave, as Tiki really needed the bathroom??
