Local Democratic Caucus

In my role as a “fair and balanced” member of the press corps, I attended the Idaho County Democratic Caucus last Tuesday evening, the first time I’ve been to one of these things. There were 179 people attending (nearly twice the attendance of their last presidential caucus), so I’m tempted to say that the Idaho County Democrats are taking this election very seriously. With my red bordered nametag (red for non-voting observers), I was invited several times (somewhat tongue in cheek I suspect) to join the Democratic Party. Thanks, but no thanks, I’ve been a somewhat contrary independent voter for well over forty years and don’t really plan to change now.

Remembering my Granddaddy’s description of California’s democratic conventions of the 1920’s and 30’s, it appears that things have changed somewhat. I didn’t really expect to see any “smoke filled rooms”, but I didn’t see any serious horse trading going on either, and nary a fist fight. This was more like an old time Sunday church social, with of course somewhat different subject material. Apparently Idaho Counties Democrats are more peaceable people than the Los Angles Irish of a few decades back. I ran into several people I’ve known for a long time, and we did get into politically related discussions, mostly with me asking questions, and they trying to explain their stance to this unreconstructed conservative.

There were signs indicating where the supporters of various candidates were supposed to congregate, and although everybody seemed nice and friendly, I rather thought I might get in a bunch of trouble if I asked where the Republican cheering section was. So, following my well developed sense of self preservation, I wandered over to the designated press and observer area and generally kept my mouth shut. I did get a bit of name recognition though, and despite my reputation as not being all that friendly to Democratic political policies, not a claw or fang came out. I guess they left whatever wide-eyed far left radicals they might have on the rolls at home for the night.

I’ve never been a fan of the Caucus system, probably because I never really understood how they operate. However, in rural areas such as this I can see where they do save the county treasury a lot of money. Holding any sort of public election, with all the mandatory polling places, election workers, and official protocol can get pretty expensive in an area with a comparatively small tax base. This caucus was short and to the point, and doesn’t require polling stations all over the county. Personally I still think I’d prefer a primary election, but the caucus took a lot less time, effort, and expense.

I don’t know of any attempt to determine actual percentages, but from looking at the crowd I would estimate that Hillary had a higher percentage of women supporters than did Obama, which I believe is happening nationwide and should be no surprise. Another thing that didn’t surprise me was the fairly large number of current or retired federal employees attending as delegates. I always did think that the Forest Service was our local hotbed of raging liberal politics. (Oops, gotta watch that “fair and balanced” part.)

Of the 167 voting delegates present, the initial tally was 113 votes for Obama, 43 for Hillary Clinton, with the remainder either for Edwards or uncommitted, about what I might expect in this rural area. Unfortunately, from my viewpoint at least, the sound system left a lot to be desired, my inexpensive tape recorder failed, and thus I missed a good part of the many speeches intended to sway delegates to one candidate or another. These speeches were deliberately kept short, and thus were “to the point”, unlike much of the long winded political oratory by the well known “big guns” we often see on TV. There’s much to be said for living out in the country where most people can generally get their point across in only a few words. The caucus chairman was also kind enough to take a few moments to explain the workings of the democratic caucus system to those of us unfamiliar with the process, which certainly eased much of the confusion on my part.

In general the speeches were of the “Why I’m for So-and-so, and you should be too” genre. I didn’t really hear anything new in praise of the Democratic presidential hopefuls, but I did sort of miss the expected heavy duty digs at the republicans in general, and George W. Bush in particular. These were of course local speakers, not the candidates themselves, or their direct representatives. Several speakers did get a chuckle from the crowd, and a round of applause, from minor comments about the opposition, but these comments were more in fun (I think) than anything else. Nor was there any of the mudslinging and cat fights we’ve seen of late from the candidates of both parties. For the most part, Hillary was described as “caring”, and “A tough lady with political experience”, while Obama was praised as a man who has fought his way up from nearly nothing to a position of national recognition and leadership.

One common thread among the speakers seems to be their candidates desire for government mandated “affordable housing”, “a fair living for everyone”, “economic stability” and “affordable medical care”, perfectly understandable and even desirable points, particularly for lower income people, that we can all easily understand. And all you might note directly descended from FDR’s “New Deal” policies. What I thought conspicuous by its absence is an explanation of just how our government, teetering on the verge of federal bankruptcy, is supposed to pay for all this without a massive tax increase and even more government borrowing. We’re talking tens of trillions of dollars here, each and every year! To my surprise not much was said about the Iraqi war, or the proposed troop withdrawals. I would have expected this to be a major point of discussion. Still, the purpose of the caucus was to select the party’s standard bearer, not to determine campaign issues.

Anyway, after the second and final tally, it was reported that Barrack Obama had 121 votes, which comes to 72.5% of the Idaho County Democratic vote, at the upcoming state Democratic convention. Not exactly a clean sweep, but close enough.

Thank you folks, it was an interesting evening, and I for one appreciate the chance to learn a bit more about the American political process.