Caucus night

On February 7th I went out to my local voting precinct to be part of the process in choosing who would be the next republican nominee for president of the United States. More than just being a part of the straw poll, which is what the media covers, I actually planned on being a delegate, which is someone who moves to the next level and actually matters in nominating a candidate.

Four years ago, I was too embroiled in my own drama and self delusion to care a whole lot about politics of the US, and for that matter, the world. I'm sure a lot of people are. Add to that if I could have seen then what I am writing now I would seriously doubt my own sanity in caucusing for a republican after being a right-leaning liberal my whole life. For, having come of age under the Bush administration with cartoon-esque evil characters such as Dick Cheney, John Ashcroft, Donald Rumsfeld, Tom Ridge, and Karl Rove, it was easy an easy target to bash because they, in their combined team, seemed to be the ultimate consummation of evil and corporate favoritism.

The evil was evident in the invasion of Iraq (100,000+ civilian fatalities, over 4000 US fatalities) and the enactment of the PATRIOT act which, perhaps only to me, was so onerously titled in a veil of nationalism that it may as well have come from the novel Nineteen-Eighty-Four. Just to be clear PATRIOT act is a statement of irony in that it takes AWAY our liberties. It may as well have been issued by the Ministry of Love.

The corporate favoritism was evident in the tax cuts made in the early years of the administration, the exclusive awarding of the Iraq reconstruction to Dick Cheney's former company (Halliburton and it's subsidiaries such as Kellog Brown and Root), the failure to balance the budget (tax cuts > federal spending cuts), and the bailout of both the avarice soaked banks (TARP) and the inept auto manufacturers (GM and Chrysler).

When Barrack Obama came in in 2008 when in seemed like the whole world was falling down around us. With his eloquently delivered message of change and hope, I, and many others, were finally given the dynamic contrast from the fumbling, painfully awkward public speaker that was George Bush. It was an easy win over the aging, rigid and cryptkeeper-like McCain who in his own regard was a decorated war-veteran who had endured years of torture at the hands of the NVA, but who was seen as someone who would continue republican policies that have led to the financial ruin that the country was in at the time.

Well ladies and gentlemen, it's 4 years later. Where is the change?

It's true that the economy has recovered, unemployment is down, the stock market is approaching pre-recession levels, and Osama Bin Laden and many of his lieutenants are dead.

However, the national debt has increased by $6 TRILLION ( an unprecedented increase of 62%), we are still at war in Afghanistan, median household income is down, the war drums are once again beating in Iran, civil liberties continue to be eroded under legislation such as the NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act) and beneath the surface many Americans are deeply concerned about the future.

What I've come to realize is that, other than some minor disagreements, there is no difference between the Republican party and the Democratic party. Neither will admit that the present course is unsustainable either militarily, fiscally, or morally. The sad fact is that when a politician begins to make hard choices that may address the long term problems but affect anyone's standard of living in the present, then they will be voted out of office in favor of someone ELSE who offers empty promises of restoring some vision of what used to be. Corruption, cronyism, and straight graft are what is bankrupting this country.

When I made it to caucus night, I was surprised by the turnout, it started at 7 but folks kept rolling in up to 45 minutes late. By the end there were over 25 people there. It was held at a local elementary school. Long gone memories of school came flowing back as I looked around at the vocabulary posters on the walls in the classroom describing types of personalities with a positive spin; Reckless: You're not afraid to take risks and try new things. Careful: you take time to understand the situation and think about your actions. My particular precinct meeting organizer was a friendly, overweight man in his late thirties who led us through the process. I had the immediate impression that he was a lot smarter than he led on. After electing meeting officials such as auditors and secretaries (I volunteered as an auditor) we did the straw vote. I handed out the little slips of paper (one of my jobs as an auditor) where someone would make a check mark next to one of the 4 candidates names or there was a write in section. Due to state law, there must be a 30 minute wait from when the straw poll starts and when the votes can be collected and tallied. During this time the organizer asked if anyone wanted to be a delegate.

I immediately raised my hand. I was still wearing my professional work clothes and had a speech prepared on a single sided sheet. I walked to the front of the room, just like so many previous experiences in a classroom, and read from my sheet with a few modifications and at the end, asked for everyone's vote to be a elected as a delegate. Everyone applauded at the end. I felt like it came off very well. The organizer asked if anyone else wanted to follow. Someone in the room made the comment, “How can we follow that?” Ego +1 for me. Several others rose their hands to be delegates. Some speeches were very poignant, one other older gentleman in particular had a very concise speech and I made the point of starting a round of applause after he finished. Others were less inspiring and were more or less versions of, “I've lived here for years, have a family and 2.7 kids and the most important thing is getting Obama out of office.” Fewer others were even less so.

When everyone finished their delegate speeches (every speaker had their name written down on the whiteboard) I and another auditor handed out some spare slips on which to cast a vote for a delegate. Everyone got to pick 6 because thats how many delegates our precinct was awarded based on the previous election for governor. At this point myself and the other auditor collected the straw votes and the delegate votes. We tallied them up one by one. One for Romney, one for Paul, one for Gingrich, one for Santorum. another for Santorum. a third for Santorum...

The final tally had 11 for Santorum, 5 for Romney and Paul each, and 4 for Gingrich. I was stunned. Even the organizer shook his head in disappointment. While myself and the other auditor counted up the delegate votes, the room opened up to discussion about the state republican charter and if anyone wanted to make any amendments to it. A courageous man with nice glasses and short hair in his early thirties made the point that, and he acknowledged that he might be punched for this, the party's charter should not contain the statement that one of the party's goals is to pursue a state constitutional ban on same sex marriage. Rather, while acknowledging that he wasn't gay or anything, who does and who does not marry should be left to religious institutions and that the government shouldn't have any say who can and who can not be married.

This was immediately rebuffed by several older fellows in the room, particularly one obese man in his late fifties with a jiggling jowel who made a point that marriage must be defined as a man and a woman and the sanctity as such needs to be maintained else situations may arise where a man marries his sister. It's difficult to argue against that point. A couple (man and woman) who looked like they just came from an alt rock concert took this moment to chime in, the woman made the memorable quote that, “The only reason that government wants to define marriage between a man and a woman is because it's the only combination that can yield another tax-payer.” This conversation went on for at least 30 minutes between various parties for and against this section of the charter. There were clearly very deeply held beliefs between everyone.

Finally the male in the alt rock couple said something along the lines that there are more important things to discuss. I gave sole applause and after a moment, said the following, “It's very important to note that we've been discussing same sex marriage for the majority of the session while the entire time we have serious economic and civil issues that should take priority. Same sex marriage, while a divisive subject, is but a distraction while the politicians steal our future from in front of us.” Then I wrote down who had won election to be delegates and I was one of them.

After the closing of the session I stayed after to speak with the organizer. Now that he was out of his official role as neutral arbitrator, he voiced his opinion to me, “WE ARE SO SCREWED.” By “WE” he meant America. He was a history major and anyone who studies and tries to understand history knows that empires collapse when they over-reach militarily and suffer economic implosion due to being unable to service sustained levels of debt and then being unable to service the interest on that debt. We're seeing it in Greece and will see it elsewhere. The only reason the US is able to maintain such high levels of debt is because the federal reserve can print money and inflate the currency. “Quantitative easing” is nothing more than printing money. As more money is printed, the value of the money already out there goes down. This is called inflation. You'll see it in gas prices, food prices, and property taxes. This is something that Greece cannot do because the European central bank (The Euro equivalent to the federal reserve) is not willing to inflate the currency so that Greece's debt becomes more manageable. He gave me a flier on where to meet to get more involved in local political groups.

What I took from caucus night, and the run up to caucus night in trying to get my friends and family to participate in the process were a couple of blanket statements that are not all encompassing, but are fairly accurate:

1.There is no recession for the baby boomers and retirees. They have their pensions, social security, medicare, 401k, and usually have lots of equity in their homes so even if the value of that home plummets, it doesn't affect them because they don't have to sell it. Thats why when they show up to elect a candidate, the most important issue to them is not the economy, the war, or the loss of freedom. For them it is generally some social concern like same sex marriage.
Conversely, there is no future for the my generation. No one thinks these programs are going to be around by the time we are eligible to collect. Rather we are being taxed to fund mismanaged programs that were designed to be a safety net and not a retirement plan.

2.Most of today's youth, and non-youth for that matter, are apathetic. “Politics are boring, complicated, and I'd rather just go out and have fun with my time.” I've heard it all. With a few exceptions, most either didn't answer my calls or found something more interesting to do like play video games, eat out at a restaurant while paying with a credit card. Which is exactly what the boomers, politicians and corporations want us to do: don't get involved so that the status quo can be maintained further, and rack up lots of debt so that we can continue to be slaves to our jobs.

3.For anything to change, things have to get bad. And people have to get MAD. It's the only way things ever change. Think Howard Beale from Network. But by the time it's really bad it will be too late. One doesn't wait to fix the gas leak in the furnace until after the explosion. But it's exactly what we're doing and it's exactly what Obama, Romney, Grinrich or Santorum will lead us to: economic disaster.

This is why I unabashedly throw my support behind the only candidate who will defend our liberty, end the senseless wars overseas, work to eliminate the fraudulent Federal reserve, reduce taxes, and balance the budget. That man is Ron Paul.

When anyone laughs and says that Dr Paul is unelectable and that I'm one of those “Ron Paul people”, I don't hold back. Typically the detractors have no leg to stand on and I will win solely on arguing the numbers.

It's not too late. Already legislation like SOPA and PIPA have been stopped dead in their tracks because PEOPLE GOT INVOLVED.

I end with this pithy quote from the Terminator movies: "the future is not set, there is no fate but what we make for ourselves".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOaCemmsnNk