Party On
When I changed my address at the DMV today, I registered to vote as a member of a political party for the first time in my life.1 I took this step in order to vote in the Nevada Democratic primary this January, which is scheduled to take place after the Iowa caucus but before the New Hampshire primary.
My plan is to switch back to nonpartisan status after the primary, because even though I am more politically aligned with the Democrats than the Republicans: 1) the mainstream Democratic platform diverges from my personal beliefs on several key issues; and 2) I have general frustrations with the American two party system.
In any case, I'm looking forward to participating in the caucus process.
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1 This isn't entirely true, since I was automatically registered as a Democrat when I voted in the 2004 Massachusetts primary, but I switched back to independent status within days.(return)
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Participating in a caucus is pretty interesting and
depressing (I participated in the Idaho Caucus in 2004).
I find it to be quite incongruous with our other election systems (ballot voting).
It was mostly depressing to see intelligent people and friends I knew going to the John Kerry group (after
Dean was eliminated and could not receive any delegates because he only had around 18 supporters). These friends of mine "had heard" Kerry had the best chance to win, even though they knew *nothing* about him. Then there were the Kucinich folks-- idealistic losers (in the true sense of the word). It surprised me who stood with me in the John Edwards group. I've always remembered the people in that group-- and then understood that these were the people who did more research or put more thought into who they should support. Perhaps we were too idealistic too, but
still, anyone with some political sense understood the dangers and mediocrity of John Kerry. I wonder if Edwards
would have won in 2004-- I doubt he would now.
Let that be a lesson to those who support Clinton. No
one can know how good of a president one of the Democrats
would be, but it does seem obvious that she has quite
a few liabilities. Feel free to disagree.
In any case, a caucus is not a very good selection
system in my mind. It does not mesh well with the voting
ballot system most other states use. I think each state should either have caucauses or each state should have ballots.
I had a long post that apparently vanished into the ether so I'm going to with a short question:
CM - do you know whose caucus circle you're going to stand in?
Also Nevaucus?
I published your original post -- not sure why it was hanging there.
Nevaucus has been duly ignored.
I don't know whose circle I will be in yet.
Who are you considering? Who have excluded?
Leaning Obama.
Lifelong whig. They never send me any voting guides.
slater, i think you remember i started out a pretty die-hard edwards fan - but not only has he never turned up the heat, he has had flub after flub. i still really respect him for being the most activist candidate, but i feel myself sloooooowly slipping into obamadom: which i worry is my anti-hillary version of your kerry story. i have ruled out richardson, clinton, gravel, and kucinich, although i do have an abiding desire to just show up and stand in a corner twirling in a corner and yelling ' no strings!'
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