vote quimby

[mellowtigger]

I used to vote for people of all political parties, but a few years ago I finally swore off Republicans. I haven't gone that far yet with "the other party", but I certainly don't consider myself a Democrat. Still, I want to vote for Obama in the next election and I figured I had to vote in the caucus to make that possibility into a reality. So I went with one of my roommates to the local DFL (Democrats, Farmers, and Labor, for you non-Minnesotans) caucus. For those who are interested, joshuwain  (my roommate) posted his DFL experience here and dodecadragon  posted his Republican experience here.

At sign-in, I just wrote my name, signature, and address in a big sheet with no verbiage that I noticed. (Later, we were read a statement that it meant we were Democrats now. Doh!) I picked up my caucus agenda sheet that explained the timeline and caucus rules for nominations (2 rules) and motions/resolutions (4 rules). Very helpful information for someone who hadn' t been there before. Then I got a small piece of paper with presidential candidates listed. I put a check next to Obama and then dropped it into a large envelope.

The rest of it was professionally done, although we were very short on people who were willing to donate their time to the cause.  Supposedly the police showed up because there were so many people.  We ran out of chairs, signup forms, and ballots very quickly.  Apparently there were a LOT of people like me there who were only interested in getting a particular person on the ballot and not really interested in the party itself. We also got several resolutions passed for our precinct. One of them was my suggestion that all voting in general elections be done by instant runoff voting. (It passed with 2 against and 1 abstention.)

When the totals came back for the presidential nominee for our precinct, the results were impressive. joshuwain said that 2 years ago, there were only 16 people at the caucus for our precinct. Here are the results for the caucus this year:

• John Edwards, 1
• Hillary Clinton, 36
• Barack Obama, 74

So hopefully I'll get to vote for Obama in the presidential election of 2008.  If it's Clinton, though... I'll probably end up voting for the Green Party candidate.  And if the DFLers start sending me propaganda (because of my participation in their caucus), I'll probably have to send them a letter explaining that I resign from the party.  I still don't want to be a member of any political party.

Comments

[joshuwain.livejournal.com]

You and I, both: I don't want to belong to a party. I just want my voice in the earliest, possible stages so I can help guide the nation. :)

[furr-a-bruin.livejournal.com]

Y'know what? As much as I'm less than enthralled with Hillary Clinton - the idea of McCain or Romney getting to make the next appointments to the Supreme Court puts me at extreme risk of violent emesis.

I'd love to see IRV the standard here in the USA. I'd love it if our federal and state legislatures had substantial numbers of "third party" members in them. But all that voting "against" Hillary (if indeed she's the D's nominee) gets you is more rightwing boneheads on the courts, more "let's dismantle anything that helps average people" and of course - more war.

[mellowtigger]

I dunno. I sort of believe that people get what they deserve (what they worked to create). If the majority in this country want to spend their votes "against" other people, then I'm sure they'll get what they deserve.

Frankly, a very pissed of part of my psyche wants the Democrats to pack it up and sit out this election. Instead, they should tell every Republican, "You created this mess. You clean it up." Let them deal with the war, the economy, the citizens who refuse to obeys laws just because somebody wrote them down on paper somewhere. I think the Democrats perform better on all of the above categories. They actually had a surviveable budget during Clinton. They had sensible military policies. ("Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is a social policy. Democrats failed that one.) They have better social ideas than Republicans.

I soooooo want to "call their bluff" on the Republicans. Force their noses into the wee soaked into the carpet and tell them "bad doggy!" until they get the point and change their ways.

But I won't. I'll vote for someone that I actually want to be in office rather than simply vote against someone else.

[furr-a-bruin.livejournal.com]

There's no such thing as making Republicans "clean up their mess." Remember, that by and large this is the party that claims "government doesn't work." Well, not when THEY do it, anyway. The point is, because they claim "government doesn't work," they go out of their way to destroy any part of it that actually DOES work, in order to prove their point. Allowing them to be in control - if one actually wants the government to work - is simply contrary to reason.

Look, I'm a registered Green. I voted in our primary. But until we get IRV and some serious electoral reforms crammed through somehow - neither the Greens, nor the Libertarians nor anyone else has a chance at actually becoming President. At best/worst they can be spoilers. Thus, no matter who winds up being the Democratic candidate - I will vote for him/her, because this country just can't stand another 4 to 8 years of Republican mismanagement.

[dodecadragon.livejournal.com]

The majority don't even vote, which supports your argument.

[dodecadragon.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I wisely omitted adding my phone or e-mail to the sign up sheet.

I also only went because I'd like to vote for Ron Paul in November, and don't consider myself a Republican.

Since you linked to it, I made my post public.

[mellowtigger]

Oops! I didn't realize it was private. If there are little "locked" images somewhere, I wish they'd make them more prominent. I never understand the whole private/public distinction. I've typed up replies to some threads only to discover that LiveJournal won't let me finish the post because you have to be Friended to complete the process. Argh!

[dodecadragon.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I do it because I try to limit my exposure to the random unknown LJ-er fanatics from flaming me out of the blue because my views don't agree with theirs.

[mellowtigger]

Oh, yeah, and Ron Paul is my favorite Republican contender. Though I disagree with some of his stances, it is soooooo refreshing to hear a Republican candidate who can justify his position without relying on the usual crutches (9/11, Jesus, or those evil Democrats) to explain himself.

[dodecadragon.livejournal.com]

Yeah, and who has an obvious voting record backing up his philosophy. I would trust him to at least try to be true to his word. The others just say whatever they want you to hear. And I too disagree with a few of his stances.

[furr-a-bruin.livejournal.com]

I disagree with Ron Paul on pretty much everything but Iraq, but I agree he's the only one on that side with any integrity.