Hooked on Caucus

Today I went to the Republican caucus. I really didn't know what to expect. I am taking an American Government class and have learned a lot about the election process. So I wanted to attend the caucus, and I will get extra credit in my class as a bonus. I spent a long time this morning trying to find a little paper I got in the mail a couple months ago about being able to vote. It took me around an hour to find it, but I'm glad I did because it showed my precinct number which I didn't know. When I got to the place they were holding the caucus, I was the first person there from my precinct, so I had to set up a table and sort of figure out what I was supposed to do myself. Finally, the PCL (precinct caucus leader I think) showed up. He was in charge of our precinct. There were probably around 20 precincts gathered in the high school SUB, and over 75 people. I was definitely one of the youngest people there. Besides a few anomalies, the average age was probably around 60. I think my PCL didn't think I knew what I was doing.

It got interesting when people would say what they wanted to be on the agenda of the government. Some people had good ideas, others had straight conspiracy theory ideas. The funniest part was watching a guy in charge arguing with people over whether things were national or local. I guess we were supposed to be proposing things at a local level, but you can make a strong argument that things at the national level affect people locally. We had to elect a few positions as a group. The man next to me, the PCL of my precinct, wanted to be elected. For some reason, when the speaker asked for volunteers, he didn't raise his hand. Then she asked for nominations. The PCL told me, nominate me. I asked if he was sure. He said yes and told me to raise my hand. I followed his commands, I mean he was my PCL. Raise your hand higher, I obeyed. My hand was raised as high as I could in front of a group of 75 old people looking at me like I didn't know what I was doing. Unfortunately for my leader, someone else was given the spot before the speaker saw my hand. I felt kind of bad for him, but I mean he could have volunteered at the beginning and not put all his hope in me nominating him.

There was a questionnaire I had been given, so I filled it out. They ran out of questionnaires, so my PCL was using mine. It was quite funny. He would look at my responses and ask why I chose the answer I did. On issues such as education, we had very different opinions. He wasn't going to change my beliefs, and I sure wasn't going to change his. But we debated the topic for quite a while. It was probably the first time I had ever 'argued' politics with someone. Not only was he twice my age, he is an elected city official, and even ran for mayor, so it was really interesting to debate politics with him.

But I believe that is the great thing about American politics. Everyone has equal say. My 18-year-old opinions matter just as much as an elected official's. I had just as much say in the nomination process as he did. That is part of what I took away from the caucus. A new appreciation and desire to participate in politics. I also was 'elected' to go on to the next level. Each precinct has a certain number of delegates they vote to send to the next step up, I think the county level. I had a really good speech planned of why I should be elected. But with being the only member of my precinct who showed up, I automatically get to go. Hopefully, I can make it all the way to the Republican Nominating Convention!