Night at the Caucus

This week was defiantly a new experience for me. I am almost embarrassed to say that I am going to be 24 years old and I still do not know much about politics nor do I really have much of an interest in wanting to learn about it. I was hesitant about going to my caucus because of this fact. I had never been to one and really did not know what to expect. Was it going to be like a class room setting where everyone raised their hands and waited for their turn or was it going to be more like the stock floor exchange where everyone tries to get their own point across at the same time?

I was too timid to go by myself so I dragged my boyfriend along with me. Our caucus was at the Oak Grove City hall, which is right down the street so that was convenient. As we took the short drive to the City Hall I could not help but be nervous. I was surprised to see what a turn out there was; it took us quite a while to park. Walking into the building there were defiantly more people than cars in the parking lot. There was so much going on all at once that I felt a little overwhelmed. We followed the line of people as they filed in. We were directed to sign in and find a seat. Everyone was talking amongst each other and trying to find places to sit. When everything calmed down a little bit the really fun started.

The first half an hour of things went really slow, I had to really focus to keep myself from zoning out! All I could think about was the last town meeting that we were at and how dull all the general announcements and minutes of the last meeting were this was pretty much the same thing. The action did not start till the debate part of the caucus. I have never seen so many different people talking about so many different things! I think that everyone in the room had a question, and of course everyone had an opinion about everyone else’s question. Our selected delegate seemed to be on high speed as everyone wanted their turn to discuss their important resolution for the party. We did not stay through the whole debate on the resolutions but just long enough so that my boyfriend had a chance to vote.

It was a very interesting and tiring night that I do not think I would want to do again any time soon. As we walked to the car we both kind of laughed as we thought back to the half piece of scratch paper that they handed him to write his vote on. To me the whole experience was like a really bad football game; the fist half is horribly dull but you keep watching in anticipation for the exciting half time show and as soon as that is over the thrill is gone and you turn the channel.