Tuesday night was the Minnesota caucus. This was my first time ever physically being in the same state where I was registered to vote on voting day. My previous voting location (NY) doesn’t have caucuses either, so I was pretty excited to see how the whole system worked. I had volunteered to be a Romney rep at my caucus (I guess they read a letter from the candidate to their precinct to try to sway undecideds -- I didn’t have to read it as all of the people in my precinct knew who they wanted). After listening to some conservative rhetoric and a few inaudible letters (people really should get to these things on time, how anyone can concentrate with so much hustle & bustle around is beyond my comprehension) we split into our precinct to conduct our straw poll and talk about precinct issues. Well, I knew there probably weren’t going to be hundreds of people in my precinct (1. I live in Saint Paul, which is a liberal haven 2. My precinct just isn’t geographically large 3. This is a non-binding caucus so the vote doesn’t count for much), but I was shocked to see only 4 people (including myself) enter our precinct room. Three of the four of us had never even been to a caucus meeting like this before. One rather large man, wearing a blue National Republican Convention 2008 button-down shirt and an artistic tie that featured the GOP elephant, took charge and took us through the step-by-step outline we were given. I quickly found out that this gentleman worked for the state for the last 35 years and was extremely involved in politics. He bragged about his experiences in politics both local and state-wide. There was another gentleman in attendance that almost immediately went off on governmental control and how he has been following Ron Paul for the past 10 years and thinks he’s just brilliant. This man was seasonally unemployed, quite scruffy, and was a bit flamboyant in his description of the city and government. The last gentleman seemed like a nice guy. He sat there quietly and talked about his divorce and the change he has seen in the neighborhood. He seemed like a clean-cut, blue collar worker. Then there was me. The well-groomed, professionally dressed (I was still in my work attire), well-educated, clean-cut female. We completed the straw poll, which is supposed to be secret, but when there are only 4 people there and 1 of the 4 has already announced that he’s a Ron Paul supporter, it’s not too difficult to figure out who the other 2 people voted for (especially since we were all sitting so close I saw each one write it down). With 4 people present and 4 potential candidates, each candidate got 1 vote. It was very interesting to see how much each one of us fit the stereotype of the type of person who votes for each candidate. The scruffy, unemployed man who is anti-government voted for Paul (this could have only been better if he was a 21 year old pot head). The fat, cocky government guy voted for Newt. The nice, clean-cut, blue collar worker voted for Santorum. And the well-groomed, well-educated, professional female voted for Mitt (this could have only been better if I was a senior citizen). CLASSIC! If that doesn’t play into stereotypes I don’t know what does! Anyway, we discussed some local issues and divvied up responsibilities. I am one of the delegates that go to our BPOU (?) convention in March where we actually select delegates for later on down the road. I am also the newest precinct Treasurer and as there is no money and I am most likely moving out of my precinct in August, I feel great about being more politically active even though I really don’t have any responsibility besides showing up to my BPOU convention on March 13.
It was really interesting to see the very beginning of the political process. I must say it really sparked something in me to be more involved and aware of what is going on in my local area. The whole thing also made me kind of disgruntled that nobody else in my area really cared to be involved at all. I know there are more than 4 conservative leaning people in my neighborhood, and yet nobody even showed up to discuss issues, learn about the process, or vote. What is America coming too?
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