I am on the mailing list and got another caucus/party reminder, saying:
Tuesday evening, starting at 6:30, you can finally have your say not only in the presidential race, but in the future of our party, our state, and our nation — by going to your DFL precinct caucus. The caucus is where change begins in our party, our democracy, and our future. It’s that fundamental.
Indeed it is that fundamental. I had strong reservations after the mob of whoevers killed Kennedy and Johnson came in like a bully-emperor telling lies about Gulf of Tonken and sending half a million strong occupation force into a land where they grew rice and the most pressing thing for the regular people was not Ho in Hanoi or Diem in what is now showing who won, the place called Ho Chi Mihn City, but aside from Ho and Diem back then, the big concern there was the health of the family water buffalo.
That soured me. Then I totally quit on the two party system over the shabby way the McGovern people were treated when the party regulars closed ranks to screw the new people over royaly. The one real chance for true betterment and reach into the hearts of the populace that the party faced since before Woodrow Wilson and they closed ranks to stiffle it. The insiders did that consciously and with the strength and resolve of feudal lords putting down a peasant rebellion. And that is history.
I will caucus DFL. The alternative - the other choice out of two - is less impressive. Obama looks okay, says he likes change, and I will believe that when I see it. So strongly he is for change, so passionate and eloquent, that the Kennedy family and James Oberstar endorse him. Next it could be Dan Erhart. Oberstar and Erhart have been entrenched politicos since God was a child and Blatnik was in Congress mentoring Oberstar - and who thinks they'd want any of their power changed? Get real. Change will not happen except perhaps an unwinding as best as possible of the mess that the second Bush president leaves behind as legacy of his mismanagement and neocon fantasies. Sad in a way. But at least that minimal degree of change will have to happen.
Short of a coup, Bush, he's had his two terms and must exit.
The DFL e-mailing continues:
Then, once you’ve gone to caucus, join us at our first-ever Caucus-Night Party. We’ll be getting together to watch returns from Minnesota and around the country, hear from elected officials and candidates, and celebrate our sure-to-be-historic night:
DFL Caucus-Night Party
8:00 p.m. – 11:30 p.m.
Carpenters’ Union Hall
710 Olive St., Saint Paul
(click here for map)
Well, I will caucus because I think Obama is interesting and Clinton already had her shot at healthcare reform and came up with a thousand plus pages of garbage that had no support to go anywhere and went nowhere during the honeymoon period of the first Clinton term. That's the track record, experience shows, and I prefer Obama to that. Personal, not a passionate endorsement, not lesser-evil, but the better candidate. At least I have to say that, rather than better man. At least this time it will not be a choice between two rich white guys. I will see if new Obama people show up at the local caucus level or whether it's same as before. I will support Olson over the revolving door, a no brainer there because the revolving door is a problem and not a solution to much of anything; and because Olson really does seem to have it together, witness this, as commented on here and here. You have to love Olson's sense of irony. Let Bachmann choose the venue, he says - a tax debate any place any time, even the Jason Lewis show. That so aptly summarizes Michele Bachmann as who she is, and has to cause a chuckle in the process. Blue Man quotes Obama:
And let it be said that we are the party of open, honest government that doesn't peddle the agenda of whichever lobbyist or special interest can write the biggest check. The party who believes that in this democracy, influence and access should begin and end with the power of the ballot.
Again, I believe it when I see it. Not the party of lobbyists? Huh? Yeah, sure. Go ask Tinklenberg about that. Not the party of special interests? Go up to the Iron Range, ask Oberstar. Does he really agree with Obama, end that stuff at the ballot box? Sure,ya betcha - No playing favorites from that guy. But don't take my word for it either, go ask Tinklenberg. And they want me to go to their party?? With that stuff being served??
I will caucus DFL. Lesser of evils in general. Far, far better in having three better Senate choices over Natural Norm, the guy we all identify with as who we'd enjoy sharing a beer with sometime. Find out where it is he's from, what made him move here, what besides ego drives the Coleman vehicle. And with Olson looking better the more I see, which is the opposite of political business as usual [witness the Clintons] and Obama head and shoulders above the pack of mental dwarves the GOP is sifting through to run the economy and end the war - or perpetuate it forever, if McCain holds sway.
You have to like the DFL package much better than the other choice of the two, but that does not mean go to the party's party, drink the Koolaid.
Party with the group of union bosses who cannot even deliver a solid rank and file vote for Wetterling, or did not care to, who again want a Tink cramdown?
Party with Dan Erhart?
Hear about the teachers not paid enough, while they have not pushed hard enough on class size reform which is what's always been the thing needed; hear that we have not enough "civil servants" after having seen the DEED UI hearing process at play? An exercise in brueaucrats run amok at that DEED hearings snake pit.
Give me a break.
No, thank you, other things to do, pressing other activities, sorry cannot make it.
Does anyone except the insiders believe there is a pinch of value to the two party system and to many of the kinds of people it elevates as candidates? I would call it, the two party system, an experiment that has lasted long enough to be recognized by cognizant people as a sad failure.
That said -
SHOW UP FOR CAUCUS. IF YOU DO NOT, YOUR CHOICE IS TO CONTINUE LETTING OTHERS MAKE YOUR CHOICES FOR YOU. WHATEVER THE LIMITATIONS OF THE PROCESS AND TWO-PARTY POLITICS, DOING NOTHING IS OPENLY EMBRACING A FLAWED STATUS QUO.
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Finally, as a footnote, something I found interesting. That link to the map, putting it into the post was insightful. I started to do a click and copy-the-link and saw it had my email address at the end of it. Really. A tracking cookie kind of thing. Click for the map and Google gets 18 ten-millionth of a cent for my follow-up of the link, as part of its advertising presentation and revenue; and Microsoft is swallowing Yahoo with that nice Mr. Balmer set to do great things with the acquisition to improve the user experience; turn it into another Windows Vista. It all says something about where we are as a nation; and the NSA is probably reading and filing away this post as I type it. Bless everyone who goes to caucus. It is how we dig our way out of the deep pit, one handful of dirt and sand at a time. Obama is a Harvard educated lawyer who has that above the pack of others, the better brain, or seemingly so. On the GOP side -- well, at least it's not Bush-Cheney again, so the sun shines a bit brighter.