Caucusing

Yesterday I attended my legislative district caucus. I was selected as a delegate during the precinct caucus, so this was my next civic obligation stemming from that selection. I have never been so interested and bored at the same time in my life. I got there at 9 am and didn't leave until 4:30 pm. Here is a basic rundown of what went on:

• First, we signed in and got our badges. This took more than an hour as the lines were long, the school cafeteria was small, and I was not impressed that I was up this early on a Saturday morning;
• Next, we waited around for them to give us the first count. This took more than an hour, and all of the alternates had to wait around until this was done. Once we got the initial count, then they called the alternates that were needed to stand in as delegates. We then waited while they conducted another count for how many delegates would be awarded to each presidential candidate. After this count was completed, they allowed 15 minutes for people to change their mind. Then they counted again. This is mostly happening on paper using the sign in sheets.
  
• While the counting is going on, we went through the district platform. People commented on what they would like to further discuss in the platform. This, again, took another couple of hours. We then started to go back through the platform and address the sections that people wanted to discuss. We only made it through a few sections before we had to stop in order to hear the final count and vote for delegates to go to the next level of conventions;
• Voting for delegates began at 3:30. We had been told that we would be done no later than 4 pm, so you can imagine my dismay when we were given a list of people to consider that was four pages long and had more than 250 names. Of these people, we had to selected 21 men and 20 women. Each person was given 20 seconds to speak about why they should be a delegate. After one hour, we were only half way through the list. At this point, I left. I didn't care anymore. They still had to hear from the rest of the list, and then count the votes.
  

Now that I know what kind of commitment this requires, I am willing to do this again in a few years. I was just a little dismayed that everything took so long (I truly believe there is a better way) and equally dismayed that people were allowed to ask questions at the microphone. I did it myself a few times, I have to admit, though I felt I was bringing up valid points about affordable housing, health care plans, and such, but there were other people who wanted to discuss things that were very important to them, such as whether we should support biodiesil and factory farms and other things. Yes I care, but there needed to be a better way to get through these issues without taking nearly five hours. I don't think the rules were written very clearly, and I have a general hatred for open mics.

I find it very odd that even though this was an absurdly long process, I was still fascinated by it. I probably would will run for a delegate position in four more years when I have more means to go onward. I am kind of laughing at myself for this. Sure, democracy strives to be fair and inclusive, but it is also horribly inefficient. My Saturday experience made me understand why some people just accept dictators!