I went, I caucused and if I could I'd switch my vote. I don't think I've ever felt this way after voting, nor have I ever been so horrified by the democratic process than I do tonight.
My evening started off ok. I was cramming for my mid-term exam in my Religions course. Actually, I was freaking out because I feared I hadn't prepared enough and was anticipating a C -- praying for a C -- until I took the exam anyway. Of the 40 questions I knew 36 of them -- and I mean KNEW, no question, no guessing, I knew them. The other 4 I guessed (wrong). Then there's the essay and other than missing the official name of the yin/yang symbol, I'm confident I got all the points for explaining its meaning and significance. I know I missed the least number of questions -- the rest of the class glared at me :) -- and I did some of the extra credit, so I know I got an A.
Anyhow, after the exam and Zorastrinism I sped off to my local polling location to see if I could make it under the door for the caucus. I got there around 8:30 or so, quickly found my precinct and started talking to some other people in my group. There was this one elderly woman who took me aback a little, because had we not been at a Democratic caucus, I would have sworn she was a Republican. Well, come to find out she was, and she was only voting in the Democratic caucus to keep Obama from getting the nomination. She was the most foul woman I've ever meet and I had to "take a walk" otherwise my argument with her would have escalated to me punching a stupid, old woman. It wasn't until 9:30 or 10 that they actually opened the doors for the caucus to begin. Due to the large number of people participating, the precincts were broken up and my precinct was shuffled off to the cafeteria (we were at a local elementary). My precinct had the Obama people start signing in first, with the reason being that it was the courteous thing to do and I heard some mention of "A PLAN."
I really wasn't paying much attention to "THE PLAN" that was afoot because I didn't care and all I wanted to do was vote and see if I could be a delegate. So, I sign in and wait around for the delegate nominating process.
After everyone had signed, this one Hillary supporter started leading the group through the nominating process. I say leading because that's what should have happened. What really happened was the most absurd thing I'd even seen. I'll try to adequately portray what took place.
The Obama and Clinton people are divided up -- almost along race lines. The Clinton people, minus me and another guy, were sitting at one end of the table, and the Obama, plus me and this guy, were at the other. I recognized a couple of the Obama people from my apartment complex and was talking to one woman about how if Obama won, I'd happily support him in the election -- just if given the choice between the two I preferred Clinton because of her health care and stuff like that. Then this Clinton woman, stood up and started talking really fast, I didn't hear her very well and suddenly a bunch of the Clinton people start saying, I nominate ___, I 2nd, I 3rd, DONE, any nominations for Secretary, I nominate ___, I 2nd, I 3rd, DONE. The Obama people, this guy, and me have no clue what's going on -- the Obama people start yelling foul, and I mean YELLING. The Clinton and Obama people are yelling at each other, the Clinton people saying its done and we're not going back, and the Obama people yelling that they had no idea what was going on. Our whole precinct is now yelling and one of the Obama supporters goes off to get the Election Judge to resolve the situation.
Of course, the Election Judge makes the Clinton people resort to an ACTUAL democratic process and we renominate the Delegate Chair and Secretary (they fill out the paperwork for our precinct and submit our votes to the Democrats of Texas). Well, by now the group is strongly divided between Obama/Clinton groups and that's pretty much how the group votes -- except me and this guy who thought the whole previous situation was CRAP and wasn't going to give this power to Clinton group -- and our vote decided the Obama group was in charge. While I was voting for this Obama girl to lead us, this old woman (see above) kept grabbing my arm and yelling at me that I didn't understand who I was voting for. I firmly told her I did, but she kept yelling that she was Obama not Clinton. I didn't care - what's fair is fair, and if the Clinton group was prepared to run the group in a dictoral process, it wasn't something I was interested in participating in.
So, we get past this situation -- me voting for the Obama girl, we fill out our paperwork and begin to select our delegates. There's 8 for Obama and 4 for Clinton from our precinct. I mention to the Clinton group that I would like to be a delegate, and they tell me that Obama supporters are not allowed to be their delegates. I assured them that I wasn't - I voted for Clinton - and they countered that I hadn't supported the Clinton group with the whole Leader/Secretary fiasco. So, they go to the guy that also voted for the Obama girl and asked if he wanted to be a delegate -- all the while I keep saying I want to be a delegate. Well, he says yes -- but after he leaves they realize he also voted for Obama girl and decided he wasn't trustworthy enough and was taken off the delegate role. So, out of the 10 people remaining during this mess -- him and I are the only ones excluded from being either a delegate or a back-up delegate. And, this may not seem odd unless you realize the remaining people that said they would be delegates were like, "Well, if noone else wants to be, I guess I will..." with me in front of them saying, "I want to be a delegate, can I be a delegate, I'm free then please, can I?"
After this, I was just pissed off. Between the mix of stupid old woman who would never vote Democrat other than to keep a black man out of the running and kept badgering me with her idiotic nonsense about why she liked Clinton -- because she represents more status quo and no change in government so she can keep more of her money; oh, and so she can get more handouts from the government because at her age (retirement) she wants every handout she can get (but she's still voting McCain in the fall) -- to the usurping of power by the Clinton crowd in an obvious attempt to get a leg up on the Obama crowd; I was just dusgusted with my vote. If my vote meant standing in a crowd of anti-democrats (anti-democracy) and bigots --- it's not a crowd I want to be in.
And now, I'm just fuming. I like Hillary -- but this experience is making me worry about her as a candidate and her past indescrecians (I can't spell and I'm not going to look it up). If this is how her candidacy is running ... I wanna change my vote!