That was the conclusion my daughter and I came to after attending the 33rd Legislative District caucuses yesterday.
There were about 1000 of us over in Des Moines for 5 hours yesterday (the seasoned veterans were smart, and brought books, iPods and sitapons for the bleachers in the Des Moines High School Gym.
There were the inspirational speeches, of course, and a surprise visit by Hillary Clinton's national campaign chair, a great national anthem by a middle school girl and a nice break dancing gig by a fourth grade boy.
When the time came for the Obama/Clinton supporters came to give their spiel, I'll give it to you, the Obama speech was better. We Clintonites, clustered together for support (there were about 800 of them, compared to 200 of us) clapped politely.
When it came time for the Clinton guy to speak, he wasn't as good, granted, but he didn't deserve to be heckled by 2 Obama supporters, or booed, or have a running conversation (loudly) by two Obama supporters (I could tell, that side still has cooler t-shirts and buttons) during the talk.
Finally, my new best friend and Hillary supporter, Mrs. Frances Dill, age 70-something, stood up and protested. She also protested about the boy-girl way of choosing the delegates, which had another Obama supporter (same one that gave the rally speech) doing the twirling, "she's crazy", hand gesture, for all the gym to see.
Okay, her penis speech may have been a bit off the reservation.
Short version: Something along the line "are we going to check between their legs?" and then she got into a transsexual discrimination line of thought. One woman popped up to argue that transsexuals can pick their own gender orientation and there will be not checking between the legs. Ah, the Demo party I've always loved. Glad Hillary's man was gone and I was wondering if this would appear on YouTube today.
Regardless, treating a 70-something year old lady like this (crazy gesture) was rude.
At about hour 4 of speechmaking, waiting for results, music, more waiting, and penis/transsexual discussions, 200 of us got together and chose 12 delegates to the next level.
I think will get alot of votes include:
Two very well spoken African-Americans, one man and one woman, who explained why they were voting for Hillary, and why they resented all their friends and the media assuming they'd vote for Obama, whose supporters, they noted, seemed to have imbibed on too much cool-aid.
A single mom struggling to raise a teenage son, after fleeing an abusive relationship and now she's trying to pay COBRA for her new hubby.
A house painter who earns $35,000 a year.
Two delegates who are 24 and 18 respectively, and are constantly trying to defend their Hillary position to their friends (see above).
And a Swedish immigrant, who mentioned the b-factor, but said she's not looking to date Hillary, she wants someone to run the country.
I hope they all end up in Denver to balance out the oh so holy Obama delegates. Sadly, Mrs. Dill will not be there to liven things up. She passed on being a delegate.
2 comments:
YES! We had the same reaction at our caucus thing in Puyallup. I actually laughed out loud when I heard the following lecture from an Obamite chastising one of her own for apparently being rude to a Clintonista: "You have to remember, that's the difference between us and them. We're inclusive and they are about exclusion."
Ah yes, the inclusive language of us and them.
Anyway, our Obamites were smug, self-righteous and frankly rude. So we, admittedly, got rude right back. Near the end as they took down a gigantic "Obama Country" sign from above the stage, we erupted into cheers. Not nice, but we'd been there for hours and we're losing and, geez, for people whose lead is beyond reach according to everything they've told us, they could have been just a tad more gracious.
Honestly, I think the Dems are in trouble because right now, people on both sides seem to be forgetting that we're all supposed to be on the same side eventually.
What I fear is this.
If Hillary gets the nomination (I'm praying the super delegates and Penn. voters show some spine) that the Obama supporters will all go home and a. either not vote (my assumption) or b. vote for McCain out of pure spite.
You're right, they need to seriously need to be reminded that we are all, in the end on the same side.
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