Caucus This!!!!!
Ballot Box
Wow, This election year we are really learning a lot about Caucuses, Primaries, Delegates, Super-delegates, Super Super delegates and much more...... Personally, I don't like this caucus thing. It even sounds like a bad word - a place where I want to tell it to go.
According to Wikipedia, "In early American history, the congressional nominating caucus and legislative caucus were influential meetings of congressmen to decide the party's nominee for President and party platforms. Similar caucuses were held by the parties at state level." In other words, they did not trust the people's judgment in electing a party's nominee. Congressmen made this decision and not the people.
Wikipedia went on to note that "Another meaning is a subgrouping of officials with shared affinities or ethnicities who convene, often but not always to advocate, agitate, lobby or to vote collectively, on policy. At the highest level, in Congress and many state legislatures, Democratic and Republican members organize themselves into a caucus (occasionally called a "conference"). There can be smaller caucuses in a legislative body, including those which are multi-partisan or even bicameral. Of the many Congressional Caucuses, one of the best-known is the Congressional Black Caucus, a group of African-American members of Congress."
Today the party elite no longer make this decision for the people, but caucuses do continue. They are held as small town hall meetings in schools, fire stations, Halls and even individual homes. Your vote is not private. As a matter of fact the room is divided where each party supporters sit together on one side of the room. I think this is truly archaic. A primary on the other had is where everyone vote by private ballots. You go in you vote and you leave. In todays fast paced society, no one has time to stick around for a town hall meeting. Delegates are then distributed based on the result of caucuses as well as primaries. I don't know why caucuses continue today. I think they should do away with it. They hardly ever dictate what the majority wants anyway.
And speaking of delegates.....Thats a whole other topic. Stay tuned.
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