A thousand or more 37th District caucus-goers have gathered in a high school gym on a painfully sunny Sunday afternoon. Delegates fill the bleachers on one side, alternates are on the other, waiting to see if they'll be needed. Alec Stephens, a 60-something African American civil rights attorney and member of the Wa State Dem's Executive Board, has called the meeting to order, outlined the process, and gone over the ground rules ("If you have a question, raise your yellow credential card and I'll come give you the mic so everyone can hear your question. Then I'll give you an answer. You may not like the answer, but that is the answer. We will not go back and forth about it.") Someone has asked whether the 50/50 gender quotas for delegates (applied at the state level) can accommodate those who do not identify as either male or female: the answer is no -- but the rules can be changed, and the questioner is encouraged to pursue this with the party.
Mr. Stephens has just moved into his opening remarks -- a highly personal account of the Democrats' presidential choices since he first got involved as a teenager back in 1968 -- when a bearded young man in a Bernie t-shirt enters the gym and walks across the floor to interrupt him. The young man is carrying a bullhorn, which he seems more than ready to use, but Mr. Stephens hands him the mic. "Did you call this meeting to order before I got into the room?" the young man asks, sounding aggrieved. Mr. Stephens takes the mic back. "Yes." he says. The young man turns on his heel and walks away, apparently unaware that he has just nailed a one-man performance of the word "entitled." Seriously, dude? You couldn't find some less conspicuous way to get that information?
As Mr. Stephens continues his speech, it’s increasingly clear that he's issuing a warning "to all you Millennials and Gen-Xers who aren't old enough to remember": When the party has been divided and undisciplined, when we've voted with our hearts instead of our heads, when we've cast protest votes for idealistic candidates -- well, that's when we've lost. And when we lose, bad things happen. We get Nixon. We get Reagan. When we only show up for presidential elections and ignore the midterms? We lose the House and the Senate. We lose state legislatures and governorships. Bad. Things. Happen. Time to fall in line, people.
All of this is clearly aimed at -- and rankling -- the
Bernie supporters in the crowd. When he says something snide about "the
little chippy intern" who nearly brought down Bill Clinton, Mr. Stephens
nearly loses control of the room. "I'm sorry," he says, over a chorus
of hisses and boos (for the record: Hillary supporters also found this remark
repugnant). "The point is, Reagan didn't get impeached for Iran-Contra!
But the Republicans dragged Bill Clinton down over his dalliance! The
right-wing conspiracy is real!"
It gets even uglier when he explains the process by which
alternates will be seated. If the original delegate chosen at the precinct
caucus last month is not here, and the alternate has also not shown up, then
another alternate will be seated instead. However, that person must represent
the same candidate as the original delegate. If there is no such alternate
available from that precinct, an alternate from a neighboring precinct will be
selected. Thus the overall delegate allocation for each candidate will not
shift due to absences.
This is news to me -- I was under the impression that if the
delegate and alternate both failed to show, their candidate might lose that
spot to the other side. It turns out this is indeed a new rule... Which we all
approved an hour ago by muttering "Aye" during the ritual opening of
the meeting, somewhere between the Pledge of Allegiance and the directions to
the restrooms.
The Sanders supporters are incensed. Mr. Bullhorn marches
back across the gym floor to demand the mic. His request for clarification is
met with implacable good cheer by Mr. Stephens, but there are shouts of "Sit
down!" from people in the bleachers who are unwilling to have any more of
their time wasted by this guy. Dude. It's clear. It's done. Let's move on.
But no. Another young bearded Bernie supporter wants to know
when the rule changes were proposed, and did notice go out ten days prior to
the event? When Mr. Stephens indicates that it did, the man starts yelling,
"What date did the notice go out? You have stated a falsehood, sir!"
He stands there quivering with indignation as Mr. Stephens explains for the
third time this afternoon that just because you do not like the answer, does
not mean it is not the answer. Wild cheers from the Hillary supporters, who are
finally catching on to what has just happened in this stuffy gymnasium: These
Sanders guys thought you weren't going to show up. They were planning to poach
your delegates. And they just got outplayed.
I'm an alternate, unlikely to be seated. I've got a few short hours of this beautiful afternoon left, and a foot-tall front lawn that ain't gonna mow itself. As I’ve said before, I’m ambivalent about both Hillary and Bernie. But it's hard to tear myself away from the painful, fascinating clash unfolding before me under Roberts Rules of Order. I can easily see how the Bernie folks will decry the Democratic Establishment's secret back room maneuvers (as indeed they have). But it also seems entirely reasonable for Hillary Clinton to keep delegates she won three weeks ago (there honestly weren’t that many of them, guys).
I'm an alternate, unlikely to be seated. I've got a few short hours of this beautiful afternoon left, and a foot-tall front lawn that ain't gonna mow itself. As I’ve said before, I’m ambivalent about both Hillary and Bernie. But it's hard to tear myself away from the painful, fascinating clash unfolding before me under Roberts Rules of Order. I can easily see how the Bernie folks will decry the Democratic Establishment's secret back room maneuvers (as indeed they have). But it also seems entirely reasonable for Hillary Clinton to keep delegates she won three weeks ago (there honestly weren’t that many of them, guys).
And it seems absolutely appropriate for this dignified African American gentleman, the Chair of the Washington State Bar Association’s Civil Rights Law Section, who has served the Democratic party faithfully for nearly five decades and got to cast one of Washington’s 12 Electoral College votes for Barack Obama back in 2012, to say to this jeering young insurgent, "Sir, I'm going to ask you to go. Sit. Down."
6 comments:
So did you leave before it ended? I'm left wondering how it concluded. My mower is available btw
Did anyone hear What Mr. Stevens was saying when he was shouted down with "No!"?
Three times I heard Mr. Stevens say something like socialists. The No's were louder than Stevens with the microphone. I can only presume he was going after Bernie.
At that point the fellow with the bullhorn got in Mr. Stevens face and kept jumping up and down.
Mr. Stevens values the caucus. Back when JFK was running for President, he was a delegate for Jesse Jackson all the way to the National Democratic Convention. I like that too. BUT. Sunday's caucus was not organized, the gym was only rented until 5PM, and at 4:45, delegates running to go to the third tier caucus next month, had not yet begun to give their one minute speeches for their candidate. I intended to be one of those delegates. UNTIL. I saw 300 candidates who had not given their speeches. Add five hours to 5PM and then some more time to count ballots. What do you get? I left about 4:45.
The plus? I met Gene Lux soon to celebrate his 90th birthday. Gene was our state representative for years. I love that man and the work he has done over time as a Washington State Democrat. Did I say he was a great politician,listens to socialists, and appreciates the Wobblies. Oh yes, good friend of our family and neighbor.
Decades ago, when I caucused up through the second level, there were no more than 300 people in Aki Kurose Auditorium. Smaller caucus groups would be better. Even better, make the choice of candidates fair to all who want to vote. No more caucus.
There is a plus to human interaction, but what went on Sunday was not fair, and too hot to be human.
unfortunately, that rule change caused a lot of ruckus in our area too. However we were asked to accept the rule change even before we had a count of how many delegates were there (and were absent who were supposed to show up) and were basically forced to vote to accept the rule change. It was outrageous.
I do not believe for one second that the DNC didn't do that purposefully, and not in favor of sanders, in favor if Hillary. I saw so much sneaky stuff at my first caucus to put me off of having Hillary supporters run the show as volunteers.
So this goes both ways.
I suppose all the Clinton supporters were cool when Mr self elected chair called Monica Lewinsky a hot little chippy intern and part of the vast right wing conspiracy.
I interrupted Mr chair because that's how Robert's rules of order works. I had to walk over to him because he ignored me raising my hand for a few minutes. It's called a point of inquiry. He was elected without the majority present. The chair serves at the discretion of the body. There were still half of the delegates standing in line outside. Asking the chair IS the best and only way to get information. I was carrying a bull horn because unlike the Hillary campaign, I brought snacks and water for everyone and was outside with other Bernie volunteers rushing to inform and organise everyone, including Hillary delegates, into the building as quickly as possible.
Maybe instead of sitting there yelling over my important questions, taking photos and writing an uninformed blog entry, you should have helped volunteer and make this poor excuse for a Democratic election more successful.
Good point, Andrew. There was a lack of information given out by the WA Democratic Party who were in charge. There were many people who sar there for hours thinking they could make a change but time was wasted. This did not happen in other LD's in Seattle. Ironically, this is the probably the biggest LD with the most Hillary supporters in WA state. And the WA Democratic Party are almost all in favor of Hillary and they are running the program. And so it goes.
Also, I didn't have a yellow index card because, like half of the delegates who were STILL OUTSIDE WHEN HE CALLED THE CAUCUS TO ORDER, ELECTED HIMSELF, AND CHANGED THE RULES, I had not been signed-in.
I wasn't "jumping up and down" -- I was shouted over, threatened, SPIT ON by Mr. Stephens due to his aggressive tone, and interrupted before I could finish. The reason I was so fired up was he had sent the Sergeant at Arms (who was his own daughter) over to yell at me even though I was asking the Bernie supporters who had been heckling him to be quiet.
Mr. Stephens may have an amazing background in the civil rights movement and be a well-respected lawyer and member of the Democratic party, but he disrespected me and everyone in that room by cheating the rules and making everyone think he was the Caucus Dictator. That's simply not how it works. The members can vote then and there whether or not to change the rules. He lied to everybody multiple times throughout the afternoon.
That is the big difference between many Hillary supporters and many Bernie supporters. Hillary supporters have the privilege and luxury to accept the status quo, as their lives are not really affected by struggle. Bernie supporters, even if they're not personally affected, are going to stand up for everybody.
I spent most of my afternoon giving water to people and providing details and information to delegates -- mostly Hillary supporters who were misinformed and told they can leave once they sign-in -- or the entire room, which Mr. Stephens told could leave before the vote was finalized (and as expected, tried to challenge the vote after many delegates left the building).
Mr. Stephens was there as a temporary chair, letting everyone believe he was "THE" chair, to implement an illegal rule change that unfairly eliminates the 15% threshold. I was not going to challenge the rule, I was challenging the implementation of it, which was done completely inappropriately. Why? Because setting a precedent that you can change rules without a vote is a dangerous thing when you are already dealing with such an outdated system of electing delegates.
Hillary's side would have lost even more delegates than the original rule implementation if I had not helped everyone fairly. Unlike Mr. Stephens, I wasn't there with an agenda. Bernie has already won Washington.
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