So, I just caucused in the Democratic Primary. It's the first time I've ever caucused, so I figured I'd share the experience. Forewarning: I support Bernie. If you're a Republican or support Hillary (not to repeat myself [ha!]), you might want to stop reading a sentence or two ago.
It was in some kind of small school. We lined up and got wristbands with our precinct on them, then sat in a small auditorium. Then we had to listen to people defend Hillary and Bernie. A State Senator defended Hillary, and a twenty-something who looked like he just got out of undergrad defended Bernie. The college kid was much more eloquent and detailed about policy.
Then we had to listen to the rules of the caucus. It was precisely as exciting as it sounds.
I saw about an even number of Hillary and Bernie signs and badges. So, it didn't surprise me to see Colorado was relatively close. Also, the Hillary badges had a blue arrow through the 'H.' I guess Hillary decided the giant red arrow pointing right was too telling?
Then, we divided up into our precincts. My precinct appeared to have about thirty people. After more explanations, we raised our hands to vote. The counts were Bernie 18 – 27 Hillary. I would have sworn there weren't 50 people there, but, eh.
There were only two people under thirty who voted for Hillary in my precinct. Also, probably 75-80% of my precinct were over 65. Which wouldn't concern me, if the elderly weren't so heavily biased for Hillary, statistically. It was also disconcerting to see a few dozen people making such a big decision with enormous consequences, for thousands (I don't know how big my precinct is; the time to Google that info exceeds my attention span).
In retrospect, there are at least three retirement-centric apartment towers in my precinct. Which makes the age disparity slightly less unsettling.
They then explained that our precinct had 4 delegates, so they'd each get 2. Even though it was split 2/3. Which seemed rather un-democratic. I guess it's expected to average out across the state?
More explanations about how we'd send those delegates to the Colorado state primary or some such, and they needed 4 people to step up as actual human delegates to go to the state thing. One guy gave a speech about how he really wanted to be a delegate. It was strange. But more power to you, Delegate Man!
That was it. We left.
Extra-Colorado comments:
I'm equally shocked Bernie won Oklahoma and lost Massachusetts. Other than those two, it looks like Bernie won every single state not in the South. Which is about as good as he could have hoped, I think. I mean, the South always votes Republican. I'll see myself out.