Democracy! Plunge forward!

So the 31 voters from my precinct who dutifully caucused this afternoon voted 9 for Clinton, 13 for Obama and 9 uncommmitted on the first allocation. Then people made little speeches, and anyone who wanted to changed their choice on the paper sheets, especially the uncommitteds, and several of us watched as the sheets were re-tallied. Final result: 10 for Hillary, 20 for Barack, 1 remaining uncommitted (I think that person had left).

After applying the prescribed mathematics for tallying the percentages into delegate numbers, our 4 delegates were distributed as 3 delegates for Obama and 1 for Clinton. Then we had to choose the 4 delegates and 4 alternates. One by one people were nominated or volunteered to take themselves to the county caucus on our behalf; each was accepted by acclamation until we had 7 sacrificial victims lined up; and someone sighed and filled out the fourth alternate slip so we could all go home...

It was a pretty disorderly process, reminding me that it's a miracle that the Dems EVER manage to win an election. One person in my precinct group arrived with Edwards bumperstickers and harboring a grudge that 4 years ago the establishment Dems in the precinct caucus had pounded on the two Dean supporters until they went for Kerry and look how that turned out. He voted for Obama.

One lady at the next table over was wearing a peculiar hat with a large glittering peace symbol on it. Somebody else had put Kucinich posters on the walls. There were all kinds of handouts on our table, and resolutions offered by participants floating around to be signed. It was interesting and kind of moving to be there... But there must be a lot more than 31 voters in my precinct; a proper primary would be more, um, democratic.

Thanks to A. for the title line.