Democratic Caucusing in Precinct 443
by Nick Tuesday, Mar. 04, 2008 at 9:11 PM

my experiences in caucusing..

When I voted, the woman behind me in line told me that she was a Republican, but was voting for Hillary because she thought McCain would have an easier time beating her. When I returned to caucus, I was amazed. There were 80+ people in the room. In 2004, there were only six of us, and one of the women mentioned that in 2000, it was only her. All of black folks were there for Obama, but other than that, the demographics were pretty evenly split.

Caucusing was pretty uneventful with Hillary getting seven delegates and Obama getting three. People were getting itchy to leave so when I brought out the proposed changes to the Democratic Party Platform, there was some pressure to go quickly, which was balanced by the pressure of some folks who didn’t understand enough of what was being discussed and wanted much longer to read the resolutions. So I did my best to resolve these two preferences.

The resolution to Abolish the Death Penalty passed by the closest vote, 22 to 21. The resolutions to require Verifiable Voting, repeal the Patriot Act, reform Banking, Credit Card, and Bankruptcy laws, and provide Universal Single-payer, Not-for-profit Health Care passed almost unanimously. The resolution to repeal NAFTA, CAFTA & Withdraw From WTO passed unanimously, but people wanted to change the language from "withdrawing from" to "renegotiating" Nafta.

The resolution for supporting GLBT Rights passed after some debate (one woman called out “no” after each point I read), but eventually it won under the idea that it was about protecting rights. The resolution to find alternatives to the Hutto Detention Facility was tabled (didn’t pass) despite it’s shockingly non-radical language (I would have proposed to shut the facility down). The resolution to End U.S. Intervention Overseas was defeated 40 to 3 and seen as ridiculous (so much for my best efforts to convince Texans that ending all militarism would do any good), but the resolution to create a Department of Peace somehow passed big time with 40+ votes.

There was an interesting discussion about the Resolve the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict resolution which involved a woman saying that it was just a religious thing and she didn’t want to get involved and another woman talking abut her childhood in Palestine, which must have a lot of impact, as it won 30 to 8. No Border Walls in Texas, was tabled. Climate Protection Measures for Texas passed with a strong majority. Immigration Reform and Immigrants' Rights was passed in a highly modified form where all we agreed on was that "regardless of birth place or citizenship, the human rights of all persons in the U.S. shall be protected" so I crossed off the rest.

The process was interesting, as there were many conflicting views in the room, but we managed to come to good decisions together quickly. What happens to the resolutions at the next stage I don't know (they probably get thrown in the trash), but at least for the folks there, I think the proposals made the caucus more than just a vote for a candidate and into something about real ideas for change.

Thanks to the Progressive Action Alliance for getting all of the proposals except the Hutto one together.

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