Caucusing

I attended the local Democratic caucus today. Although I'm rather undecided, I have come to the conclusion that I just don't like Hillary. There are a few specific issues with both candidates but a lot of it's personality. Although having either a woman or a black man in office marks a significant turning point in the American presidency, I feel that Hillary has been more committed to the establishment in the past few years as senator. In contrast, I also feel that Obama is more able to bring a voice from the people to Washington. Sure that's fuzzy but I think personality matters more than ideals in this case because the President is really only able to do so much. Congress currently has a 22% approval rating, something tells me they might get stirred up and more Democrats in office at the next election. But we'll see.

So no Hillary supporters convinced me and I, like 90% of our precinct, voted for Obama. Seriously, we had 99 people, which resulted in 10 Obama delegates and 1 Clinton delegate. I volunteered to be one of the delegates so on April 5th, I am going to the County convention.

At the county convention, I will also be able to vote on the county platform. In order to be part of that process, I volunteered for the Platform Committee which will meet in two weeks. The LGBT part of county platform is weak, especially compared to the very Progressive ideals in other sections. It is almost as though no gay people actually were part of making it. Today, we brainstormed more ideas including support for a fully-inclusive ENDA (and local variations), expanding domestic partnership rights/benefits, HIV/AIDS eduction, trans prisoners, and the aging LGBT population. I think it's a good start. I also have some ideas for talking about agriculture and the environment.

Yay! I feel empowered!