SRO at the DFL

Caucusing tonight was the most disorganized event I've seen in a long time. The notion of it is to "gather with your neighbors and talk about what's important in this election." But there were so many people there, that you were already invading people's sense of personal space even before you opened your mouth and started some passionate discussion of the issues.

My goodness. It was like Christmas at the mall. Cars circling the jammed middle school parking lot, hoping a space will open up. Enormous lines to get to the cash register (read: registration table), and that's *if* you could find which room your precinct was using (and that's *if* you knew your precinct - you couldn't get to the city maps posted on the walls, too many people crammed in front of them.)

And the preference ballots.. they looked like a 10 year old had made them up on some off-brand trial version of word processing software that came bundled with their PS2. Nobody was in charge, except this one guy in a ball cap and a three day beard who seemed very sincere, and very haggard (already - and the caucus hadn't started yet.)

But doggone it! This is American politics at its unpolished best, shirt untucked and a little parsley still in the teeth from dinner. :) I'm glad I went. Even though it seemed like a foreign country, being in liberal territory like this. I was glad I could escape to a bastion of conservatism - an Evangelical seminary!

Ha - except that a third of them are Obama supporters, too. ;) So much for Evangelicals voting monolithically; I think there's an undercurrent of change swirling through the immersion tank..