I don’t usually talk about politics around Nerdflood, but now seems like a good time to start. Last night, I participated in my first ever caucus, and I have to say, I am fairly pleased with how the process works.

There are some detractors who think that the Democratic party caucus process is “undemocratic”. I have to say, you need to experience it to understand what it truly means.

Since I live in a small town, I got to caucus in our school commons area with about 150 other people. And these weren’t just any random people off the street — these were my friends and neighbors. People I see at the grocery store, people I see at church. My son’s teachers and principals, the crazy lady at the post office. They were all there, together, and I got to just talk politics with everyone for an hour. I heard passionate viewpoints about candidates from people I had seen around town and never bothered to talk to. I attempted to coax our church’s sound technician into betraying Hillary to join our Obama camp. He did the same. There was an insanely high number of voting-age high schoolers attending. An Edwards supporter that knew my dad came over and introduced himself and talked about unions (my dad is a Republican scab that works for the county roads department). It was amazing to hear everyone’s opinion and get to understand so many differing viewpoints.

Our caucus only lasted a little over an hour, and we ended up being able to send two delegates for Obama. All in all, I feel it was an hour well spent, and I would do it again. If only for the opportunity to crawl out of my shell with my fellow citizens and talk about politics for a little while. The process reminded me of what Democrats represent: standing together with your friends and neighbors and socially debating issues of importance. Who wants to walk into a room and do nothing more than check a box on a piece of paper? Where’s the interaction? The discussion? The debate? The social relevance? I consider the ideal Democratic viewpoint to be essentially socialism without the crushing economic woes. And I wasn’t disappointed in the least by my experience last night.