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But sionnsar, what happened at our caucus is not what happened at other caucuses!! That is the point! The more I think about it, the more I come to the conclusion that ours was run incorrectly. Most of the people there had no idea what was supposed to take place, so they didn't speak up either. Good luck getting many of them to show up again as that was a boring waste of time (heck, the first 30 minutes was just sitting around doing NOTHING waiting for 1:30 to begin "voting"!!!). I could have just signed the sheet at the beginning and left and not wasted 90 minutes of my life.

I'm reading that about three different processes took place in the caucuses around the state:

--Ours merely voted for delegates who can then be for whomever they want. It was a process and then it was over.
--Some spent most of the time discussing the platform.
--Some discussed the candidates and then wrote down their preferences and elected delegates to carry their preference forward. This is what I thought was going to happen - that I would perhaps have an opportunity to talk someone out of voting for McCain and maybe convince someone to be a Romney or Huckabee delegate from our precinct. I never heard Romney's name mentioned once in that room because there was no discussion allowed!

I asked - twice - about process and one was explicitly about debate and discussion and I was told (in not so many words) now was not the time. I was told that the delegates could be for whomever they want, regardless of what the precinct members wished. That is how I came to the conclusion that if I didn't volunteer to be a delegate, my beliefs weren't going to be heard. My little "nay" to the "voting" for the Paul delegate wasn't even heard and didn't mean anything anyway.

So the answer is, unless I am willing and able to devote large amounts of time and money to become extremely active in the party to tilt against the windmills of the party elite to change the way they are doing this, then I just have to bend over and take it. I can't, so I'm through playing their game.

They wonder why people are cynical about politics......

SW ... I am really sorry that you feel the way you do, but I am going to throw it right back at you. If you want to change the world, dont b*tch about how it is not easy to do it. If it were too easy, we would have anarchy. Process is put in place to separate the wheat from the chaff.

You my friend, just identified yourself as chaff.

There are basically 5 levels of commitment to politics in this state.

1. Non-voter ... (aka sheep)
2. voter
3. caucus goer
4. activist
5. elected

Now, you participated at the 3rd level, and dont like that to change things, you would have to get to at least level 4. Well boo frickin hoo to you. The reason that Washington has become Massachusetss Left is because people like you stay home in droves.

The party aparatchink are becoming more and more liberal ... and its because they care and you dont. People like you dont want to invest “large amounts of time and money”. Gimme a friggin break!

You wanna know what the large amount of time required to be a PCO is? Here is your large amount time ... 2 hrs a month for a PCO meeting, and you dont have to go. Leading up to the elections, you may be asked to sit in a phone bank, or doorbell ... but it is not required. Get yard signs (at the monthly meetings) and distribute them to other R’s in your precint that you know. Oh, and going to a training on how to run a caucus ... but you would not be interested in that cause its a waste of time right.

Now, if you ARE committed to change, and you ARE willing to invest time, you do things in the off season, like doorbell on issues, identify which neighbors are R vs D, L vs C. You enter info into the voter vault and mine it to help in GOTV campaigns. You read up on the issues and understand all sides, and create compelling arguements to pull your neighbors to your views.

The financial commitment ... mostly gas. Maybe participating in a raffle at the PCO meeting if you go.

My guess is that most precincts did not select thier full slate of delegates yesterday. Heck, I know as a fact that we have a huge number of precints without PCO’s. In most cases, if you want to be the PCO, just ask, and you will be appointed. If your PCO did not show up yesterday ... maybe they lost interest, and you could be appointed. Regardless, even if you are not the PCO, you can help your PCO. Lord knows it would be a lot easier to do things in my precinct if others were willing to help.

Sorry for piddlin on your parade bud, but I am not buying what you are selling. The only way to stop liberalism is for you to get off your rusty dusty and invest 1/10th the amouont of time that you spend on FR bitzen about liberalism and actually do something about it!