Front Porch: Caucus a messy, exhilirating experience in participatory democracy

It’s been nearly two weeks now since thousands of people throughout Spokane County took time on a sunny Saturday morning to attend the Washington State Democratic Party caucuses. Bruce and I were two of those people.

Statewide, some 230,000 people got together that day to exercise their responsibilities as citizens participating in their own governance. The numbers statewide were down somewhat from 2008, the year Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were the presidential contenders, when 246,000 Democrats turned out to caucus, according to the Washington State Democratic Party. But it looks like Spokane County may have bucked the trend and actually had higher numbers this year. More on that in a minute.

What was wonderful about our caucus experience wasn’t so much who was or wasn’t endorsed, but the process – the messy, noisy, sometimes confusing and crowded communal gathering of citizens who talked about things of importance to us and about the people we would like to lead the United States of America.

There is something quite special about a caucus, which puts real skin in the game. It involves being there, talking or maybe just listening, but being present. Sure, primaries require commitment, too, but they are more of a drive-by event.

I am still enjoying the afterglow of the experience. It felt like a clean shower during this season of particularly nasty and unseemly campaigning on the national scene. It was neighbor and neighbor getting together to express thoughts and figure stuff out. And sometimes to change minds.

In my particular precinct, the early tally was 38 for Bernie Sanders, 10 for Hillary Clinton and two undecided. Despite the heavy preference for Bernie, there were as many Hillary speakers as there were those for Bernie, and at the end, the two undecideds cast their votes for Clinton.

Sure, one or two people wandered off into the weeds a bit in their presentations, but everyone I heard was concise, polite and attentive – even when being passionate. Civil discourse, how refreshing! Respect was given. I loved it.

There we were, squeezed in with upwards of 1,000 people at Chase Middle School, clustered with others from our precinct waiting for things to get started. For a while I was thinking of Will Rogers’ often-quoted remark: “I’m not a member of any organized political party. I’m a Democrat.”

But as always happens, each precinct found places within the school or outside to get about doing the business we came to do. Mine found a spot in a quiet hall. As it did in 2008, it went smoothly – eventually – and democracy was served. It was participatory democracy at the grassiest of grass roots, as some precincts were actually caucusing out on the lawn.

My son caucused in Seattle, where it was so crowded that his precinct gathered in the playground outside the school. Democracy may be messy, but apparently it has a whimsical side, too. “I caucused from the slide,” Sam said. It also has a bonding effect. Sam observed that he’s been “seeing neighbors around now that I recognize from the caucus. It’s made me more in tune with my area and community.”

My friend Dave Koch, Spokane County Democratic State Committeeman, tells me they were planning and pretty much ready for a large turnout this year. They weren’t in 2008, when approximately 8,800 people caucused in Spokane County from the 3rd, 4th and 6th legislative districts as well as the portions of the 7th and 9th legislative districts that lie within the county.

Dave said final numbers aren’t in yet, but he anticipates a 30 percent growth in attendance in Spokane County over 2008. “We were basically overcrowded at every site,” he said. “I believe when we get a hard count, it will be over 11,000. I personally processed and copied about 25 precincts from the 6th, and I never saw a precinct with under 20-25 participants, and many were well over 100. The average was likely near 40, and there are over 300 (precincts) in the county.”

Another friend, Hugh Davis, who has been a precinct committee officer for more than two decades, remembers when his precinct only had seven participants at caucuses. The times they are a-changin,’ so, may I say with some pride, go Spokane!