We recently had our neighborhood caucuses for our state. My mother was precinct chair and spent a long time preparing for the caucus and meeting candidates. I was looking forward to caucus even though I am not old enough to participate. My brother and I spent a long time checking people in, there were a lot of people there.
The first election was the precinct chair. My mother ran for it again, and also the person who had been chair before her, who had told people last caucus to vote for my mom. It was mentioned that this position came with a state delegate position, so the question was asked who they would vote for at convention. My mom said that she didn't want our current senator back, he has been there long enough, and longer than the senator who was before him when he said the other senator had been there too long. She was leaning towards another candidate, but was still in the deciding process. The other person said they were not happy with all the out of state money that was trying to get our senator out, and that they supported the senator.
When the votes were tallied, my mom had lost by about 30 votes out of about 150. A lot of people had been getting phone calls saying to go support the senator at your caucus, and so lots of people did. After my mom said she didn't support the senator, many people would not vote for her for anything. She didn't get vice chair, which doesn't even have a state delegate spot, she didn't get any state delegate spot, in fact, we were surprised when another person who supported the same person my mom was leaning toward was elected a state delegate. My guess is that because they have served as a local leader in our church they were voted in. Somebody suggested that my mom be secretary, which she didn't want to do. The only thing she was elected to was a county delegate. We were depressed for several days after all the work we had gone through to make sure it ran smoothly and on getting the word out so people would get there, just to be pushed aside with no thought as to what we had done.
The main problem here is the people were not educated. They came not having a clue who was in any of the races other than our senator who they were told to support because lots of out of state money was being spent to get him out. The kicker is, the phone calls they were getting were paid for by an out of state organization that nobody knows who is behind it. Most of the people didn't take the time to research the candidates, most of them will believe anything the establishment tells them.
We have been getting mailers for and against the senator for several weeks, and it is interesting looking at the reasons that are being made. We got a large booklet from someone against the senator listing several things he has done, a little bit later we got another large booklet for the senator refuting what had been mentioned in the other booklet. The interesting thing I noticed was that the information could be twisted depending on how you look at it. For instance, it was said that the senator had voted for several things that were not good for the country, it was refuted that he did not vote for the final bill. His voting very well could have caused the bill to progress further in the earlier stages.
One thing that worries me is that the person who was elected chair did not know that the senator had voted for NDAA, nor did they even know what that was. For those of you that don't know, that act makes it possible for you to be arrested, and not charged with anything, totally taking away your Habeas Corpus rights. I admit I need to look into the bill a little further, and do some research of its constitutionality, but from what I can tell so far, it is not constitutional, and it worries me. I am so tired of the people in Washington D.C. trampling the constitution down over and over and over again. It bothers me that our president thinks that the constitution is obsolete. How is it obsolete!?! The principles it was founded on did not change!
What we need is educated voters. Educated on the candidates, educated on the issues, and most importantly, educated on the constitution. A few books I suggest are The 5000 Year Leap and The Making of America, both by Cleon Skousen. I have learned so much from The Making of America. One thing I like about it is it takes the constitution in small chunks, and tells you what that part means, the discussion on it during the constitutional convention, and how it affects our country. I do have to give you fair warning though, the section on the 16th amendment is very depressing. It made me sick. Not because of what was said about it, (although, how it was said what it does was a rude awakening) but because of how it came about.
Wow, I had no idea where I would get here, I hope this was enlightening for you. This is an area I feel strongly about. Sometimes I want to give up on politics, but then I think, "If I leave this arena, who will be left?" The answer is not a pretty one; those that don't care, those who are uneducated, those who are indoctrinated, and those who are power-hungry.
