What are you doing Tuesday night? I’ve got my fingers crossed that Parenthood will finally have a new episode on TV. Otherwise, I’ll finish the book I’m reading called the Marriage Gift, about slavery before the Civil War. “You’re not going to a caucus?” you ask. No, I’m not. I pre-wrote a column about the last presidential cycle when there were lines to get into the caucuses. That election for me was all about hope and the possibility that change would bring.
After those years of Bush, I was ready for change – any change. Obama fed into my long-held belief in participatory democracy – that we CAN make a difference. That was then, this is now.
Really, who cares about the caucus or a primary other than the party faithful? I don’t. No matter your party affiliation, or non-party affiliation, if you’re like me, you’re fed up to the gills with all the ads, the debates and pundit reviews. I’m sick of the Republican candidates tearing each other apart … I want to know the candidates’ plans for making it possible for me to retire in five years,an impossibility now that my retirement savings has tanked I want to know how my grandkids are going to possibly pay for college. I want to know how, as our standard of living is decreasing, we are going deal with the excesses of our past- the empty suburbs to nowhere, roads that are crumbling and the pollution that is starving off our environment. I want to know why we’re talking about war with Iran. I didn’t buy the story about nuclear warheads in Iraq, and I don’t buy it about Iran.
If I thought my going to a caucus would make any difference at all, you bet I’d go. I expressed my views this morning to my son, he was a bit surprised. “You’ve gotten quite cynical,” he said. Yes I have. I don’t have the energy anymore to put up the good fight for the issues I believe in. I feel stomped on, spit upon and cast aside by a government (both parties included) that I once so believed in. I will continue to advocate for a better Minnesota, a better Burnsville – but as far as attending a caucus – well I have so many better things to do with my time.
Just in case you’d like to attend,here’s information you should no. All caucuses will convene on Tuesday, Feb. 7 at 7 p.m. To find out where your caucuses will be held, click here.
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