Rig's criticisms of and antipathy toward the caucus system are those of someone who is simply not acquainted with it, as he admits.

First of all, the precinct (neighborhood) caucuses are held in some public location, such as a neighborhood school (generally within easy walking distance), and in a large room, such as the school lunchroom or cafeteria. And it is scheduled on a day and at a time to make it convenient for as many people as possible. The ones I've gone to have been at Lowell Elementary School two blocks from where I live, on Saturdays beginning at 1:00 in the afternoon. Hard to find a time that would be more convenient for most people, and anyone who wanted to come could have, and indeed, was urged to come, through the local media, mailings, posters, and those annoying phone calls you get from political parties ("We need your input! Can you be there? Please try!").

The routine, at least in the caucuses I have attended (most recently 2004, although now I wish very much I had gone last Saturday), is that when you arrive, you sign in the same as when you go to the polls to vote, so they can check the books and make sure that you are a registered voter.

This does not violate one's right to a secret ballot any more than going to a polling place and signing in before you actually mark that secret ballot. Of course, these are party caucuses, and if you go, it can be assumed that you are interested in that party's candidates, although a few members of the opposition party often go just to see what the other guys are up to.

A party official then convenes the meeting and gives a brief explanation to newcomers to caucuses as to what to expect. First, those who already favor a particular candidate gather in groups so they can become acquainted if they aren't already, and discuss things among themselves. "Kerry folks over in the corner by the windows, Dean folks over there" (pointing), Kucinich people in the back corner by the windows. . . ."    And on through the list of those who have declared their candidacy.   Those who are undecided can wander from group to group, listen, and ask questions.

After about half an hour or forty-five minutes, people begin moving from group to group and some of the more confrontational discussions begin as a couple of, say Howard Dean advocates join the Kucinich group and another couple of Dean folks join the Kerry group,   And some of the Kucinich group moves over to the Kerry group, the Dean group, etc. The main bodies of each group stay in their original locations, but there is a general milling around as the Dean folks try to talk the Kucinich folks into shifting over to Dean and vice versa. You get the picture.

This goes on for some time. Then, after some shuffling of people from group to group, the hard-core Dean, Kerry, Kucinich, etc., folks reconvene in their original groups and elect the person or persons from within the group whom they feel will best represent them as delegates to the regional convention. Depending on the extent of the hierarchy in any given state, some Joe Schmoe such as myself, by being elected at a neighborhood caucus as a delegate, could end up as a delegate to the National Convention. That's pretty "grass roots."

As I mentioned in a post above, in 2004, the Kucinich group wanted to elect me as their delegate, but for reasons explained, I had to decline. I think one of the reasons they wanted to choose me was that I had come to the caucus pretty well informed about Kucinich's positions (I had downloaded and printed off a copy of Kucinich's "Ten Key Points" from his website—someone borrowed my copy, dashed off to find a copy machine, and made copies for the rest of the group) and some of his history, particularly when he was mayor of Cleveland and refused to sell a local public utility to private interests. By doing this, he incurring the wrath of a lot of people which cost him the re-election, but who later realized that he'd done the right thing. Personal integrity and the guts to stick to what he knew was right, even when he knew it would cost him—a rare commodity in politics! Oddly enough, most of the Kucinich folks didn't know all this, so I was able to give them some talking points. We gained a few folks from other groups simply by being well-informed.

Kucinich didn't make it, of course, but the caucus was my chance to spread information—and talking points—that I had to the others, who, in turn, became better advocates for the candidate that they wanted. And I learned a great deal about all the candidates that I probably would not have learned any other way. Enough, for example, that when it finally boiled down to John Kerry, I still would have preferred Dennis Kucinich, but I didn't feel all that bad about supporting and voting for Kerry.

This is one of the major values of caucuses. You get to express yourself, exchange information, and learn a lot that you didn't know before about the various candidates, most of which you aren't going to learn from the media.

And during the whole afternoon, we didn't have anyone—party officials—trying to dominate the meeting or cram anything down anyone's throat. There were plenty of heated discussions, but these were between the people on the floor, strongly advocating for their favorite candidate and trying to give reasons why someone else should change their position.

To me—and I think to the other people who were there—it was a very educational, informative, and generally well spent Saturday afternoon.

Don Firth

P. S. If you ignore the caucuses and only vote in the primary, all you have to go on is what the media tells you, plus whatever other information you can pick up, provided you are sufficiently motivated to actually investigate.