"The body politic": Some thoughts on caucusing
For those interested, I've posted my impressions of the caucus format (as I experienced it) at redblueamerica.com.
This site is best seen with Firefox
Creative Commons
The Meridian gently directs you toward . . .
Networked Blogs
Subscribe
Popular Posts
-
A stretch of the railroad between Fitchburg and Concord. Image found here . One would think that there'd be no need to write someth... -
. . . like, you know, asking nicely. EMAW_KC over at 3 O'Clock in the Morning , the host of the Kansas Guild of Bloggers, asks us other ...
-
Some comments inspired by chapter one of Mignolo's The Idea of Latin America, first mentioned here . UPDATE: Now, a bit more readable (... -
Hello, all. It's been fairly busy around here as the new semester approached and has now arrived and, moreover, combined with a dearth ... -
Your correspondent's arrival to last Tuesday's department meeting? Naah--it's really Tompkins H. Matteson's Rip Van Winkle&... -
A still from Humphrey Bogart's first scene in Casablanca . On the set, Bogart played chess with Claude Rains and Paul Henried; it was B... -
It's been pretty quiet 'round these parts as the summer begins to wind down and August and the new semester approach. But I recentl... -
Room for the Sky , taken somewhere in Chase County, Kansas, by Dave Leiker. Click on image to enlarge. Image found here . As mentioned in ... -
. . . it's okay if it passed without your knowing. No fireworks, no mass rallies, not even a mention on the cable news chyrons. It was...
-
Fuentes, standing in front of the Aztec Sun Calendar at the National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City. Image found here . Carlos Fue...
Books and music
News and Meta-News
Buttons
Directories
2 comments:
John,
Here's something that I just left over at your redblueamerica.com post:
The caucus format humanizes voting such that, while I was certainly happy with Obama's win, I neither gloated nor questioned the mental fitness of the Edwards and Richardson supporters. Instead, I admired them for feeling so strongly about their candidates. Seeing as most public political debate occurs these days online, anything that turns pixels into people has some value.
John, that is a profound and wise point. It can be taken in a couple of different ways, of course; one could argue, for instance, that a humanization of the political process and of one's political opponents reflects a consensual, but also somewhat aristocratic, ideal, an ideal of politics and elections as partaking of a kind of respectful gentility, something we lost a century ago in America, if not sooner. Now that we're stuck with competitive fights over money and power in our elections, maybe such an ideal is out of place. But let me admit instead to the argument for seeing your point in its best sense: that our politics ought to have more humanity and community and gentility to them; that maybe, if we all took it upon ourselves to do this sort of thing more often, we'd get better at it, and the stockyard element of it would fade away.
Anyway, it's not surprising that Obama does best in caucus-contests; whether I'm a true believer in it or not, that's the language he's speaking. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. (And hey--we really ought to meet one of these days. Y'know--have caucus, as it were.)
Russell,
Thanks for the kind words.
And yes to meeting soon. I'll be in touch.
Post a Comment