[Mpls] caucuses

[fmarkus]

I really like precinct caucuses. they are as close to the ground as one can
get in the partisan political process. 

I recently explained about caucuses, conventions and the like to elderly
East African-Americans, American citizens all, who live in Minneapolis
public housing highrises.  This via MHRC's excellent staffer Abdirizak Said,
with the able assistance of MHRC's executive director, Barb Harris, and with
occasional linguistic interventions by the participants themselves. For the
record, we conducted this dialogue - and it was a fruitful exchange - on a
nonpartisan basis that will lead to further informative sessions later in
the campaign season when other interested parties and processes start
showing up on the calendar. 

The caucuses are intimate settings. Especially for folks like these who take
their new citizenship very seriously, caucuses are on a less-threatening
scale than conventions with hundreds of participants and elaborate
processes. Candidates are real people in these smaller settings. Even if
there are 150 people in the room, that's still a venue that tolerates
translation. When there are 10 or 20 people in the room, there are real
conversations whatever the individual differences among the participants.

This is an environment where civics is real - where democracy is physical -
where local concerns can be vocalized and opinions evaluated. When we go to
vote at the public polling stations or by absentee ballot, there is no
comparable opportunity for person-to-person dialogue in a small group
setting.

In contrast, meetings that assume ready access to transportation - we all
have cars, right? - that depend heavily on the printed word and nowadays the
Internet (see the grand websites that are now blossoming), large meetings
with processes that speak to more experienced participants in a familiar
vocabulary more reminiscent of college courses than block clubs, busy
environments daunting to old folks, immigrants, renters of every age, people
with various disabilities ... are frankly elitist.

At precinct caucuses, the folks who are there are purposive: not passive
marketing targets inundated with mailings and robocalls and unsolicited
knocks on the door. Sure, some of us are old hands at this sort of thing but
I for one feel obliged to pass my experience along to others not so
advantaged and it's much easier to go this route at the precinct caucus
level rather than try to work with people "cold turkey" in larger venues.

Fred Markus, Phillips West, Ward 6       



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