The Will of (Only the Healthy) Voters
After the following tidbit, please check out the caucusdebacle blog which focuses on election 2008 & especially the shameful Caucus Skew against Hillary Voters.
Here's a sample of the Caucus Debacle Story:
“Dear Ms. Schultz,
I saw you on CSpan and, like Diogenes no doubt, all but fainted with relief that there was One Media Person not spitting vile or veiled venom at Hillary. Until I saw you, I had no idea just how girded I'd been against the onslaught of misogyny.
Your Back-off Men column (04.06.08) was another boon. But I have what I think of as The Greatest Story Ever Untold about this historic election. If you are as amazed & dismayed as I am, I'm glad to tell the much much more I've learned.
There is a shameful 15% Caucus Skew which cheats Hillary's voters of their rightful share of pledged delegates & popular votes. Hundreds of thousands of older women for Hillary are disappeared in Caucus States because they have a dread of falling and dare not go out to caucus. “Just because I'm sick doesn't mean I can't think!”
This is exactly the kind of grotesque anti-democratic injustice that the (non-lemming) superdelegates were designed to account for in their thinking.
I made thousands of volunteer phone calls into caucus states and was stunned by the extent of, this epidemic of older women for Hillary with a terrible fear of falling. Every 8th call got me a version of “Oh no, dear, I can't caucus, I'm off-balance.” The audacity-of-ignorance mantra of non-reporting told us that Mr. Obama had “superior organization” and more passionate voters. Nonsense. Hillary's disappeared voters didn't lack passion — only an Absentee Ballot. (Hillary didn't “get back the women's vote” in NH because of some tearing up in a diner. More meager-reporting media nonsense. In NH they had the Absentee Ballot.)
Older women are a core group of lifelong Democrats. That they were silenced infuriates them. Why so you think 28% of Hillary supporters said they would vote for McCain or sit out in November? The perception of atrocious misogyny. Of deplorable unfairness.
In <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />Texas, Hillary's voters were plus 4 in the primary & minus 12 in the caucus on the same day. A 16% swing! Suppose we had only seen the caucus results as in Iowa etc? What makes this enormous difference? The Absentee Ballot.
The superdelegates, 2/3 of whom are men, ignore this horrible silencing of older women in Caucus States at the Party's peril. Everyone tiptoes (rightly) around 'race.' 'Gender' may be disdained, but unwisely. If you want backfire, have the superdelegates pretend that the apparent pledged delegate & popular vote count are not a shameful — sickening — sham of faux democracy.
It's not that I'm so smart. It was Vera. Vera in Iowa is 87. She said, “Oh no, honey, I can't caucus, I'm a cripple.” I chirp up, 'Uh, maybe you could vote-by-mail absentee?' “If I can't get there in my body, I don't count.”
I started asking folks why they couldn't caucus. I'm still reeling. I have so much more on this & will talk or email about it anytime of night or day. It is a smoldering volcano of fury in the Democratic Party that the superdelegates must take into account.
Sincerely,”
For more on this Caucus Scandal,
follow caucusdebacle, the blog
…..
excerpt & article image: janosh
I had no idea, pogblog. I will visit caucusdebacle right now and keep up with this story.
I'd still be surprised if it was a 16 percent difference, but it seems like the sort of problem that could/should have been solved a long time ago. You can do so many things these days electronically, caucusing should be one of them.
Look at the Texas numbers (A 16% swing) and the gain of women voters in NH (16% as I recall).
These fear-of-falling folks don't have computers. That's another thing I discovered as I phoned. In the script we were supposed to mention hillaryclinton.com to each phonee. I would say, “If you ever go online, you might want to check out hillaryclinton.com etc.” So few of these older folks (Or Hillary's poorer constituents either) had a computer & it just made them feel kind of 'dumb' & I didn't want to end the phone calls on a downbeat.
This is why, by the way, Mr. Obama's voters tend to have computers & it is a superb way to gather repeat money. I give Hillary 10 bucks every few days so I know. It's not that Hillary's voters wouldn't support her — it's just much more difficult to contact & urge folks by snail mail.