Nevada Caucus

Today's the day that Nevada voters will turn out to caucus for the candidate of their choice. I've spent a lot of time figuring out what this means. And it obviously means something..the candidates have been here a lot. There is more enthusiasm than I can remember for this race for the presidency. We've been getting about 6 calls a night asking if we're voting in the caucus and asking who we're voting for. It's gotten so bad that we lift the phone and put it back in the cradle.

So what does caucus mean. You publicly declare who you're for. You receive a paper ballot and declare your choice. People than physically stand in groups of people who are for the same candidate. I met a Democratic precinct committee man on my job last week and he told me how it works. If your candidate doesn't have a lot of votes, enough to elect a representative to the county election to select a rep to the state convention, then you have a chance to change your affiliation. Some people can remain uncommitted or they can move to one of the more popular candidates. At the end of the process, the number of delegates elected to the county convention is based on the percentage of total votes that are polled. Is that clear? I didn't think so. I think it's akin to a straw poll to see who has the most support. But you are seriously selecting people who will carry your opinion and vote to the next level. That is the county level. That vote will send people to the state vote and ultimately to the national conventions.

What I find most interesting is the number of young people who have gotten involved in this process. My granddaughter is campaigning for Obama this weekend in South Carolina. She's a college student in Florida. I love seeing this phenomenon.

Most people are apathetic about politics as long as nothing interferes with their life, in my opinion. There seems to be more turmoil in our society. All the greedy people have gotten us into a pickle. Here's what has happened in the past 8 years:

Less Clean Water

Less Clean Air

Ability to pollute and not have to report

No Jail Time for intelligence agencies that break the law

Spying without a warrant – no actions taken

Spying is fine, spying on US citizens is fine if done according to the law – with oversight

Bankruptcy laws that favor credit card companies

Not a single word or action about the malfeasance in the “sub prime housing market”

No actions on the malfeasance and failure of fiduciary responsibilities of the loan originators

Allowing loans to be made to people to pay that clearly do not have the ability to pay

Laws that are so blatantly favor big business to the detriment of the average person

Invading and occupying another country – a single hellfire missile locked to Saddam’s cell phone location would have been a lot cheaper

Not allowing Medicare to negotiate for better pricing from the drug companies

Why not regulate the price of oil -$50 a barrel?

US schools continue to aim low and are successful

We should have:

Social Security Tax on all income – no cap -- will not impact anyone with an income under $102,000 a year

Build “Free Hospitals” and not give money to insurance companies

Doctors and nurses can work in the Free Hospitals vs. Paying Taxes

Wal-Mart drives cost and profit to supplies down – why can’t the US Government adopt the same strategy?

I think all of the above are reasons that more people will become involved in the political process than ever before. And hurray for us that we can do this. Hurray for us that whoever is elected will be our president for the next 4 years. Change will not happen by bloodshed but by the ballot. I'm very proud to be an American. If we want change we are free to elect a candidate that will make it happen.