On Tuesday night, I attended my first-ever caucus. I teach civics education at a state university and am affiliated with the Center for Constitutional Studies. I am heavily involved in grass-roots women’s political engagement, and I always vote.
But I’ve avoided caucuses like the plague. And, if my experience Tuesday night was any indication of our caucus system, I was right to.
I’d been told caucuses highlight the most extreme voices, something I don’t identify with. It’s a long night away from the kids. And I’ve heard of disorganization and flippancy in the handling of ballots. In my caucus, presidential ballots were handed en masse down the row. Let’s hope no one grabbed a few extra to stuff into the ballot box.
But the most significant reason I have not been to a caucus is that I am hearing impaired. Born with a mild loss that slowly worsened over time, I obtained my first hearing aids at age 20. Then, suddenly, in my 40s I lost all hearing in one and then the other ear. I was implanted with cochlears, which give me near perfect hearing in a sound box, but I still struggle in noisy settings with poor acoustics. I knew caucuses would be difficult.
I knew I would not understand much, so I never elected to go.
This year, I finally took the leap because I have come to realize that we only get the quality of government we are willing to work for and demand. So I asked my husband to accompany me and to “translate” when I missed what was being said — which was most of it.
This should not be the way one votes. Ideally, no American’s voting process is dependent on another. In a democratic republic, “the most basic right of all was the right to vote,” as President Lyndon Johnson reminded Americans in his speech before the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. “[A]bout this there can and should be no argument,” he said. “There is no duty which weighs more heavily on us than the duty we have to ensure that right.”
function onSignUp() { const token = grecaptcha.getResponse(); if (!token) { alert("Please verify the reCAPTCHA!"); } else { axios .post( "https://8c0ug47jei.execute-api.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/dev/newsletter/checkCaptcha", { token, env: "PROD", } ) .then(({ data: { message } }) => { console.log(message); if (message === "Human
