Super Tuesday erupts in MN: A student’s perspective

When compared to any other form of democracy, caucuses in 2016 can best be described as one word: chaos. After spending several hours with dozens of neighbors crammed into a small classroom, debating countless detailed resolutions, voting for candidates on unofficial paper ballots, and watching the leaders try to get as many people as they could to become delegates, it is definitely an experience I won’t forget. But although an exciting and informative experience, I still wonder whether it really is the best form of a primary election- It is incredibly disorganized and hard to manage well but still serves as a great way for people to get involved and a living embodiment of the phrase “Government is for those who show up.”

When you think of your typical circus show, you think of merry-go-rounds, acrobats, and a profusion of clowns. In my experience observing the Republican caucuses at Orono Middle School, I found a handful of rightists who seemed relatively well informed on the presidential race and a vast majority of self-proclaimed Republicans who simply had no idea what they were talking about. As I listened to the politically educated spar with the politically uneducated, I noticed two underlying arguments: Donald Drumpf is a demagogue and Donald Drumpf is just what this nation needs. Now I may be a full-fledged liberal, yet I once aligned with the right and I can safely say, as someone who keeps up to date with the election, that the vast majority of caucus-goers simply didn’t contribute to the political process. Rather, these attendees merely provided me with some fascinating and outright laughable ‘political commentary.’