Joyce L. Arnold, Liberally Independent, Queer Talk, equality activist, writer.
By now it’s predictable that I’ll say something about the predictability of the primary / caucus season and the breathless “reporting” that provides the sound bite of the day.
Oooh, oooh! Look! It’s New Hampshire! It’s South Carolina! It’s Florida! It’s – wait, let me check the calendar – it’s Nevada!
It’s what passes for a “democratic” election process. And while I won’t give up hope that enough people will keep working toward reforms and changes, in the meantime, ignoring what’s happening isn’t a good option. It isn’t a pleasant option, but then, it never has been, so I’ll draw on my experience.
Occupy had, has and plans to have a presence at / in the primary and caucus process, as well as planning Occupy Congress, Occupy the Dream, Occupy the Corporations, likely some kind of Occupy the Conventions, and other nationally coordinated actions. “Third” parties are active; reform efforts are active. On left and right, lots of people haven’t experienced much if any “change” they can “believe in,” not in addressing their real life situations.
But in spite of the odds against them, people are making efforts to say “enough.” Via a press release by Occupy the New Hampshire Primary:
From January 6th to January 10th, Occupy NH invites you to ‘Occupy the
New Hampshire Primary …’We want to highlight our concerns, which are often absent from the candidates’ speeches and media reports.
Events include marches, debates, street theater, workshops, and entertainment. Occupy NH respects the right of every NH voter and will in no way interfere with the voting process.
From the Facebook page of Occupy South Carolina:
Believe it or not, we do not want to end all corporations. We aren’t anti-America. As a matter of fact, we love our country and hate what the crooks looking out for their own wallets before the American people have done to our country. …
No matter your race, religion, political affiliation, creed, or beliefs, we are all being abused and taken advantage of by corporations, banks, Congress, … etc.
And, via the Palm Beach Post:
Florida Legislature to open with unhappy activists on left and right …
Unhappy with the GOP’s stronghold on the state’s executive and legislative branches, activists on the left will be in the Capitol to drum up support for the 2012 elections and to remind Republicans that, with more than half of the state’s voters registered as Democrats, their opinions count, too.
And tea partiers, who say their agenda has been largely ignored by GOP legislative leaders, will be prowling the halls to warn lawmakers that they’re not giving up and that they’ll be back at the ballot boxes in November as well.
Since none of this has (yet; I refuse to give up hope) stopped the Two Party Engine from chugging across the land, I thought I’d provide a primary / caucus calendar, which can either alert you or warn you, depending on how you look at it. So, the calendar as it now exists is below, via Front Loading HQ. There are still some unknowns, including “several caucus states” which “have yet to select a date for the first step in their delegate selection processes.”
And then there’s Texas, awaiting the Supreme Court decision about the Republican Elected’s redrawn districts. So here in Texas, we really don’t know when we’ll caucus / primary vote. And by the way, long ago, when Texas was a blue state, the Democratic Electeds played the same kind of district drawing games. Of course, that’s definitely NOT an “only in Texas” kind of game.
2012 Caucus / Primary Calendar
January
3: Iowa
10: New Hampshire
21: D- Nevada; R- South Carolina
28: D- South Carolina
31: Florida
February
4: R- Nevada; Maine
7: D- Missouri; R- Colorado, Minnesota, Missouri (non-binding)
28: Michigan; R- Arizona
March
3: R- Washington
6:(Super Tuesday) Georgia, Massachusetts, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, Virgin Islands; D- Colorado, Minnesota; R- Alaska, Idaho, North Dakota, Wyoming.
7: D- Hawaii
10: R- Kansas
11: D- Maine
13: Alabama, Mississippi; D- Utah; R- American Samoa , Hawaii
17: R- Missouri
18: R- Puerto Rico
20: Illinois
24: Louisiana
31: D- Arizona
April
3: Maryland, Texas, DC, Wisconsin
14: D- Idaho, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming
15: D- Alaska, Washington
24: Connecticut, Delaware, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island
May
5: D- Florida, Michigan
8: Indiana, North Carolina, West Virginia
15: Nebraska, Oregon
22: Arkansas, Kentucky
June
5: California, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, South Dakota; D- North Dakota
26: Utah
Yet to decide/be confirmed: R- Guam and Northern Mariana. Of course, not all primaries and caucuses are created equal, as far as votes actually counting to choose the one-of-two-party nominees. But the System must be preserved, so what are you gonna do if you live in a state that’s too late and/or too small, but play the gamed hand your dealt.
(2012 Primary/ Caucus Map viaFrontLoading HQ)
In political history things tend to move slowly. Eventually whats happening now will most probably have a profound effect on how the country is governed but I doubt it will happen any time soon. For this election it’s the same old story with some static around the edges. If all the various groups have the effect of at least waking people up to whats been done to them it will be enough until 2016 or 2020. It is possible that by then our current and future predicament will have taken on a life of it’s own.
I think your time frame is very likely correct. Changing the “system” is the long-haul, up-hill kind of process. And maybe that’s one reason the every-four-years time frame keeps working. It’s just long enough to feed the “maybe this time it will be different” hopefulness.
I really appreciate your thoughtful comments, fangio.
I’m reminded of that bit of Hemingway dialogue in which a character describes how he went broke: “Two ways. Gradually, and then suddenly.” I think whatever the result is of these movements, it will probably seem that way. There will be lots of work and sacrifice on the part of the people who organize it, and then at some point things will tip in a different direction, and that will all seem rather sudden.
And yes, I hope we don’t go broke in the interim.
Great quote, Cujo. It fits very well. It reminds me of a conversation with a friend, active in the LGBT equality movement for decades, when she heard someone exclaiming over “how fast we got to 10,000″ at a Nashville Pride Festival: “Well,” she said, “if I was still that young, and didn’t know how many years it took to get to the first thousand, I’d probably think it was fast, too.”
There’s that moment of “critical mass,” when things shift and speed up. I think we’re getting closer to that point. I don’t know how close, but closer.
And in the mean time it IS kinda fun watching the repugnantklan/teabagger crabs in a barrel primary scramble!!!
It’s definitely a “scramble,” with the scrambling becoming more fast and furious as time runs out for most.