Okay, I am a transplant from the great red state of Indiana; therefore, I have never caucused before. Being a political junkie and wanting to perform my civic duty and exercise my rights, I set off Saturday morning to caucus in the great state of Washington. After attending Bernie’s rally in Seattle the evening before, they informed me to be there early.

I had to walk (since we only have one car right now- my son needed it for work) to the caucus location. After a 3-mile walk, I arrived about 9 am. The start time of the caucus was scheduled for 10 am. There was no problem with my registration, had my voter id card with me along with the confirmed online sign up form (you can register and sign up onsite). I was expecting the worse since I was a new voter- new Washington resident since October. However, there were no problems, and found my precinct, there were 10 of them at this caucus location (High School Gym).

I sat down and spoke to several people; I did not wear any Sanders’ gear. Therefore, I used my skills as a corporate PM, to figure out whom they were supporting without asking (never play cards against me). Anyway, it was easy to figure out nearly all of them were Sanders’ supports.

What was amazing, besides the experience, was the number of young people. Of the 48 voters in the precinct, there were about 42 voters that were 40 years or younger. That was incredible, and when we voted it was 46 for Sanders and 2 for Clinton- wonderful. Then we had to select delegates (6) for the county and legislative meetings, over 20 of them wanted to be a delegate! It was exciting for me to see all these young people that want to get involved and make a positive difference.

HOWEVER, there is a problem regarding the general election- it is the enthusiasm gap. When people were asked if they want to speak for their candidate, several passionately spoke for Sanders. They spoke about the need for someone to fix the economic inequality and lack of potential future (unaffordable college and no real jobs) for them. Additionally, they did not have kind words for Clinton; many spoke of her in very negative terms. Moreover, the one person that spoke for Hillary did not stress her positive traits (which in my mind would be tough to figure out), but focused on the fact that we cannot allow Trump to be president- Fear. In fact, the caucus leader spoke about not allowing Trump to be our next President. The Clinton supporters’ stressed Fear not the positive traits of their candidate (overheard this from other precincts speeches)

One more item to note, I mingled with the crowd before and after (when they were trying to determine the delegates), and about 75% of these voters said they would not vote for Clinton. They were independents and they know she could not be trusted to represent their needs.

Finally, as I was walking home, luckily one of the Sanders’ voters from my precinct asked if I needed a ride. Sure, I did not need to walk 3 more miles. As we rode, I congratulated him on being selected as a delegate. He said he was happy to represent Bernie, and was hoping he would be the party nominee. I asked him what he would do if Clinton were the party nominate. He said that he could not vote for her in good faith. Okay, then I asked him what he would do- he said he vote for Trump, write in Bernie’s name, or not vote. Well, I say okay, but I guess that his choice would not impact us too much because we are both males, white and in a liberal area (please note this is a bias- sorry). However, here is the kicker, he looked me square in the eye and said that his wife is a migrant from the Middle East. Wow, he hated Clinton so much they he would rather vote for a racist (Trump), that could impact his wife, then vote for her.

Therefore, the moral of this story boys and girls, is Clinton and the Democratic Party leadership have a real major problem, people do not like her or care for her, and that means they will not vote for her no matter the outcome or potential negative consequences of their decision. In summary, the point of this story is they (Clinton, DNC, and KOS) cannot handle the truth- please see the video clip below to emphasis this point.

I hope you enjoyed my first diary of my caucus experience, please forgive any grammatical errors- had to write this story rather quickly because I am at work, but I wanted to share this important information.