Willingly Outside the Process

Fact: Idaho is holding presidential caucuses this year on an unprecedented scale, and frenzied pitches ranging from local Republican operatives to the highest of higher-ups at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are urging us to participate, no matter our political affiliation.

Fact: This country is not ruled by the majority, but by the majority that shows up.

Fact: Republicans are allowing only registered Republicans to participate in the caucus, and the Democrats are being smug about the fact that they don’t have such a requirement.

Conundrum: What is a politically-unaffiliated individual such as myself to do?

Conclusion: Chances are about 99.9% as of now that I will not attend.

The smugness of the Democrats is unappealing:

The likelihood of R’s participating in ours is slim and if they do I don’t think they would change any outcomes. The caucuses are party run events I personally think the R’s are hurting themselves as far as limiting participation to only “registered” Republicans.

The legalese of the Republicans is also unappealing.

The partisanship of both is, well, unappealing.

Does this make me cynical and an icky person if I elect not to declare a party affiliation and not participate in the caucuses? I understand the reasoning behind wanting to close primaries – the dirty tricks popularized in the Michigan primaries show what happens when members of the “other” party try to game the other party’s election – but why does the misbehavior of a few have to make our political process more difficult to become involved in, rather than simpler? Oh yeah. Honesty goes out the window when politics is involved.

Yes, I am a cynical crumb. The facts point to me breaking my pointing stick.