Tales from Caucus Land

Our guest blogger today is my friend Ange, who has the distinction of not only being a badass art chick but also a sentient human. I asked her for a quick bit on how it has been having the political onslaught that calls itself a caucus in her Des Moines backyard (and most importantly, her coffee shop.) She offers this:

Here’s my take on the Caucus.  My sister, who has moved around quite a bit in the last ten years contends that citizens of Des Moines are more politically aware than all the other cities she has lived in.  Perhaps it has to do with Des Moines being the only state capital she has lived in but….I think it has to do with the caucus, at least somewhat. An Iowan by the name of Robert Ford wrote a musical based on the caucus and it is currently running at the State Historical building here in town.  It’s called Caucus, The Musical!  Pair that with Jason Walsmith of our second biggest Iowa Rock band (Slipknot is first, no Rock Caucus needed to figure that out) and Kyle Munson, Des Moines Register music reviewer creating a youtube video of the song “Get Out of My Town” and you see how incredibly huge the caucus was this year. When I walked into my coffee shop yesterday morning I could not choose light or dark roast, I had to choose a candidate to get a cup of joe or in my case a cup of Obama, who won both the Zanzibar Coffee Caucus and THE Caucus.

Jason Walsmith’s song, “Get out of My Town” targets the ludicrous part of the caucus.  The media frenzy, the dramatic speeches, the eating in diners with commoners, etc. all gets tiring after awhile and I found myself asking but what are you actually going to do?  It’s fun to actually see Bill, Oprah, Kevin.  Chuck Norris, not so much.  But it would be more fun to see some change.

Did I caucus?  (It’s a verb, it’s a noun, in the case of Jason Walsmith it’s probably an expletive.)  No, I did not.  I am a costume designer and was in rehearsal.  I really wanted to this year because it seems oh so much more important and I feel like the country has been trusting those bozos in DC far too long.  I feel like I’ve been saying “ Okay, I don’t think I can trust you with this responsibility but I guess I have to.”  Now I’m saying “ Move over idiot, let me drive!”    And the caucus lets Iowans drive for just a tiny bit.

~ by pands on January 5, 2008.