Tonight I witnessed two fairly amazing things. First, our BPOU (Basic Politcal Organization Unit) voted overwhelmingly for Ron Paul. Second, we brought four kids with us to the caucus. We had already promised to watch some friends’ kids, so after making sure the parents were okay with us taking theirs to our caucus, away we went!
The vote was something like:
- Ron Paul — 99 votes
- Mitt Romney — 84 votes
- Mike Huckabee — 53 votes
- John McCain — 53 votes
It seems that Romney won the state, but we’ll see how things go. The next phase of our caucus in March 15th. I’m an alternate delegate, so I’ll show up then and see what happens.
Today is caucus day in Minnesota. It’s also primary day in 23 other states. As much as anyone, I’m excited about today and really want to see what happens when the dust has settled. That said, I just read a wonderful piece over on David Kuo’s website that keeps this day in perspective.
The great delusion of the build up to sort-of-interesting Tuesday is that it is SUPREMELY-IMPORTANT Tuesday. It isn’t. It is just a day when the presidential nominating process takes its largest leap forward. It is just a day when primary elections are held from sea to shining sea. It is just [sic] day shaped by politics.
Read more here: http://blog.beliefnet.com/jwalking/2008/02/sortofinteresting-tuesday.html
God is indeed sovereign, no matter who gets the nomination or wins the election. Perhaps just as important is the fact that the American public still holds far more power to affect change than the White House. I find these to be very comforting facts.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m still going to go caucus tonight, and might even stick around to make sure that my unbound delegate will stick to the issues I care about at the next level of the caucus. I’m just not going to get bent out of shape about this whole deal. I’m also going to continue working for change where it really matters — in the lives and hearts of individuals.
I hope you can do the same.
Spurred by a comment from Tina, I did a little looking into Dinesh’s past.
For the Googlers out there: here is some balance to my recommendation from his Wikipedia page and a critique of him from Campus Progress.
I have no idea if the allegations Tina brings up are true, or if they are whether Dinesh has recanted of his behavior. What I can say, is that if true, the actions she reported are extremely unloving, and I would not approve of them.
I guess as with all things, we must investigate the things we hear as well as the person saying them. Caveat lector!
So, on the way home this weekend, I heard a program on NPR that I hadn’t heard before: Word for Word. The premise is simple; the show plays entire speeches that are relevant and being excerpted for sound bites elsewhere. What caught my attention, however, was not the premise, but the content of this particular speech.
The speaker was Dinesh D’sousa. He is a conservative political scientist. He has a new book out, entitled, “The Enemy at Home: The Cultural Left and its Responsibility for 9/11.” The speech was from January 23rd, at the Commonwealth Club of California, located in San Francisco. In the speech he gives a very compelling reason to stay in Iraq until it is stabilized — in fact, it’s the most compelling line of reasoning that I’ve heard thus far. Given that he is defending his premise in front of a mostly liberal and intelligent audience, he got grilled at the end of the speech. I have to say, he is sharp, and did a marvelous job of defending his thesis.
I have not read the book, yet, but hearing his speech made me want to. At any rate, I highly recommend that if you have the time, you listen to his speech. It’s free, and it’s here: Dinesh D’sousa at the Commonwealth Club of California.
I realize that some of you reading this have different politics than Dinesh. That’s fine. That said, it’s well worth hearing a very intelligent viewpoint that’s opposite yours, as doing so is the only way to critically think about your viewpoint.
I hope you enjoy this.
