Readers Write (March 3): Precinct caucuses, abortion, Howard Root

With some trepidation, I attended my DFL caucus Tuesday evening at Roosevelt High School in south Minneapolis. To be blunt: Chaos reigned. When I arrived at 6:30, two lines ran from the front doors of the high school down the steps, then in opposite directions down the street and around the corner. After about 25 minutes on the sidewalk, I made it into the building a little before the official start at 7 p.m. only because I knew my ward and precinct, which allowed me to skip the longer, slower line.

Our precinct met in the school library. When we signed in, they gave us a little square of paper that looked like a second-grader had cut it, and it contained the names of the presidential candidates. We put these "ballots" in a small cardboard file box on the checkout desk in the library with a hole cut out of it that, again, looked like a second-grader had been at work with a dull scissors.

When the caucus began at 7:10, there were about 100 people in the room. The convener went over the rules and started taking names for county, city and state DFL convention delegates. None of these was contested because there were barely enough volunteers to fill the delegate slate, and no one to fill the alternates.

When they started moving on to taking resolutions, I decided to leave. When I did, I was stunned to see that about 500 people were in the hall, a city block long, waiting to sign in, get their square of paper and "vote" for their presidential candidate. This was at 7:45, 15 minutes before the caucus was going to end at 8 p.m. When I went down to the first floor, there were similar masses of people in the halls waiting to get into other precinct caucuses.

This is what I call the illusion of democracy.

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I joined around 300,000 Minnesotans who made it out to caucus — in an election with huge stakes. But in a general election, closer to 3 million of us make our voices heard. Party leaders, elected officials: It's long past time to embrace the primary.

The caucus process is completely skewed toward white-collar voters. Caucusing — and having to be there at 7 p.m. — disenfranchises hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans who work in retail, restaurants, theaters, hospitals and more. At the very least, absentee ballots should be allowed — or, to be truly inclusive, early voting. My mother, in the Super Tuesday state of Tennessee, was able to cast her ballot on Feb. 23. (Tennessee: More progressive than Minnesota? You betcha.)

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As a Wisconsinite living in Minnesota, I must say it is refreshing to live in a state where the Republicans did not fall into the trap of voting for Donald Trump. With Marco Rubio winning Minnesota and Donald Trump placing third, the Minnesota GOP showed that it values functioning government and sane politics over bigotry, hatred and fear. Thank you.

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Bernie Sanders may have pulled off a win in Minnesota, but come the Democratic National Convention in July, his commanding 17-delegate lead over Hillary Clinton in this state will be much narrower, thanks to the party's superdelegate system. Fifteen of our state's 16 superdelegates have pledged their support for Clinton. These party officials and elected officials pose a severe threat to the democratic process, bypassing the voice of the people and upholding the status quo. We expect our elected officials to uphold the values and opinions of their constituents, and on Tuesday those constituents made it clear their support was with Sanders. The people have spoken. Will our elected officials listen?

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Who are the Democrats excited about? In Vermont, New Hampshire, Colorado, Minnesota and Massachusetts, the socialist Democrat Bernie Sanders had astounding performances, losing only the very latter. So Sanders may pose just as much a problem for Democrats as Trump poses for Republicans. If these historic Democratic strongholds don't pivot to Clinton once she wins the nomination, Democrats may face a problem come the general election. This problem would be an upturned electoral map if both parties' respective front-runners are on the ballot come Nov. 8. Imagine an election in which the Democratic base is unmotivated in states like New Jersey, Nevada, Massachusetts, Colorado, Pennsylvania and New York, putting those states in play, perhaps, for Republicans.

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The caucus system is a form of voter suppression practiced by Democratic and Republican elites, when compared with the turnout you get with a primary system. Neither party wants to engage moderates at this point in the election process. Moderates are not pure enough for them. The smaller, more-extreme cadre of true believers, both liberal and conservative, allow them to better craft platforms designed to excite and engage their bases. This contributes to the mind-set by those who run for Congress and president that compromise is a dirty word.

The last words of the March 2 commentary "The fate of Roe vs. Wade runs through O'Connor" reveals the callousness and intellectual dishonesty of the pro-abortion mind-set. Linda Hirshman laments that a Supreme Court decision that might continue the progress of the pro-life movement would "rend the nation apart." Where is the lament for the tens of thousands of vulnerable infant humans, their bodies and human potential protected in the safety of their mother's womb, that an abortion literally rends apart?

With all due respect to the writer of a March 2 letter on the acquittal of med-tech CEO Howard Root ("CEO deserves gratitude for standing up to charges") — bunk! Once again, medical-device makers and their shills get away with pushing off-label, untested and, as we continue to discover, extremely dangerous uses for products for which they already make millions, yet it seems they cannot be held accountable. Meantime guinea pigs (patients) suffer with no recourse. Root, a patriot? Hmm, Benedict Arnold maybe.