In 2016 Washington was still using the caucus system for their primary elections. In February I went to my local precinct meeting to caucus for Bernie Sanders. That discussion was between maybe 12 other people and we talked about pretty standard Democrat talking points - income inequality, universal health care, and campaign finance reform. We didn’t talk about Republicans. The discussion was real, civil, and human. I was elected as an alternate delegate which meant I got to go to the district level caucus in April.

The district caucus was very different. Nearly a thousand people were packed into a high school auditorium for more than 5 hours and made to sit through a full agenda before we could vote on which candidate we would support. We were introduced to some of the local candidates who were running for election or re-election. We had to vote on the platform the local party would adopt for 2016 (plank by plank). ¹

Before we got started in earnest, the party chair gave a speech to remind us that we were all Democrats, and that really meant something. He talked about how we were the party of inclusion because we supported gay marriage, and how we were the party of civil rights because of the work we did to reduce voting restrictions. He probably mentioned a few more positive things as well but what sticks with me now is how quickly this speech turned into a sermon on why Republicans were evil. Notes I took that day include “It would be nice not to demonize the other side” and “[We c]an’t claim to be the party of inclusion if we don’t treat Republicans as people.” That speech really set the stage for the rest of the event - we were all unambiguously good people working to fight unambiguously evil people. I walked out of that caucus with a bad taste in my mouth.

…And then Donald Trump won the Republican primary.

…And then Hillary Clinton won the Democratic primary.

I sincerely believed at the time that both candidates were bad for the country. Not equally bad, but bad nonetheless. I remember talking to my dad on the phone about how neither of these candidates would be able to read through the Bill of Rights without finding something they had actively campaigned against in the last year. Neither of these people cared about the protecting the liberties unique to our country. I didn’t think either of them understood what the American Experiment was about.

Notes

¹ In the 2016 platform for my local district there was only a single mention of guns: “We support […] allowing the Centers for Disease Control and National Institutes of Health to research the causes of gun violence.”