Sometimes small d democracy is messy. It can be contentious, infuriating, tedious, agonizing, or impassioning. In all honesty, I expected some amount of the above this morning. The last time I went to a Central Committee meeting, several people had axes to grind, and in doing so, they ground the meeting to a standstill. It took forever to elect the officials for this term, and once all that was over, it took a ludicrous amount of time to approve the rules and schedule for the year. I was exhausted by the time I left that meeting last winter. When they sent out the message last month that the county chair was stepping down in order to run for statewide office, I had flashbacks to the long reorganization meeting. I didn't want to deal with the messy side of politics.
I haven't been sleeping well, and I have been spending way too much time working harder than my pain tolerances are built for. I haven't had much choice on whether or not I keep pushing myself. No one is going to swoop in like a fairy godmother, and pay for a housekeeper, general contractor, personal secretary, and home organizer for me. I didn't want to get up when the alarm went off at 7 this morning. The dream I was having was just getting interesting (I think it might have been a pet about to give birth, but I don't recall what species this pet was), and I hit snooze three times trying to find out how it all turned out. (It didn't work. I have no idea what happened after the first alarm.) By 7:30, grown up me overruled "five more minutes, mom" me, and I dressed and headed out, via Starbucks.
I checked in and didn't recognize many people. There were a few familiar faces, but none I knew personally well enough to sit with them. I saw some state senators and reps, and staff from one US congressman who is running for governor. I thought I saw the congressman himself, but don't quote me on that. One lady commented on my mermaid hair, and we struck up a conversation based on that. It turned into a two hour talk, before things started, sitting with her during the meeting, and making plans to meet again at the big fundraiser dinner this month. She and I shared a last name (Reynolds, not Smith), and we really bonded. I want more than anything to build on this excellent start.
Turnout was good for this emergency meeting to elect a new county chair. We were told there were three candidates. The first spoke, and he was okay. The second spoke, hinting at some sort of strife behind the scenes, and pulled himself out of the running unexpectedly, before endorsing the first guy. I was dreading where it would go after that. The final candidate spoke, and she was honestly inspiring. It went to a vote after that, and they called the vote in reverse order. A lot of arms shot into the air, holding up ballots and proxies in favor of the woman. When the count was over, the numbers were overwhelming and they didn't even ask for a specific ballot count for the remaining man. But someone from the back shouted out "thanks for running," to him, and we all applauded. The new chair took over the meeting with no further business other than concluding the general meeting. My state senate district stayed behind to elect a new vice chair, and a woman ran unopposed. She was elected by proclamation. And then it was over. No fights, no tears, no hard feelings. I seriously didn't expect that. It's so nice when democracy is neat and tidy!
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