Donkeys, Elephants and Huskies Join at Mock Caucus
Students recite the Pledge of Allegiance before getting down to the business of the 2nd annual Polk County Mock Caucus at Hoover High School.
How refreshing.
Last night Hoover High School hosted the second annual Polk County Mock Caucus, an event staged under the joint auspices of the Republican and Democratic parties. The logo for the event featured a donkey and an elephant arm in arm, looking celebratory. The idea is a bipartisan one of getting young people hooked on the political process and immunized against cynicism before it’s too late and their right to vote atrophies without ever being exercised. And with Iowa’s first-in-the-nation Presidential caucuses a little more than a year away, it’s not too soon to practice for the main event.
West Des Moines Valley, Urbandale, Dallas Center/Grimes, Johnston, East and Hoover were the participating schools. Each sent a delegation and they all convened in the auditorium for a quick primer on the ways and means of the caucus process before separating into parties and getting down to business in accordance with the respective protocols and platforms of Republicans and Democrats.
Coming on the heels of Monday’s “die-in” protest at Central Academy Tuesday night’s event was another way of demonstrating the same fundamental principle – concerned citizenship. Tuesday is traditionally Election Day in America but this time of year around here it’s also high school basketball night.
“I hope when you all are legally able to vote that you’ll participate in actual caucuses,” Polk County Democratic Vice-Chair Cara Kennedy-Ode told the student delegates. “Becoming an informed citizen will matter more than extra credit or a good grade in a class. But thank you for coming tonight, whatever brings you here.” No worries. Good students tend to grow into informed, active citizens.
As the host school, Hoover was represented by a strong delegation, most of them students of Jason Danielson who teaches AP Government and U.S. History at the school. When junior Jorge Patino nominated Danielson for the post of precinct captain he tried to protest on the grounds, “this is supposed to be for the students,” but his anti-campaign speech went for naught when he was decisively elected.
“He didn’t assign us to attend the mock caucuses,” Patino said by way of explaining his nomination of Danielson. “He invited us.”
Instead of candidates the caucus-goers considered and debated issues including gun control, education, jobs creation and social justice. Another of Danielson’s students, sophomore Colby Williams, was anticipating an event that would be relevant to what she’s been focused on in AP U.S. History.
“Yes, we’ve been studying the Civil War and Reconstruction,” she said. “We’re going to write letters to Americans from that era and tell them in retrospect where they went wrong.”
As the old axiom holds, “Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.” Thanks to Danielson and his colleagues, Williams and Patino and their classmates are not ignorant of history. And someday they’ll be equipped and empowered to change its course, in accordance with Robert’s Rules of Order or not.
