We had 10 delegates up for grabs. Over 150 people showed up and immediately flocked to the Obama side, picking up seven of the spots on the first count. The handful of Clinton supporters rallied enough to pick up two, and a group of quiet, but firm independents gathered in the middle, leaving one delegate uncommitted. The sides were then each given some time to try to sway the 16 people sitting quietly on the middle folding chairs.It quickly turned into yelling out favorite platform attacks like Obama’s healthcare plan isn’t universal, or Clinton’s doesn’t allow for options. They went back and forth on a couple of other standards–education, climate change–places where the candidates’ differences are subtle, the undecideds all taking it in. Then a woman all in green next to me shouted out “the war!” A man in a gray tweed cap on the Hillary side retorted that Obama might have sung a different tune if he’d been voting in the Senate at the time. “No he wouldn’t!” green leggings yelled back. Grey hat took a couple of steps toward her, finger pointing:”He didn’t have to make that choice!” Green leggings suddenly rushed him, shoving him in the chest. “Did you see that?” he shrieked. “That was assault!” A couple of bystanders intervened and the combatants huffed back to their corners.With all the other shouting at the undecideds the little altercation went largely unnoticed. Apparently aggression wasn’t what they were responding to because at the end of it all, the delegate totals stayed the same. I walked back with one of my neighbors, a man who originally hails from Japan. He thought it was all surprisingly exciting. “I guess that’s how you do it in America,” he said. I was about to disagree when it occurred to me that, regardless of intentions, maybe shoving people around until they get on board only to stomp off in disgust when we can’t really is the American way. So all I said was: “apparently so.”
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