No, neighbors getting together to hash out political issues is exactly in line with the tradition of town hall civics that's been in place in Vermont since it was colonized, so that political openness is in line with Sanders's politics. (In fact, some have criticized Sanders for walking away from that towards more centralized forms of governance.) See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Town_meeti…

@1: Excluding Jews, Seventh-Day Adventists, and anyone who has to work on Saturday from that process is also "in line with the tradition" - doesn't make it a good idea.

If it's a block party, will there be beer?

Caucuses not only draw a lower turnout, they inspire about 3% of the voter participation of regular vote by mail elections. If the Democrats were really about democracy they would ditch caucuses in order to make voting as effortless as possible for the largest possible number of voters. Party leaders may assert that caucuses are like block parties, but their real purpose is to exclude as many people as possible in order to bend outcomes toward candidates pre-anointed by party elites. This is a huge turnoff to voters and the Dems ought to be ashamed of themselves for running this scam.

@4 We used to have open primaries in Washington state, before the GOP ended up with Ellen Craswell as their gubernatorial nominee in 1996. She was a cynical prude who got clobbered by the empty suit of Gary Locke. The state GOP cried foul, claiming that the open primary was sabotaged by Dems voting for Craswell. The two parties proceeded to fight over the primary system, trying to get the public to pay for their private party contests. Finally, we gave up and let them do their own thing, on their own dime, which is why "participating in democracy" is now comparable to a time-share seminar. You may get out without losing money, but you're on a mailing list forever.

One of the rare instances when the GOP is more openly in favor of wider participation by voters -- they allocate delegates based on the mail-in primary.

And exactly how is everyone supposed to fit into the Century Ballroom this weekend? I've heard from people all over the Hill that that's their caucus site.

Agreed. I'm not a fan. I get why the establishment likes it: filling out mailing lists, getting petitions signed, etc. But it's disingenuous to state that it's because it's in line with a democracy, or encouraging voter participation. I've participated in the past, and I'm not going to bother this year. I predict a strong turnout of Bernie supporters, so much so that the locations will be over-crowded. Maybe I should double-up on my anti-anxiety meds, but it just sounds like a nightmare to me.

At least we don't live in Arizona...

If Bernie doesn't win WA state democratic caucus, he'll at least win north Kitsap County by a friggin' landslide. I'm in a highschool gymnasium, and in all 14 precincts here, Bernie is easily walking away with 2/3 to 3/4 of the delegates. 11:05am.