Democrats Abroad Caucus in Brussels: Part V

We had a bit of time to prepare for a dinner that had been arranged at one of Brussels historic hotels. As the votes were not finalized the wheeling and dealing continued right on through to the meal. People in the running would sidle up to me and initiate small talk; some were subtle to work in their personal selling points into the conversation, others less-so. All of them quickly moved on when I let them know that I was not an elector and therefore had no power or influence whatsoever.

There was a temporary pause in the shennainigans when the guest speaker, a prominent Belgian parliament member gave her talk. I was reminded once again of the shared expatriate experience in the room when questions ranging from France’s role in Nato, to European perceptions and hopes about U.S. foreign policy should a democrat win, The EU and Turkey, as well as the effect effect of EU subsidies on the rising price of foodstuffs.

Dessert was served, digestifs were imbibed and slowly but surely everyone made their way back to the hotel.

I woke up late the next morning and hurried down to the conference room, convinced I had missed everything but curious to see who the winners were.  Much to my surprise I found nothing had been resolved, the women had to have a do-over vote because the first round of ballots had been counted wrong, <insert ‘how many democrats does it take to screw in a light bulb...’ joke here>

The re-tallying of the vote allowed for more caucusing for the male candidates. “Small countries over here!” shouted the Belgian. I wandered over to the group. The group was debating how they should bargain their votes to get enough so that Mr. Lebanon and the older gay man would be elected.  ‘If we all agree to vote for Sally from Germany that may be enough for us to get our top males there’ The ‘same-sex’ partner man grinned broadly and said ‘This is probably the first and last time I will ever be referred to as ‘top male’ which elicited a loud guffaw from yours truly. There was some more back and forth as someone revealed that team Hillary was actually sending a gay guy which could hurt their chances as that could cause a diversity glut. They decided to risk it anyway.

On my way over to see what was going on in the German huddle I stopped to ask the super-delegate lady what the Democrats Abroad delegates role actually is at the convention. “At the convention our delegates are a teeny tiny grain of sand on a giant beach with other teeny tiny grains of sand” she paused and then continued “Basically it’s a big party’

The Germans were strategizing. They were willing to give the small countries votes for whatever they wanted as long as they voted for their female delegate. Order was called, it was time to revote.

The votes were finally counted and Germany got their woman, and the small countries got their two ‘top males’. The woman from South Africa was also going. From the winners there were hugs, shouts, joyful laughter and applause. There were tears from some of those from the UK or France who had thought their winning was a ‘done deal’ and shocked to have lost. The woman living in Rome who had raised so much money wiped her eyes, and looked solemn but philosophical as she walked toward the exit. The woman who had sat next to me who grew agitated when the ‘conversation period’ motion had been put on the floor sighed and wiped her tears, commenting that ‘she would just have to be satisfied being a ‘worker bee’.

I had to catch my plane back to Munich, so I made a final round of the conference room, hugging my new friends, passing out business cards and agreeing to stay in touch. As I sat in the taxi on the way to the airport, I felt satisfied and happy with the sense that I had just participated in something historical and special, deeply grateful that I had decided to come – and for the first time in my life I experienced a real and profound appreciation for being born in a democracy.