Letters from Mad Plato: THE CAUCUS

Monday, February 01, 2016

THE CAUCUS

I really like the word caucus. I guess I'm obsessed with caucuses. These are not from the current election, but I couldn't resist posting them again.

"She's protecting the people in her caucus."

"Joe is aligned with the Democratic caucus."

"Just kick him out of the caucus."

"The reason there's a lot of confidence in the caucus is Harry Reid."

"We had a very friendly and warm caucus."

"It depends how you cut it."
"Our caucus is in a very good mood."

"There's unrest in our caucus."

"Senator, it would seem that your caucus needs unifying."

"What are you doing in your caucus to make sure I'm not the only guy?"

"She's not going to put the caucus through this."

"She worked her caucus and she's going to get 216."

"We come together forging America's caucus."

"All you have to do is look into the eyes of our caucus."

"This morning he came to the caucus with gavel in hand."

caucus (n.)

"private meeting of party leaders," 1763, American English (New England), perhaps from an Algonquian word caucauasu"counselor, elder, adviser" in the dialect of Virginia, or from the Caucus Club of Boston, a 1760s social & political club whose name possibly derived from Modern Greek kaukos "drinking cup." Another old guess is caulker's (meeting) [Pickering, 1816], but OED finds this dismissable.

caucus: "This noun is used throughout the United States, as a cant term for those meetings, which are held by the different political parties, for the purpose of agreeing upon candidates for office, or concerting any measure, which they intend to carry at the subsequent public, or town meetings." [John Pickering, "A Vocabulary, or Collection of Words and Phrases Which Have Been Supposed to be Peculiar to the United States of America," Boston, 1816]

IT'S ABOUT RENEWABLE RESOURCES AND CAUCUSES