A House Divided

Was it Jesus or Abraham Lincoln who said, "A house divided against itself cannot stand"?  Saint Mark says it was Jesus and that Lincoln just paraphrased.

There are many houses today that are divided.  The husband State fan and the wife Tech fan.  The husband Cowboys fan and the wife Redskins fan.  The Lutheran husband and the Jewish wife.  Or as in the case of Mary Matalin and James Carvelle, a Republican wife and a Democratic husband.

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past several months, you know that today is election day in the U.S.  For some people voting is very easy.  They feel that the Republican party or the Democratic party better represents what they believe.  Even though they claim to be unbiased, they vote the party line.

But for those of us who are truly independent, even though we label ourselves as one party or another, voting is an arduous task.  It takes much work to decide on which candidate to vote for.  Take today for instance.

If you're my Facebook friend, you'll notice that I do list a political affiliation on my profile page.  But that doesn't mean I've never voted for the other party.  And labels are about as helpful as sand traps at a tennis match.  (Because if you ever sat down and listened to my views and beliefs on all the different issues, you'd claim that I was schizophrenic and have me committed to the nearest institution.)

In trying to vote today, I went to three different precincts before I found a representative from both major party candidates.  I explained that I wanted to hear both sides at the same time, rather than read information that one side put out against the other side.

"Why should I vote for them?"

They looked dumbfounded for a moment as if it was some kind of joke before launching into the reasons to vote for their particular candidate.  (Although the first question out of one of their mouths was who did I work for.  As if that matters when I'm asking them both the same question.)  Much more enlightening than reading their glossy fliers, which never give specifics, only broad statements.

Now as I write this, Mr. Gaelic, who is staunchly in one camp, is giving political commentary (part of his real-world job) to no one in particular as he sits beside me with his laptop checking the results of all the different districts across the country.  After spending two hours out of my day today trying to vote (the actual voting process took less than five minutes, the rest of the time was driving around to find representatives from both parties and then listening to their arguments), the last thing I want to do is listen to the play-by-play.

I'm this close to throwing him out of the house for the night.