Last night the phone rang as I was fixing dinner. I answered it, and after a long pause, a male voice says he’s conducting a brief public opinion survey about politics and asks the first question. Phone surveys are not my favorite thing, but when I’m trying to do other things I really dislike them. I wasn’t thrilled that he presumed I would be delighted to participate and jumped right in to the first question… Then he asked the first question:
“If the legislative election was held today, would you vote Republican or Democrat?”
My answer? “I would vote for the candidate whose position on the issues most closely represented mine.” I didn’t realize I was throwing a curveball! He had NO IDEA what to do with that. He stuttered and stammered for a minute, then said, “But would you vote Republican or Democrat?” I calmly repeated my answer. Flustered, he asked me to hang on for a moment. I could hear him asking questions of a supervisor. Then he returned, and said, “Well, okay. Let’s try a new question.”
“If the presidential election was held today, would you vote Republican or Democrat?”
Guess what I answered? :) (You know where this is going, don’t you?) Yep. Same answer I had given to the last 2 questions. After a moment of dumbfounded silence, he took a deep breath and said “That’s all the questions I have for you. Thank you for your time. I’m sorry for bothering you.”
Please! Tell me that the future of this country is more important that the party affiliation after a candidate’s name. Or is that too much to ask? Is society really so unthinking??? I think I’m discouraged.
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