Wednesday, October 29, 2008

our political saga

without starting a political debate here, i will not name the objectionable parties in the following saga at our house.

we were driving home from a FHE pizza picnic from the duckpond last week. s.mac wasn't feeling well so i was driving. out of nowhere, he laid his claim as to his political choice.i thought he was joking. when i saw he was dead serious i let my jaw fall. i have strong and deep political convictions and these were contrary to those.

i can honestly say i had never had this feeling about s.mac before. i rattled off a whole list of reasons he was up in the night in his conclusion, he was silent. he said he didn't want to argue about it with me.

oh, were we arguing? we had never, really. i mean, if we disagree on something we put it aside and have never had a heated exchange, until now. and truth be told, i was the only heated one. i don't know if this is a qualification for a heated marital exchange.


i was on the phone with his mother that night and expressed my disgruntlement, she then told me that his family had voted in that party for years and that the fellow that married us was even voting that way.


i got off the phone and told him that he should have disclosed political alliances before the marriage and i almost felt as tho the marriage was null and void with the whole sealer going astray.


as we were going to bed that night i told him i felt like i was sleeping with the enemy.

(he was mostly laughing at my comments and the occasional "hell" my aussie background threw in to keep it exciting)



mostly, it was humor driving my comments. although a part of me felt betrayed. we had never disagreed on politics. i applaud him on doing his own research and coming to a conclusion on his own, but. we've had our first real, true disagreement. i mean where both of us are not budging and wow. it feels weird, i am glad we have 8 years on our side. i feel like we are an episode of "raymond" waiting to happen, that is when you know you have been married a while.


the next day he was giving a temple recommend to one of our friends and he told her of my funny reaction. she went home and told her practical jokester husband.

then my phone rang.

"yes, i was calling to follow up on the contribution mr. s.mac wanted to make to the {"enemy's"} campaign."


(my blood rushed to my head so fast i was pink and red as they come. we have been scrimping every penny for this new house and he is going to donate to the {enemy} at our family's expense.)

biting my lip i held back all of my comments. the mans voice came across as a balding jewish man in his 50's from the east coast. he has the best disguised voice.

i thought i would give s.mac the benefit of the doubt and i asked which address s.mac had them send this information to.

that got him.

"uh. ma'am. my computer seems to be a little glitchy now. i can't seem to pull that information up right now."

then, he started laughing. and with that i knew i had been "got".

my mother laughed senseless when i told her.


so here goes my political posting and what is deep in my bones, honest abe summed it up best for me:

*You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.



*You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.



*You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.



*You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down.



*You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.



*You cannot build character and courage by taking away people's initiative and independence.



*You cannot help people permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves.



Abraham Lincoln

9 comments:

The Ballard's said...

Amen! You are so funny. I could see how you would feel this way. This election is a very dramatic one. Best wishes. Get in there and vote early.

Kasidy said...

h. mac, I must agree! We are going to have to have a chat about this, you and I! Yes, we most definitely are! :)

Anonymous said...

I love it.. I can just see s.mac laying in bed with his big old grin smiling at you.. you guys are adorable. I love that this is your first disagreement.. its VERY VERY impressive! My parents are having a political debate as well.. and thats when I am thankful I only have myself to argue with :)

Lori said...

oh the political argument. van and i never talked politics before our marriage, either. it really didn't come up until the 2004 election and in much abundance since then. we disagree on many candidates and many different views. we've come to a general agreement: we can have our different opinions as long as it's based on fact/research. Basically, as long as we can back up our opinion, it's good. if it's just a "hunch" or "feeling" all torture/humor is allowed. ;)

the phone call, though? that would make anyone's blood boil!

Natalie Ropelato said...

Was it Kevin who called? That is totally something he would do, infact about a year ago, with the whole school voucher thing (which I had very strong views about) He and Scott C. put about 20-25 signs in our front yard saying to vote the opposite of how I was voting. As soon as I saw all the signs I ran around my yard like a mad woman trying to get them down before anyone saw them. I still haven't gotten either of them back :)

PatriotPundit said...

I really liked this post:)

Jensen Family said...

You tell my cousin I am very disappointed in him! That is if I understand correctly who is was pulling for! What was he thinking...clearly he wasn't! To my aunt was on his side was even worse...good thing they have you to straighten them out!!!

Veronica said...

Heidi, I loved reading your political post....I am so there. I am almost crazy with all of the mud being thrown and I am especially irate that terrible things are said and no accountability for truth at all....it is disgusting.....Now the Steve Young and Barabara dilemma makes me crazy too....Megan and Todd have had this happen in their ward in CA with lots of divisions over Prop 8. I called about 50 people in CA to talk about Prop 8 and only 1 was voting for the proposition. Scary times and times to hold onto the iron rod. Hope you are well. Take care...I missed the acorn fair...mad I forgot. I bet it was great.

Anonymous said...

I think I know who you were talking about too sister. I am so glad that Smac is an ObamaNATOR now. I can't see why he would be voting for John McCain and that knappy Sarah Palin. They would just want to lauch a nuke-u-lar war anyhow!?!? Let's get the redistribution started. Go Obama/Biden....CHANGE WE NEED.