Several days ago, I was standing in the kitchen at work, absent-mindedly waiting for my chili to heat up in the microwave, when a co-worker walking by says to me, “So… you’re not voting for Bush, are you?”
My political leanings being common knowledge around the office, I stared at him for a few seconds. “What would possibly give you the idea I that I would even consider voting for Bush?”
“Well, I noticed that you’ve been talking to the resident Office Conservative…”
Now, it is true that I regularly have conversations with the Office Conservative (a.k.a, our ops manager), and while many of these conversations are work-related, we also tend to veer off into politics on a fairly regular basis. “And why would you think that means I’m voting for Bush?” I asked.
“Well, you know… he’s a… Republican… so I just figured…”
“Actually,” I said, “I find it helpful, informative, and interesting to talk to reasonable people who don’t agree with me. Too many people on both sides of the aisle spend all their time talking only to people that agree with them, and end up very isolated as a result.”
“Uh, okay…” said my co-worker, wandering away with a confused look on his face.