America is a house divided

                              Standing in line at Wawa, the young woman in front of me illustrated how America is a house divided.
                             She placed four bottles of Pepsi and two bottles of brightly colored sugar-water "energy" drinks on the counter.  I estimated a half-pound of refined sugar would be consumed by whoever drank the stuff.  I guess some people are ignoring Michelle Obama's lectures about drinking water, not soda.
                             The young woman pulled out a plastic card with a "Families First" logo on it.  "Families First" is code for federal food stamps, as administered by New Jersey's Department of Human Services' Division of Family Development.
                             The woman paid for the sugar water and then removed two $20 bills from her purse and purchased several packs of cigarettes.
                             Now, this is not unusual.  Ask any Wawa clerk.  It is not the first time I saw this.  A month ago, a young man did the same thing at a Wawa in Fairless Hills, Pa.  He bought two chickens wrap sandwiches with a food stamp debit card, and then paid cash for four packs of Marlboros.  As he stood waiting for his buddy to do the same, he took out a cigarette and stood with the thing dangling unlit from his mouth.  Class.
                            In a better country, both would be forced to choose: food or smokes.  But in the American culture promoted by the government, both are able to indulge their low-brow decadence.
                            But it is what happened when the woman purchased the junk food with other people's money that is interesting.
                            It was the lunch rush at Wawa, and the place was busy.  It was filled with men in jeans and work boots who had pulled into the parking lot in trucks, who have to get back to work.
                            The man behind me watched as the woman paid for her stuff with the "Families First" card, and then purchased the cigarettes.  As she walked away, he said, "Our tax money at work."  To which the man behind him said, "That's so wrong."
                           But so common.  Ask any Wawa clerk.
                           That kind of below-the-radar ground-level resentment is growing.  The resentment will be stoked with news stories such as one in paper, in which the Federal Communications Commission reported that there are more than 2 million cases of fraud and abuse with "Obama phones," free mobile phones intended for poor people given away by the federal government.
                            My guess is progressive enablers are unaware.  The country is not knitting together with progressivism's bossy vision of a society in which they call the shots, from who gets food stamps to who gets to pay for them.
                           We are dividing into tribes.  Working people vs. "Families First."  Married moms vs. "single moms."   Child-friendly families vs. "child-free" families.  Green vs. growth.  City vs. suburban vs. rural.  Rich vs. middle class vs. working class vs. poor.
                           The fraying is documented in a Pew Research Center study this year that showed how Americans say they want their congressional representative to do what's in the best interests of the country.  But when a congressional representative actually does that at the expense of local interests, they are voted out of office.  So, they will do nothing to fix the country's problems.  This is why the $17 trillion in national debt we will leave our children and grandchildren will soon hit $20 trillion.
                           Half the people are dependent on government, and the other half is paying for it.
                           We increasingly separate ourselves into communities where everyone around us thinks as we do; shares the same values, educational and income levels; and are hostile to those who aren't like us.  Same with the entertainment and news we consume.  It's an echo chamber, and we like it.
                           Eventually, half the country will say enough, and their reticence about what they think of the public dole and the people on it will vanish, and it will turn ugly.  The cold culture war turns hot.  It will be self-govenance and personal liberty vs. authoritarianism and dependency.
                           America is a house deeply divided, and it won't stand.  Some kind of war brews.