Talking Politics with Kids - March 2020
“Okay kiddos, everyone buckled up? Alright, what happened last night?”
“It was THE Tuesday…. The big one.” Michael says.
“Super Tuesday.” Jane interrupts.
“That’s right,” I say. “And what makes the day so super?”
“Everyone votes,” our neighbor Mateo whom I drive to school on Wednesday answers.
“Very good, Buddy.”
“Why is it important to vote?” I follow up.
“To get rid of Trump,” Michael yells.
“Not according to NeeNee and Poppy,” Jane corrects him.
I laugh and add, “That’s true, Jane. Voting is how we make decisions in a democracy. It is arguably the most important thing we do as citizens.” I pause and hope that some of the concept sinks into the three elementary school brains that I’m chauffeuring to school. “Now, do you all want to hear something interesting that happened last night?”
“What, that Bernie Sanders won?” Michael tries to be sarcastic.
“No, this has to do with one of the billionaires who wanted to be president.” I say. “What is the name of the guy who we keep seeing advertisements for?”
“Bloomberg!” Michael and Jane shout.
“Yeah, he thinks he can buy the president,” Jane adds.
“Not the president, the presidency,” I say. “He did win something last night on Super Tuesday. Can you guys guess what he won?”
“What? California?” Michael asks.
“No way.” Mateo says.
“No. Not California, guys.” I say. “He won an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.”
“Hawaii?” Jane asks.
“Close, but not Hawaii.” I reply. “Bloomberg got the most votes on an island called American Samoa.”
“You mean where the Girl Scout cookies come from?” Jane asks. “Samoas?”
“I know where Mommy keeps her secret stash of Samoas!” Michael says.
“Does he get all the Girl Scout cookies now?” Mateo asks.
“I don’t think so.” I say. “But that would be a cool consolation prize for all the money he’s spent. By the way, nobody is allowed to touch Mommy’s Girl Scout cookies.”
This past fall we took the kiddos on a trip to Washington DC. As a former history teacher, touring my own offspring around our nation’s capital was a real dream come true for me. We did Mount Vernon, the African American History Museum, and other Smithsonian destinations. We even managed a White House tour and a staffer tour of the Capital with an impromptu awkward question from Michael to Tom McClintock’s staff, “Is Trump getting impeached by Tom McClintock?”
Ever since the trip, we’ve been talking about politics on our drives to and from school. Michael and Jane can identify many of the candidates and even seem to understand some of the issues.
“Hey Dad?”
“Yeah, Michael?”
“Why do we need a new President?”
“Well not everyone thinks that we do need a new President. That’s why we have elections and why we vote.”
“That’s why we don’t have a King?”
“Absolutely.” I smile at my son. “Very good, Buddy. Do you remember all of the king-like stuff around DC?”
“Oh yeah, there’s the Washington Monument, all the huge sculptures of people and the painting of Washington going to be with God in that ceiling in the Capital.”
“The Rotunda, that’s right.” I laugh. “Directly over top of where the architects wanted to have George buried, almost like an Egyptian Pharaoh in a pyramid. Crazy isn’t it? Sometimes people, the citizens, want to have kings and authoritarians, but George Washington was smarter than that, wasn’t he? 2 terms in office was all that he served and when he died what happened? Did he get buried like a Pharaoh under the Capital Dome?”
“No, I remember.” Michael gets excited. “He wanted to be buried at Mount Vernon, his home where we visited. And he didn’t even have the word President written on his tomb, just “General.”
We both sit in silence for a while.
“Hey Dad?”
“Yeah, Buddy?”
“When do I get to vote?”
“In another 8 years, Michael.”
“Cool.”
“Yeah, you’re right. It is pretty cool.”