Yesterday, I was on the phone with my boss talking about work (duh) when Ella piped up from the back seat.
"Mommy, we got to vote for the 'lection today. I voted for John McCain."
"Did you hear that?" I asked Jennifer in a panic.
"Oh, yes I did. I think you need to take care of that." said Jennifer.
"I'll talk to you later." I said.
I asked Ella why she voted for John McCain. Of course, she had no idea. She's 5. I asked her what the teachers had said about the candidates. Ella replied that John McCain is the leader of our country. God help us if that happens today.
While I was momentarily devastated that my 5 year old didn't vote for Obama, I quickly remembered that she really shouldn't be worrying about this stuff anyway. I am not sure why the Tennessee schools thought it would be fun to hold mock elections, but I am thinking that the young kids probably didn't need to be a part of it.
I do hope my daughter, at some point, becomes interested in politics. Corey and I have vowed to encourage her to vote for the issues, not the party. Even though I am a registered Democrat, I tend to vote more conservatively when it comes to local government. Truth be told, had McCain gotten the nomination 8 years ago, I probably would have voted for him. I liked what he had to say then. It's a different world now.
6 comments:
I agree about your whole post. Little kids don't need to vote. I vote more conservatively in local elections as well. Finally, I probably would have voted for McCain back when he said things like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2JPbQOHEkY
Now I think he is a sellout and a panderer.
If it makes you feel better, Wes gets wildly excited when he sees Obama on TV. We were at Starbucks yesterday and they had Obama's rally in Florida live on the overhead TV and when Wes saw him he started pointing and talking like it was the most exciting thing he had ever seen. I told him, loud enough for others to hear, that he was right, that was our next president. Luckily, we got out of there alive and I didn't see anyone spit in my coffee, but I definitely got some dirty looks. He may be only 23 months old, but the kid's got taste (makes a father proud).
I've completely indoctrinated my kids by this point so as to avoid such a catastrophe (kidding!) I also split the ticket with local races and I haven't quite figured out how to describe why.
The mock elections in my son's kindergarten class were based on the candidates "platforms" of their favorite kid's book (Obama=Harry Potter, McCain="some book about King Arthur"), favorite hobby (Obama=basketball, McCain=hiking) and favorite food (Obama=chili, McCain=tacos). Decent way to do it and even through those answers the choice was clear - Obama romped 20-3! Hoping for the same nationwide.
We had a mock election today for the student body of the elementary school where I work. Out of the 500+ votes, 300+ went to Obama, 100+ went to McCain, 1 went to Nader, and 1 went to George Washington.
The children have spoken!
Sweet (age 4) likes Obama's hair but we both decided we wanted Garfield or Snoopy for President.
And he loves our governor because once, when he was 2, I took him to "The Great Read" at the Capitol and the Gov was his group's reader and read him a story about his dog.
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