My son, the Republican

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

:slight_smile:
I picked Charlie up from first grade this afternoon. When we got home, he was very excited to tell me about the “President Picker” they had at school.

“OK, tell me about it.”

“We had a President Picker, and I picked the one we already have.”
OK, so far so good. But is this just a random choice, or has the boy put some serious thought behind his decision?

“What’s a ‘President Picker’?”
*(Apparently it is two pieces of paper, each with a name and a box to check.) *
“What were the names of the people on the ‘President Picker’?”

“George something, and … um… I don’t remember.”
“George Bush and John Kerry?” I asked.

“George W Bush!”
[COLOR=Navy]Sorry, my mistake!
OK, he knows the name of at least one candidate. That makes him more knowledgeable than a lot of registered voters. But name recognition only buys so many votes. What about the issues?[/COLOR]

“Why did you pick ‘the one we already have’?”

“Because I like the way things are, and he’s the one we have now, so we should keep him”.
“But what if the other guy makes things even better?”

“The other guy wants two dollars, but George W Bush only wants one dollar.”
OK, he’s a fiscal conservative. But what about social issues?

“But Charlie, what if the other guy wants two dollars, but he’s going to make things twice as good as they are now?”

“But George W Bush is going to pray and ask God to tell Santa Claus to bring us more presents.”
Hey, the guy wants less money and guarantees more Christmas presents! Who’s not going to vote for that? But I had to get a bit more detail.

“So Charlie, what is John Kerry going to do if he gets elected President?”

“He’s going to ask God to tell Santa Claus to bring 5 presents.”
“And what is George Bush going to ask for?”

“George W Bush. He’s going to ask for 7 presents.”
Forget “A chicken in every pot”, we’re getting “Two extra packages under every tree”.

“And are they going to do anything else?”

“Nope.”
End of conversation. The teacher did not reveal the results of the election, so I guess we have to wait until November.

2

My son is definitely a Democrat, at least for now. During the 2003 State of the Union address, he blew raspberries at the screen. (He was almost six months old at the time.) Then, during the DNC in July, he stood up and cheered for Al Gore. He has yet to do the same for Bush, so I don’t think he’s responding to crowd response.

My son makes his mommy proud. :slight_smile:

Robin

3

Hey, at least he’s got a reason for his selection, which is more than some folks are able to offer upon questioning! :smiley:

My eleven year old son informed me that John Kerry was the right choice for my vote recently, because “I heard George Bush wants to get rid of summer vacations and make us go to school on weekends!” :eek:

4

Yeah, but Kerry is soft on funding for cooties research.

5

Kids are great, aren’t they? I love they way they put stuff together; they’re just learning to work in the world, and they try to arrange everything into easy to understand categories.

My niece, for example. She’s just babbling now, but when she sees my brother in law she gets all happy and spouts something that sounds like “Day.”

Then she points at me and says “Day,” then she points at my brother and says “Day,” and then she points at my father and says “Day.” I think it’s short for “Daddy” but she calls every adult male she sees “Day.” Including the dog.
But she knows who her Daddy is. You can tell. Daddy picks her up, and she’s happy. Uncle Ex picks her up, and she’s looking to see where Daddy is.

The point is, your boy is learning to associate abstract concepts. That’s cool.

Next week, start him on elementary economics.

6

Well, with his ancestry, and having the unique distinction of having been a Doper from birth, no wonder Aaron is making wise political decisions at an early age! :slight_smile:

::: flees from the wrath of Airman Doors :::

7

What wrath? He’s allowed to make up his own mind. He’ll be confused enough, what with his Jewish liberal mother and Catholic conservative father.

Just so long as he doesn’t turn into an abortion bomber or tree spiker I’ll be fine with whatever he becomes, just so long as he can handle the daily dinnertable debates. His mother can’t. She doesn’t stand a chance. If anything we have been moderating influences on each other, but nonetheless when she tries to debate me she ends up wondering how she lost. Every. Single. Time.

So yeah, he can make up his mind about what he believes, just so long as he goes to the Air Force Academy. That is nonnegotiable. :wink:

8

Many more years ago than I want to think about, I was one of two kids in my class who voted for Barry Goldwater. The reason for the overwhelming support of LBJ? “Goldwater’s going to make us go to school on Saturdays.”

I guess a good legend never dies.

9

Picker checking in.

President, eh?

<C. Montgomery Burns>
::wrings hands and grins maniacally::
Exxxxcellent!

</ C. Montgomery Burns>

What?

10

I did that too, in a library summer reading contest. I thought Goldwater was a prettier name.

11

Suburban Plankton, let me applaud you for at least taking the time to find out why your son has become a Republican, and to speak rationally to him about the matter. When I was in elementary school (back in 1980), we had a mock election, and even got randomly divided up into campaign teams (we made posters, flyers, etc. for the candidate to which we had been assigned). I was on the Anderson team.

When I came home and told my mom about it, I accidentally told her (I mean, it’s so hard to keep the names straight when you’re A KID) that I was on the Reagan campaign team.

Honey, she let me HAVE IT–all I can remember now (I’ve blocked much of it out ;)) was my mom, red-faced and screaming, about two inches from MY face: “YOU NEVER VOTE FOR REAGAN!!!”

I’m still traumatized. :eek:

12

Unless he starts putting up a framed picture of Nixon in his room and carrying a briefcase to school complete with suit and tie, I wouldn’t worry. :smiley:

13

What I find a little disturbing about the OP is the question of who told Charlie these things? Obviously it wasn’t his mom. So who is telling the kid that Kerry will take two dollars where Bush takes one, or that Bush will petition for seven presents when Kerry will only ask for five? If it’s other kids, that’s one thing (although one has to wonder where they’re getting this), but I’d want to make damn sure the teachers weren’t electioneering!

14

Well, Charlie is my kid, too. I’m his mom. FYI, Suburban Plankton is his dad.

I didn’t get a chance to talk with Charlie about it last night, so I talked with him this morning. I asked the same questions and got the same answers as SP did. So I asked a few others.

Me: Did you know that John Kerry is a Catholic, like we are?
Charlie: No
Me: And George W. Bush is not?
Charlie: No
Me: How do you feel about that?
Charlie: I don’t know.
Me: Don’t you think someone Catholic like us will make a better president for us than someone who isn’t?
Charlie: No, I don’t think that matters.
Me: Do you think someone who doesn’t believe in God can make a good president?
Charlie: Well, yes…he just won’t get to pray.

Well, I was pretty pleased with that answer. I asked him who told him about the money/presents thing and he said the teacher.

Me: And did your teacher say anything good about John Kerry?
Charlie: Yes, but I didn’t really listen because he wants $2.
Me: But what if he was really really good even though he wanted $2?
Charlie: But Mom, I only have $2…he wants it ALL!

Ok, so now I know why he’s so focused on the money thing.

Me: Did you know that the President doesn’t really have any pull with Santa Claus? They can’t really promise more presents.
Charlie: But they did promise. George W. Bush said 7 and umm, the other guy said 6.
Me: Well, sometimes they don’t always tell the truth.
Charlie: Yeah, I guess…
Me:Well, if the money thing and the present thing were the same, is the any other reason why you voted for Bush instead of Kerry.
Charlie: Well, his name is George W. Bush and the other guy, Kerry?, doesn’t even have umm, you know the W.
Me: He doesn’t have a middle initial?
Charlie: Yeah, that’s it…he doesn’t even tell us his whole name.

So that was interesting. But not too surprising coming from a 6 year old who insists on being adressed as Charles or Charles Allan by people who don’t know him well enough to call him Charlie.

I’m not so worried about the teacher saying this or that about Bush or Kerry. It seems like she was trying to emphasize Bush = less taxes and Kerry = more social benefits as a distinction the kids could understand.

I asked one final question…
Me: Charlie do you think you would like to be President some day?
Charlie: (drawing the letters in the air with his finger) N O !!!
Me: Oh? Why not?
Charlie: Because it doesn’t even snow here. I only want to be president of someplace where it snows in the winter.
Me: We get snow in the USA, remember Lake Tahoe?
Charlie: I wish we lived at Lake Tahoe.
Me: Me, too, Charlie, me, too.

By that time we were almost at the school and talked about kid stuff like not taking to Ashley in class and not fighting with Giancarlo on the playground. I told him to have a great day and I would see him after bell choir practice. He then because frustrated with himself because he forgot to bring one of his dollars to buy himself a popsicle at recess. I told him he didn’t have to buy popsicles out of his own money, and gave him a dollar. He was so excited about his popsicle money. <Sigh> The joys of being six.

15

Sorry, for some reason I got the idea that SP was Charles’ mother. Go figure.

It sounds like you’re doing a wonderful job of introducing your boy to responsible citizenship! Good on you!

16

Even more years ago, in my school that was the rumor about John Kennedy.

17

Hey, I was eighteen in 1980. My first election! And I voted for John Anderson.

Now if we can just find the other guy…

As to the OP, I get (sort of) the $1 vs $2 thing, but in fairness it should probably be more like "You have to give a quarter to the government. GWB wants to let you only give 24 cents. John Kerry might ask you for 27 cents. Or he might let you keep your quarter, he hasn’t really said. And if you get sick JFK will give you a bandaid (you might have to wait a long time in the hospital for it) but at least he’ll give you a bandaid. GWB will just tell you to pray that you can afford a bandaid. If you can’t afford one that’s your own fault. We call that ‘compassionate conservatism’. Oh, and you’d better to be praying to Jesus. While you’re praying for healthcare you probably should pray that they’re not still in Iraq or Iran or Syria or North Korea or Pakistan in 12 years, or earlier if you have an older brother. Also, in GWB’s world, if you’re a boy then boys have kooties and if you’re a girl then girls have kooties. "

On second thought that’s a bit complicated for six year olds.

18

Conversations with kids can be so surreal.

That’s the fun part of talking with kids. I asked my niece what she wanted to be when she grew up, and she said, “A rainbow unicorn who flies.”

19

I smell a sitcom!

20

Heheh yes! Airman and Robyn!