My kindergartener son, stirring up the political pot at school

[booksenkatz]

Yes, the 5 1/2 year old is proving to be a Dem with a spine, yippee! Here's what he told me. "Mom, today someone at school said he voted for George Bush. And you know what I said?" "What?" "I said, 'Why would you vote for someone who makes wars?' And you know what? He couldn't think of anything to say back to me." My son should get used to it -- once you call a Repub on his bs, even in kindergarten, he can't think of a good comeback! LMAO

For the record, I don't go around telling my kid what to think about Bush or anything else. I VERY MUCH want him to learn how to be a critical thinker and to become a liberal on his own simply because it makes sense, not because I brainwashed him. >>But<< if he asks me what I think, I tell him. I've told him that some people think that the war in Iraq is a good idea, but I didn't think so. Then he wants to know why, and so on. I told him that when he's older, he can read about this war and decide for himself (psst -- while he is in Canada escaping the draft for it). He's been intensely interested in politics since he was 4, and I've done my best to explain to him how things work, but it's hard to simplify things down to kid-level, especially when you yourself don't understand wtf is going on! He's concluded that war just doesn't make sense, he likes the idea of countries "using words" to solve problems. He keeps saying he wants to be president, and was very interested in the recent election. He cried his eyes out when Kerry conceded. We may be onto something here... what's the youngest age for DU membership???
:silly:

Who else out there has Dem kids with spines? Would love to hear about them. I'm really hopeful for the next generation!

[xultar]

1. AWESOME INTELLIGENT KID...Future Party Chair in the making! n/t

[booksenkatz]

4. We could use him to counter Social Security Boy.

I'd better go out and buy 3000 books and make him memorize them. Nah, on second thought, I'd rather teach my kid about actual policy rather than have him spouting adorable factoids about which he knows nothing.

Heh.

[tsuki]

11. Ya know, Bush need to leave him behind, in school, so he can learn to make

change (dollars & cents.)

[Jackpine Radical]

7. Oh Hell. I thought you said

"Potty Chair."

[CalebHayes]

2. Usually I'm the poster boy for young Democrats

I founded www.anti-bush.com when I was 12. Now that I'm 14 I'm already vice-chair of my local county Democrats.

[booksenkatz]

6. That's excellent! I've got you bookmarked, it really gives me hope!

My kid will come and work for you in half a dozen years... deal?
:7

[CalebHayes]

8. Work for me? Why not with me? I will need quite a bit of help...

battling the right.

[blm]

3. Little blm is 4 yo.

She's a big Kerry fan since she met him and Max Cleland at the SC announcement speech in Sept. 2003.

At school last fall, they were discussing the flag and the president, and when the teacher said the president was Bush, she went off on her rant that she hates George Bush and George Bush is a knockyhead.

Her teachers were NOT amused. (This is NC religious territory)

She wore a shirt last week with a peace symbol on it, and told me later that her teacher said she didn't like the color of her shirt.

Not too transparent, eh.

[booksenkatz]

It amazes me how much they CAN grasp at this age, though.

If a kid is interested, and if you explain it in terms he/she can understand, it's a blast to see them forming their own ideas about it. It's neat to see my kid developing his own ideas about peace without me having to ram dogma down his throat. If you had told me that such young kids could grasp even a grain about politics, I'd have said you were crazy; but they do. If they're interested, they do.

Your 4 year old rocks!!!

[blm]

10. Dad and I don't talk like that around her at all. It's her own instincts.

She would get angry when she would hear attacks on Kerry on television, because, to her, he was her "friend" ever since she met him. She loved to tell people, "John Kerry is my friend."

Since her dad works in the news biz, we'd have to explain carefully that she just latched on to Kerry the way other kids latch on to Barney.

[booksenkatz]

16. LOL!

And I always make a point of presenting the opposing view as best I can (I was a Repub long ago), because I don't want him being a Dem simply because his parents are, know what I mean? For example, he understands the basics of taxes. I told him that Repubs believe that if you make things good for the rich guys and help them out with their tax burden, then they in turn will make things good for us not-so-rich guys by creating jobs and sharing it with us, etc. My son said, "But Mom, they don't share it, they just keep it. That's why they're rich." Out of the mouths of babes. Also, he believes that taxes should first be used to help sick children. I may just have to vote for the little guy when he runs for office with priorities like that.:D

[displacedtexan]

5. Hey, there, patsified! Remember me?

My brother was your Latin teacher.

When my daughter (who will be 22 in May) was your son's age, she had nightmares about the KKK kidnapping her Black and Latino friends. That was when I realized that she paid attention to the nightly news.

Today, she's very active in Hollywood social action campaigns. She's a professional makeup artist... one of them thare Hollywood Liberals!

[booksenkatz]

9. Yes, I remember you!

It really does hearten me to hear about children who care about what's going on in the world. (It doesn't mean that they can't/don't care about toys and mindless kid fun, too, of course. I'm 44 and I still like toys and mindless kid fun myself.) I'm so glad your daughter didn't lose that part of herself -- I always worry about my son growing up and becoming a Repub just to rebel! LOL

Good to see you here.

[seabeyond]

12. learn how to be a critical thinker

excellent post. gosh that is the grandest, and a cherished asset in the making. my two boys always interested in politics. actually behavior, and there is a lot of lesson in behavior in politics. maybe because we are political. but they always question and i do the same. dont believe because of me. it is yours to figure out.

good for you. a good story

[woodsprite]

13. My son would have a good playmate with your son.

He'll be 5 in a month. He was very upset that Kerry lost also. I told him Kerry didn't lose, but the other guy cheated. Thank goodness his teacher is a liberal :) Somebody at church the other day was talking about a "bush", like in burning bush story during the children's chat and he wasn't really listening much, just heard the word "bush" and he blurted out "Yeah, we're stuck with him for another 4 years". Meanwhile, my husband and I are just dying up in the choir loft. So far away and not a darned thing we could do. I saw several older people look shocked. Oh well. Out of the mouths of babes.

He sits on my lap as I read DU and likes to ask questions about the pictures. My daughter, 11yo, looks over my shoulder. We get into some really good conversations regarding politics. She gets very upset that there are about 5 boys in her class that are all gung-ho over the war and very pro-Bush. She tells them "It's not a video game. They shoot at you with real bullets and then you die. You don't come home to have families or go out with your buddies. -- all for oil and a greedy chimp". So far, they just laugh at her. I do give her credit. Her 6th grade class has taken on the subjects of gay marriage, presidential election and election fraud, the war in Iraq, they are just getting into the Bill of Rights and the Constitution now.

[Enquiringkitty]

14. Kids see the truth very clearly. They have not yet learned to rationalize

a wrong to fool themselves into thinking it is right. They haven't learn to lie to themselves yet. I have an Aunt who is not very pretty.....understate ment....she is naturally ugly....sweet, but ugly. The last time she came to visit, she had just recovered from plastic surgery and had her hair colored. We were all shocked at the transformation. None of us knew what to say. If we made a big deal at the unbelievable change we would be telling her how bad she looked before and if we didn't say anything, she would think that her efforts were for naught. My nephew (4) said," WOW! You aren't ugly any more! She fell out laughing and we knew nothing more needed to be said.

[kimpossible]

15. I have two of them!

My two boys (7 and 10) are very staunch Democrats. All the time they spend overhearing mommy's Air America Radio probably has a little something to do with it. They're very outspoken, in fact I sometimes need to tell the oldest to stop arguing with adults about how Bush doesn't really support the troops. And they both came out volunteering with me on Election Day, proudly wearing their "Hamsters for Kerry" buttons. The youngest was home sick from school the next day, so he got to console me after I stubbed my toe and screamed when Kerry conceded.

[fob]

17. Great story! Give Mini-patsified a big "Attaboy" from me!

Here's my story

bush* pic flashes on tv, newsfotainment person says george bush* today blah blah blah

Lil-fob (not quite 4) "Dad, is bush* that guy who is an ass?"

fob (smile growing) "Yes son, he is"

Mrs fob (restraining smile, eyes glaring in my direction) "fobbbbb"

[bush_is_wacko]

18. I only have one thug in my entire extended family. All of our kids are

liberals. They really can't help it,they know nothing else, but, they have all been stirring a whole lot of pots out here in suburbia!

My daughter (15) is well known among peers as the one in the know about politics. Two of her teachers have given her kudos for her essays. My son (11) cried on November third too. I had to assure him this country would turn this around. I went through the Reagan and Bush 1 years with him and told him what our family went through during those years and how we had triumphed over the tragic death of 3 family members from AIDS, again. He knows these stories, I just needed to put them in political/religious perspective for him.

He is ALWAYS the first out of the car with a fistful of deception dollars on any shopping trip we go on. We put them under our windshield and go to Starbucks or Barnes and Noble and read books or talk for a couple hours and they are always gone when we get back. He views this as his own personal triumph. He has given them out at school too. Both my kids have.

My niece is the VOCAL member of the family. We live in a VERY red part of Colorado. She has a tendency to make very loud political remarks every time we are in any public venue. I have no problem with this. I just return the dirty looks of the local sheeple when they don't agree with her remarks! I have a nephew that is a magician. He carries deception dollars, courtesy of his cousins and aunt, with him to his magic shows and always gives them as gifts to the person that "assists" him in his tricks.

"Out of the mouths of babes" come the words of truth when it comes to what's important in life. They have no looming bills, no worries, that keep them from seeing the important things in their lives.

I have more kids in the family that I could mention but these are the ones closest to me.

[seabeyond]

19. parents a pat on back, this is our future

what a wonderful thread. so good to hear

[hootinholler]

20. Not surprising to me

We all knew right from wrong at an early age. Some of us were able to keep that knowledge, others are able to repress and ignore it.

One of mine has had a Bush Cheated button confiscated at school. Another has taken my essay to give to friends. The third just wants to keep a low profile. I love them all very dearly and each one the purplest. (obscure ref to a kid book)

Ya done good.

-Hoot

[atommom]

21. I wish he lived closer. He and my kindergarten son could start their own

kindy Dem party! "Why does the president keep LYING all the time? Why doesn't he get in trouble?" Good question, son!

[Darth_Kitten]

22. He gets it, what a smart little boy!

"He's been intensely interested in politics since he was 4"

Gotta love that! :)

[stellanoir]

23. your kid for prez in 2036 !!!

My kid is now 13 and we watch the Daily Show every night now so he's quite jaded but 4-5 years ago, before we had cable, his father dropped him off. Now understand when he & I were together I was fairly apolitical. That was well over a decade ago and I didn't even realize that he was a Puke until we were on the threshold of our divorce. His mother with whom I had been close was a total bleeding heart liberal. He apparently rebelled after she took him on peace marches and he spent time in the Army.

Anyway so my son got back from his father's and his father starts blathering on about some lame assed Puke talking points and I said to my son, "I can't listen to this. I'm going upstairs." My son said "Oh mommy don't even listen to him. He's just like Bush. He makes stuff up and just keeps repeating it until people start to believe him." This was only a couple months into Bush first term. I was so proud 'cause I'd never discussed that with him directly but he totally got it anyway. Yay.

[AzDar]

24. I have an 8-year old son..during the election last year, he stood up

(during a Bush campaign ad on tv )from his place at the dinner table and began the "..the future does not belong to fear, it belongs to freedom ..." speech from a campaign ad for Kerry..
VERBATIM!!I was so thrilled!!