While Clinton and Obama Duel, It's Kids Who Rule

Ok, we grownups who would ordinarily be political news junkies may have a mild-to-serious case of campaign fatigue, and are dismayed as divisiveness increases between loyal Obama and Clinton supporters.

Then we've got voters whose brains have turned to mush and somehow believe lapel pins are a worthy index of patriotism, or whose brains have hardened into cement and believe that a Christian, born-in-Hawaii, biracial candidate whose middle name is "Hussein" is instead Muslim and foreign-born.

Seriously, some knuckleheads are just so deeply wrong that they might as well lie down on the ground and thrash their arms and legs and scream. But since I'm pretty sure Gandhi never said that tantruming for peace was an accepted form of civil disobedience--and I'm also pretty sure there's no check box for hissy fits on the ballot--we'll have to look past the grownups sulking and to the mature, sensible, and rational people in America: kids. They've been drawn into this year's Democratic primary like never before.

The ones who really make my day are the ones who can't vote--check out these kids across America and their take on the candidates:

Primary Lures Those Too Young to Vote, NYT:

...[4th grader] Ethan Steinberg sought to summarize the Democratic candidates’ Senate votes on an early measure to authorize the war. “At first Hillary wanted the war to go on,” he said, recounting a newspaper article he had read. “Then a little later she changed her mind and wanted the troops to come home. Obama voted that the troops shouldn’t go to war. He thought it would cause too many problems.”
...
After the children spent time discussing short position papers that the teachers had prepared on subjects like health care and education, it was time to vote.
...
Later, the teachers announced the gradewide results: 52 votes for Mr. Obama and 21 for Mrs. Clinton (with one ballot, marked for both, disqualified). In Miss Boles’s class, the vote was more lopsided: Mrs. Clinton garnered just 2 of the 20 votes cast.

Superdelegate Superstar, by Lya Ferreyra for Scholastic Kids Press Corps

Jason has been courted by former President Bill Clinton, Senator Hillary Clinton, and daughter Chelsea, as well as by Senator Barack Obama. Why? Because his vote will help decide who will run against Republican Senator John McCain in the upcoming presidential election.

At first glance, Jason Rae seems to be your average 21-year-old. He attends Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he majors in history and political science. He was only 17 years old when he ran for a seat on the Democratic National Committee and won, becoming the organization's youngest member. He is now one of the 794 superdelegates who will attend the Democratic National Convention this summer in Denver, Colorado.

All around the country, kids and young adults of all ages have plunged into electoral politics with excitement and roll-up-your-sleeves verve. In Oregon, a young woman set up her own voter registration drive at her high school and registered half her senior class.

In New Hampshire, a teen graduated early from high school so he could volunteer with the Clinton campaign (you heard right, he's neither middle aged nor a woman).

A group of high school students in Michigan took their complaints about the anti-democratic power held by Democratic Party superdelegates to Lansing, MI, in a protest and petition presented to lawmakers.

High schoolers in Washington state are part of a 5-state effort to lower the voting age to 16, as organized by an advocacy group, the National Youth Rights Assocation.

Why the interest, espcially among teenagers? Maybe in part because 17 year olds now were 10 when 9/11 occurred, and they were old enough to grasp and truly follow the Bush administration's outright lies and half-truths that led us to our present point. Maybe they have older brothers and sisters, or a parent, or a friend serving overseas about whom they worry. Maybe they see McCain's "100 years' occupation of Iraq" as the insanity that it is, and they don't want any part of serving in it, paying for it, or going along with it. Maybe their youthful selves refuse to settle for complacent defeat and the paralysis of cynicism.

Or maybe, just maybe, they can think for themselves with a youthful ability to set the bullshit detector to high--and they've got the energy and wherewithal to really pay attention to the news.

Whatever it is, we need more of it.

Online resources for kids on Election '08:

TIME Magazine for Kids, Election '08
PBS Kids Democracy Project
Zoom Out the Vote (PBS)
Scholastic News Online: Election '08

Voter Education

KidsVotingUSA.org: K-12 classroom and community partnerships/resources to teach voting
TakeYourKids2Vote.org: Hey Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Montana, Oregon, Indiana, West Virginia, Kentucky, South Dakota, Guam, and Puerto Rico--you're deciding this historic race, take your kids to the voting booth with you!

Cynematic's fairly certain the "I voted" sticker you get in exchange for doing your civic duty made a huge impression on her sticker-mad 4-year old son. Hey, if it worked for potty training... She blogs at P i l l o w b o o k.

Comments

[Glennia]

Thanks for the links. I'm going to check out the Kids Voting sites to see if we can do something at our school in November. I remember doing a mock election in elementary school and that it was really fun.

[Daisy]

"Tantruming for peace" -- I'll have to try that. Not. Great phrase, though!