When was the last time that you had a conversation about politics with an second-grader? It's amazing how simple their perspective can be. I had to share this because it just tickled my funny bone a la Jack Linkletter's "Kids Say The Darndest Things". So Bethany is listening to the radio with me (NPR) and she blurts out, "I think I want to be a Democrat." So I'm thinking to myself that there must be some context for this, so I ask her why. She says, "It's because the Republicans have so many rules." Of course, second graders basically want to play and be creative and rules frankly just get in the way of all that.
A while back she had mentioned that during recess that they were playing "Democrats and Republicans" like it was some modern day version of Cowboys and Indians, so I asked her another probing question to see what all this meant to her. "So are you guys still playing Democrats and Republicans?", I asked. She replied, "No, we quit playing that a couple of months ago because it was too boring." Now at this point, I couldn't contain my laughter. The humor I saw was that the real Democrats and Republicans have quit "playing" a long time ago. And I had to explain to Bethany that I wasn't laughing at her but with her but I don't really know if she got it. The truth is that she and her friends really got it. I hope that the real politicians far and wide can figure out how to play well in the sandbox because it affects the rest of us playing the game of life.
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