New At The Broad Side: Explain The Election To Me Like I’m A Child

I have a new post up at The Broad Side talking about the task of explaining the election to my son:

Now that we’re deep into election season, my little boy has been forced to endure many of the same virulent political ads as the rest of us. They were on during the Olympics all summer and they run almost non-stop during the morning news program I like to turn on. Just by virtue of being in the room with the TV on, my son has gotten an education into the scare tactics popular among third-party political actors. Luckily, he’s too young to understand the falsehoods put forth by the Super PACs (::ahem:: The Affordable Care Act is NOT “government run health care.”) But he does understand the horse race aspect of a political contest and he wants to know who is going to win and why.

What do I tell him? The nuances of party platforms and governance records are more than he can understand. The Laffer Curve means nothing to him nor has he ever heard of Keynes and the economics of demand. He doesn’t know the middle class from mommy-and-me music class. He doesn’t understand why access to health care for all is a good thing since health care means shots to him and he HATES shots. He would just be confused if I told him that I fear for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s longevity if we were in a position of having a conservative president appointing her replacement. And it goes without saying that I can’t talk about Paul Ryan and use words like “vouchercare” or “douchebag.”

Go check out the rest (and all the other awesome political writing from women) at The Broad Side!

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