5th Grade Politics

You probably think I’m talking about the pecking order on the playground. No, I am actually talking about the upcoming election in the 5th grade circle. There is some dissent amongst Cade and one of his friends who says he is a Democrat and would vote for Obama if he could vote. Of course that has just gotten all over Cade. From what I’m understanding there have been some hot and heavy political discussions between these boys. Tuesday night we had,  in our mailbox,  a flier that pointed out how McCaskill and Obama are alike and Todd Aiken is different. Cade planned to take that to school today to show this friend how wrong he is.


So dinner that night turned into a talk about politics and how we need to respect others beliefs. It is a loosing battle though in my household. Cade and Jay spend entirely too much time together listening to talk radio. I’ve tried to explain over and over to Cade about how you do not talk politics with people when you do not know their beliefs. I realize I’m a non-confrontational person so my view on this is to always play it safer, but there is no reason to entirely alienate family and friends (especially when you are only 10) over a Presidential Election. I also explained about how the ad we got in the mail was funded by an Aiken supporter so it showed all of his best stuff. Just like if we had got a flier funded by an Obama supporter it would show his best stuff. I’m not sure Cade quite understood how that all works. But since we aren’t a battle ground state we aren’t seeing any Obama/Romney ads so I’m sure Cade hasn’t seen enough examples of what I was trying to explain. After our few days in Virginia though I’m glad for that. If I had to listen to those Romney/Obama ads along with the McCaskill/Akin junk I’d be pulling my hair out.

Jay was trying to support me a bit in this conversation. I could tell he wasn’t as on board with it as I was, but I did get him to agree that there is no mention of Republican or Democrats in the Bible. Finally Cade did admit that he thinks this friend just likes to disagree with him, which I’m sure is 100% of the problem. I thought we were going to leave it at that and Cade was going to give up the political talk at school. Then Jay said “I wonder if Miss X (Cade’s Social Studies teacher) is a Dem?” Cade says “I’ve been wondering that same thing since I laid eyes on her.” Seriously!! So I said “well don’t you dare ask her.” Yeah, everything I tried to tell him last night went in one ear and out the other. When I got in the car Wednesday morning he had the flier in his hands. I just told him that I didn’t care what he did, but it really wasn’t worth the risk of making your friends mad just to talk about politics. I keep imagining me and this other boys parents outside the Principal’s office because they boys got in a fight at school.

Of course though, once Cade was out of earshot, I asked Jay if he thought this friend was picking up that info from home. Some of his ideas were pretty far out there – like Obama grew up on a farm in Chicago so he would be for the farmers. This boy also says he is for some other stuff that we do not biblically believe in. Now I’m wondering if his parents have been talking about this stuff??? See, that’s why you shouldn’t discuss politics! I really don’t care to know what I may know about someone else I like. Since I try to be bi-partisan most of the time I will try to overlook it :) But on the flip side who knows what this boys family believes about us…..