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#TBT to Elizabeth and her fascination with American Presidents.
If you are raising smart but politically uneducated kids, you are a contributor to what is wrong with our political system. A rather harsh assessment you might say, but if you believe as most parents do, that our children are the future, these future leaders’ lack of political knowledge and civic engagement are conduits to the breakdown of our system. A system that currently stands gridlocked on the fundamental issues that shape our democracy.
Kids today know how to operate every piece of technology without ever reading a manual. To the detriment of their social and civic engagement, we let them consume technology for hours everyday, yet if you asked them why winning New Hampshire is important in the primaries, they might look at you wide eyed and say, “I’m not from there.” As if to imply that if the issue doesn’t directly affect them, their disengagement is justified.
I went back to school in 2009 and had the opportunity to attend class with Generation Y, or as often referred to as Millennials, from different social, racial, ethnic and economic backgrounds. I heard first hand about their views on civic engagement. I was dubbed “mama” because I was older than them and a mother with a wealth of life experience which I shared and they seemed to absorb like sponges. I listened to their dreams, aspirations and plans. The desire to graduate and get great jobs to “pay off my student loans,” get married and start families was universal but I seldom heard about plans for civic engagement. Reminiscing on her volunteer work on then Senator Obama’s campaign, one millennial told me, “To be honest with you, I never cared about politics until Obama.” When he became President, she felt like her job was done, following that was her decreased interest and the subsequent civic disengagement. I asked others if they would be voting in the 2012 elections and their excuse for not voting was that they were not from Boston and were registered in their home states. However, I had a proud “mama” moment when a young lady who knew I’d appreciate her telling me that she was going back home to Iowa to vote, “Where my vote actually counts,” she said excitedly.
When was the last time you took your young kids to a town committee meeting? Do they know why their local firefighters are suing the town for a pay increase? Do they know who their representatives on a municipal, state and federal level are? In November 2011, the Center for the Study of Social Policy reported results from the National Conference of State Legislatures which found that, “More young people can name an American Idol winner than know the political party of their state’s governor. Furthermore, the study found that many young people between ages of 18 to 24 do not understand the principals of citizenship, are disengaged from the political process, lack the knowledge necessary for effective government and have a limited appreciation of American democracy.”
A democracy currently in a contentious battle over the appointment of a Supreme Court justice to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia. Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution states: “[The President] shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint…Judges of the Supreme Court.” However, Senator Mitch McConnell said, “The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president.” To which Senator Elizabeth Warren responded, “Senator McConnell is right that the American people should have a voice in the selection of the next Supreme Court justice. In fact, they did — when President Obama won the 2012 election by five million votes.” During a press conference in remembrance of Scalia, President Barack Obama vowed, “I plan to fulfill my constitutional responsibilities to nominate a successor in due time. There will be plenty of time for me to do so, and for the Senate to fulfill its responsibility to give that person a fair hearing and a timely vote. These are responsibilities that I take seriously, as should everyone. They’re bigger than any one party. They are about our democracy.”
This Thing Called Parenting calls for you as the parent to ensure that your children understand the political process. Your parenting environment must be conducive to political education and civic engagement – that should include but is not limited to a study of government and the leaders who paved the way and sacrificed for the freedoms we now enjoy as Americans. As parents of young adults, you must ensure that they register to vote at the same time they get their license and remind them to fill out absentee ballots before they go to college or register to vote in their new home states for 4 years. See what the CSSP is doing to promote youth civic engagement. Your teens should be volunteering to register others to vote and on campaigns of candidates they have taken time to research and deem to be in alignment with their own values and political views. TTCP calls for the parent to not only be registered to vote but to actually vote, thus leading our future leaders by example. Your kids not only need to be smart, but need to be politically educated and civically engaged.
My daughter is registered to vote in Massachusetts but goes to school in Washington, DC. Although I’d prefer to be standing next to her in this historic election, she couldn’t be more excited to be casting her vote in our nation’s capital this November.