It's The End Of The World As We Know It....And I Feel Fine.

On the way to school this morning, my son, a high school freshman, asked, “Tuesday is election day, right?”

“Yes”

“Ok.  Then Wednesday is the end of the world.”

Election time.  Isn’t that kind of how we tend to react?

8 years ago around this day, that same son got in the car after school and said, “Mom, you are a racist.”

“Um, what?”

“We did mock elections at school.  If you don’t vote for Obama, you are a racist.”

I tried to teach him his first lesson about voting.  “You don’t vote for someone because of what color they are, you vote for them if you feel they represent you.  You vote for a President based on if you think they will be a good representative of our country and you have the same kind of opinions they do.”

“Well, according to school, you are a racist.”

Ok, then.  Apparently he was not ready to learn politics.  He was 7.  Unfortunately, there were people who were old enough to vote that weren’t ready to learn that either, so, I resigned myself to being labeled a racist, I was still going to vote for who I felt was the best candidate for me.

4 years later, my son was much more interested in what was going on.  I told him the candidate I was voting for, and why.  I explained differences between beliefs of candidates.  He followed the campaigns.  He went in the voting booth with me and read everything, and we discussed the amendments. He watched the election results all night. Again, in school, they had lessons revolving around politics, and had a class President election.  He introduced his grade to the Libertarian party, and subsequently became their Libertarian President-elect.  I’m pretty sure, however, that his promise of “Fun Fridays” appealed to all, regardless of party.

During this time my son actually APOLOGIZED to me.  He now understood why I voted for who I do, and he couldn’t believe he ever called me racist.  He’d learned a true lesson, not only that you should vote for who you feel would be the best President, but that sometimes politics are really ugly, and we try to influence people by calling names, a tactic most 11 year olds can tell you is pretty counter-productive.

This year, he didn’t have to ask me who I was voting for, he knows me well enough by now.  And, well, that Johnson/Weld sign in our front yard kind of gives it away.  We still talk about politics.  He actually got me back into listening to talk radio a few years ago due to his interest, so we hear a lot of things in the hour and a half or so we are in the car together every day (thus his sarcastic doomsday comment this morning).  He laughs when I yell at the radio and tell them they are wrong.  He asks questions if he wants to know more about something.  He’s formed his own opinions on the candidates.  I’m pretty sure he’s glad he’s not old enough to vote.

Most importantly, he’s gotten to see what the third party movement actually is, and he has learned that our choices in life aren’t really as narrow as the majority would have you think.  He’s learned that being successful doesn’t necessarily mean winning.  He’s seen that getting excited over the small stuff can be a big deal.  He sees parents who don’t back down on expecting our leaders to have integrity and be someone we can be proud of, and none our discussions have had to be why it is OK for Presidential candidates to do and say things that he would be grounded for life for.  

I don’t expect Gary Johnson to win the election tomorrow.  Gary Johnson doesn’t expect Gary Johnson to win tomorrow.  But we’ll be watching the results, not to see who wins (after all, Wednesday is the end of the world!), but to see if history will be made in Johnson getting 8%, which will give the Libertarian party equal access to state ballots and funding that the major parties have, thus the beginning of the end of the era of the two party system.  Some people will consider it success if we have our first female President.  Some will consider it a success if we build a wall.  I consider it a success if just one more person did some research on the other candidates.

Revolutions can start small, but they can have a big impact.

Make sure you vote, for whoever you feel best represents you.

That’s why they have wine.  Here’s to successes, not matter how small!