Waaay back in '04 during the height of election
season, my kids really got into it. Not having been particularly
political myself until making a choice against something became almost as important as making a choice for,
we found ourselves becoming increasingly excited by the sheer number of
political signs posted everywhere. The kids began counting them on the
way to school, keeping track of the tally. I figured it was a way to
tell who'd win: whoever had the most signs up would obviously be the
winner. It got a little ugly when it became clear that the Car Pool
Girls who rode with us had a different political orientation than ours.
I wanted to shriek,"How can you vote for HIM!"
Goodyblog has been thinking about this too,
and asks the question, "Is it okay to proclaim your personal political
orientation via your kid?" In other words, is slapping a Che Guevara onesie on your kid okay? What about "President Poopyhead"?
Where do you draw the line between irony and gratuitous political
pawnery? Or is there a line? Me, I figure that if they can't talk and
can't proclaim preference for one shirt over another they're fair game,
but once the kid starts making decisions about attire, it's a little
weird until they're old enough to really understand what's on the shirt.
