I had the chance to revisit a thought that has been on my mind all through the 2012 election cycle, as I engaged in that unexpected parenting moment: introducing my 8-y-o son to the concept of democracy. Now, at 4 years old, my son watched me watch the elections, and put stickers on my car and signs in my yard. As we watched Obama take the oath of office, I held him in my lap and told him to watch carefully because he was seeing history, and remembered my parents making me watch Nixon's resignation speech with the same advice. And so as we did invitations for his 5th birthday party, it shouldn't have surprised me but it did when he handed me an invitation and said "Now send one to Barack Obama, okay?" And so we did -- I think it was elephant shaped and included the address to Chuck E Cheese and the date and time, and he signed his name to it, and it went into the stack. I warned him that Mr. Obama is a very busy man since he's President, and might not have time for a party, and sure enough, he didn't turn up at Chuck E Cheese that day, but a little while later, we got a letter from the President thanking him for the invitation and containing an autographed photo. Not bad for a 5 year old's entree into political life in the DC area. But an 8 year old has a very different brain than a 5 year old, and during this election cycle, Noah's mind was binary -- our side was good; the other guys, not so much. And clearly it was time to begin to explain a higher understanding of the process than simply "we want our guy to win at all costs." So in our time in the car, we began to have long conversations about how there are topics that I believe are good and right, and other people look at the same thing and think that the other point of view is good and right, and that's just how the world works. And we talked about how we pick a candidate to support who we believe will do what is good and right, and other people, who believe different things than we do, will pick the candidate that THEY believe will do what's good and right. And then we have a vote, and the one who gets the most vote in a state wins the electors for our candidate from that state (electoral college is a stretch for an 8-y-o, but we tried), and the one who gets the most electors wins. This got me very conscious of some things that simply didn't work in the last election, which made explaining democracy based on it much more challenging: 1) Democracy really works best, I believe, if the candidates stand proudly for what they believe in, for the values they will support if elected. "I am on this side and I stand for this." "I am on this other side and I stand for that." Good, now we can all say "I want this guy" and "I want that guy" and bam, we've got an election that expresses the majority of the people. But Democracy doesn't work particularly well, I believe, if the candidates don't declare and stand proud. "I am on this side and I stand for this." "I think what you stand for is crap." Erm, no. That doesn't work. Be brave, stand for what you stand for, and let a reasonable election decide the will of the represented. 2)