Teaching lessons in this political season
In this column, we try not to espouse any particular religion or political preference. But how can we ignore the current and never-ending political campaign that has been thrust upon us?
Dad, we would like to suggest that you use this political season to teach your children how not to treat other people. Our tongues are not in our cheeks … we’re serious. While we all have come to expect some name- calling and mudslinging during election campaigns, we’re absolutely dumbfounded at the childish tactics and mean- spirited banter that grown men and women — one of whom will be our next president and commander-in-chief — have utilized in their quest to beat the competition.
Hey, Dad, remember how badly we all wanted to be liked in high school? Remember how eager we sometimes were to put others down in order to hold our swollen heads high above the herd? How low we occasionally stooped to make fun of someone’s looks or ridicule a classmate’s stutter or limp or nervous twitch?
Do you recall Whatshisname’s funny accent and how he sounded like some dumb hillbilly? Remember the fat kid who tried so hard to be part of the in-crowd and ,when he waddled away, we made fun of his huge rear end?
Oh, the hair! There was the weirdo with orange hair and the swishy guy with curls. And there were one or two who had to be from other countries because they sure didn’t look or dress like normal people. Their names sounded like a hybrid of a sneeze and a spit. And we kind of wished they and others like them (or at least not like us) would go back to wherever they came from.
Well, we’re here to suggest that our politicians — certainly our presidential hopefuls — some Harvardand Stanford-educated, some doctors and attorneys in their human form, and most scrapping for space in future history books — could be adult reincarnations of the catty junior-high cheerleaders, the uppity high- school hall monitors and the self-absorbed-but-insecure students who need their daily supplement of adulation. You know, those kids who put others down in order to make themselves feel superior.
This campaign season provides us all with some teachable points for our kids:
› Currently, the candidates are not real people. They are ego-driven creatures whom you do not want to be like.
› Much of what they say — elephants and donkeys alike — is not true. The rest is only half true or is taken out of context and has no value except to gain a poll point.
› They want to tear down their opponents more than lift up their country.
› Could it be that, in their youth, they were shunned, ostracized or belittled and now they’re paying it forward?
› They believe that the devil is in the details … so to hell with the details.
Dad, please don’t blow it off and tell your kids this is just the way the game is played, that it’s just politics as usual. Being mean to others is not a game. We owe it to our children to raise the bar of kindness and civility considerably higher.
Tom Tozer and Bill Black are authors of “Dads2Dads: Tools for Raising Teenagers.” Like them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter at Dads2Dadsllc. They are available for workshops. Contact them at tomandbill@Dads2Dadsllc.com.