March 25--The administration of George W. Bush generated plenty of reason for criticism, and I agreed with a lot of it. Even so, I was taken aback by the way some parents chose to register their dissent: They dressed their small children in T-shirts that bore a cartoonish image of W with the slogan, "President Poopyhead."
That might have been funny to see on a college student, but I found it wildly inappropriate on a child. Parents can believe what they want, I thought, but they shouldn't drag their kids into it.
Contrary to a lot of moms and dads, I've always considered child rearing to be a nonpartisan activity. When kids are too young to understand the issues, they shouldn't be turned into billboards for their parents' beliefs. When they're old enough to form opinions, they ought to come to them through their own study and analysis.
Thus, political conversations at my house tend to be mild-mannered symposiums, more suitable for PBS than Fox or MSNBC. "Some people believe this," my wife and I will say, "but other people believe that. It's up to each person to decide what's right."
This attitude has guided every political discussion I've had with my pre-teen kids. But I confess it's growing difficult to maintain a sense of neutrality.
From Chicago to Springfield to Washington, D.C., we have acquired a generation of politicians who stretch the word "polarizing" to its outer limit. More and more, it seems, they are drawing lines that oblige us to stand on one side or the other.
Exhibit A, of course, is Donald Trump.
Since declaring his run for the presidency last year, Trump has insulted his opponents, demeaned members of the media, encouraged his supporters to commit violence against disruptive protesters and said many things that are easy to interpret as bigotry. His campaign has been loudly condemned from one end of the political spectrum to the other, and serious people have debated whether he is a fascist.
Yet a whole lot of Americans support him, interpreting his belligerency as refreshing straight talk, and it seems likely he will be on the final ballot in November. My kids are already talking about him, and I'm not sure how to guide the conversation.
For suggestions, I got in touch with Diana Hess, the dean of the University of Wisconsin at Madison's School of Education and a researcher who has studied how politics are discussed in public school classrooms. She said Trump, extreme as he may be, isn't the only candidate who conjures strong feelings.
"When I listen to really conservative people talk about Hillary (Clinton), for example, or President Obama, they would say the same thing as what (critics) say about Mr. Trump," she said. "Part of this is that the deep polarization we have has caused people to think that when you take a position ... you're not deciding among competing, legitimate alternatives. It's a question with only one right answer, and you've got it."
