Being a parent is very difficult. Parents constantly wonder whether they’re doing a “good” job. In once sense, I know we are successful. In the summer of 2016 we were driving through Smoky Mountain National Park listening to MSNBC on the SiriusXM radio. The discussion on the radio was about Trump’s deposition in a lawsuit from years earlier that had surfaced, and an analyst showing that Trump lied under oath 33 times. My (then) 6-year-old son yelled out, “That’s wrong! You shouldn’t lie! How can he be president if he lies so much?!” Later that year we got our kids Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders shirts.
In November 2016, my son was confused. He asked us, “can a White person be president?” His entire life, Barack Obama was president. And to him it seemed normal and correct that a Black person is president.
My kids have a very strong sense of justice. They cried when they saw images of children on the border locked in cages. They attended protests in support of #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter. They were outraged about George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and the countless others murdered by police.
Last summer during the Democratic Presidential Primary, my kids watched the debates with me. Afterwards I asked them who they supported. My son supports Bernie Sanders. Why? Because he looks and sounds exactly like his Grandpa! My father is the exact same age and grew up in the same Brooklyn neighborhood as Bernie, so they look and sound about the same. Though, while Bernie pontificates about economic inequality and social justice, my father pontificates on the price of cottage cheese and how nothing tastes like it used to.
But it’s my daughter that surprised me. She said she liked Joe Biden. Why? She said that he was the only one that answered the questions directly. And he sounded like he knew what he was talking about. Trump doesn’t know what he’s doing. The president should know what he’s doing.
Now… we live in Israel. I work in the US and (until COVID-19) commute back and forth to Atlanta. As dual citizens we get to vote in both elections. My kids wanted to know what we, as adults, are doing to get Joe Biden elected. We are actively involved in Democrats Abroad. We contribute to campaigns when it’s financially possible. And my wife is fairly active on social media. I committed to coming back to Georgia (no matter the financial cost) to vote in-person and to hand deliver and mail hundreds of Democrats Abroad absentee ballots from within the US to avoid international mail (and I’m paying the postage).
And in return I asked my kids what they’re doing. This is what my daughter came up with…
She shared this with all of her family and friends.
And we claim victory as parents!
Yes, you can take her image and share it as widely as possible. And yes, we will actually get her a kitten if Joe and Kamala win the election.