talking to my daughter…
Toward the end of this last campaign my daughter—pretty, smart, 16, passionate about ideas, ideals, and people—grew alarmed at the number of her contemporaries and young adults who seemed to believe one way, but supported a candidate who, at least by my daughter’s lights, believed another.
She has not lived long enough to witness the sheer volume of cognitive dissonance displayed by individuals who, nonethess, seem oblivious to what is blindingly obvious to any discerning observer.
Her attempts to convert her friends were courageous, heartfelt, and doomed.
As I listened to her accounts, I began to realize several things.
The first is the realization that anyone 14 and older at this presidential election will be eligible to vote in the next one. Who better to reach them than someone like my daughter?
The second is that no one is equipping these young people with the thinking and research skills any voter needs to vote intelligently. Why couldn’t my daugher, assuming she was equipped for the task (political evangelism), do this? And do it quite effectively?
And, finally, that my daughter, with all her passion and intelligence, was not yet equipped for the task.
Where do we begin?
