In this political season, my wife has made a point to keep our 4 1/2 year-old daughter abreast of the high-level details – she is aware that we are soon voting for a new president; she knows who the candidates are; she even has some opinions of her own about what qualities a good president should have (in her words, a president should be able to do anything a mommy can do). We are unapologietically liberally slanted and are pretty confident in where our votes will be going in November. But we make a strong effort to convey information about the candidates to our daughter without much bias so that she can think for herself and come to her own conclusions. Neither of us really expect her to fully understand the even all of the fundamentals, it is mostly an exercise in early exposure to such things. But it is truly impressive how much she gets and how independently-minded she can be on such issues.
Recently, my wife happened to be watching some coverage where Obama was talking about pay equity and his stance on the matter as well as McCain’s stance. When our little girl overheard that women were making less for their efforts than men doing the same work and that McCain (supposedly) is content to leave things as such, she got infuriated. She was shocked to find that such inequalities existed and mad that McCain is okay with that fact. There are very few issues that either candidate is likely to speak about that would hit home with four year-olds. But this issue resonated with her, and if she had the right to vote I have no doubt for whom she would be voting.