How do I tell my children about liberals? Is there a way to do this without traumatizing them?
What age do you think is right to start telling your child about liberals? Right now my children are blissfully unaware that anything called a liberal exists and as much as it breaks my heart to tell them I know they have to be prepared. Any tips from other parents who have already gone through this?
Frame it the same way you would the Bogey Man or some stranger in a van offering them candy.
In between telling them that black people are evil and will hurt you, and that all Hispanic people should be viewed with suspicion as an illegal immigrant, and that all poor people are that way because they’re lazy leeches, try letting them know that there are these other Americans out there who went to fancy schools and learned all them fancy facts and don’t hate people
Show them the fruits of arch-conservative government:
http://ushmm.org
I know it’s hard to tell your children that there are people who don’t live in fear.
I’m sure you’re afraid to lose them – Lose them to living their life they way they want, as opposed to how you dictate it should be. Perhaps one of them might love a brown person, and get married? What would your neighbors think.
The only way to do is just flat out say it:
Honey, you may find it hard to believe that there are people out there who do not base their lives on a lie. People who do not hate, just for hates sake. People who believe in individual freedoms. People who put the ordinary person above the corporations, and hold all to the law equally.
But they must know.
Have faith.
Children by age 9 can probably figure out liberals for themselves with very little guidance.
I was talking to a friend of mine’s little girl the other day. I asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up and she replied, "I want to be President!" Both of her parents are liberal Democrats and were standing there. So then I asked her, "If you were President what would be the first thing you would do?"
She replied, "I’d give houses to all the homeless people."
"Wow – what a worthy goal." I told her, "You don’t have to wait until you’re President to do that. You can come over to my house and mow, pull weeds, and sweep my yard, and I’ll pay you $50. Then I’ll take you over to the grocery store where this homeless guy hangs out, and you can give him the $50 to use toward a new house."
Since she is only 6, she thought that over for a few seconds. While her Mom glared at me, she looked me straight in the eye and asked, "Why doesn’t the homeless guy come over and do the work, and you can just pay him the $50?"
And I said, "Welcome to the Republican Party."
Her folks still aren’t talking to me.
Start with Aesop’s fable about the Ant and the Grasshopper, it’s the perfect parable to highlight the differences between Liberals (grasshoppers) and Ants (conservatives)
tell them the truth instead of the lies you have been conditioned to believe. If you told them the truth and they compared it to Cons like you and others on y/a, they would chose to be a Liberal. Instead, you want to indoctrinate them with lies.
Read them this:
"A DAY IN THE LIFE OF JOE REPUBLICAN"
Joe gets up at 6 a.m. and fills his coffeepot with water to prepare his morning coffee. The water is clean and good because some liberal fought for minimum water-quality standards. With his first swallow of water, he takes his daily medication. His medications are safe to take because some liberal fought to ensure their safety and that they work as advertised.
All but $10 of his medications are paid for by his employer’s medical plan because some liberal union workers fought their employers for paid medical insurance – now Joe gets it too. If Joe gets fired or his job gets outsourced, now, thanks to liberals, he gets to keep his insurance coverage instead of losing it and if he has a catastrophic illness, he is no longer in danger of losing his house or having to declare bankruptcy.
He prepares his morning breakfast, bacon and eggs. Joe’s bacon is safe to eat because some liberal fought for laws to regulate the meat packing industry.
In the morning shower, Joe reaches for his shampoo. His bottle is properly labeled with each ingredient and its amount in the total contents because some liberal fought for his right to know what he was putting on his body and how much it contained.
Joe dresses, walks outside and takes a deep breath. The air he breathes is clean because some liberal fought for the laws to stop industries from polluting our air.
He walks on the government-provided sidewalk to the subway station for his government-subsidized ride to work. It saves him considerable money in parking and transportation fees because some liberal fought for affordable public transportation, which gives everyone the opportunity to be a contributor.
Joe begins his work day. He has a good job with excellent pay, medical benefits, retirement, paid holidays and vacation because some liberal union members fought and died for these working standards. Joe’s employer pays these standards because Joe’s employer doesn’t want his employees to call the union.
If Joe is hurt on the job or becomes unemployed, he’ll get a worker compensation or unemployment check because some liberal didn’t think he should lose his home because of his temporary misfortune.
It is noontime and Joe needs to make a bank deposit so he can pay some bills. Joe’s deposit is federally insured by the FSLIC because some liberal wanted to protect Joe’s money from unscrupulous bankers who ruined the banking system before the Great Depression.
Joe has to pay his federally underwritten mortgage and his below-market federal student loan because some liberal decided that Joe and the government would be better off if he was educated and earned more money over his lifetime. Joe also forgets that his in addition to his federally subsidized student loans, he attended a state funded university.
Joe is home from work. He plans to visit his father this evening at his farm home in the country. He gets in his car for the drive. His car is among the safest in the world because some liberal fought for car safety standards to go along with the tax-payer funded roads.
He arrives at his boyhood home. His was the third generation to live in the house financed by Farmers’ Home Administration because bankers didn’t want to make rural loans.
The house didn’t have electricity until some liberal stuck his nose where it didn’t belong and demanded rural electrification.
He is happy to see his father, who is now retired. His father lives on Social Security and a union pension because some liberal made sure he could take care of himself so Joe wouldn’t have to.
Joe gets back in his car for the ride home, and turns on a radio talk show. The radio host keeps saying that liberals are bad and conservatives are good. He doesn’t mention that the beloved Republicans have fought against every protection and benefit Joe enjoys throughout his day. Joe agrees: "We don’t need those big-government liberals ruining our lives! After all, I’m a self-made man who believes everyone should take care of themselves, just like I have."
With all due respect, you are acting like a liberal when you consider hiding/padding the truth from your very own children.
oh thats great, just brainwash your kids….sounds like the typical religious right winged thought to me
You could tell them that how in America the religious right run the media to such an extent is now practically against the law to be anything other than a neo fascist and how thatr anyone with politics that are left of , let’s say Mussolini are pinkos.
America is the only democratic country in the world where to be a liberal is a bad thing
I am going to have to agree with Lucille.
REPUBLICAN – because not everyone can be on welfare.
If you have kept them insulated from truth and indoctrinated them, they may be lost to civilized society forever. I wish you would have considered this before reproducing.
Tell them that liberals would kill babies before they are born, but would defend those who kill babies after they are born.