Politics and an 8-year-old girl

Last night while we were watching the Super Tuesday coverage, my 8-year-old daughter asked "What's the difference between Democrats and Republicans."

My wife and I gave a quick, somewhat biased answer that seemed to satisfy her. I won't give it here till later, but I was wondering what would be the best answer to that question. The key is to be simple enough for an 8-year-old and unbiased toward either party.

Discuss.

 

Well, it's like this: A political party meets a candidate, they fall very much in love, and decide to have a president ...

 

The major difference between Republicans and Democrats is who they take their money from.

 

Democrats believe that government can help solve people's problems.

Republicans believe that people will have fewer problems if there's less government.

How's that for even-handed?

 

I say that Republicans generally favor businesses and allow them to produce and market their products with little interference, figuring that the marketplace will sort everything out.

Democrats are more likely to pass laws to regulate the rich bastards who are screwing workers, polluting the environment and poisoning consumers.

 

You were being pretty even-handed with the Republican part. Not so much the Democrats, but hey, it still made me smile. I actually prefer OTD's explanation.

Course, if I were evil, I'd say, "Daddy's a Democrat and Daddy's good, right? So anyone who's not a Democrat must be a Republican and they're not good."

"Daddy, is Mommy a Republican or a Democrat?"

"Uhm--"

 

I was exaggerating for fun. I actually use that with my kids, though I tone down the second part.

 

I like that.

 

Aw, I knew you were exaggerating. Just used it for my failed attempt at comic relief.

 

This is actualy close to what we came up with it. We said: "Democrats try to help everyone, while Republicans believe that the government should stay out of it."

In retrospect, I would have said this: "Democrats want to tell you what to do with your money, but they let you live your life however you want. Republicans want to let you do whatever you want with your money, but they tell you how to live your life."

 

BB -- I had the same conversation recently with my 14-year-old son, regarding "conservative" and "liberal." I was pretty sure he knew his mom and I would widely be considered "liberal" but kids hear a lot of crap at school, and I wanted to be sure he had a working base of knowledge to form his own views, so I tried to play it fair -- conservatives believe the private sector, if largely left alone, will produce the most good for the most people, that government tends to mess things up. Liberals believe government must take an active role in helping the poor, that the private sector mostly works on behalf of the rich.
I emphasized that both sides contain elements of truth -- even liberals like myself must acknowledge that more government isn't the answer to everything, and many honest conservatives acknowledge that the private sector, left completely alone, will produce stuff like Enron.
Bill Clinton said something last year about the need for more tolerance of one anothers' views, I'm paraphrasing, but it was along the lines of "we need the moral clarity of conservatism and the compassion of liberalism." I hope I didn't mangle that too badly. I think he's right.