Just because a middle schooler ca n’t vote does n’t mean he wo n’t be the subject of election materials meant to appeal to him. A publication in the” Who HQ” set ( published by Penguin Random House ) titled” What Is A Political Vote”? introduces children to communist talking points about the Electoral College, Donald Trump, and federal spending, to name a few.
In a two-page multiply, the book’s author, Douglas Yacka, presents children with 10 attitudes and finally tells them,” If you answered’ Sure’ to more of the odd-numbered issues, you agree with several ideas held by Democrats”. If you answered” Yes” to even-numbered statements, you might be a Republican, Yacka explains.
What kind of attitudes are Democrat-coded? Spending more tax dollars on “education and improving schools”, ensuring “businesses ca n’t pollute the environment”, government-provided “affordable health care available to all Americans”, government efforts to” see that all Americans have a home, a job, and a decent education”, and taxing those “wealthy people and big businesses” to provide “school lunch programs for children whose families do n’t have much money”. Does your 8-year-old like complimentary things, trees, breakfast, and his professor? Thanks, he’s a Democrat.
Your child is a Republican, on the other hand, if he does n’t “believe in letting immigrants into our country,” which is a flagrantly false mischaracterization of Republicans ‘ ( and most Americans ‘ ) concerns about the open border crisis, which has resulted in the entry of millions of people and hundreds of thousands of convicted criminals into the United States illegally. Yacka tells your child that those immigrant-hating Republicans are the same gullible individuals who want lower fees so they can “have more money in their pockets.”
When Yacka gives friendly Democrat arguments for the government’s desire to do the exact opposite, the government is disingenuously listed in opposition to another” Democrat” claims like” the government if stay out of people’s firm as much as possible” and “if I own a business, the government has no right telling me how to manage it.”
Yacka asks kids to rank issues “in order of their importance to you” elsewhere in the book. You might be able to detect the feel-good slant in the terms “better public education”, “protection of the environment”, free college tuition,”” good, affordable medical care, “and” equal rights and protections for all Americans.”
Much less exciting to the average middle-schooler are items like” lower taxes “and” cutting costs for government programs.”
The book honors Democrat Hillary Clinton as the first woman to run for president in the lead role and Democrat Pete Buttigieg as the first openly gay man to do so in a section titled” Leading the Way.”
You might assume that Kellyanne Conway would receive a special shoutout as the first female campaign manager to lead a successful presidential campaign. Instead, the book dedicates a half-page illustration to Biden’s 2020 campaign manager Jennifer O’Malley Dillon, whom it describes as the” first female campaign manager for a winning Democratic presidential campaign. ” In parentheses, the caption begrudgingly admits” Kellyanne Conway had been the first in a Republican presidential campaign “four years earlier.
The book distills the widespread doubts about a never-before-seen election into the idea that Donald Trump was mistaken, claiming that he failed to” conclude or begin planning a peaceful transition” in its handling of the 2020 election. ” ( On Jan. 20, 2021, Trump peacefully left office and Joe Biden was inaugurated as president. ) There’s an obligatory paragraph about Jan. 6, and the lawfare against Trump by his opponent’s Justice Department is handled by noting that the former president faced” criminal charges” for trying” to change the election results.”
‘ Unfair’ Electoral College
There’s also a not-so-subtle dig at the Electoral College:” Believe it or not, whoever wins the most votes does not necessarily become president. ” The Electoral College, Yacka adds, is a system from” more than two centuries ago. ” Back then, Americans, especially those rural voters” living outside of urban areas, “were” much less informed about the candidates, “he says. Some people now believe that the Electoral College is unfair and no longer necessary because our population has access to social media and search engines that are curated by Big Tech censors.
To drive home the” unfair “point, Yacka ca n’t help reminding kids that Clinton won the popular vote in 2016″ but still lost the election.”
A line at the end of the page acknowledges that some” argue that the Electoral College still provides a more equal representation between areas of the country with higher populations and those with fewer people.”
Readers are asked to write down their opinions of which system they believe is “fairer” just to make sure your kids understood what they were saying.
Kamala Harris, Your Kid’s New Hero
Joe Biden was the book’s author when it was still the party’s front-runner for president, but Democrats decided they could n’t win and removed him from the race to be replaced by Kamala Harris, his vice president. The series does n’t include a book about Biden or Trump, but it does have one about Harris, who is described as” a young, multiracial teenager who dreamed of becoming a lawyer “and” a successful US senator who fought for progressive reforms and women’s rights.”
( In the book’s description, Who HQ describes the diversity-box-checking politician’s” rise to national prominence “as” one filled with unexpected turns and obstacles” … like her initial failure to pass the bar exam. )
The series also includes profiles of left-wing icons like asbookseries.com/books/who-is-sonia-sotomayor/”>Sonia Sotomayor, asbookseries.com/books/who-is-hillary-clinton/”>Hillary Clinton, asbookseries.com/books/who-is-barack-obama/”>Barack Obama, asbookseries.com/books/who-is-michelle-obama/”>Michelle Obama, and asbookseries.com/books/who-was-ruth-bader-ginsburg/”>Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The publishers could only bring themselves to include the late Sen. John McCain in a series that considered it appropriate to portray communist dictator Fidel Castro as” a boy who loved sports” and ast-harvey-milk/”>sexual predator Harvey Milk as” a young Jewish boy who liked listening to opera and playing football.”
Elle Purnell is the elections editor at The Federalist. Her work has been featured by Fox Business, RealClearPolitics, the Tampa Bay Times, and the Independent Women’s Forum. She received a B. A. in government from Patrick Henry College and a journalism minor. Follow her on Twitter @_etreynolds.