A Conversation About Conservatism With My Daughter
So, I was creating the following chart for a later post on Joe Robach, when my oldest (6-year-old) daughter came over and asked “What’s that?”
I explained that this was a chart of our state senators and whether they’d made “naughty choices” or not. The higher they are on the chart, the naughtier the choices. 
First she asked, what do the colors mean, and I told her (white is the “Independence” party). She said, “Which one is our senator”? I said that it was one of the ones in the 2nd highest group. She had a sharp intake of breath, and asked why we voted for him if he was making naughty choices. “That’s why we vote. We’d like him to make better choices, or vote for someone who will.”
Then she asked, “Who’s our president?” “George Bush.” “Does he make naughty choices?” “I believe that he does.” “Like what?”
“Well, you know how we’ve talked about how there’s lots of people, even around Rochester, that don’t have much money? It’s tough for them to pay for doctors when they get sick. Well, some folks in the government thought, hey, the government’s got a lot more money than they do. Why not help poor people, especially poor kids, pay for their doctor visits?”
My daughter, nodding vigorously, replied “Well, yeah!”
“Well, George Bush thinks that people, should pay for all that themselves.” “But what if they can’t?” “He still believes that they should, somehow.”
“What other naughty choices did he make?”
“Well, you know how we’ve talked about war, and that there are many other things you can do before you need to go to war about something? Well, he wanted to go to war first thing. I think war first was a naughty choice, because lots of people die and lots schools and hospitals and houses are damaged or destroyed.” (I’m not at my best before the first cup of coffee but I got the idea across, at least.)
“Yeah, and if they aim wrong, they could shoot a house, or a tree. Actually, if there were no trees, we would not be able to breathe.”
“Well, that’s another naughty choice. George Bush believes it’s more important for companies to be able to pollute than to keep our air, land, and water clean.”
“I wish George Washington and Abraham Lincoln were still alive,” she concluded sadly. “They wouldn’t be making naughty choices!”
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So under your scale of “naughty choices”, all but 3 Dem senators make “naughty choices” 40% of the time or more? I find that very disturbing. I would have guessed most Dems make “naughty choices” less often than that. Exactly what constitutes a “naughty choice”?
Also, the statistician in me feels compelled to speak up. Chart axes require labels right there on the chart. Its mandatory.
What a fantastic father you are to allow the mind of a child to deduce what we as adults can’t figure out even when someone shows us the colors!