For the republic’s sake, grow up. This is not a game!

By Chris Baldus, editor

For the republic’s sake, grow up. This is not a game!

My wife and I were talking with our youngest’s teacher Monday, going over reading scores, how math is being taught, how well she is doing in spelling and how she is going to be doing a project on Benjamin Franklin.

My daughter was having a great conference. She was excited about her good grades. Happy times.

Her big smile withdrew behind pursed lips. Her whole posture shifted into a kind of pouty, head-bowed, eyes-peering- forward-through-her-eyelashes look. That’s the I-don’t-want-topick- up-the-living-room look.

Her teacher noticed it first as she was explaining how the various subjects — math, science, social studies, etc. — wove in and out of the daily curriculum. The teacher said a mock election would be coming up. That’s when my little girl shifted gears.

Um, maybe we should have a make-believe election, the teacher responded.

feelings that we are already in some kind of make-believe election, I was floored that this presidential election would sour the mood of a 9-year-old. The teacher said it’s a tough situation when it comes to addressing the election in class.

I agreed. I don’t even want my daughter watching the presidential debates this year any more than I’d turn on “Friday the 13th.”

At best, this R-rated black comedy starring Donald Trump is a ponderous lesson on how not to act in class, in public or on this planet. Yes, I put the onus entirely on the TV reality star. Hillary Clinton is simply a co-star — the Bud Abbott to Trump’s weird uncle version of Lou Costello.

On a side note: I played sports all the way through college. I’ve been in many ripe locker rooms. We did not talk like Trump did on a plush bus with a bumbling TV host.

five, including high schoolers — ask me around elections who I will vote for. My standard answer is “Me.” They push, and I’ll tell them I’ve voted for candidates from at least three different parties in my life. Some votes I regret, others I don’t, but I’m happy to say they were always my choices, not anybody else’s.

I’m not a member of any political party. Doing so not only would interfere with my life’s work as a newspaperman, it hands virtually unlimited power to a few at the top, mostly because of how politics is “played” these days.

I don’t see value in treating politics like a sport, dividing into teams that you live or die with. I’m dumbfounded by Gov. Terry Branstad’s response Monday to Republicans fleeing Trump’s camp. He was trying to expand on how he’s proud of the state’s Republican leadership sticking together.

“It’s important that we recognize that we’re part of a team, and that a lot is at stake in this election,” he said.

Politics should be about solving problems so we can live together so we don’t end up killing Piggy. (He’s the poor kid who is murdered in the power struggle in “Lord of the Flies.” Good book. Good lessons. I recommend it.)

picture in my head of my daughter, brooding about a presidential election, at age 9. That is not fostering hopes and dreams of the future.

I don’t like what the teams are doing to my kid and country. I want to see politics changed. It’s time to clean house. Sweep the numbskulls out. Bring in the grown-ups. Stop killing piggy.

Contact Editor Chris Baldus at cbaldus@charlescitypress. com.