Voting, Veggies and Baby Food

I am a father. I have two children who are now grown adults out of college and in the workforce. Both of them are active in politics and their community; one is a creative and entrepreneur, the other an engineer. They are healthy and strong and they eat really diverse diets. I attribute that to their mother who lovingly ensured they had lots of wholesome food early, starting with a variety of vegetables as baby food. They ate strained carrots and strained peas and butternut squash (they both loved that stuff, I'm not sure why) and more. As they graduated to solid food, they loved when we made meals in the kitchen and would round the corner for a trimming of bell pepper, a nibble of carrot or a leaf of spinach. As they aged, they would continue ordering salad as often as French fries and would try new cuisines eagerly. In essence, their palates matured as they did.

I'm learning that after a quarter century of life, they are vastly more prepared to eat meals from almost any country and continent without complaint. They know what they like and what they do not, but they do not summarily write off a cuisine without at least sampling it. Much can be said for such hardy taste buds. But their lesson is instructive in the field of civics as I ruminate on this 245th anniversary of our nation's founding. I keep seeing us picking big battles to debate, giant issues to tackle but we haven't really eaten our baby food yet.

Civics is like cuisine in that if you weren't exposed early, it will seem unpalatable. Worse, because we treat federal elections more like dessert and local elections more like vegetables, we don't have a balanced diet of voting. We range in participation, depending on the state, from 50 - 80% in four year presidential elections down to single digits, again depending on the locality, for local elections. It seems everyone is in line for ice cream and none for asparagus. This seriously hamstrings America; a small group of vigorous voters may determine the future for a large majority of residents. As of June 20th, in NYC, where there are over 4.2 million registered voters, just over 191,000 had reported voting across all times, locations and parties in the primary for mayor. A paltry 6% of voters chose candidates that will run in the general election. Nobody wants veggies, indeed!

Compared to fried chicken, prime rib and chocolate cake, vegetables don't really stand a chance. They don't taste all that good unless you know what they offer. But they're what keep the body (nation) healthy. And to increase voter turnout in these elections that are most important to the day-to-day life of the average individual, business owner and parent, we need to start teaching how to eat and appreciate vegetables much sooner. As my children's mother and I did when our kids were young, we didn't give them a choice, they ate lots of vegetables. We didn't let them focus on sweets that were awesome to the tongue. We made sure they were eagerly getting the stuff that would help them ward off infections and help their brains develop.

It is time to consider mandating civics education for all high school seniors and make voting in local elections part of the curriculum (if they are of voting age, based on state law). It should not be an option. And it should be part of the grade that students enter into the voting booth to make a choice, they should be capable of picking school boards, city councils, county commissioners, judges and even water and utility officials. Civics education is baby food, getting them familiar with vegetables. Yes, the big federal elections every four years get tons of press and money and advertising, but local elections are where potholes get filled, libraries get funded and water quality gets improved (or not). And these little elections, the vegetables of the process, are not being thoroughly introduced to voters in a way where they can learn to appreciate (and digest) them before they get to the big flashy desserts every few years. (We won't tackle here the need to reform labor laws in all states so individuals can freely participate in every local election without fear they'll lose their job or money for the time spent voting).

Voting is how a community and nation thrive. Having more participation will help bring better candidates, better policies and better outcomes for every resident. But to get from single digit participation to a more robust "B" average (85%), we can't simply tell people to vote - that's just telling people who aren't used to the taste to eat more veggies. Instead, we must start younger, with baby food, the way parents introduce healthy foods before kids form an opinion. I personally like vegetables, and eat them with every meal, but even so, I didn't like black-eyed peas much. I had to learn to like those, it took a few years, now I make them myself. We must figure out how to introduce voting early so people don't have to wait till late to find out just how good it really is. Vote in every election (and eat your veggies) for a healthy community!