In a column headlined "Sorry, Kids: America Isn't a 'Safe Space,'" Rich Lowery addresses a theme I also hit in Townhall: the left's tendency towards political infantilism.
You'd really think from their reaction that the most important thing about their electoral defeat is that it is making children cry. Of course, they wouldn't be crying if their parents hadn't filled them full of a lot of baloney about the other side.
Their shock at the outcome of the election was compounded by their insularity:
Apparently, no one ever told them that they live in a geographically, economically and ideologically varied nation and that about half of its inhabitants might support a Republican candidate for president. They mistook the country for the campus of Oberlin College.
The news that it actually isn't arrived with the force of a thunderclap on election night. The shock of Donald Trump's election has occasioned tears, rending of garments and days of protests showcasing the rank infantilism of the American Left.
Conservatives really don't take to the streets after an electoral defeat, but our friends on the left obviously see this as constructive behavior:
It is left-wing protests that invariably devolve into law-breaking and so it was that the same kids who think Donald Trump is too divisive were soon smashing windows and throwing projectiles at police in behalf of their supposedly more open-minded vision of America. (The left's street protesters act as if there is no social or political problem that can't be addressed by hurling things at cops.)
There is a bizarre video on Youtube of a mother kicking her elementary-school-aged son out of the house for having voted for Donald Trump in a kiddie election at school. I am not linking to it because I am not sure it is legit: who would have made the tape, surely not a mother who is treating a child in this fashion?
But the tape and the behavior of the left (Children are crying!) over the election reminds me of my pet peeves: ittle kids should not be encouraged to have political opinions or vote in kiddie elections. Older kids, those in high school, should be encouraged to explore issues, but not younger ones.
Voting is an adult thing, and one hopes that adults prepare for this solemn activity.
That is why I loathe those infantile "I Voted" stickers.
If they've got a sticker that says, "I've read widely, pondered deeply and prepared myself and THEN voted," I'll take that one.
This insane emphasis on children and their political opinions is turning adults into children.