I love having a politically aware Democratic 18 year old for a number of reasons.
* He was super excited to vote and was in line at 6:45 a.m. on Election Day after having texted numerous friends to remind them to get their butts to the polls before school.
* He makes the conversation at the dinner table way more interesting and challenges his younger brother to engage.
* He's fascinating to watch when he engages conservative classmates parroting what they have heard from their Faux News sponge parents. He deftly employs the Socratic method. Predictably, they are unable to answer his questions with any depth of understanding or reasoning ability. When it dawns on them, they resort to the predictable irritated sputtering. A conversation he had with one kid about immigration yesterday was a thing of beauty.
* He doesn't mind being challenged himself. We had a spirited discussion yesterday about Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House. He started in on the "we need someone younger who can excite the next generation..." I asked him to consider two questions. 1) Is that an essential function necessary to be an effective (or kick ass) Speaker of the House? i.e. What is the SOH's job? and 2) Looking at the list of Speakers of the House can he in good conscience affirm that he would be saying the same thing about a male. The latter question being a very fair one to ask of the boy since he remains a big fan of Bernie Sanders and believes the Senator has the ability to excite younger progressives.
* We compared our sample ballots and although we both went straight Democratic party in the partisan races, it was interesting to see where we differed in the non-partisan races and on state constitutional amendments. Although we disagreed profoundly on one race and one amendment, I was proud of him for having reasons that made sense and for being able to express them intelligently. He didn't change my mind on one, but he has me second-guessing my choice on the other.
Seeing him develop as a politically aware citizen has been such an exciting and rewarding experience. I guess I shouldn't be at all surprised he is looking at pre-law or political science for his undergraduate major while applying to colleges. His first career aspiration was goalkeeper for Liverpool FC. He's now got his sights on Supreme Court justice. I'd be fine either way. 
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