Needless to say, we’re politically opinionated in our household and we encourage our kids to watch the debates and discuss the topics. We regularly discuss politics and economics (and the deep history of each), and describe how psychology and marketing techniques are used to control “group think,” in an effort to keep people in the dark about the issues that really matter…like the allocation/control of resources and how that’s divided between labor and capital.
Believe it or not, I do tell them that both sides of the two-party system tend to be corrupt, and we discuss how representative government tends to be the most efficient, but also most vulnerable to corruption. We discuss corruption, how and why it happens, whether or not everything that comes about as a result of corruption is good or bad, who benefits/suffers and why, etc., etc.
We discuss how people in power (those who control the politicians) try to steer the debates and political discourse in certain directions and how they use emotionally charged issues to get people to often vote against their own best interests.
IMHO, they are never too young to learn about the real world. If she is showing an interest, that’s an awesome learning opportunity. There is so much you can begin to teach her about history, psychology, nationalism/patriotism, natural resources, wars, etc. and how these are the lifeblood of politics and economics. You can spend almost all of your time talking about these topics and never run out of new material to discuss.
IOW, don’t worry about what others think about you and your kid. You can even steer the topic away from specific individuals (because they really don’t matter in the grand scheme of things) and redirect the conversation toward a more productive discussion about how the world’s population has to share space and resources, and how different people intend to go about doing that…or not.
