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Every week on At Our Table [ [link removed] ], I sit down with leaders, activists, and friends to talk honestly about what’s happening in our country. But this week, I wanted to do something different. I wanted to pull up a chair at a table we don’t talk about nearly enough even though the future of this country is sitting right there.
The kids’ table.
Instead of being the host, I handed the mic to Margo, a teenager I’ve known almost her entire life. And let me tell you, she didn’t hold back.
Kids rarely do.
Kids are paying attention
A couple days after we recorded this episode, news broke that Congress had finally reached a deal to end the government shutdown. After weeks of frozen SNAP benefits, unpaid federal workers, chaos at airports, and all the ripple effects families were feeling, a handful of Democratic leaders caved to the same extremists who manufactured the crisis in the first place.
I’m still frustrated, shocked, and honestly embarrassed for our system.
Talking with Margo made one thing immediately clear: kids have been watching all of this. They see the dysfunction. They feel the consequences in ways adults forget or ignore.
And as a father of two young boys, I think about that a lot. Because kids don’t just overhear politics. They absorb the stress in the room. They notice when something isn’t right—even when we try to shield them.
When the government shuts down, it’s kids who notice the stress in their homes.
When healthcare costs skyrocket, it’s kids who watch their parents choose between prescriptions and groceries.
When food assistance gets tangled in political games, it’s kids who hear the quiet conversations about how to make food stretch for the week.
Young people may not know every acronym or procedural rule, but they know when something doesn’t make sense. They know when adults aren’t doing their jobs. And they are never shy about asking why.
Our founding principles
Out of all the tough questions Margo asked me, and there were plenty, the one that hit hardest was this:
“The founders wanted equality for all. Why isn’t that true 250 years later?”
It stopped me. Because it wasn’t a policy question. It was a moral one.
I told her the truth:
America is an experiment.
An idea we have not yet achieved.
A promise we are still struggling to keep.
Sometimes the pendulum swings forward. Sometimes it swings back. Sometimes it feels like we’re walking up a down escalator, working twice as hard just to stay where we are.
But the thing that has always made America great isn’t perfection. It’s the persistent effort to be better — generation after generation.
And that’s where young people come in.
The movement vs the moment
Out on the campaign trail in 2024, some of my favorite events were those focused on younger voters. Their energy is infectious, and I will always admire their moral clarity and their insistence that those in power do better.
Because the generational divide in politics has nothing to do with knowing the latest slang or trends on TikTok. It’s about time horizons. It’s about who thinks in decades and who thinks in news cycles.
We don’t give young people nearly enough credit for that. They measure justice by whether it lasts, not whether it trends. While many of us get comfortable, they stay courageous. They aren’t afraid to demand the bigger, harder thing because they haven’t been numbed by cynicism.
They’re not chasing the moment. They’re building the movement.
And they’re part of a long tradition. Every major transformation in American history was sparked by young people.
Not the wealthy. Not the comfortable. Not the people telling others to “be patient.”
Young people.
Teenagers and 20-somethings weren’t just present at the American Revolution. Many were the ones carrying the pamphlets, printing the broadsides, and marching into battle.
Young suffragists refused to be told “not yet.”
Young workers in factories and mines fueled the labor movement.
Students—SNCC organizers, freshmen at sit-ins, Freedom Riders barely out of high school—propelled the Civil Rights Movement forward.
That pattern hasn’t changed. Sitting across from Margo, I could see the same spark. I also see it in my own sons when they ask big, honest questions about the world around them.
Kids don’t accept dysfunction, and that’s a gift
Adults get used to things. We normalize the unacceptable. We shrug and say, “Well, that’s just how Washington works.”
Kids don’t do that.
When Margo asked why Congress can go weeks without voting while families go weeks without a paycheck, she wasn’t trying to trap me. She was trying to understand why grown-ups would ever allow that.
When she asked about SNAP benefits during a shutdown, she wasn’t debating ideology. She was imagining what would happen if the people she loves couldn’t buy groceries.
Young people force us to strip away the political language and answer the human questions underneath. They remind us what matters. They remind us what’s at stake. They remind us where our moral compass should be pointing.
We should all spend more time at the kids’ table
By the end of the episode, Margo had awarded the inaugural “Sit Your Butt Down” Award to JD Vance, and honestly, she earned my vote on that one. But more than that, she reminded me why I got into public service in the first place.
Not for power.
Not for titles.
But for the people who deserve a government as good as they are—especially the ones who can’t yet vote for it.
As a dad, that responsibility feels heavier. My boys deserve a country that honors its promises. All our kids do.
If we’re going to make this country live up to its promise, we need to keep listening to the people who still believe it’s possible.
And after this conversation, I realized we need to make space for the kids’ table more often—not as a one-off episode, but as a recurring part of At Our Table.
So pull up a chair. This week, we’re all sitting at the kids’ table.
And that might just be the place where the next chapter of American progress begins.

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