Kids are growing up at a much faster pace than they were decades before.
Living in a 24 hour news world has made kids more knowledgeable about the world around them. One such example of this occurred when a member of Congress took a flight and found out that the passenger he was to sit next to was a little girl. When he sat down he could see that she was absorbed in her book reading, but he decided to ask her to chat anyway.
She asked him if there were any topics that he would like to discuss with her. He thought he would be funny and stated that yes, he would like to talk about stimulus packages, healthcare and global warming.
He thought those subjects would be over her head, but she responded in kind and inquired if he knew why animals that all eat grass have different shaped excrement. The congressman was baffled by the question and showed that he knows very little about the topics that he had prior stated that he wanted to discuss. The girl replied that he was not qualified to have those kind of discussions because he had insufficient knowledge. She then decided to no longer converse with him and instead decided to read.
The exchange shows what most people feel, that politicians often lack the credibility and understanding to vote on the issues that they campaign on.