CPAC's boy wonder swings left

[jaxx]

By PATRICK GAVIN | 7/2/12 11:11 AM EDT

Jonathan Krohn took the political world by storm at 2009’s Conservative Political Action Conference when, at just 13 years old, he delivered an impromptu rallying cry for conservatism that became a viral hit and had some pegging him as a future star of the Republican Party.

Now 17, Krohn — who went on to write a book, “Defining Conservatism,” that was blurbed by the likes of Newt Gingrich and Bill Bennett — still watches that speech from time to time, but it mostly makes him cringe because, well, he’s not a conservative anymore.

<..> Gay marriage? In favor. Obamacare? “It’s a good idea.” Who would he vote for (if he could) in November? “Probably Barack Obama.” His favorite TV shows? “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report.” His favorite magazine? The New Yorker. And, perhaps telling of all, Krohn is enrolling this fall at a college not exactly known for its conservatism: New York University.

“One of the first things that changed was that I stopped being a social conservative,” said Krohn. “It just didn’t seem right to me anymore. From there, it branched into other issues, everything from health care to economic issues.… I think I’ve changed a lot, and it’s not because I’ve become a liberal from being a conservative — it’s just that I thought about it more. The issues are so complex, you can’t just go with some ideological mantra for each substantive issue.”

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0712/78068.html

Smart kid. We can only hope that his peers and the elder GOPers will dump their ideological mantra worship too.

[janedrake]

What this says to me is that to embrace conservativism, you really have to be functioning at the level of a junior high teenager.

This is good news for Krohn - he's still young, though - he may have a few more phases to go through before he settles into one political philosphy or the other. That said, he does seem to be extremely smart. At the age he is now, I could barely recite the name of the Sec. of State, let alone articulate the differences between liberal and conservative political philosophies.

[sandnsea]

"I was thirteen"

Yep. The conservative party is pretty much made up of men who never mentally matured past 13.

[Willinois]

(07-02-2012 01:36 PM)sandnsea Wrote:  "I was thirteen"

Yep. The conservative party is pretty much made up of men who never mentally matured past 13.

haha! True! Your comment reminds me that Grover Norquist came up with his no tax pledge while he was in junior high school.

[pappy]

(07-03-2012 02:08 AM)Willinois Wrote:  

(07-02-2012 01:36 PM)sandnsea Wrote:  "I was thirteen"

Yep. The conservative party is pretty much made up of men who never mentally matured past 13.

haha! True! Your comment reminds me that Grover Norquist came up with his no tax pledge while he was in junior high school.

Which we only know because HE BRAGGED ABOUT IT!