Politico Hypes Ex-Conservative 'Wonder Boy' Who Is Now an 'All Grown Up' Liberal
Politico's Patrick Gavin on Monday hyped the evolution of a 13-year-old conservative to a 17-year-old liberal in an article trumpeting, "CPAC's Boy Wonder Is All Grown Up." Grown up equals liberal? The headline proved too much even for Politico. It was quickly changed to "CPAC's Boy Wonder Swings Left."
Gavin breathlessly recounted what a difference four years makes: "[Jonathan] Krohn is bucking the received wisdom that people become more conservative as they get older, a shift he attributes partly to philosophy."
Gavin touted:
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.
“I think it was naive,” Krohn now says of the speech. “It’s a 13-year-old kid saying stuff that he had heard for a long time.… I live in Georgia. We’re inundated with conservative talk in Georgia.… The speech was something that a 13-year-old does. You haven’t formed all your opinions. You’re really defeating yourself if you think you have all of your ideas in your head when you were 12 or 13. It’s impossible. You haven’t done enough.”
Thirteen is too young to have a coherent, mature political philosophy, but 17 isn't?
Gavin's article originally featured the "all grown up" headline. The Media Research Center's Tim Graham tweeted Gavin, pointing out, "You're aware that your headline suggests you're 'all grown up' when you become a liberal?" Gavin tweeted back, "Headline wasn't my doing but it's a fair point. Lemme inquire..."
Krohn recounted to Gavin how much he had grown: "I think I’ve just matured overall."
The problem isn't that this teenager is a young liberal and that he was an even younger conservative. It'sPolitico's definition of "all grown up": Liberal.
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Comments
I'd like to
Submitted by nolefan2 on Mon, 07/02/2012 - 4:58pm.
talk to him when he graduates from college and tries to find a job to be able to pay off all of that massive debt his new "idol" has thrust upon him and his peers. I imagine he will sing a different tune then.
DLTDHYITAOYWO
Submitted by gwalt on Mon, 07/02/2012 - 5:03pm.
Buh-bye.
"A lot of briefing for a 2 hr. special with Dan Rather. Saw the show & wonder why we bothered". Ronald Reagan
I had no idea
Submitted by amlaml on Mon, 07/02/2012 - 5:04pm.
that 17 years old was grown up. No wonder they changed their headline.
Is it that "all grown up"
Submitted by Kubrickfilmfan73 on Mon, 07/02/2012 - 5:47pm.
Is it that "all grown up" equals Liberal, or is it that Liberal equals "17 years old"? My money's on the latter.
Three Points
Submitted by stratman on Mon, 07/02/2012 - 5:50pm.
1) Seventeen is an expected age to rebel, which is a sine qua non of Leftists - except when rebellion is directed against them.
2) Loosening of morality is also a sine qua non of youth and the Left.
3) Conservative know that 13 year olds normally respond to their environment using learned behavioral mimicry. But the Left (in this article), unlike Conservatives, think 17 year olds no longer rely on heavy usage of mimicry - except if the teen is Right of Center politically, enjoy firearms sports, doesn't do drugs or alcohol, are virgins, or believe in God. Then the teen is brainwashed and mimicking.
I'm fine with giving recognition to whomever recognized the inanity of the headline and changed it. The Right used the kid and now the Left is using the kid. In 15 - 30 years he'll probably be Conservative for life once Life mugs him a time or two. Hopefully the Right of Center will have reclaimed the MSM and we'll read the story of his conversion.
And good points they are
Submitted by Dragoon on Mon, 07/02/2012 - 6:14pm.
This is much ado about nothing. A 17 year old changing his mind from what he believed at 13 is not worth the ink. But since this is one of those "nyah-nyah" moment for the liberal adults, they'll try to rub it in our faces. If you really want to see "evolution" of this kid, come back to him in four to five year increments and see how his political beliefs change.
Well...
Submitted by amyshulk on Mon, 07/02/2012 - 6:13pm.
Sounds to me like he still doesn't know who he is or what he is about. It does sound like his enviroment has changed, and he was unable to support his views, so he went with the flow.
I'm always suspect of "wunderkinds" and I pity them - hard to go on if/when you peak young!
Ronald Reagan
Well...
Submitted by amyshulk on Mon, 07/02/2012 - 6:13pm.
Sounds to me like he still doesn't know who he is or what he is about. It does sound like his environment has changed, and he was unable to support his views, so he went with the flow.
I'm always suspect of "wunderkinds" and I pity them - hard to go on if/when you peak young!
Ronald Reagan
I thought the media were
Submitted by ant on Mon, 07/02/2012 - 7:20pm.
I thought the media were convinced Trayvon Martin was a 'child'.
I think childhood ends at age
Submitted by MrSnuggles on Mon, 07/02/2012 - 8:15pm.
I think childhood ends at age 27 when you are no longer able to be on mommy and daddy's insurance.
The libturds are contorting
Submitted by Scuba Dude on Mon, 07/02/2012 - 8:08pm.
The libturds are contorting themselves to positions no human body was ever meant to do. Politico is saying a 17 year old is all growed up but Odumbo calls 26 year olds children.
Wow, the liberal logic is a wonder to behold.
Well
Submitted by Boudin on Mon, 07/02/2012 - 8:20pm.
pp calls 14 yrolds woman?
See? That's why liberals
Submitted by ant on Mon, 07/02/2012 - 10:06pm.
See? That's why liberals think muzzies are more 'progressed'...they think they're women at 9.