The Right-Wing Junior League
Jan Hoffman profiles conservative pundit Jonathan Krohn who’s hit the big-time at the tender age of 14. This put me in the mind of Ben Shapiro who was a big deal when he was a 17 year-old syndicated TownHall columnist but whose star seems to have faded over the years as he’s become less outlandishly young.
I really struggle to understand why this particular gimmick appeals to conservatives. What does it accomplish to put a 14 year-old front and center at CPAC? What’s the message it’s supposed to send? That the conservative message is childish? That the right’s talking points can be easily mastered by a 14 year-old? That the CPAC audience doesn’t care about the knowledge-base of the speakers there, they just want to hear certain ritual beats repeated? I wouldn’t want to claim that liberals are so high-minded as to be above all that, but I’m hard-pressed to think of an example of liberals trying to flaunt disdain for knowledge and expertise.
55 Responses to “The Right-Wing Junior League”
Register
RSSLogin
Topic Cloud
ArchivesBlog RollAbout Matt YglesiasContact Me
Donate
March 9th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
The message is “We’re not losing the future. No, really, we’re not.”
March 9th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
I think we should have a comment strike on this thread. Matt is clearly *begging* us to write snarky comments about 24-year-old bloggers, pajamas, and Cheetos.
But don’t do it, people. It just encourages him.
March 9th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
I don’t know if you recall the 16-year-old William Hague’s astounding speech in support of Thatcher in the 1977 Tory national conference at Blackpool; because if you did, you would realise that this chap served as the Welsh Secretary and then the Tory Leader, and is due to enter the next Cabinet when Labour loses the next general election (which it will).
March 9th, 2009 at 1:38 pm
He’s a living exemplar of Limbaugh’s assertion that conservative principles, not policies, will get them back into office. A high-school freshman can easily master the conservative principles, but the policies must eventually conform to, or betray, actual facts, and facts take a long time to gather and master. That’s the face of Limbaugh’s conservative movement.
March 9th, 2009 at 1:38 pm
Geico already had a trademark on cavemen.
March 9th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
A lot of 12-16 year olds are Republicans, just like a lot of 16-22 year olds are Libertarians. The mindset tends to appeal to what people that age naturally think, particularly the black-and-white worldview that offers concrete solutions in a world they’re struggling to understand. Having spent significant time in Duluth, GA myself, I know his type quite well.
Of course, this isn’t really something you’d think they’d advertise. But it’s not like there was a lot of competition for CPAC speaking spots.
March 9th, 2009 at 1:44 pm
The message is “We’re not losing the future. No, really, we’re not.”
Actually, I think it’s “Tomorrow belongs to me”
March 9th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
The content of what Jonathan had to say at CPAC was: stick to principles. This is, formally speaking, a vacuous thing to say. It is vacuous because sticking to principles is what any principled political party/agent/etc. ought to do, conservative, liberal, marxist, or otherwise. It is astounding, and telling, that attendees of this conference so quickly rose to their feet for a message that negatively indicted everyone in the room of opportunism and political manipulation. That the idea of grounding your political action in theoretically sound principles is worthy of the reception that it got at CPAC leads me to believe that maybe the whole idea is, sadly, very new to Republicans.
March 9th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
> I’m hard-pressed to think of an example of
> liberals trying to flaunt disdain for knowledge
> and expertise.
How about Eschaton and TPM arguing that we should purge the finance experts from the administration? Their rhetoric matches _precisely_ the spirit of the GOP attack on realists and Arabists after 9-11.
March 9th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
‘Tis ever refreshing to have Myles insert a bit of class into the precedings. As a young man in a private college now, he well remembers what that 1977 speech meant in that moment.
March 9th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
Reminds me of this movement that was going great for a while, all sorts of conquests, then its own sheer nuttiness started to drag them down. They purged or destroyed a lot of their talent, sometimes forcing them into suicidal gestures. Meanwhile, their enemies depleted their forces and the public turned away. In the end, their ranks of talent were so thinned, that the best they could put into the fight was children.
March 9th, 2009 at 1:53 pm
Sorry Ted.
Its the type of genetic engineering wingers embrace. Home schooling is shown as an effective antiserum againt so-called ultra lefty bastions of higher education (i.e., elite universities and colleges). Moreover, its proof that you can start your child drinking kool-aid early and often to produce a mini Goebbels.
March 9th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
It’s reassuring that conservative Republicans, whether 14 or 60, all seem to want to look like 35-year-old middle managers. Helps in sorting them out on sight.
March 9th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
All I know is, if a tow-headed genius called “Doctor Zee” shows up on the finale of Battlestar Galactica, I’m going to hunt down Ron Moore and strangle him with his own intestines.
As for the Republicans, “boy geniuses” are great for them because Conservatism isn’t about thought anymore–it’s about parroting canned replies to strawman opponents. Like learning the Catechism. People who have genuine experience, expertise or wisdom just muddy the pure, pure waters of True Faith.
March 9th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
Jonathan Krohn is a fart joke.
Conservatism, like farts, is allegedly so simple a 14-year-old can get it — if he hasn’t been corrupted by pointy-headed intellectuals and too many years of the MSM.
That’s it.
It affirms their hope that everything’s okay with their ideology and no amount of thinking, listening, reading, or learning will ever improve it.
March 9th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
The Republicans latch on to the Krohn kid because they are still stinging from the 60’s. The youth of that era, of course, gave the finger to conservatism even if it was in a completely self-indulgent way. The conservatives just love this kid, just like, IMHO, they were attempting to make Bush and the WOT a Republican version of FDR and WWII. Epic Fail.
March 9th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
What do you expect from the Christianist party?
Isaiah 11:6 …and a little child shall lead them.
March 9th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
My theory — on the day William F. Buckley died, lamas from the American Enterprise institute fanned out across the land, with bundles of Buckley relics…
March 9th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
I’ll tell what it does – the same thing as Sarah Palin and Michael Steele, that’s what.
We’re losing women? You know what will fix that – Sarah Palin! All those Democratic women are putty in our hands!
No? OK. We’re losing black people right? Check this out – Michael Steele! Gentlemen, to victory!
Huh. Well, third time’s a charm: I hear we’re losing young people…
March 9th, 2009 at 2:19 pm
RE Matthew’s question “What does it accomplish to put a 14 year-old front and center at CPAC? ”
————–
Er..raise the level of discourse about 30 IQ points?
Did you listen to the OTHER guys?
By and large the kid’s speech was fact free. Except when he
defined the Four Principles of Conservatism: Number Two being “Respect for Life” and Number Three being to Protect the Rights of Individuals. At that point, I cracked up laughing and missed his concluding statement.
March 9th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
In defense of his homeschooling parents, the article does not suggest that they are responsible for his political direction: indeed, they seem sort of nonplussed about politics in general.
In the narrative I’ve constructed for this kid in my head, I kind of suspect that he thinks his parents are dull and is looking for a peer group to belong to, but instead of learning to write computer viruses or playing soccer he’s being very sophisticated and efficient about it.
He’s found a group that a) enables him to believe that he is as smart and mature as he thinks he is, and b) doesn’t really require him to do anything, because they supply all of his opinions for him.
It’s the best of both worlds: he gets to think of himself as more grown-up and accomplished than other people his age, just by showing up.
Before people say I’m picking on the kid, I feel I should say that I was also homeschooled as a child and, in my high-school years, exhibited similar political tendencies and ideas; mostly what I feel for him is sadness.
March 9th, 2009 at 2:21 pm
Seriously, wtf are you talking about? First, there’s been no call for purges, and certainly not on the basis of financial expertise. Second, the parallel would only work if the realists and Arabists had actually caused 9/11. Not wanting the dumbasses who broke it to have free rein in repairing it is hardly disdain for knowledge and expertise.
Better trolls, please.
March 9th, 2009 at 2:25 pm
looks like Frum.
March 9th, 2009 at 2:31 pm
His parents should be horsewhipped for torturing this kid and turning him into another talking head for the Reich.He has nothing to say that we have not heard before and continues repeating it.
March 9th, 2009 at 2:31 pm
“I really struggle to understand why this particular gimmick appeals to conservatives.”
It’s because Right Wingers don’t really think they have an ideology. They think they just know “The Truth” about the world and how it works. So the whole “out of the mouths of babes” thing really clicks with them.
Mike
March 9th, 2009 at 2:32 pm
Re Adam at 24: “In defense of his homeschooling parents”
————
That was the thing that struck me as well — the kid has never been challenged by contrary opinions –has never had to rationally debate, defend his claims or show that his statements match with reality.
But then the same is true of Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly and Ann Coulter.
So long as the kid keeps control of the microphone, he has a bright future as a conservative pundit.
March 9th, 2009 at 2:33 pm
As a young man in a private college now, he well remembers what that 1977 speech meant in that moment.
Well, I can read and watch BBC, can’t I? Just because I didn’t live during the days of Lord Nelson does not mean I need not be able to know anything about Trafalgar.
March 9th, 2009 at 2:35 pm
My mind immediately went to Ben Shapiro as well. I was lucky/unfortunate enough to have regularly read Shapiro in the Daily Bruin…there was no other Bruin columnist that got people talking as much as Shapiro did. Unfortunately for him, the sentiments were unanimous that he was unintentionally hilarious and out of his mind. I’ll never forget the long crusade he lead against an adult store opening in Westwood, and how that signaled the decline of Western Civilization.
March 9th, 2009 at 2:36 pm
Don Williams: “So long as the kid keeps control of the microphone, he has a bright future as a conservative pundit.”
As MY pointed out, it’s equally if not more likely that young Jonathan will grow up to be another Box Turtle Ben Shapiro — a garden variety wingnut no longer considering particularly interesting now that he lacks the novelty of being really, really young.
March 9th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
Conservatives will cling to anything that appears to demonstrate that their politics are not confined to “big fat white guys who fear change,” to paraphrase _Family Guy_. Thus the 10-years-ago appeal of Coulter and all those done-up women (usually blonde) who would appear on _Politically Incorrect_ to attack Clinton; thus Laura Ingraham, Michelle Malkin, Bobby Jindal, Dinesh D’Souza, etc. It reassures the right wing that they’re not exclusively plutocrats, Bible-bangers, and maladjusted dorks.
March 9th, 2009 at 2:45 pm
nolaboyd:
1) I’m a left-winger. But I’m concerned people are indulging in the fantasy that a bunch of humanists could run the finance system better than Larry Summers.
2) Atrios has _repeatedly_ called for the removal of Summers and Geithner, apparently because he knows so much more about banking policy than they do. He just posted a bit from Balloon Juice today calling for the removal of the finance types because lots of people could replace them (whom, he doesn’t say).
TPM ran a similar letter yesterday.
3) If you think the realists bear no responsibility for 9-11, you know nothing (I shouldn’t have included the Arabists). The problem is that the neo-cons used realist failure to justify an even more imbecilic policy. I am worried the same thing is happening here.
March 9th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
Now THAT’s what I call a Juicebox Mafia!
March 9th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
Didn’t William Hague have to resign as Tory leader after getting crushed in the 2001 elections?
March 9th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
I can’t believe no one’s mentioned Kyle Williams, the original neocon wunderkind. He later wised up a little and started writing columns about what morons the GOP were (not that he abandoned conservatism entirely), so they stopped running his columns.
Also, Ezra Klein wrote a column on this very subject way back when. Oh, what short memories ye bloggers have…
March 9th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
A lot of 12-16 year olds are Republicans
As it happens, I’m working with a research group that conducted an extensive survey of 12-17 year olds and their parents during the 2008 campaign season. Party ID results: Dem 34.6%, ind 36.3%, GOP 29.1% (N = 1105). By comparison, the parents were Dem 36.5%, ind 24.5%, GOP 39.0%.
March 9th, 2009 at 3:11 pm
This post coming from Matt of all people is really rich.
March 9th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
Rightwingers celebrating kids way back. Inm the early Reagan era national conservatives were pushing hard for a bunch of Dartmouth undergrads, who grew up to become Dinesh D’Souza and Laura Ingraham, and a few other now familiar names.
March 9th, 2009 at 3:22 pm
Well, I do respect the fact that right wingers know what is really valuable to young up-and-comers: paid jobs. Liberals feel that churning out position papers for a liberal think tank or socially conscious non-profit should be a labor of love before they burn out and go to law school. Conservatives realize that the way you nab young talents and keep them for life is by finding them at 19 and offering them money.
March 9th, 2009 at 3:36 pm
Aaron, kids 12-17 are likely the children of parents 30-50, which is one of the most Republican cohorts in modern American polling history. I’m actually shocked to see their kids are so Democratic.
March 9th, 2009 at 3:44 pm
Noname,
Poepel who advocate replace the finance team generally favor replacing them with other economists, people like Krugman, Reich, Dean Baker, etc. Still experienced just more left wing, hardly calling for Maoist style purges of anyone educated.
March 9th, 2009 at 3:44 pm
Thanks for the data, Aaron. That’s surprising. I guess my perceptions are tinged by, well, living near this kid. Georgia is one of the few states that’s gotten much redder over the past decade.
March 9th, 2009 at 3:45 pm
When I was 14 years old, I was a good, obedient son of conservative, evangelical Christians/Republicans. I took my “marching orders” directly and completely from dad and mom.
When I was 16 years old, I acquired a driver’s license, started checking out my own books from the public library, began investigating other churches/synagogues, etc., and by my late teenage years, had disabused myself of my ideological upbringing.
Give Jonathan Krohn a few years. It’s very likely that his experience will be similar to mine.
March 9th, 2009 at 3:45 pm
I don’t know if you recall the 16-year-old William Hague’s astounding speech in support of Thatcher in the 1977 Tory national conference at Blackpool; because if you did, you would realise that–
it inspired Harry Enfield’s “Tory Boy”, which pretty much ensured that Hague would never become PM? Funny, though, that Miley Fink-Nottle skips Hague’s utter trouncing in 2001.
(I do have a softish spot for Hague: he talked about how that defeat helped get him off the political treadmill on which he’d spent his entire life, allowing him to focus on other stuff. His marriage helped him out, too.)
Anyway, Krohn comes across in that profile as a fairly smart, precocious kid with a sequestered upbringing in the deathly Georgia sprawlburbs. I’m betting he has a John Stewart Mill-esque breakdown at 18, unless his parents send him off to Regent U or some home-schooler college, as opposed to somewhere with real people.
March 9th, 2009 at 3:54 pm
Its a lot of responsibility to take care of but this makes me think that a parrot just might be the perfect pet for the GOP.
March 9th, 2009 at 4:43 pm
What MBunge (#28) said. In the Republican bubble (rebubblican?) mindset, all of their conservative principles are self-evident and beyond discussion — you’d have to be a demonized libtard traitor not to share them. A clever kid being able to recite these principles only proves (to them) how obvious and true they are.
March 9th, 2009 at 4:58 pm
MattY opines: I’m hard-pressed to think of an example of liberals trying to flaunt disdain for knowledge and expertise.
Indeed. And, for those who’ve never heard of MattY before, I should point out that he’s a 45-year-old world traveler who’s been to nearly all the states of the U.S. and who’s arrived at his prestigious post at CAP after decades of struggle, including years working dirty jobs. MattY knows a lot, but that’s not all: he’s got the full life experience to back it up.
/sarcasm
March 9th, 2009 at 5:04 pm
The counter-example to Republican Know-Nothingness is…Matthew Yglesias?
Ummm…ok.
Because he’s so poorly informed, and his ideas are so dull. Umwhat?
March 9th, 2009 at 5:05 pm
Marjoe (Gortner). See the movie. Understand the POV. Sick. Sick Sick.
March 9th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
So has anyone dug through this kids garbage yet, or are we getting outworked by Malkin again?
March 9th, 2009 at 5:46 pm
Shut the fuck up, Lonewacko.
March 9th, 2009 at 6:35 pm
I watched this kid’s speech, and it gave me the creeps. He is a caricature of a Republican—a child in a suit.
March 9th, 2009 at 8:57 pm
Matt, I think it basically has to do with the thrill of finding people who do support you but “shouldn’t.” It’s the same reason Democrats love finding super-rich investor-type people who vote Democrat. (I’m thinking Warren Buffett — although obviously this is true lately.) The GOP has consistently backed policies that do just about everything possible to mortgage/bankrupt/neglect little Jonathan’s future. The fact that he’s still a Republican anyway, well — let’s just say those must be some mighty fine principles the GOP has.
March 9th, 2009 at 11:12 pm
“the atlanta sprawlburbs”
Supplying a considerable share of our nation’s biblethumping wingunts and cops that look like Joe the Plumber, the Atlanta sprawlburbs are what would happen if you removed everything good about the south and stuck the precipitate in a middle-management infested strip-mall freewayland. I grew up near Macon, Georgia (when people ask me where I’m from I say “Georgia, not Atlanta”) and I dread the sprawl’s southward acceleration (if and/or when it happens) . . . rant over, you’ve been warned.
March 10th, 2009 at 1:24 am
I think the point they’re trying to make is the opposite of the one Matt imputes to them.
“A 14 year old who can give a speech on politics is obviously intelligent.”
“We made such a 14 year old a major speaker at our conference.”
“Therefore we are intelligent.”
Unfortunately, the conclusion does not actually follow from the major and minor premises. A party whose leaders can learn something from a 14 year old about political principles (as opposed to, say, spelling) can be safely assumed to be a big pile of stupid.
April 15th, 2009 at 11:38 am
hello Gays.com is cool