We’ve all known super-brainy kids. We’re awed by the purity of their
intelligence and their ease at processing so much information despite their
age.
But they can be a little annoying, too.
That’s what I thought when I heard then-13-year-old Jonathan Krohn, the
prodigious Right Winger who spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference
several years ago.
Krohn wowed CPAC members, mocking President Obama’s reliance on a
teleprompter. Krohn, who didn’t speak from a prepared talk, much less use a
teleprompter, soon became the Republican Party’s little darling.
But Krohn is not a little boy anymore. At 17, his maturity has somehow made
him more humane. He reads a lot of philosophy, he says, and he’s planning to
attend New York University, where he’ll study that subject in the fall. And he
seems to have outgrown his childhood fascination with conservative ideology,
which has drawn the wrath of the same conservatives who once hailed him as a
future party leader.
Krohn approves of Obamacare and, he says, he would vote for Obama, except he
won’t be old enough to be a registered voter for the 2012 election. Though he
says he isn’t a liberal, Krohn stepped away from conservatives because of their
angry views on social issues.
Krohn is now pro-choice and he supports same-sex marriage.
He recently described his CPAC speech as “naïve,” saying it’s impossible to
have formed all of your ideas by such an early age.
There’s only one thing to conclude from Krohn’s transformation: read more
philosophy.
This article appears in Jul 4-10, 2012.
