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Jonathan Krohn just came out with a scathing and funny piece at Salon.com yesterday called "I was a right-wing child star". CNN had him on to talk about it. And no doubt Krohn would be completely insufferable if he didn't seem to have a wicked sharp sense of humor and perspective on things.

This sort of stuff won't make conservatives happy campers:

But then, earlier this week, Politico released an interview in which I announced I wasn’t a conservative anymore — and the proverbial crap hit the fan. Since then, I have been treated by the political right with all the maturity of schoolyard bullies. The Daily Caller, for instance, wrote three articles about my shift, topping it off with an opinion piece in which they stated that I deserved criticism because I wear “thick-rimmed glasses” and I like Ludwig Wittgenstein. Why don’t they just call me “four-eyes”? These are not adults leveling serious criticism; these are scorned right-wingers showing all the maturity of a little boy. No wonder I fit in so well when I was 13.

Boom!

And the close is a thing of beauty:

So this is what this story boils down to: A 17-year-old has different opinions than he did at 13. People may be disappointed by how underwhelming that is, but it’s how the world works. Some people move on with life, mature, and realize that they don’t know everything nor will they ever know everything. Then again, some don’t.

I would love it if a bunch of angry right-wingers stopped saying stupid things about me. I also want a six-pack, a mansion in the Hamptons and a beautiful woman with cans the size of my head. None of these things will happen, and I’m pretty comfortable with that. More accurately, I’m comfortable with who I am, which is all I can ever hope for anyway.

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They grow up so fast...

via Politico:

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.”

So is he now a - *gasp* - liberal? Well, no, not quite he says. But this little checklist indicates he's headed in that general direction.

Krohn won’t go so far as to say he’s liberal, in part because his move away from conservatism was a move away from ideological boxes in general. [...]

But a quick rundown of his current political stances suggests a serious pendulum swing away from the right.

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.

Dave Neiwert at Crooks & Liars remarked at the time (2009) that he thought young Jonathan's appearance at CPAC made perfect sense.

After all, conservative thought (as it were) has always reflected the way a 13-year-old would view the world: like a highly dualistic, light-and-darkness morality fable, filled with heroic patriots and defenders of freedom contending against the slithering forces of puling liberal evil.

Now that he's left The Dark Side, Krohn will be on with Lawrence O'Donnell tonight on MSNBC.

I will be on THE LAST WORD WITH LAWRENCE O'DONNELL tonight at some point...so check it out at 10PM on MSNBC. Can you dig it? #BlackDynamite

— Jonathan Krohn (@JonathanLKrohn) July 2, 2012

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Bill Maher wrapped up his New Rules segment on Real Time this Friday with a message for conservatives who think these 13 and 14 year old wunderkinds of theirs like radio host and Rush Limbaugh wannabe Caiden Cowger, or their hit at CPAC a couple years ago, Jonathan Krohn, are so special.

MAHER: And finally New Rule, if a 14 year-old can deliver your message, it's not because he's gifted. It's because intellectually, you're a child. […]

Wow. It's like one of those time travel movies where Rush Limbaugh goes back in time to when he needed just one Oxycontin to get high. I tell you, this kid's got 90 percent of Rush's venom and only 10 percent of the bio-mass. […]

And you know, Caiden is not the only tween right-winger out there. Back in 2009, Jonathan Krohn, yes, that's a real book – I know, it looks like something we made up, but it's not – he published Defining Conservatism, the Principles That Will Bring Our Country Back... and teach us to shave. Here's a little bit of Jonathan speaking at the CPAC convention. […]

Oh my god, is there a charity or something I can give to? Wedgies Without Borders. I'm not trying to slam these kids, because look, being an asshole is totally understandable when you're 14. You're too young for sex and too old to carry your blankie everywhere. It's a very stressful time. But my point is to Republican adults and it is this:

When 14 year-old boys sound exactly like you do and can produce radio shows and books and speeches that sound exactly like yours, maybe you should rethink the sh*t that's coming out of your mouth.