It's called "growing up."

In 2009, then 13 year old Jonathan Krohn created a sensation at the Conservative Political Action Committee meeting with a fiery, impromptu speech about what conservatism means.   The video went viral on the internet, amid predictions that we were seeing a future star of the Republican party.  His book Defining Conservatism was published with much fanfare.

Today, the 17 year old Georgia native says he was naive, just repeating a lot of stuff he'd been hearing all his life.   Then he began thinking about these things, realizing how complex the issues are.  He became interested in philosophy, read Nietsche, Wittgenstein, Kant, as well as contemporary philosophers    The first to go were the social issues that conservatives hold so dear, and then he began to rethink such issues as health care and economics.

Jonathan now supports gay marriage, abortion choice, Obamacare.   His favorite TV shows:   The Daily Show and The Colbert Report.   He still has another year before he is old enough to vote;  but, if he could, he would vote for Obama.  Meanwhile, he's heading off to NYU this fall to study film-making, not exactly a bastion of conservatism.

He doesn't yet call himself a liberal, because part of his personal evolution is to get away from the confines of categories and political labels.

Johnathan is still a very bright, articulate boy -- but he has grown up a bit, read more widely, had more experience -- and has begun to think for himself.   He may still have a bright political future, if he chooses.   But it won't likely make him popular at the CPAC meetings.  In fact, he's probably not even welcome there anymore.

It's tempting to say, "Of course."   Any bright person who reads a lot, who gains a wider world view, and thinks for himself, is naturally going to be more liberal.   I know that's not necessarily true, but it is my prejudice.   And it is why I really have no sympathy for those who claim universities discriminate against conservatives in hiring faculty.   I just can't quite fathom a well-educated, widely read, thinking person with an open mind being a conservative of the current stripe -- at least not in the academic world of the humanities.   Perhaps in some of the more fact-based and technical fields.

Ralph