I haven’t really commented on this Jonathan Krohn business, because I kind of see it as not all that important in the grand scheme of things. But I finally got around to reading the piece he wrote for Salon, and I was impressed with the intelligence and maturity on evident display. Especially liked this bit:

I was tired of being a part of the ideological warfare this country is so caught up in. I was tired of the right using me as an example of how young people “get” what they’re talking about — when it’s obvious that I didn’t get what I talking about at all. I mean, come on, I was between 13 and 14 when I was regurgitating these talking points! What does a kid who has never paid a tax bring to the table in a conversation about the burden of taxes? What does a healthy child know about people who can’t afford healthcare because of preexisting conditions? No matter how intelligent a person might be, certain political issues require life experience; they’re much more complicated than the black and white frames imposed by partisan America. (And no, my mother and father didn’t write my material for me. You’d have to be as paranoid as the birthers to think someone’s parents would put them up to all that. Have a bit more faith in the human race, man!) I was just a 13-year-old kid spitting up the nonsense he’d learned. In the future, a good rule of thumb might be: If you’re not old enough to have consensual sex, you’re probably not old enough to make consequential political statements.

Generally true. Also, you really have to wonder about the mental health of a movement that gets this hot and bothered because a kid changed his opinion on some issues. Is it really that devastating to the cause, that you have to harass this guy for dropping his new beliefs in a low-key way? If so, conservatives might as well just hang it up and tell Mitt Romney that he can be moderate again. They don’t have a prayer.