Little Mr. Conservative
New York Times
By JAN HOFFMAN
Published: March 6,
2009
This is a wonderful article. This Child is amazing and
inspiring. One wonders at times whether Christian Children like this exist at
all. Except we are reminded of our own
testimony that at age 14 we came to the feet of Christ and were filled with the
Holy Ghost and turned inside out, and was transformed, and became a burning
light and witness in that day.
SITTING in the back seat of his mother’s van as she drives through Atlanta suburbs, Jonathan Krohn is about to sign off with a conservative radio talk show host in Florida. In the 40 minutes he’s been on the air, with the help of his mother’s cellphone, this hyper-articulate Georgia eighth grader has attacked the stimulus bill, identified leaders he thinks will salvage the Republican Party’s image, and assessed the legitimacy of Barack Obama’s birth certificate.
The show’s host chuckles and asks whether President Obama has called Jonathan “a little fascist.”
“The president hasn’t come after me yet,” Jonathan says chummily, “but we’ve had other people come after me!”
“Jonathan!” his mother hisses from the driver’s seat.
The interview concluded,
Jonathan wistfully handed his mother her cellphone.
His parents still won’t let him have one, even though he turned 14 last Sunday,
right after he became an instant news media darling and the conservative
movement’s underage graybeard at last weekend’s Conservative
Political Action Conference in
The annual convention brings in the movement’s grand old lions, like Rush Limbaugh, as well as cubs to rally 8,500 of the faithful, who were shaken by the election of Barack Obama. Jonathan, a slight, home-schooled only child whose teeth are in braces, is so passionate about his beliefs that he spent his summer writing “Define Conservatism,” an 86-page book outlining what he says are its core values. In January, he contacted CPAC organizers, asking to speak there.
With some skepticism, they gave him a spot on a Friday panel of grassroots activists. But Jonathan, an experienced child actor, rocked the house with a three-minute speech, which was remarkable not so much for what he said, but his electrifying delivery. The speech was part pep talk, part book promotion. By Saturday morning, an archdeacon of the movement was saying, “I’m Bill Bennett: I used to work for Ronald Reagan and now I’m a colleague of Jonathan Krohn’s!”
As video of the speech coursed through the Internet, radio talk show hosts and television reporters at the conference sought him eagerly.
In less than a week, Jonathan appeared on “Fox and Friends” and CNN, and broadcast network anchors requested interviews. He has lost count of the number of radio shows he has spoken on. Though his family has received hate mail, accusing them of brainwashing their son, a Jonathan Krohn fan club has sprung up on Facebook. High honors: Jon Stewart has already poked fun at him.
And the invitations have only snowballed since the family returned to their modest house in a subdivision here.
Why just that morning, his mother, Marla Krohn, marveled, a staff member for a potential candidate
for
“Neither am I,” Jonathan piped in.
“But I’m a voter,” Mrs. Krohn reminded him firmly.
Jonathan retorted, “Now that I’m a political pundit, I have the ability to influence people. I have to think about it!”
But first, his mother reminded him, he had some homework to finish.
He’s an unusual kid with an unusual background.
Jonathan’s parents, Doug, a computer systems integrator, and Marla, a sales
representative and former actress who teaches drama and speech to middle-school
students, have been home-schooling their
bright, curious son since the sixth grade. On Fridays, Jonathan joins 10 middle-school students at the
“Other children his age are not quite sure how to take him,”
Mr. Gilchrist said. “Jonathan is so intense, so verbal and a strong
personality. But as they get to know him, they respect him for what he is. And
he is tons of fun.”
Jonathan’s father oversees his math; he
studies Arabic with a tutor. (This child sees by
the Spirit what we not too long ago declared that it behooves believers to
learn to read and speak Arabic – as this is the only way to counter Islam.)
“Before I got into politics,” Jonathan said as he
sat with his parents in the study of their home, “I wanted to be a missionary
to people in the
That was several careers ago. But he is sticking with Arabic,
because, “it’s important to talk with our allies in their language.”
Although the Krohns are conservative, they say Jonathan’s passion for politics is largely his. “Politics bore me,” his mother said flatly. “I’ve learned a lot from Jonathan about the candidates I’ve voted for.” Doug Krohn said he listened to talk radio, but with his Iowa-born soft-sell manner, he’s hardly the pontificating firebrand his son is.
Jonathan said he became a political enthusiast at 8, after hearing about a Democratic filibuster on judicial nominations. “I thought, ‘Who goes to work saying, ‘I’m going to filibuster today?’ ” he said.
Mr. Krohn, looking bleary-eyed by recent events, muttered, “And now he can filibuster with the best of them.”
Jonathan would wake up at 6 a.m. to listen to
Bill Bennett’s “Morning in
“Jonathan was an extraordinary boy, very special,” Mr. Bennett said, in a phone interview. “He wowed my audience, he wowed me. He’s very engaging and learned. He’s got staying power.”