Video: 14-year-old conservative prodigy predicts easy win in 2012

No one concerned that voices of the American conservative movement are Anne Coulter, Rush Limbaugh and a child? Anyone?

You lot are doomed to wander the wilderness until you find some damn substance.

Stop with the sideshow freaks because the road back is going to be a long one.

Krydor on March 1, 2009 at 4:48 PM

Sorry to break it to you, but the Dems have lacked substance since the passing of Scoop Jackson.

venividivici on March 1, 2009 at 5:02 PM

The thing is that he should get exactly zero minutes to discuss his personal philosophy about anything. You know why? It isn’t his.

Krydor on March 1, 2009 at 4:57 PM

Unless your real name is “Plato” or “Aristotle”, I’m guessing you don’t exactly have an original personal philosophy, either, just a bunch of stuff someone taught you and maybe or maybe not you’ve given it some actual thought. And you’re probably older than the kid, so give him a break.

venividivici on March 1, 2009 at 5:05 PM

For all the talk about how policy is important and on the heels of a big old American Conservative Meetin’, the best that came out of it were stemwinders from a fringe author (and she is fringe, don’t flatter yourselves) a radio host that appeals to a narrow group (and he does, once again, don’t flatter yourselves) and a child (who should be dismissed out of hand).

Yeah, so the concern is because US conservatism is an echo chamber.

Krydor on March 1, 2009 at 5:02 PM

Who died and made you arbiter of all things fringe and dismissable? You can’t talk to adults that way and expect to be taken seriously unless you’ve got some substance to your statements, not just bland assertions.

venividivici on March 1, 2009 at 5:07 PM

I know. It’s almost like nobody’s willing to talk serious politics and conservative philosophy with 14 year olds anymore. Dark times, I’m telling you.

radiofreevillage on March 1, 2009 at 5:07 PM

Not sayin’ this kid is the second coming of JSM, but there are people in this world who accomplish more by the time they’re 14 than you may have accomplished in your longer lifespan.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stuart_Mill

Mill was a notably precocious child; at the age of three he was taught Greek. By the age of eight he had read Aesop’s Fables, Xenophon’s Anabasis, and the whole of Herodotus, and was acquainted with Lucian, Diogenes Laërtius, Isocrates and six dialogues of Plato. He had also read a great deal of history in English and had been taught arithmetic.

At the age of eight he began learning Latin, Euclid, and algebra, and was appointed schoolmaster to the younger children of the family. His main reading was still history, but he went through all the Latin and Greek authors commonly read in the schools and universities at the time, such as Horace, Virgil, Ovid, Tacitus, Homer, Dionysus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes and Thucydides. By the age of ten he could read Plato and Demosthenes with ease. His father also thought that it was important for Mill to study and compose poetry. One of Mill’s earliest poetry compositions was a continuation of the Iliad. In his spare time, he also enjoyed reading about natural sciences and popular novels, such as Don Quixote and Robinson Crusoe.

His father’s History of India was published in 1818; immediately thereafter, about the age of twelve, Mill began a thorough study of the scholastic logic, at the same time reading Aristotle’s logical treatises in the original language. In the following year he was introduced to political economy and studied Adam Smith and David Ricardo with his father – ultimately completing their classical economic view of factors of production. Mill’s comptes rendus of his daily economy lessons helped his father in writing Elements of Political Economy, which became the leading textbook exposition of doctrinaire Ricardian economics. Ricardo, who was a close friend of his father, used to invite the young Mill to his house for a walk in order to talk about political economy.

At the age of fourteen, Mill stayed for one year in France, with the family of Sir Samuel Bentham, brother of Jeremy Bentham. The mountain scenery he saw in France made the deepest impression on him, which led to a lifelong taste for mountain landscapes. The lively and friendly way of life of the French also left a deep impression on him. In Montpellier, he attended the winter courses on chemistry, zoology, logic of the Faculté des Sciences, as well as taking a course of the higher mathematics with a private professor. While coming and going from France, he stayed in Paris for a few days in the house of the renowned economist Jean-Baptiste Say, who was a friend of Mill’s father. There he met many leaders of the Liberal party, as well as other notable Parisiens, including Henri Saint-Simon.

A contemporary record of Mill’s studies from eight to thirteen is published in Bain’s sketch of his life. It suggests that his autobiography rather understates the amount of work done.

venividivici on March 1, 2009 at 5:11 PM