CJ Pearson, GOP Wonderkid dumps GOP, backs Sanders for President

[nickiknack]

Two weeks ago, I said on CNN that I was not only leaving the Republican Party but the conservative movement altogether. My reason: For far too long, conservatives had turned a blind eye to racial discrimination in this country and ignored the struggle that young people are facing growing up here in America.

My ascension in conservative politics was almost meteoric. I made a name for myself bashing President Obama, vilifying liberals, and raging against the Black Lives Matter movement.

While I articulated my words with conviction, I spoke them with a limited and clouded worldview. I’m honest enough to admit that. As I matured, met new people, and embraced new ideas, my worldview expanded. My political views evolved.

Eventually, I started asking myself, how could I support a movement that refused to support me on the issues that matter to a young kid like me? In addition to ditching the conservative label, I also chose not to identify as a liberal. I was done with labels. I wasn't interested in contributing to the political divisiveness that has hijacked the political discourse in this country.

I didn't want to be a “conservative” or “liberal.” I didn't want to allow myself to be pushed into some box and placed into the same predicament that I was before.

All I wanted to be was myself.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/12/13/sayonara-gop-and-hello-bernie.html?via=mobile&source=twitter

If you want to see some conservatives go ape shit, go to his facebook. They're all whining like children, it's way to funny.

[ironbite]

I don't even get it either.  The kid was a nobody.  He can't even vote.  But now the right wing is acting like he stepped on their cat's tail or something.

[Barbarella]

Folks like the GOP have this weird thing for "out of the mouths of babes". A kid comes out spouting far-right talking points and the wingnuts lap it up like some prophetic wisdom. This is the same sort of thing that made Marjoe Gortner a big child-preacher.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marjoe_Gortner

Here's a tyke doing Gortner's former schtick.....
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zALqMWimBbM" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zALqMWimBbM</a>
....There's a whole industry of this! The "Baby/Child/Kid Preacher". It's ridiculous!

Here's an African one!....
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLoLP-iBYyA" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLoLP-iBYyA</a>
....It's ridiculous! These kids are actually coached and abused, and the rubes lap it up!

It's a similar concept with the "Early-Adolescent Wonderboy GOP pundit". I don't know if they're coached and abused but the whole "Mouths of babes" thing is the appeal. Adult wingnuts treat these kids like prophets.

When said wunderkind goes 180°, politically; Wingnuts really take it personally.

There was another kid like this, too....
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4nPrgHfnJ0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4nPrgHfnJ0</a>

[niam2023]

This has an "illustrious conservative tradition" going back to the Nazis and the 12th Waffen-SS division, basically a bunch of young teenagers...who were absolutely, stunningly vicious.

Even a guy like me would've looked at those wonder boys and taken a few steps back.

It's become technically tamer in the modern day, but the recruitment of the young still carries a disquieting edge to it.

[guizonde]

niam, you're seriously godwinning all over the place. either you should talk about it, or you should start collecting memorabilia. but it's disconcerting, to say the least.

[RavynousHunter]

Thing is, though, he isn't really wrong.  The far-right, most especially, does have some distressingly Nazi-esque recruitment tactics specifically aimed at our nation's most vulnerable citizens, its children.  Kids don't have the abstract reasoning capabilities of adults, they lack the experience to tell when someone is fleecing them, and they exploit this to bolster their numbers and to ensure they live on in the next generation.

[pyro]

Doesn't coaching them defeat the purpose of it coming from them?

[RavynousHunter]

Homie, if logic worked on them, they wouldn't be the shitshow they are today.

[mellenORL]

It's why school boards in the Bible Belt flip out about critical thinking and logic being taught. "We Want them to be brainwashed for Jesus!"

[niam2023]

Donald Trump brings it out in me, but Ravynous has it right as to the recruitment tactics of the far right. They get the kids younger and younger.

I'll share a story I read; apparently the 12th was facing a division of Shermans. One of their membership was stranded in a doomed trench. Rather than flip out or try to escape, he cheerfully waved goodbye at his fellows and fired up at the tank one final time.

That is the legacy of the Far Right's recruitment of children.

[Barbarella]

Donald Trump brings it out in me, but Ravynous has it right as to the recruitment tactics of the far right. They get the kids younger and younger.

I'll share a story I read; apparently the 12th was facing a division of Shermans. One of their membership was stranded in a doomed trench. Rather than flip out or try to escape, he cheerfully waved goodbye at his fellows and fired up at the tank one final time.

That is the legacy of the Far Right's recruitment of children.

Lemmie guess....Trench Guy was a child. Am I right?