Good Boy! The recent posts (here, here and here...

Good Boy!


The recent posts (here, here and here) on the conservative kids (Shapiro and Williams) seem to be missing the point. To focus on their age is kind of funny, but rings hollow with me - partly because I'm the same age as Ben, and partly because I believe in that blogger egalitarianism that Matt was touting a week or two ago.


What does put me off is the way Shapiro and Williams are brought into the conversation. They are very obvious tokens. Take Ben (please!). Ben seems intrinsically disrespected, he is what you would have if the Neocons genetically engineered a young adult. He is hopelessly out of touch with his own (my) generation. He's not a clever Dinesh D'Souza nor a biting Coulter, he's a really pious conservative Jew who is published in a "don't you wish they were all like that" kind of way. He faithfully swallows the party line and has worth due to his age. He's like the black guy the Republicans throw at the talk shows when they have a borderline racist proposal out there. And Kyle is even worse. He's clearly a bright kid, but a bright 14 year old doesn't mean much when you're dealing with political punditry. His arguments are neither impressive nor incisive. In fact, they tend to be a list of conservative talking points with very little analysis other than a) the liberal media is evil or b) our values stink. He's given a national column only because he's 14 - a good little Christian boy in a suit and tie who reassures conservatives that they're reaching the youth.


Neither myself nor Matt Singer get paid for our writings here. We're not being asked to write columns nor being held up as shining examples of young democrats. But the people who read us do take us seriously, and there is no hint of irony or token-ism in our website or in our interactions. I'd have no problem with these kids if they just wrote, but the emphasis on their biography and age makes their utility clear - anyone know how old maureen Dowd is? How about Ryan Lizza? Yeah, me neither. That's more than can be said about these two.