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« Commenting Explanation | Main | 1000 Words: Francis Iles' "Before the Fact" »

October 09, 2007

 Child of a Pundit

Michael Blowhard writes:

Dear Blowhards --

What's it like to grow up the child of a famous right-wing pundit? John Leo's daughter Alex recollects. Rebelling against her beloved dad, Alex decided to attend Wesleyan. Sheesh: Did she need to go to that extreme?

Best,

Michael

posted by Michael at October 9, 2007




Comments

Well, Wesleyan turned this left-wing kid into a (more-or-less) center-right adult...

Posted by: Joshua Macy on October 9, 2007 1:08 PM

So wait...

The one who works and pays the bills is the conservative, and the one who plays and spend the money is a liberal?

I'm shocked, SHOCKED that there's gambling going on here.

Posted by: secret asian man on October 9, 2007 1:21 PM

Her article was interesting. But I can't tell if she was contradicting herself, or trying to "see both sides". For instance, she says that Wesleyan
was "a bastion of free thought" only to say two sentences later that "everyone was liberal". If everyone was liberal, I really, really doubt that it was a bastion of free thought.

Am I confused, or did I understand her piece properly?

Posted by: Ian Lewis on October 9, 2007 1:27 PM

"Sheesh"? You used "sheesh"?

Gee, you sound as if you're trying to come off as a Midwesterner from the mid-20th century or something.

Genuine query: Does anyone under 30 use the expression "sheesh" anymore? I can't remember anyone (other than me) using it in California for the past 10 years or so.

Posted by: Friedrich von Blowhard on October 9, 2007 3:07 PM

I stopped reading after this sentence:
"If I disagreed with him about that what else was he wrong about?"

Posted by: Tat on October 9, 2007 3:12 PM

A slap across the chops wouldn't've hurt.

Posted by: ricpic on October 9, 2007 6:10 PM

No need to worry. The kid is starting to notice that her liberal friends have an authoritanian and conformist streak. Won't be long now. Maybe we could slip her some naughty literature: something like Coughlin's biography of Sadam Hussein, or Fest's biography of that vegetarian eco-freak who collaborated with Stalin till June '41.

Posted by: Robert Townshend on October 9, 2007 10:25 PM

Friedrich von Blowhard: The under 30 set will say "sheesh" ironically.

Posted by: blue on October 9, 2007 11:10 PM

So far, some of this reads like the letters Ms.Leo must have received from her father's fans denigrating her for having opinions that did not spring fully formed from Daddy's brow. Tat won't even read the whole piece because she can't get past a witty nod to Mark Twain's take on his view of parental knowledge as a youth that dovetails with the quoted aphorism attributed to Churchill. And ricpic is all set to beat some sense into her. Isn't that charming? Well, it goes along with the notion that those on the right have no sense of humor and no willingness to accept that any point of view other than their own have any validity whatsoever.

This to me seems to be the crux of her piece; reading and studying the issues formed her views, which she defended in arguments and discussions with a bright and capable person she loves who holds very different views. For this she is attacked by fans of her father and he "only" wants her to agree with his every position for Father's Day. Thank God (and my own late father who was a civics teacher) I'm an independent progressive.

Posted by: Chris White on October 10, 2007 8:09 AM

CW - The fatuous pieties of the Left are catnip to a twentysomething pisher who doesn't know squat about how dangerous the world is or how protected she's been by that neanderthal old man of hers. I repeat: one upside the head wouldn't hurt.

Posted by: ricpic on October 10, 2007 10:58 AM

Wow, ricpic, I guess you told me. Now that you have explained it so clearly and in such great detail I understand. Yep, let's just give anyone (especially female offspring) who disagrees with right wing Daddy a punch in the head. Now that is enlightened conservatism.

Posted by: Chris White on October 10, 2007 12:50 PM

As one of a hand full of genuine conservatives at Wesleyan during the 80's, I quickly realized exactly what the term "free thought" was worth there. On the other hand, four years of incessant political combat proved very beneficial to me in terms of really forcing me to think out my positions and articulate them. I'm not sure most of the liberal kids who went (and go) there can say the same thing.

Posted by: Robert the Llama Butcher on October 10, 2007 12:57 PM

Chris, so she didn't even write it herself?
More reasons to yawn.
One more story of an offspring of the brilliant parent who is tortured by self-identification complexes. Politics aside, this story is soo overdone, don't you think?

Posted by: Tat on October 10, 2007 2:32 PM


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