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After his passing, tributes to David Horowitz have poured in from prominent figures across the conservative movement including Mark Levin, Lee Smith, Charlie Kirk, Louie Gohmert, Caroline Glick, Larry Schweikart and Ambassador Huckabee, but also from people also wrote to us and left comments about how David changed their lives.
I included some of the many comments about his influence on those whom him that were left on the articles discussing his passing.
“I was watching TV in the ’90’s and saw David speaking, though I didn’t know who he was at the time.. He made total sense and it totally transformed my thinking. I eventually joined the David Horowitz Freedom Center Board of Directors. I got to know David and countless heroes of the right that he showcased at his Restoration Weekends. He was a true fighter. He said the DHFC was not a think tank, but a battle tank. RIP, David.” Larry Post
“David and Peter gave me my first job out of the university more than 30 years ago. I owe them an immense debt for setting me on my career. What a loss! Rest in peace, David . . . you did the world a great deal of good,” Ben Boychuk
“I met David when he spoke to a small group at the University of Montana, Missoula. 1990’s. Like everyone else who met him or heard him speak, he changed my thinking and approach to certain topics. David, your spirit will help us stay strong.” Elena G
“I am proud to have written, on publication of David’s “Radical Son” that it is “the first great autobiography of his generation.” Today I can say, it is yet to be equalled.” George Gilder
“David led me into the light years ago. Although I never met him, his books and articles led the way long before the current batch of conservative commentators came on the scene. RIP good friend.” Richard Waite
“What a remarkable man and life. I was blessed to have met him once in KC, MO shortly after 9-11. He and Peter’s book, ‘Destructive Generation’ changed the way I saw the world and history forever.”
Javier Roman
“He was one of my earliest teachers and heroes. His book “Radical Son” opened up my eyes and was the beginning of my ‘education’.” Dani
“He changed my life. I met him as a radical leftie in Berkeley when we were organizing peace marches. and he was just about to start Ramparts. Later in 1980 after being introduced by some business people to my great love and patriotism for America I was a able to follow David and have benefited from his insights over the years and I especially cheer for the good use of his life in leaving such a hugely functional legacy to carry the message forth!!” Mary Lou Freeman
“I read Radical Son right after 9-11. That was when I had my conversion from mindless democrat to Reagan style Republican. Within six months I was a full blown conservative.” Intrepid
“I was lucky to have a conversation with Mary Matalin many years ago, and she suggested that I could like reading Radical Son. I’ve been among David’s disciples ever since. He is one of my greatest heroes in my life. “Courage” and “Resolute” come to mind… and his case, I would even use the term “Conviction” — because he’s seen it both ways.” Bobby
“What a loss to the world. His writings and lectures have been instrumental in clarifying my political awakening from a progressive world view to one that is more rooted in reality. Back in the day I was a faithful reader of Ramparts. When I encountered Second Thoughts by Peter Collier and David Horowitz, perhaps in 1990, their own journeys left a strong impression on me. I’ve been a regular consumer of Front Page Mag since its inception, even in the last few years when David’s input dwindled considerably. Even though I never met him in person, the clarity of his thinking and the compassion in his soul always created me a connection that now feels like I’ve lost a friend. Rest in peace, David.” Michael Mulwader
“His *Second Thoughts” changed the whole game. His narratives of his family’s political history opened countless eyes.” Alan Kors
“It was an long-ago friend who turned me on to FrontPage Mag in the early 2000’s. I was helped along reading David’s work there and through his many books. AM talk radio brought voice to Mr. Horowitz and helped me find my voice. I am saddened for his passing BUT, eternally grateful for his courage.” Bon Hagar
“I learned a lot over the years reading David’s articles, and watching his TV interviews, and speeches. Yes, for Conservatives, he made fighting secular-progressives, & socialism fashionable. This taught us how to win. This played directly into what Trump has done with the MAGA movement we are witnessing today.” Verneoz
“He was the most informed person I have ever known. I loved him, worshiped him and he filled my heart since the day I walked into his office off Bancroft way in Berkeley, to sell him some window blinds. What a very fine man, human being,…with soul.”
Jeff Dunning
Please feel free to share your own story in the comments.
I met David at a conference he held for the David Horowitz Freedom Center. I later started a podcast, Core Principles (thanks, Daniel, for being my guest), and over these first five years of that program, David was my most frequent guest. We would discuss his books, which he was prolific in writing. I loved David, and will miss him.
Clay, it’s good to hear from you and thank you for sharing your story.
David Horowitz exposure of the cruel, brutal violence of the Black Panther Party in its vicious murder of Betty Van Patter destroyed the “positive” image of the Panthers. It was emblematic of the hypocirsy of the Left. It shattered Horowitz’ Left perspective propelling him towards the conserative right after being very depressed for several years.
It was this transformation that has been and should be a clarion call for “progressives” to wake up from their horrible, destructive agenda which someohow allows such violence. Here is David’s article.
https://www.salon.com/1999/12/13/betty/
I remember reading Ramparts Magazine in the late 60’s in San Francisco. Although I too was brought up a radical son I was already on my way out of that movement. I learned about David who was editor of that magazine at the time. When I started to learn about him again he was talking on conservative radio shows. I thought at the time that he had swung to hard the other way. I thought myself a moderate at the time. But in time I could see that he was right on the mark. His work became a great light on what was taking place in our society. The extremism of the 60’s was not dissipating at all. It was gaining speed and David saw it all coming.
Don Clyde
He was a good guy There aren’t enough of those around, you know.
Keeps reminding me for some reason of a Thanksgiving (playing catch with a football in the street) in Berkeley in the late 1960s where we had dinner with some psychologist friends. David captured the mood in Berkeley of those times so perfectly.
For me, David was a role model personally and politically. The acuity with which he diagnosed the pernicious idiocies of both the Old Left and the New Left was matched only by the courage and integrity with which he defended his views — with uncommon lucidity, unexceptionable logic, and understated passion — against often-hysterical ad hominem attacks.
In 1994 I got to help David with some audio editing of a program for KCRW-FM. We’d met at a “conservative vs. liberal” debates that he’d been part of in Hollywood. The recording was of Khalid Muhammad, a spokesman for Louis Farrakhan, in which he attacked Jews, Catholics, the pope, Arabs, homosexuals etc….and he called for the killing of whites in South Africa. The US. Congress passed a resolution condemning the speech by 361-34. The congressman from my home state of Hawaii, Neil Abercrombie, refused to condemn it and deliberately confused condemning with censorship. It pissed me off to hear his blatant gaslighting. I was just beginning to write commentary and I used the info on exactly what the recording had said to write an Op-Ed – Viewpoint for the Honolulu Star Bulletin. They asked if I’d mind if Congressman Abercrombie would respond to my piece. I said that was fine. Both pieces were published on the editorial pages and the reactions that i got were very positive and helped launch my writing career. I ran into David at the airport many years later and he remembered the incident but he’d forgotten about us sitting in his office editing the tape recording. I thanked him for all he was doing and he encouraged me to keep fighting. God Bless David for all his great work and encouragement to all of us. Patrick von Wiegandt
I never met David Horowitz but I first came across his articles and websites in 2020 or prior. David Horowitz understood the Left more than anyone with the exception of Daniel Greenfield and others here at Frontpage. Discover the networks and other Freedom Center affiliated websites opened up by eyes to the real intentions of many influential people. I continue to use these databases to inform myself about Jew-hating organizations and individuals. Thankfully, he did not keep his knowledge to himself as others avoided addressing these increasingly relevant ideologies. Horowitz shared his wisdom and unique insights as a former Leftist which have reached many individuals such as myself who would have never gotten these facts from anywhere else.
I discovered David online in 2010 thanks to one of his friends, Guy Millière. I listened to a lot of lectures, read articles, and learned a lot from him. I really liked David. One day he shared a video I had posted on his Twitter, and I was happy. It’s the soundtrack to the movie Glory, I felt connected to him. He was a real fighter, and he inspired me a lot. I’ll never forget him.
Glory Soundtrack – James Horner :
Thank you for sharing the Glory movie theme song. It’s beautiful and inspires me to watch the movie. It’s easy to see why this heroic theme appealed to David, hero that he was and remains in spirit.
David Horowitz was a great writer. I have not read many ideas in a style as pristine as his, and I first read from David Horowitz a bit more than a decade ago. What he laid out, what he explained shocked me and I have never ever voted again for any leftist politician.
Maybe the following background story could interest you: I’m French, raised in a left-leaning family, educated through a left-leaning school system, in a country that is vastly influenced by socialist policies. Even so-called right-wing parties are actually pretty mild, and are quite statist to be frank. Newspapers in my parents’ home were labelling themselves “left”, and they definitely were (and still are today).
For these newspapers, what probably was, if not a nemesis, at least an incredible foe to their politics was a good-old American Christian conservative. I particularly remembered an article about Ted Cruz: the journalist was utterly dismayed that a politician could be so religious. In general, such journalists were always critical of American politicians as they found them way too open about their religion. Christianity was (and still is) displayed as uncool, passé and intellectually inferior. Well, conservatives are as well.
But several tiny realizations accumulated -mismatches really, between what is told by left-leaning people, and what I could see by myself. One day, I decided to go “all in”. I said to myself that I am not fragile and that I could take the time to go to the most “hardcore” right-wing writer and see how much I could hold up against his ideas. I was looking for an essential characteristic: that guy had to have been involved on the left. Ideally on the far-left.
I got way more than I expected. And no, I could not hold up to that guy. And I did not care: it was refreshing, cleansing actually, because of how direct, unabashed and clear-thinking he was. Most important of all, I could not understand how a lot of his writings could be labelled as “right-wing”. It was just logical conclusions from first-hand knowledge.
That is who David Horowitz is for me.
My deepest gratitude to you, Sir, for opening my mind.
I believe I would have been a very different man if it were not for you.
I believe I would have been worse off.
May you be blessed, may you rest in peace.
I profoundly admire David Horowitz.
I see myself in him, in his intransigent and fearless search for the truth, for the facts, for reality. He seems to me to have never flinched or shrink back, or evade, the pain which is inherent in the journey from lies to truth.
As much as I admire him, I never knew him personally. And I don’t understand why as supremely intelligent, fearless, and curious as he was he didn’t go all the way to discover all the truth.
For some reason he stopped short.