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[Help us preserve David’s legacy: HERE.]
The world is a poorer place with the passing of David Horowitz.
David is one of the three true fathers of the modern conservative movement (the other two being William F. Buckley, Jr. and Ronald Reagan).
He taught us the art of political warfare. Much more than a mere ideologue, David was a warrior — and a happy warrior, to boot.
Those who did not have the good fortune to know David personally may know him by those he nurtured, which include the likes of deputy White House chief of staff Stephen Miller; Charlie Kirk, founder and driving force behind Turning Point USA; Middle East scholar Walid Phares; and of course, the Freedom Center’s Robert Spencer, Jamie Glazov, and Daniel Greenfield.
I have been blessed to have known and worked with David on and off for the past two decades. He was so gracious that he tried to broker a publishing deal for my latest book, The Iran House, from his hospital bed last year, unbeknownst to me.
That gesture revealed one of the enduring aspects of David’s character he always saw himself not only as an author and polemicist but also as a mentor — or if you prefer, a talent-spotter. He was always willing to give a hand up to those younger and less well-established than he was.
Like David, I began on the Left and discovered that the Left had deserted me and the values I had thought we shared — a certain iconoclasm, fierce individualism, and an unquenchable thirst for freedom. That journey formed an immediate bond between me and David.
Many of David’s books explored themes that continue to nourish the daily thinking of our conservative universe. They have become so familiar that many people have forgotten that David first introduced those ideas into our intellectual slipstream.
Unholy Alliance: Radical Islam and the American Left, is one of these books. In it, less than three years after the 9/11 attacks, David explored what former CIA Director Jim Woolsey called the “Hitler-Stalin Pact of our time.”
More recently, in Dark Agenda: the War to Destroy Christian America, David — a Jew — explored not only the Left’s war on Christian America, but why Christianity itself is absolutely central to the America that is good and moral and worthy of emulation.
May you rest in peace, friend. And give us a nudge from time to time!
I was deeply saddened to read about the death of David Horowitz. I have been aware of him for a long time and read many of his columns. I began to wonder, however, if I had any of his books. Happily I found a copy of “Hating Whitey” on the shelf, only half finished. I have just concluded reading it.
What struck me, depressingly, is how little has changed since the book was first published. For example, on page 237 he noted: “Now faculty and student bigotry is aimed at Christians – and at Jews, who have been the subject of more virulent forms of anti-semitic assault by black supremacists and Arab fundamentalists, egged on by progressives, the at any time since the liberation of Auschwitz.”
Last October 7 proved the truth of that sad fact … again … in spades; not since the Holocaust has academia been such a sewer of hate and bigotry. It was true in 1999 … and is still true today. The only change is how it has gotten even worse.
David was a commentator … and a prophet.
Shall we ever see his like again?
I can’t say that I knew David’s work intimately, but I did know he was a solid voice for conservatism and a truth teller who had been there and back.. When I did hear him on the radio or read one of his articles, I knew he was the real deal.
And those he mentored – their names are in the article – are my heroes today.
My condolences to all who knew and loved him.
Amen. We’ve lost a voice from a great man, who knows the evil taking place in our world today. May he forever RIP.
David’s death feels like an earthquake and our sad loss will never be forgotten.
Remembering David as an honest truth telling person with roots to many of the 60’s noble beginnings.
He displayed and lived out the reasons many of us were part of demonstrations in the Bay Area.
I became aware of David through KSFO Radio, purchased his first book ‘Radicle Son’ and subscribed to Front Page Magazine after that.
Also, remember the publication ‘Ramparts’ from early Berkeley days.
Am forever thankful for his example of honesty and truth telling.
He’s been and will always be a giant! It figures your name is David.
We love you David.