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Back on April 29, David Horowitz passed away at the age of 86. Still with us, on the other hand, is the wisdom and strategic guidance he left behind. In his 1996 Radical Son, David charted his Communist upbringing, the rise of the New Left, and his dealings with the Black Panther Party in Oakland.
David raised money for the Oakland Community Learning Center, the school that became the Black Panthers’ base of operations. In 1974, David recruited his friend Betty Van Patter to keep the books. When Betty was found dead in San Francisco Bay, that marked David’s exodus from the left, but not the end of his political activism.
In 1981, San Francisco Chronicle writer Randy Shilts tipped off David to a potential epidemic known as AIDS, rapidly spreading through the bathhouses in San Francisco. As David explained in Radical Son, “For political reasons, there would be no systematic testing or reporting, or contact tracing of infected parties – standard health measures in stemming contagions in the past.”
David Horowitz was one of the first to call out the government’s politicization of disease and departure from established medical practice. So remember David as an early opponent of white coat supremacy, later imposed in force by Dr. Anthony Fauci during the Covid pandemic.
With Peter Collier, David wrote The Kennedys: An American Drama and the authors support for Ronald Reagan got them blacklisted from the New York Times. On October 17, 1987, the 20th anniversary of the New Left’s march on Washington, David and Peter hosted the Second Thoughts Conference, a gathering of writers and scholars who also left the left. For Joshua Muravchik, formerly of the Young People’s Socialist League, their differences were rather small compared to areas of agreement. Therefore, Muravchik concluded, “be fraternal, promote democracy, off the commies, power to the people.”
There was talk of taking on the movies, which led David to form The Center for the Study of Popular Culture (CSPC) based in Los Angeles. Through its publication COMINT the center targeted the use of public funds to promote leftist causes, a scam showcased by former LBJ press secretary Bill Moyers. The Center published Heterodoxy, targeting the political correctness now known as “woke” ideology, and leftist causes in general.
In the new century, the left added Islamic jihadists and anti-Semites to their list of oppressed victims. David fought them on college campuses across the nation, a battle now continued by the David Horowitz Freedom Center. Heterodoxy became Frontpage Magazine, on the front lines against the hate-America left in all its guises. As David showed, you have to fight where the battle is taking place, but there’s more to it.
Some hesitate to join the fray based on what liberals might say about them. As David noted, inside every liberal is a totalitarian screaming to get out, and at this point most of them are out. Witness the calls to violence, support for violent criminals, and sympathy for terrorists. The left’s attacks on David, only made him stronger and more determined to fight on. In the wake of his departure, people should know, the event that drove him from the left remains unresolved.
January 17 marked 50 years since Betty Van Patter was found dead in San Francisco Bay. She had been fired by Elaine Brown, who took over the Black Panther Party when Huey Newton fled to Cuba. At the time of Betty’s murder, Elaine Brown was running for Oakland City Council. The Panther boss was a favorite of Gov. Jerry Brown and Panther consiglieri J. Anthony Kline, who became Gov. Brown’s legal affairs secretary.
In 1982, Brown appointed Kline to the state Appeal Court, where he served until retirement in 2021. To this day, Kline and Jerry Brown never revealed what they knew about the Van Patter murder, and when they knew it. In Radical Son, David explained, Huey Newton said the killer was Elaine Brown, who has since gained new followers.
“Elaine Brown is a social justice advocate, story teller, trailblazer, accomplished musician and a strong advocate for communities of color especially when it comes to breaking barriers to employment,” contends, Mialisa Bonta of the California Assembly, wife of state attorney general Rob Bonta. In 2024 dame Bonta donated $1.25 million to the Black Panther Museum in Oakland but this year the Bay Area left failed to mark the 50th anniversary of Van Patter’s murder. Of course, for the left murder has never been a problem.
Witness the assassination of Charlie Kirk on September 10. David Horowitz didn’t live to see it, but based on experience we can say he was on to it from the start. In 2025 moving forward, remember the radical son who showed us how to fight.
I’ve known of the Horowitz Freedom Center for several years. I did not know that David had passed. All the more reason to support the Center’s activities/writings. All I need now is more money to do so!
This is amazing. Way back in the early 90’s feeling so disillusioned by what I was seeing on the streets of L.A. (’92 riots) I found Heterodoxy and found it the only organ around that was telling the truth about what was going on at least to my lights (my eyes). So now I”m amazed that there has never been a follow up to the accusations of none other than Huey Newton that Elaine Brown murdered Betty Van Patter? This is a wild accusation which needs some kind of backup or it just soundsl like the fantasies of a guy like Huey Newton. My understanding is that he was eventually killed in a drug deal gone bad in Oakland (guess he had returned from Cuba by then).
Artistic Director
The Great American Play Series
P.S. It’s things like this that made me write ‘The Story of Sal B and Barbranne: A mob Fantasia(Cyrano Redux) re-opening at Theater for the New City Dec 18. If interested:
The article mentions “She had been fired by Elaine Brown, who took over the Black Panther Party.” David Horowitz had helped the Black Panthers and got Betty the job of handling their accounting. It is likely that she knew too much about their finances and other things. The firing, disappearance, and body found in the Bay followed. That sequence was part of David’s second thoughts process.
David was crucial in my own journey of ‘Waking Up’.
David Horowitz should be nominated posthumously for
“Presidential Medal of Freedom.” His work has touched
millions. The archives n the left ‘
https://www.discoverthenetworks.org/’ is an epic
resource. As is the David Horowitz Freedom Center ,
the bookstore pamphlets, etc.
David Horowitz, you were and will always be the
modern-day “David the Goliath Left Killer”
R.I.P. brother David. You fought the good fight
Mr. Horowitz has been, and will remain, one of the guiding lights of life.
While those on the Left claim they are courageous for taking fashionable stances – Horowitz is the definition of true courage.
Thankful for the wisdom we received from him and will miss what he did not get the chance to write for the rest of my life.
Mr. Horowitz has been, and will remain, one of the guiding lights of life.
While those on the Left claim they are courageous for taking fashionable stances – Horowitz is the definition of true courage.
Thankful for the wisdom we received from him and will miss what he did not get the chance to write for the rest of my life.
My own conversion from Leftist to rational wasn’t easy or quick. The Leftist identity had intertwined with my heart and soul and it was only a deeply abiding desire to know the truth that allowed me to finally free myself.
I have since come to see the Leftist culture as fundamentally psychotic: Closing their mind to external influence to be only informed by inner fears and fantasies. These people may be fully rational otherwise but lack the psycho-emotional predisposition for objectivity.
Additionally I’ve found that people more interested in rationality tend to move Left to right while those with emotional issues move right to Left.
My experience too. There is today an over educated elite group that personify David’s quote:
“Inside Every Progressive Is A Totalitarian Screaming To Get Out”
—David Horowitz
We were lucky to have had David for so long. Before I too left the left, at the age of 18 (1969) I bought and read Free World Colossus by David which I believe was one of his last pro left books. I thought it was spot on at the time.. Nowadays I tell young people “If you like poverty, you are going to love socialism because that is what you are going to get.”
Darrell in Toronto
Warned us about the Plans of the UN/Socialists/Globalists just like McCarthy did and its time to heed his warnings