He Was Our Indian Guide
Not a traitor, but a saviour.
From the Introduction to my 2015 book “Turn Right at Lost: Recalculating America”.
David Horowitz is a traitor. A traitor to his parents, and to the young ideologues with whom he shared anti-war revolutionary fervor through his years as a student radical, a New Left activist and publisher. He was all in with his Communist parents, who though disillusioned by Kruschev, still believed that the Soviet-style statist model was the cure for worldwide conflict and poverty.
In one of his early books, 'The Free World Colossus,' Horowitz documented the litany of American transgressions, from Vietnam to Guatemala, to Iran, to the ill fated Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba, Horowitz described America as a great Colossus of Imperialism. The poster child of the excesses of selfishness and greed.
In 1970, after forming an alliance with Black Panther leader Huey Newton in the highly politicized Bay Area, and believing Newton's claim that violence was passe and activism and community service was the best way to influence political change, Horowitz was suddenly involved in what was later determined to be a murder, of one of his beloved employees. Because local authorities were bullied by Black activists to stay away from prosecuting Black Panthers they thought had committed the crime, Horowitz decided to do his own investigation.
It was a turning point in his life. Horowitz is, in my mind, in tune with many of us. He has veered away from a youthful ideological dream, only to discover the realities of life in conflict with his wishful thinking. But unlike other writers, he had a realization that he could not ignore truths and transgressions.
Horowitz was lost, and he decided to turn right.
Mr. Horowitz has ever since confronted the arrogant hypocrisy of the Left. He discovered that many of his friends, and certainly his activist mentors, had no respect for the life of the murdered woman, how they were more interested in promoting the exploitation of their 'revolution' for personal gain, for political power, and in many cases, their own criminal enterprises.
His political journey from far left to far right is extreme, but as a writer, he has documented every step of the way like no other political activist in recent history.
Though he faces unprecedented resistance from the Left, he presses on. He is often shunned from public events by PC pressures; many of his invitations to speak on college campuses have been reversed after protesters threaten strikes and violence. Leftist characterize him as 'threatening' and 'Zionist' which gives them permission to deny him free speech.
Horowitz unmasks the Orwellian miss-speak of the left. In his book, The Politics of Bad Faith he notes, "...to be reborn, the left had only to rename itself in terms that did not carry the memories of insurmountable defeat (i.e., the fall of the Soviet Union), to appropriate a past that could still be victorious."
That new name of course, is Progressive. There is no other author who has so thoroughly chronicled the expansion of Progressivism around the world, and especially within the academic arena, in America.
His text-book series of analysis of college indoctrination came from his seven year long investigation he called the 'Campaign for Fairness and Inclusion in Higher Education.'
His book, The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America called out radical left wing revolutionary professors, many of whom enjoy academic freedom from scrutiny, and actively indoctrinate and discriminate against conservative students regularly.
He wrote four books on the subject, digging into the history of how American universities and college campuses protect and even encourage radicalism and have become havens for radical leftists who are using their pulpit to infect impressionable young minds.
Please remember, I wrote that, in 2015, about a man who was showing us the way …We will miss him dearly, but he must be remembered not just for his brilliant writing, but how he bravely led Americans out of the wilderness of leftist double speak, groupthink, misinformed certitude and Marxist hatred for self directed political sovereignty and love for Americanism.