This article is part of the David Horowitz Freedom Center’s commemoration of the one-year anniversary of the passing of our founder, namesake and visionary. If you have memories of David to share, please leave them in the comments or drop Daniel Greenfield a line.
And please consider making a generous, tax-deductible contribution to the David Horowitz Freedom Center to help continue David’s mission far into the future: HERE.
Tempus fugit. It has been a year already since the Freedom Center’s founder David Horowitz, an intellectual powerhouse of conservatism, passed away. He died at the age of 86 after a long, incredibly full life during which he never stopped fighting and never stopped working, right up to the very last, to combat the scourge of the radical Left which he himself knew so well, having grown up as the child of hardcore Communist parents.
David’s origin story is well-known: like many conservatives, myself included, he began on the Left, growing up a Marxist and working for radical causes and organizations like the Black Panthers – until he experienced a political epiphany, a conversion to conservativism, after which he threw himself into exposing the Left’s radicalism and teaching us how to fight it. He understood the Left better than they understand themselves, and that’s a prime reason they hated David so much. Leftists reserve a special enmity for apostates from the faith, and David was not only an apostate but led the conservative charge against them so brilliantly and fiercely that they couldn’t ignore or destroy him.
My personal experience with David began in 2011 after I had been writing regularly for the Freedom Center feature called Newsreal Blog, which was focused on the politics of pop culture, something that was a special focus of mine. I had also begun contributing to FrontPage Mag, and during that time my writing came to David’s attention. In somewhat short order I was brought onboard as a Shillman Fellow that July by David’s long-time writing partner and Freedom Center cofounder Peter Collier, a great writing mentor and a brilliant man. Peter himself tragically passed away a few years ago.
In September 2011, I attended a special film screening at the house of my friend and then-employer, writer/director Cyrus Nowrasteh (The Stoning of Soraya M., The Young Messiah, Sarah’s Oil). Cyrus first introduced me to Hollywood conservatives and played the key role in kickstarting my journey from liberal to conservative. He and David were friends, but David and I had only interacted very briefly on a few occasions, so I was pleasantly taken aback when, at this event, David took me aside for a private conversation. He spoke to me about ideas for creating videos for the Center, and ended by inviting me to Restoration Weekend, the Freedom Center’s annual four-day event of conservative speakers, screenings, and panel discussions.
From then on I continued writing regularly for the Freedom Center, helped edit FrontPage Mag, eventually took on the Center’s podcast called The Right Take with Mark Tapson, and handled other duties. This meant that I worked with David on a close, sometimes even daily basis. I was inexpressibly honored to co-write a few articles and pamphlets with him, such as The 20 Dumbest Hollywood Hatemongers (a barbed title David himself chose over my more subdued suggestion, Celebrities Unhinged). On a professional level I couldn’t have asked for a wiser mentor, and I confess that, on a personal level, he became something of a father figure to me.
His influence on me personally was dramatic, as he taught me, among other things, to be more aggressive in my writing, something that did not come naturally to me. Like many on the Right, I had to overcome the conservative instinct to fight the Left according to the Marquess of Queensberry rules of fair play and polite restraint; instead, David wanted us to be comfortable getting down in the trenches for hand-to-hand combat against our ruthless enemies. That is a strategy David promoted relentlessly to our side; it’s why he referred to the Freedom Center not as a mere think tank, but a battle tank. It is why the Center has been a more effective thorn in the Left’s side for so many years.
David Horowitz’s passing marked the end of an era not only for me but for conservatives everywhere. His passion for freedom and American greatness changed countless lives, empowered conservativism, gutted our political opponents, and laid the groundwork for the MAGA movement. And yet to the very end he believed, astonishingly, that he had not done enough.
I and my colleagues at the Freedom Center are committed to carrying on his fight. We have vowed that David’s impact will continue to flourish, and that we will find new ways for the Center to help defend our Constitution, our rights and freedoms, our nation, and our civilization from enemies both internal and external. We continue to be guided by David’s warrior spirit, his influential body of work, and his legacy as we do our humble part to help Make America Great Again.
Photo credit: Glenn Marzano.
Previous article in the series:
It’s Clearer Than Ever: David Horowitz Was Right All Along. -By Robert Spencer.
Why David Horowitz is More Relevant Than Ever. -By Daniel Greenfield.
How David Horowitz Helped Me Choose My College. -By Gregory Lyakhov.
The Triumph of David Horowitz. -By Lloyd Billingsley.
Remembering David Horowitz Through His Books. -By Frontpage Editors.
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