David Horowitz: The Most Effective Conservative Of His Generation

David Horowitz died on Tuesday at the age of 86.

I knew David really, really well. I used to work at the David Horowitz Freedom Center.

Truth Revolt, which was a precursor to The Daily Wire, began at the David Horowitz Freedom Center.

I knew David for more than a decade before that. He was truly a formative person in the modern conservative movement, a person who spoke the truth no matter the cost.

David started off as a radical communist. He wrote a book in 1996 titled “Radical Son: A Generational Odyssey.” In it, he talks about how his parents were communists and that he was a “Red Diaper Baby.”

He began his career as a far-Left writer for Ramparts magazine. He turned to the Right when his friend was allegedly killed by the Black Panthers. Then, basically all of his old friends disowned him and decided he was “untouchable.”

David then turned into one of the most effective conservative activists of his generation. He used to call the David Horowitz Freedom Center a “battle tank” rather than a think tank. Pretty much everybody who’s anybody in modern conservatism had some initial connection with David Horowitz. I met Charlie Kirk, for example, at a David Horowitz Freedom Center event back when Charlie was maybe 18- or 19- years old and was first getting started with TPUSA.

And that remains true for a huge number of people who got their start in the conservative movement in the 1990s and 2000s. His books are worth reading. He was really an amazing writer, a terrific speaker, and a strong voice.

There are many videos of him online that are really worth watching. Here is just one, for example:

Horowitz: Will you condemn Hamas here and now? 

Radical Student: I’m sorry, what? 

Horowitz: Will you condemn Hamas? Will you condemn Hamas as a terrorist and genocidal organization? 

Radical Student: Are you asking me to put myself on a cross?

Horowitz: So you won’t. I actually have had this experience many times. You didn’t read the pamphlet because the pamphlet is chapter and verse. The main connection is that the MSA is part of the Muslim Brotherhood network, as revealed in the document.

Radical Student: I don’t think you understood what I meant by that. I meant if I say something, I’m sure that I will be arrested for reasons of Homeland Security. So if you could please just answer my question.

Horowitz: If you condemn Hamas, Homeland Security will arrest you?

Radical Student: If I support Hamas — because your question forces me to condemn Hamas — if I support Hamas, I look really bad.

Horowitz: Well, if you don’t condemn Hamas, obviously you support it. Case closed. I’ve had this experience at UC Santa Barbara, where there were 50 members of the Muslim Students Association sitting right in the rows there. And throughout my hour talk, I kept asking them, “Will you condemn Hezbollah and Hamas?” And none of them would. And then when the question period came, the president of the Muslim Students Association was the first person to ask questions. I said, “You know, before you start, will you condemn Hezbollah?” And he said, “Well, that question is too complicated for a yes or no answer.” So I said, “Okay, I’ll put it to you this way. I’m a Jew. The head of Hezbollah has said that he hopes that we will gather in Israel so he doesn’t have to hunt us down globally — for it or against it?

Radical Student: For it.

Horowitz: Thank you. Thank you for coming and showing everybody what’s here.

David was extremely clear in his approach to the world. He understood the morality of many of our foreign adversaries. He was an advocate for Americanism and American strength and security. And he will very much be missed.