Speaker David Horowitz delivers his call for cleansing politics from the higher education environment Tuesday at the Tivoli on the Auraria Campus.
(Brian Brainerd / The Denver Post via Getty Images)
The late David Horowitz, who died in April at age 86, was often dismissed as a fringe figure not just by liberals and leftists but even many on the right. Horowitz would often complain that his booksâcrude polemics with titles such as BLITZ: Trump Will Smash the Left and Win (2020) and The Enemy Within: How a Totalitarian Movement Is Destroying America (2021)âwere ignored by respectable conservative publications such as National Review and Commentary. Horowitz got one thing right: that both his friends and foes underestimated him. In truth, as David Klion notes in an obituary for The Nation, Horowitz, for all his shrillness and absurdity, had an enormous influence on right-wing politics and deserves to be seen as a precursor to Trumpism. Among other claims to infamy, Horowitz was the mentor of Trumpâs anti-immigration adviser Stephen Miller.
I talked to David about Horowitzâs long shadow and tumultuous journey from being a red-diaper baby to a New Left radical to an right-wing polemicist who tried to revive the very McCarthism that damaged his parentâs life. Horowitz left a terrible legacy but was also a figure whose impact canât be ignored.
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