Following on from the Steve Bannon interview posted last week, I’m sharing this speech from David Horowitz to lay down further background to the Tea Party and alt-right movements that proceeded MAGA and Trump’s first term.
Also available on YouTube.
David Horowitz is a remarkable character.
Now known as one of the most prominent conservative American thinkers, an implacable defender of the Constitution and fierce critic of the radical Left.
For the first 40 years of his life he was a hard left-wing activist. A friend and collaborator with Huey Newton, founder of the Black Panthers in the 1970s. Born to parents who were card carrying members of the American Communist Party.
He talks of experiencing an ideological reversal over a period of about 10 years through the late 70s and 80s. Horowitz’s “Second Thoughts Conference” in Washington DC in 1987 was described by Sidney Blumenthal in the Washington Post as his ‘coming out’ as a conservative.
His deep inside knowledge of the liberal progressive (read Radical Marxist) movement that has dominated the American left for the past 15 years, its ideological substructure and organising tactics makes him a devastating critic of his former ‘fellow travellers’.
In this hour long talk from 2015 Horowitz excoriates the entire movement - from Obama (“the most brazen liar in our history”) to Ruth Bader Ginsburg (“a left wing ideologue extremist”) to Hilary Clinton (“an enemy of the Constitution”). All treasonously collaborating to diminish and, ultimately, replace the US Constitution, which was designed specifically to thwart “wicked projects” like redistribution of wealth.
Horowitz describes a movement which is universally bigoted, unscrupulous, shameless and intolerant of dissent. A ‘crypto-religion’ whose adherents believe that simply through accruing enough political power, they can reshape society and, ultimately, recreate humanity.
Sitting here in London in 2024 it’s easy to see these attitudes and behavioural patterns playing out across the whole of society. Whether that’s in the political sphere, media, academic institutions or broader cultural narrative. And we need to get a handle on it.
As Horowitz points out, the 20th Century was the worst so far for war, genocide and human suffering. Driven in no small part by radical, inhuman left-wing political ideologies. The 21st Century is shaping up to be even worse if we don’t find a way to neutralise them.
He is absolutely. on the money regarding state-controlled healthcare - “what freedom do we have left if the state controls our health?”, and government more broadly - “taxes are a form of indentured servitude.”
Indeed they are sir.
Now, having said all that - proceed with caution. Horowitz, like many US conservatives, is a vocal Zionist and backer of Israeli actions in Gaza. Although his analysis of the radical left is valuable and, in my eyes, highly accurate it doesn’t come free of an underlying agenda.
And keep your keys peeled for the squeaky-voiced kosher snack at the end.
Love.
Rubin
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David Horowitz - The Black Book of the American Left