The basic facts of David Horowitz’s political odyssey are well known. A “red diaper baby†who grew up in what he has called the ghetto of communism, he became a leading Marxist “theorist†in the early 1960s and one of the godfathers of the New Left. But following America’s defeat in Vietnam, Horowitz began to reevaluate the damage those commitments had done to the country and embrace conservatism.
The Black Book of the American Left is the result of that concerted intellectual effort. When completed, it will collect all of Horowitz’s conservative writings over the last thirty years—at once a sharp incision to the heart of the left’s agenda; an exploration of routes conservatives might take in response to its permanent assault on America’s values and power; and a unique trip log showing the evolving intellectual journey of one of our bravest and most original thinkers.
The present volume, “The Left in Power: From Clinton to Obama,†traces the coup that transformed the Democratic Party from a party of the American center to a party of the hardcore left. Horowitz shows how this process began when the Democrats began to adopt the New Left’s anti-individualist, anti-capitalist, and anti-American dogma in the mid-1970s; attained critical mass when Hillary Clinton brought a cohort of leftists to power during her husband’s presidency; and was completed with the election of Barack Obama, a politician born, bred and trained in the progressive movement. As a result of this long march, the Democrats now support “causes†that presidents such as
Harry Truman and JFK would have abhorred. At home: illegal immigration, race preferences and redistributionism. Abroad: retreat in the war on terror, appeasement of the Hamas terrorists, and nuclearization of America’s chief enemy, the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Intellectually provocative and forcefully argued, this volume of The Black Book of the American Left, like its predecessors, shows why David Horowitz is the worst enemy of the Left and a national treasure for conservatives.
