David Horowitz made a multi-decade pilgrimage from being a “red diaper” baby of radical leftist parents to '60s anti-war protester, and ultimately, to one of the most articulate and published voices of the American right.
But the head of the Freedom Center acknowledges that much of his political and personal certitude was challenged by the tragedy that befell him last year, when his 44-year-old daughter died after prolonged illness.
Horowitz chronicles that ordeal in his new book, “A Cracking of the Heart." the story of a parent's grief and discovery. He told Newsmax.TV’s Kathleen Walter he hopes the book will provide solace to all those who have lost or who will lose loved ones along the way.
See Video: David Horowitz talks about his deceased daughter and “A Cracking of the Heart,” — Click Here Now
[Editor’s Note: Get David Horowitz’s new book, “A Cracking of the Heart’’ — Go here now]
He also wants it to be an admonition tp parents and children to appreciate each other while they’re still here. Just as he turned away from the radical leftism of his upbringing, his own child rebelled against him. Because his daughter's views were more liberal than his, his account of their relationship is also a story of estrangement and reconciliation to which other parents can relate.
In "A Cracking of the Heart," Horowitz examines his complex relationship with one of his daughters, Sarah, who was born in 1964 with Turner syndrome. Sarah, who was less than 5 feet tall, had a variety of handicaps as well as a weak heart. She died in 2008. A rebellious offspring, she attended a liberal synagogue and actively embraced Barack Obama's presidential bid.
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After her death, Horowitz studied her writings, poems, and an unpublished novel — discovered the warm, compassionate corners of her personality in the process.
"My daughter was very generous with homeless people — even though she had no money," said.
In a poignant journal entry, she recalled an incident in which a once-homeless woman approached her. The woman thanked Sarah for her kindness, saying that she had never forgotten the help rendered in a trying time.
"It's impossible to read about my daughter without becoming a more compassionate, better person," he said.
He hopes people will get strength from his book and find comfort in it, and he acknowledges that his daughter’s life and nature have served to blunt some of the jagged edges of his own staunch conservatism.
But that doesn’t stop him from blasting President Barack Obama.
“His roots are in the left,” Horowitz said. The president "came out of the movement that I came out of, but he never actually came out of it. Their agendas are power, control, and creating enormous slush funds for the armies of the left — and that's what this administration is about. It is the most radical, the most dangerous political administration in Washington that we have ever seen.”
In West Palm Beach for his center’s long-standing and perennial Restoration Weekend, Horowitz said he believes that the American people are catching on to what truly lurks these days in the halls of power.
“Are we beginning to see a backlash of sorts?” Walter asked.
“Huge,” he answered with emphasis. “A revolt — I call it a revolt. You see it in the Tea Parties. We have conservatives marching on Washington . . . I don't care if it was 500,000 or 1,000,000 people who marched on Washington. That's a political earthquake. Conservatives don't march. I mean, it's just not what conservatives do. I have been trying to get them to march for years.”
He confessed that he is very excited about what is happening.
“There is a huge tax revolt going on. People are not going to pay for this stuff,” he said, pointing to the repeated failed referendums in California where they tried to raise taxes.
“They had five initiatives because the state is bankrupt. It is now $20 billion in the red, and it was rejected by 60 percent in one of the most liberal states in the nation. So there.”
And the backlash is going to hit the elections of 2010 like a tsunami, he opined.
“I think that it is going to be a Republican landslide. I think that we are going to sweep the House and it is going to knock people's socks off. Of course, in order for that to happen, people have to be active. We have to have good candidates, but I think that that will happen.
“I think that people are aroused,” Horowitz said. “The American people are a sleeping giant — always. You know, Hitler conquered all of Europe, the Japanese marched over all of Asia, and America did nothing, but once they attacked Pearl Harbor, it was all over for those guys. I think that the Democratic Party is going to have a reckoning in 2010 and 2012."
Horowitz is as open and honest and forthright as he is in the pages of his brand new and very readable book. No quarter is given the Obama administration — particularly when it comes to the issue of Israel.
“There has never been an Administration that is so anti-Jewish,” he blasted. “There is a global genocide that is being planned and organized in full view of everybody — and Obama is appeasing them and sticking it to the Jews. These are very dark times for this country, but I'm very optimistic because I believe that people are finally waking up.”
He sees a dark repeat of history.
“Everybody who calls themselves a progressive was a supporter of the Soviet Union or China — the slaughter of 100,000 million people in order to make them go along with the socialist program. Obama is aiding and abetting and facilitating our enemies as we speak.”
Horowitz has been at the helm of the Freedom Center’s Restoration Weekends for 13 years.
“The Freedom Center is dedicated to defending free societies,” he said. “The free societies of the West have been under attack since the 18th century, but that attack has gotten really serious at this point in time.
“We’re in a global struggle with totalitarian jihadist, Islamic totalitarians and secular leftist totalitarians, who are in league with the Jihad, and it is just very serious at this point in time, and the center is dedicated to fighting this battle,” he added.
Horowitz explained that his own misguided youth has served as a key resource.
“I am a former leftist, so I understand the left, and it has taken a long time for the conservatives to stop calling these people liberals — since they are bigoted, intolerant and totalitarian — and start calling them the leftist or socialist that they are, and that is happening now in a big way.
“The theme of Restoration Weekend is defending our country and our culture. This nation and its ideals are under siege like never before. Are Americans doing enough to defend this country and what more should be done?” he said.
When asked whether the Obama administration's penchant for attacking and isolating an opponent worries him, Horowitz did not hold back.
“Inside of every so-called liberal is a totalitarian screaming to come out. There is one TV channel that has some critics of the president on it like Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity — and they want to suppress it. That tells you exactly who they are. They are communist and, of course, it is so unfashionable to say that. I mean with a small ‘c,’ I don't mean the card-carrying communist. Their mentality is communist. It is not liberal,” he said.
Horowitz talked about his personal evolution. “I was one of the founders of the New Left, and I have been atoning for that ever since. I got involved in raising money for the Black Panther Party, and they murdered a woman whom I recruited to do their bookkeeping.
“In the mid-'70s, the left — and, by the left, I included the Democratic Party — at this point had sabotaged the Vietnam War and forced America’s withdraw and 2 ½ million innocent peasants in IndoChina were slaughtered by the allies of the American left.
“All progressives supported this, and there were no protests from the Left about it,” he said. “That was the end of my soldiering in the left. I understood that these people have evil agendas. It all sounds very good — peace, justice — but it true, it is the form that evil takes, has taken in the 20th century.”
“They will destroy our democracy. That's what they are setting about doing — destroying our democracy or as we used to say during the Cold War our way of life.”
See Video: David Horowitz talks about his deceased daughter and “A Cracking of the Heart,” — Click Here Now
[Editor’s Note: David Horowitz’s new book, “A Cracking of the Heart’’ — Go here now]
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