I had not seen that David Horowitz died. He was 86. I have said many harsh things about Horowitz over the years, going back to one of my earliest pieces in The American Prospect in the late 90s. I even had a few personal run-ins with him. I stand by all the stuff I wrote but it’s not the moment to rehash the specifics. You can peruse our archives. Horowitz was actually the first person, very early in my career, who was verbally confrontational with me in person. I wasn’t a victim here: He was reacting to highly critical and dismissive things I’d written about him in that Prospect article. I note it because it was just my first experience with fights you pick in print coming to life in person. He seemed to seek out those confrontations. That acidic and aggressive personality you saw on TV was him off camera too.
I’m different that way. As readers of this site know I can be very critical of people and in not nice ways. In person I’m almost always affable and polite around those people or people who’ve written critically about me. Even the very worst of them. It’s not that I’m trying to be pals. And there’s no theory behind it. It’s characterological. I have a confrontational side and a temper. And if someone lays into me beyond a certain point that can come out quickly. But it’s not my default or where I start. I think it’s that I’m not looking for drama. Horowitz was always looking for drama. And really that’s who he was. He was really less a writer or thinker than a kind of political performance artist, who did those other things as part of the package. In that way his real influence or legacy is that performative dimension we see in the Trump world. I doubt Trump himself needed any of that influence. But it’s there in many who have become part of Trump’s movement.
I didn’t realize before reading the Times obit that Horowitz was apparently a big mentor of Stephen Miller going all the way back to when Miller was in high school, which is not surprising but still quite interesting. There’s a process where lots of people turn out to have been ‘mentors’ to someone once that person achieves political prominence. But the Times obit makes it seem pretty legit in this case. Horowitz seems to have played a significant role with Miller through college and even helped get him his launching-pad job as the press secretary for former Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL). I totally had not heard of this connection. But it completely fits.
Apropos of this, here’s Josh Kovensky’s fascinating, just published piece (really a must-read) about a lawsuit filed by the Miller-founded America First Legal Foundation against Chief Justice John Roberts arguing that the White House should be given control over the court system. Miller of course has taken a leave from America First while he’s running the White House. But it’s his outfit. And in a lineal way, it’s kind of Horowitz’s too. Horowitz and I would probably find a rare agreement in saying that Miller’s lawsuit is a fitting epitaph to Horowitz’s role in American public life.
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