For most people, obituaries are the final word. They confirm that you’ve passed away and the world moves on.
But for a few people, obituaries are not the end of their story. David Horowitz is one of those people.
Among those who knew him are a handful of us who dealt with him on the Betty Van Patter case. Betty was the bookkeeper hired by the Black Panther Party on Horowitz’s recommendation and whose murder 50 years ago has never been solved but is universally believed to have been committed by the Panthers.
Horowitz often cited her case as the precipitating factor in his dramatic transformation from a left-wing radical into a Trumpian extremist who seemed to blame the left for just about everything. In the process, he kept Betty’s case alive for decades when almost everyone else chose to ignore it.
In retrospect, it seems likely that Horowitz probably was using Betty’s murder as an excuse for what he was going to do anyway, but I never doubted the sincerity of his concern for Betty’s family or his desire to help solve the case.
No doubt he was acting partially out of guilt for his role in convincing Huey Newton and Elaine Brown to hire Betty in the first place, but there is nothing wrong about doing the right thing out of guilt. Lots of good things are done that way.
Horowitz was the key source for Kate Coleman and Paul Avery’s seminal article, The Party’s Over, which in 1978 exposed the violent and corrupt side of the Panthers, who also did so many important things to combat the systemic racism that is one of the ugliest realities in American society.
Horowitz knew that was true yet he went on to mentor many younger conservatives like Stephen Miller who now seem bent on destroying what modest progress we have collectively made as a people to acknowledge and address those ugly realities.
In these and other societal matters, David Horowitz’s death is not the final word. I hope that his obituaries are nuanced enough to reflect the complexities and contradictions of his life, but in his case, that book is far from closed.
He warned that leftists would inevitably lead our society to totalitarianism, but apparently failed to see the irony that his right-wing friends had America teetering at the edge of the authoritarian precipice even as he lay dying.
Teetering but not over that final edge. The obituary for democracy has not yet been written.
HEADLINES:
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One hundred days of Trump 2.0: Falsehood after falsehood, again and again (WP)
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Justice Amy Coney Barrett Recuses Herself in a Charter School Case (NYT)
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Detainees at the Bluebonnet immigrant detention center in the small city of Anson, Texas, sent the outside world a message this week: S-O-S. Venezuelan detainees in Texas fear the Trump administration will send them to El Salvador's notorious CECOT maximum security prison. (Reuters)
Corporation for Public Broadcasting sues Trump after attempted board firings (WP)
How President Trump’s Second Term Is Changing Everything (NYT)
How the U.S. Lost the Canadian Election (Atlantic)
Takeaways from Canada’s election: America’s northern ally rejects Trump after he dominates race (AP)
US ready to sign Ukraine minerals deal ‘this afternoon’, as Kyiv sends minister to Washington (BBC)
China creates list of US-made goods exempt from 125% tariffs, sources say (Reuters)
Chinese e-commerce exports to US plummet by 65% in face of tariffs (Guardian)
UPS set to lay off 20,000 workers as it reduces business with Amazon (WP)
Trump's manufacturing renaissance could mean more jobs for robots (Axios)
An escaped kangaroo caused highway chaos in Alabama. No one was injured — including the kangaroo. (WP)
Meta’s LlamaCon was all about undercutting OpenAI (TechCrunch)
World Wildlife Fund Now Just Trying To Get Few Nice Photos Of Every Species For Posterity (The Onion)
MUSIC:
Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert - You're The Reason God Made Oklahoma
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