Libertarian “mouth foamers” actually tend not to be mouth foamers at all. They are often quiet, reasoned people; the kind of folks who will be happy to debate intellectually, and make everything they believe politically fit into a nice, simple intellectual framework. They will often passionately debate others for being inconsistent in their beliefs. They can be off-putting at times, but are  generally reasoned people. They often don’t have the qualities that make them useful in a political right, and they certainly are not the kind of folks who are willing to take a fight to the enemy, and battle them using the left’s own tactics. This is one reason libertarian thought gets no play in politics.
This did not describe Andrew Breitbart. Whether you’re on the left or the right, he was a muckraker in the grand tradition of an art pioneered by progressive writers in the beginning of the 20th century. Perhaps that is why the left so despised Breitbart; he represented an usurpation of some of their most effective tactics. He didn’t mind throwing the left’s hypocrisy back in their faces, and forcing them to look at themselves good and hard in the mirror. They hated him for it.
You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.
– Winston Churchill
My hope is that Breitbart has inspired more people to enter the political fight and become activists for liberty. Today, on Twitter, folks are asking people to find the most hideous and vile venom being spewed by the left, and retweet it. I believe that is a most fitting tribute to the man. Many of our opponents in the political sphere, especially in RKBA, are hateful, vengeful people. Make them look in the mirror and confront what they’ve become. Make them live up to their own standards. That’s what Andrew Breitbart taught us, and what Saul Alinsky taught a generation of leftists before him. Breitbart was liberty reflected in the mirror of the left’s tactics. Hopefully others will be able to step up and take his place.
Muckraker indeed. Normally that would be an insult, but Andrew did what needed to be done and did so *honestly*. Hard to wallow in the mud without becoming stained, but he seemed to do a good job of it.
There’s a line in one of Douglas Adams’ Dirk Gently novels that describes a room so filthy that “Hercules, upon seeing it, would have returned in a half hour armed with a navigable river.” That’s a better description of what Andrew Breitart was about. He didn’t just rake the muck; he flushed it out.
I’ll miss his wit and skill and, most of all, his forcefulness in standing up against horseshit.
First Steve Jobs, Dennis Ritchie (inventor of Unix), and John McCarthy (discoverer of Lisp). Now Andrew Brietbart. I feel like Luke, when he said “I can’t believe Ben’s gone.” Only, I keep feeling like this over and over again!
When will people stop dying?
This hit me about as hard as Chris Hitchens’ death, but at least that one I knew was coming. They were both brilliant men, and talented controversialists. Politics without Breitbart around won’t be nearly as entertaining.
Horrible timing sadly, as we really needed Andrew this year.
America is full of men in cowboy hats and flannel shirts, proud of the fact that they are REAL men unlike the sissy younger generation, who clear all the weeds off their land by hand but won’t lift a finger to clear the weeds out of the American body politic. Breitbart dressed like a hipster, but he was a fighter. He was more man than any of those macho men crying into their beer over the allegedly inevitable Death of America, caused by the weak decadence of everyone but themselves.
This is a great comment! Situational awareness isn’t merely physical, it’s political. Political apathy is nothing less than slow suicide. We need to train ourselves, and to the extent that we can, those around us, to “keep our radar” on current events and their significance. Breitbart is dead, long live Breitbart!
I see over at Politico.com that Shirley Sherrod’s defamation suit against Breitbart is expected to continue. That should be interesting.