Horowitz on Hitchens

David Horowitz reflects on a man of the left who, notwithstanding his newly published memoir, declines to do the job himself: the entirely un-self-reflective Christopher Hitchens. As Horowitz points out, Hitchens’s moves away from the left on some issues in recent years have not been accompanied by any second thoughts about his own past pro-Communist and anti-American positions. But, as I have said previously, given that Hitchens remains an unrepentant leftist, why have Horowitz and other conservatives embraced him as an honored ally? Solely because he supported the war in Iraq and Bush’s democratization policy. For that, these “conservatives” will forgive and overlook anything.

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Ben W. writes:

One thing that Horowitz doesn’t address at all in his assessment of Hitch-22, is Hitchens’s virulent turn against Christianity—his last polemical work was “God Is Not Great.” This did not end there because Hitch then served as editor and compiler of the newest text on atheism. He has since gone on the road to debate both Jewish and Christian defenders.

How is it that Horowitz doesn’t address what has become Hitch’s main preoccupation the past three years? It isn’t politics or culture but religion. See this and this.

The problem with Horowitz is that he has invested so much of his life in the left that he hasn’t really left it behind. His encomium to his daughter, who was as far left and died this way, actually praised her left orientation as “compassion for people.” he could never bring himself to say that she was simply wrong.

One other reason why Horowitz can’t address Hitch’s recent war on religion is that Horowitz himsef ended his book on his battle with cancer acknowledging that he still can’t bring himself to belief in a deity in spite of all the prayers that were offered him. This despite the fact that his wife is quite religious. So he cannot see the damage Hitchens has now begun inflicting …

LA replies:

I have so many times expressed my disgust with establishment conservatives in general, and with Horowitz in particular, for their uncritical approval, embrace, and inclusion in their ranks of the God-hater and Christianity-hater Christopher Hitchens—which they did for the sole reason that he supported Bush’s Muslim democratization policy—that I don’t want to repeat it again. Here are VFR entries referencing Hitchens and conservatives.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at July 06, 2010 09:38 AM | Send