The self-important, liberal, sheep-herding mass media lightweights lost a foe today. We best not lose the spirit with which he pushed the boundaries of speaking against the grain, however. And, c'mon, we won't.
The pride with which he retweeted the despicable, and the merely disagreeable, Twitter posts of those who resented him and addressed him in name, will stick with me.
This is directly from Andrew Breitbart's Big Government site, the bold bits are mine, that which rings the most true for me:
With a terrible feeling of pain and loss we announce the passing of Andrew Breitbart.
Andrew passed away unexpectedly from natural causes shortly after midnight this morning in Los Angeles.
We have lost a husband, a father, a son, a brother, a dear friend, a patriot and a happy warrior.
Andrew lived boldly, so that we more timid souls would dare to live freely and fully, and fight for the fragile liberty he showed us how to love.
Andrew recently wrote a new conclusion to his book, Righteous Indignation:
I love my job. I love fighting for what I believe in. I love having fun while doing it. I love reporting stories that the Complex refuses to report. I love fighting back, I love finding allies, and—famously—I enjoy making enemies.
Three years ago, I was mostly a behind-the-scenes guy who linked to stuff on a very popular website. I always wondered what it would be like to enter the public realm to fight for what I believe in. I’ve lost friends, perhaps dozens. But I’ve gained hundreds, thousands—who knows?—of allies. At the end of the day, I can look at myself in the mirror, and I sleep very well at night.
Andrew is at rest, yet the happy warrior lives on, in each of us.
It was your unabashed, quite rational verbal combat that, as Mr. Solov states, helped me, for one, dare to live a bit less sheepishly in my views that weren't of the mishandled Occupy Wall Street and Current TV crowd. Andrew helped some of us who don't hate, and refuse to tolerate being told that we hate simply because we aren't of the American Left, to be a bit less shy about throwing as hard as we've had to catch.
Some on the American Right are less debate-ready than Breitbart in refuting the banal efforts of the unreasonable Left to try to claim the conservative idea of liberty is closer to selfishness than freedom. I hope Andrew's example showed people how to told to principles and not merely attack foes with spiteful glee as if it were in a schoolyard and they are 10 years old. At least, that's what I saw on Twitter and elsewhere.
Andrew was a sentinel for those of us who don't want to pander to, or be, people with their hands out. He was one of us, those who were doing well or not but, either way, wish to give (or get) a hand up rather than an easy ride to nowhere. He was not the only, but he was a leader, of a conservative communication movement that will never go away. There was Bill Buckley, Jr., there is Limbaugh, there was Breitbart. And there are the many who hold to a similar thinking who are in these men's debt, while, they would agree, not beholden to them.
Andrew helped define something in new media that reminded conservatives that some traditions, and some ideas, are not open to liberal negotiation. He made it easier for me, in the midst of all the other mumbo-jumbo of living, to refuse, a little more readily, the insulting tenor of popular, often shallow, definitely liberal, media and fellow citizens, not to mention the bureaucrats and politicians.
He made a big difference, and there's lots of folks at his establishments working hard today, as they had been beside him. And I am proud to think of them as kindred spirits, as I did Andrew.
REST IN PEACE, Breitbart.
Posted via email from Like, Totally Political Dude! - posterous
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