Remembering Andrew Breitbart

Recall that the first time I met Andrew was at the Orange County Tax Day Tea Party in 2009.

Breitbart is shown with his father-in-law Orson Bean. I posted the photo to his Facebook page and he remembered it later when I spoke to him at CPAC in 2011.

And below is the picture from the last time I saw Andrew, when he spoke in Newport Beach just days after Anthony Weiner announced his resignation and Breitbart stole the show at the pre-announcement press conference. Left Coast Rebel was there as well, and boy was he excited to meet Andrew. Thinking about it now, I'm so glad that we went. He was irreplaceable and the memories cherished.

I have lots more Breitbart blogging at the search link. I don't have too much more to say at this point. I do think it's interesting the Breitbart rose to his greatest fame in tandem with the rise of the tea party. He mentioned the Orange County tea party as a formative experience in his book, Righteous Indignation. And  as I became a tea party activist at the same time, Breitbart was indeed instrumental to my own political development over these last few years. What people have said so many times is that Andrew fought fearlessly against progressives and especially the progressive-left media complex. And the left loathed him for it. Progressives clearly wanted him dead because he was beating them and he was a showing a whole generation of young activists how it's done. He spoke for us. He articulate the rage against the politically correct and radically corrupt leftist institutional machine. And it often meant even more because Breitbart could do what many simply could not do because of how we're situated in our work and family lives. William Jacobson spoke eloquently about that, about the "restraints" that have prevented him from being more outspoken in his blogging and activism. I face those same restraints and I've paid substantial personal costs in pushing past the barriers on occasion. Breitbart was an entrepreneur and his own boss. He could fight the fight without facing those restraints, and he thus had the kind of intangible resources that are and will be vital to defeating the left in the years ahead.

There will be much more commentary and reflection on Breitbart going forward. New videos are scheduled for release next week, in fact, of Barack Obama's radical college days. And then there will be movies and books and all kind of continuing activism among those from Breitbart's circle of allies. And of course the new class of conservative warriors will be carrying Breitbart's banner for generations to come. What a man and what a legacy.

Michael Walsh had an outstanding remembrance the other day, so I'll close with that. See, "Goodbye, Andrew: We have lost our bravest warrior, but we must continue his good fight":

In the war against the institutional Left, Andrew Breitbart was the Right’s Achilles; the bravest of all the warriors, now fallen on the plain. There was no combat in which he would not engage, no battle — however small — he would not join with glee, and no outcome acceptable except total victory. His unexpected death last night at the young age of 43 is not the end of his crusade, but its beginning.

No figure on our side was more despised in the whited sepulchers of the media/academic/political Left, and Breitbart wore their loathing as a daily badge of honor. His refusal to grant even a glimmer of moral absolution constantly enraged them, and his very existence was an affront to their carefully constructed — to use one of Andrew’s favorite words — “narrative” of moral superiority. Naturally, they are already dancing on his grave, with the manic joy of being suddenly and miraculously delivered from one of their most potent enemies.

Breitbart’s death is a tragedy, not only for those who delighted in following him into battle but for those who cheered him on as well. Andrew was larger than life, a charismatic natural leader, a big man in every way — physically, spiritually, and intellectually. He would meet a total stranger and immediately try to enlist him or her into his army, railing against the Left’s mendacity and misdeeds. He would practically pick you up by the lapels and shake you in order to make you understand the furious, urgent necessity of his fight.

Continue reading.

And also, at Michelle Malkin, for good measure, "DEVASTATING: Andrew Breitbart, R.I.P."