Hail and Farewell to Three Worthy Adversaries

Three formidable left-wing conspirators have passed away, their passing too little heralded. They were my friends and ideological foes.

These consequential people are worthy of a 21-gun salute upon their passage. But first ... what's up with saluting adversaries?

Once upon a time an unlikely Democrat with an exotic name, namely Barack Obama, got himself elected president. Later, he even got himself reelected.

He was a very big deal in his day. Now, he's nearly as forgotten by a fickle public as President Chester Alan Arthur.

Upon Obama's election my fellow right-wingers were in a state of shock and horror. There was much weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth in the ensuing conservative gatherings, which devolved into group therapy sessions.

They were ignoring that both of Obama's Republican rivals were quite un-, even anti-, conservative. And I would stand and say ... "I love Barack Obama."

Then pause for effect. You could hear a pin drop.

Continuing: "Not since the USSR dissolved have I had an adversary worthy of my powers. I look forward to our upcoming battles with relish. Game on, Mr. Obama!"

In the league of worthy adversaries belonged Jim Turner, who left us on Jan. 25. Per his obituary, "While working with Ralph Nader, prominent consumer protection activist, Mr. Turner wrote the 1970 book, The Chemical Feast: Ralph Nader's Study Group Report on the Food and Drug Administration. Time Magazine commented at the time that Mr. Turner's book 'may well be the most devastating critique of a U.S. Government agency ever issued.'"

Does the idea of a left-wing skeptic of government seem alien? Get over it.

It's a Thing.

"In collaboration with A. Lawrence Chickering, author of Beyond Left and Right: Breaking the Political Stalemate, he co-authored Voice of the People: The Transpartisan Imperative in American Life, and co-founded and co-edited The Transpartisan Review, a journal dedicated to demonstrating how politics, culture, and society can be better understood as a matrix than as a continuum."

I, an unrepentant cispartisan, serve on its advisory board. Farewell, Jim.

And adieu Sandy Horwitt who abruptly passed from this world of sin and woe on March 12. Sandy, among his many achievements, wrote the definitive biography of Saul Alinsky, "Let Them Call Me Rebel." Per Sandy's obituary, he "... began reading an interview of Alinsky published in Harper's magazine. 'Before I had finished,' Horwitt wrote in the 1989 biography "Let Them Call Me Rebel: Saul Alinsky, His Life and Legacy," 'Alinsky had leaped from the pages, ten feet tall, the most fascinating person I had ever encountered.'"

Sandy, with his wingman Al Madison, hosted a monthly lunch gathering of prominent center-left figures. I, their token right winger, regularly attended, claiming a front row seat at the candid conversations of progressive icons such as Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., and Joe Trippi.

Sandy, like Saul, always game for a little populist provocation, got me to invite Tea Party Patriots co-founder Mark Meckler to speak. There, to my surprise, Mark publicly revealed how I had dissuaded the Tea Party Patriots from becoming a third party. Gosh!

Last and most fondly, farewell to Lucifer. Well, not "the" Lucifer.

There's fake news circulating the Right-Wing Conspiracy that Saul Alinsky dedicated Rules for Radicals to Lucifer. Nyet, comrades!

Alinsky dedicated it to "Irene," his beloved wife. You could look it up.

I emailed Sandy's obituary to dear Irene McInnis, the woman to whom Rules was dedicated. It bounced. David Alinsky informed me that Irene passed away August 6, 2020.

Some years ago I took to the internet and discovered Saul's widow living in political seclusion under her maiden name on Cape Cod. I phoned her up.

For several years I called her regularly, visiting her twice in her modest, not at all Luciferian, lair. She regaled me with stories of Saul, who had fallen in love with her at first sight.

They married, before Saul's untimely death, while Saul was writing "Rules for Radicals." Read it. It's a populist, pro-liberty, anti-Big Brother (not a whit socialist) gem.

Rules' cheeky epigram to Lucifer follows two decidedly anti-Satanic epigrams, one by Rabbi Hillel, one by Thomas Paine, two of Saul's moral heroes. For the record, Irene confided that she, unheralded, had contributed this classic's final words: "We will see it when we believe it."

Jim, Sandy, Irene and Saul (who I never personally met) were, despite our adversarial ideologies, heroes to me for their moral courage and unflinching commitment to justice. Hail and farewell, my beloved adversaries.

Especially ... Irene.

Ralph Benko, co-author of "The Capitalist Manifesto" and chairman and co-founder of "The Capitalist League," is the founder of The Prosperity Caucus and is an original Kemp-era member of the Supply-Side revolution that propelled the Dow from 814 to its current heights and world GDP from $11T to $94T. Read Ralph Benko's reports — More Here.