Andrew Breitbart, ass-kicker. While I didn't always agree with his tactics, I always understood his logic and motivation. A fearless fighter has fallen.
My heart first goes out to the beautiful Susie Bean Breitbart, and the four beautiful children that they brought into this world together. No sympathetic words, no heartfelt eulogies are going to make this more bearable for any of them. Yet somehow I hope that the combined energy of the multitude of condolences bring a modicum of strength, and of peace. If not in these immediate days, in the days to come.
I remember the first time I met Andrew, back in his Drudge days. So confident, so determined. Striking to look at, energizing to converse with. We were all little islands in the sea of left that is Los Angeles, yet somehow there was a buoyancy to the mission, an optimism of being on the side of right versus wrong.
And oh how right he made it look, with his accessibility, his straight answers, his refusal to let a lie have the last word.
Breitbart's critics have been the apotheosis of willful blindness and mindless extrapolation. Half of them slammed him for homophobia -- regardless that he had been one of the main champions of GOProud, a homosexual Republican group, being included at 2011's CPAC. The other half slammed him as a "faggot" -- regardless that he was a married father of four. And yet he carried on, undaunted, entering lion's den after lion's den, armed with a sense of righteousness that was unflappable.
I have watched a wave of "I am Spartacus"-like declarations flow through the internet today in vows to carry on and indeed expand the path that Andrew laid down. And it gives me hope. That's what wake-up calls tend to do. When such an inspirational figure that you expected to be around for at least another thirty years is suddenly and stunningly taken, the only acceptable way to react is to pick up and run with the torch before the light even has a chance to dim.
Two years ago Andrew inspired me to begin a film about a wonderful and interesting subject, and then facilitated the introduction and thus the ability to begin it. My heart goes out to that subject, the delightful Brandon Darby, for whom my heart aches today. In Andrew he found a champion, a support and shield, and, perhaps, even a little bit of a father figure. Someone who believed in him... believed in his quest, and in his heart. And Brandon is just one of many for whom Andrew Breitbart was not just a catalyst, but a lifejacket, a cheerleader and a guide.
Rush Limbaugh today in eulogy asked for a thousand more Breitbarts. It would be so nice if that turned out to be an underestimation.
