Kapitel 4
Understanding the Ideological Roots
After witnessing the Democrat-Media Complex in action during the Clinton years, Breitbart needed to understand its origins. Despite the Soviet Union's fall in 1989 seeming to mark the defeat of global Marxism, he discovered the same cultural forces he'd seen at Tulane - thought police and ideological conformity - were pervasive throughout media, Hollywood, education, and government. This wasn't just a spontaneous embrace of counterculture in the 1960s; it had deeper intellectual roots.
Breitbart contrasts the Founders' realistic view of human nature with the utopian visions that followed. The Founders understood people aren't infinitely changeable and require moral education. Madison noted men weren't angels, requiring a system pitting ambition against ambition. The Constitution embodied their view: human nature varies and needs virtue training; government power must be limited; and individual freedom within moral boundaries is the highest good.
This American understanding faced opposition from Rousseau and later Marx, who believed people were naturally good but corrupted by society. Marx didn't believe in fixed human nature - he thought it was produced by society and could be changed by destroying that society. Hegel's "dialectic theory" supported Marx's utopianism, suggesting conflicts between opposing forces would produce better outcomes. Despite seeming like abstract philosophy, influential Americans embraced these ideas through Progressivism - what Breitbart calls "a soft Marxism" championed by figures like Teddy Roosevelt, who characterized American self-reliance as selfishness and promoted collectivism instead.
After World War I exposed Marx's failed predictions, European intellectuals reimagined Marxism as a tool for cultural transformation. The Frankfurt School thinkers spread their influence through art, attacking cultural norms so thoroughly that "many adults never experienced art celebrating beauty or transcendence." Herbert Marcuse, whom Breitbart calls the founder of the "New Left," became the Frankfurt School's most effective marketer. His 1955 book "Eros and Civilization" promoted sexual liberation as society's cure, advocating "polymorphous perversity." His timing was perfect - the Greatest Generation had raised privileged children ready to embrace sexual revolution.
Marcuse cleverly reframed traditional values as repressive while selling promiscuity as revolutionary. He also developed "critical theory" targeting racial, ethnic and sexual groups as the new revolutionary force, since American workers wouldn't unite against capitalism. When Americans still preferred liberty to Marxist equality, Marcuse introduced "repressive tolerance" - the idea that true tolerance required suppressing dominant viewpoints while promoting marginalized ones.
While Marxism stealthily took root in America through universities, government and media, most Americans couldn't decipher the academics' complex rhetoric. The missing link in understanding how Frankfurt School philosophy became mass movement was Saul Alinsky. "If Marcuse was the New Left's Jesus, Alinsky was its Saint Paul," Breitbart writes - simplifying the message and making it practical. His "Rules for Radicals" might well be titled "How to Take Over America from the Inside."
Unlike New Left leaders who attacked the system from outside, Alinsky brilliantly posed as an insider. He strategically adopted American constitutional language, referenced the Founding Fathers, and even posed as conservative when useful. His dedication page cited Rabbi Hillel, Thomas Paine, and Lucifer - "the first radical." As a pragmatic tactician, Alinsky scorned impractical radicals who "panic and run" or go "hippie or yippie." He understood that America's openness provided the opportunity to transform it from within, requiring activists to "communicate in the language of the people" rather than scorn them.
Alinsky's tactics included making people unhappy with the status quo to create revolution through incrementalism. His famous rules included using deception, ridicule, and personalization to destroy enemies. His genius lay in understanding that humor - even crude humor - was more effective than academic theory for reaching ordinary people. What made Alinsky truly dangerous was his ability to bring Marcuse's ideas to the common man by disguising them as purely American values.
Kapitel 5
Taking Down ACORN
In June 2009, Breitbart met James O'Keefe, a young filmmaker who had conducted an audacious undercover investigation of ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now). When O'Keefe showed Breitbart videos of himself posing as a pimp with Hannah Giles as his prostitute seeking ACORN's help to establish a brothel with underage girls from El Salvador, Breitbart was stunned by the organization's willingness to assist.
O'Keefe told Breitbart, "We're going to take down ACORN." Breitbart replied, "No, we're going to take down the media." This became the dual focus of what would become a landmark case of citizen journalism bypassing traditional media gatekeepers.
The timing was perfect - Breitbart was about to launch BigGovernment.com, and this explosive story could serve as its inaugural feature. Though he couldn't pay O'Keefe for the videos, Breitbart recognized their potential impact. "If you'd done this against the NRA or Blackwater," he told O'Keefe, "George Soros would have paid $5 million and it would premiere in Westwood, Hollywood, and Cannes."
What made the footage so shocking was the nature of the proposition - underage Salvadoran sex slaves - and ACORN employees' willingness to help. "These weren't just helpful ACORN employees," Breitbart writes, "they were skilled 'social justice' operatives with specialized training who were using their abilities to undermine society."
Breitbart devised a strategic rollout plan targeting both ACORN and the media that would predictably ignore the story. He would release the videos serially, starting with Baltimore and Washington DC locations, allowing ACORN to float their inevitable "few bad apples" defense before revealing the problem was nationwide. He approached ABC News first, who admitted they wouldn't run it because it was "too political." Fox News agreed to air the story after their legal team thoroughly vetted the material.
The first video dropped on September 10, 2009, showing ACORN's Baltimore office. ACORN spokesman Scott Levenson immediately claimed "the portrayal is false.... This film crew tried to pull this sham at other offices and failed." This played perfectly into Breitbart's hands, as the next day's Washington DC video would prove they were either lying or misinformed. After ACORN fired employees from both offices, Breitbart knew they had tacitly admitted the wrongdoing captured on video.
The story exploded across alternative media. While flying to a 9/12 Tea Party in Quincy, Illinois, Breitbart learned the Census Bureau had severed ties with ACORN - a major victory. At the Tea Party rally, at least a third of the signs targeted ACORN, showing how quickly the story had resonated with grassroots conservatives.
For the next phase, Breitbart arranged a print exclusive with the New York Post featuring the New York and California ACORN videos. For two days, Hannah and James were plastered on the Post's front page, disproving every ACORN defense. "The story became unavoidable even to Manhattan media elites like Sulzberger, Klein and Couric," Breitbart notes.
The two-week rollout was a sleep-deprived blur of travel, calls, emails, and threats. Congress voted overwhelmingly to defund ACORN - 345-75 in the House and 85-11 in the Senate. When Jon Stewart covered the story on The Daily Show, Breitbart knew ACORN had lost the narrative completely.
Throughout the rollout, Breitbart deliberately withheld information from reporters he knew were conduits to the Obama administration. When Washington Post reporter Carol Leonnig asked how many videos he had, he told her he was "screwing with you." He summed up the scandal by telling her: "When I saw the first one, I thought it was an anomaly. When I saw the second one, I thought it was a coincidence. When I saw the third one, I knew it was a trend. When I saw these videos, I couldn't help thinking, 'This is the Abu Ghraib of the Great Society.'"
By February 2010, ACORN had "dissolved as a national structure," and by March 2010, Reuters reported they would formally disband due to financial problems. Breitbart had demonstrated that citizen journalists could take down a powerful organization protected by the political and media establishment.
Kapitel 6
Defending the Tea Party
On April 15, 2009, Breitbart attended his first Tea Party rally in Santa Ana, California. He found "hundreds of the nicest, most pro-America people imaginable - blacks, whites, Hispanics, even a patriotically-dressed labradoodle." While most attendees discussed limited government, lower taxes, and reduced spending, Breitbart focused on warning them about what was coming: they would soon be labeled as racists, hatemongers, and violent criminals by the Obama administration and media.
His prediction proved accurate. After the ACORN scandal, the attacks on the Tea Party intensified. CNN's Anderson Cooper, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow labeled Tea Partiers "tea baggers" and compared them to racists from Birth of a Nation. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin adopted the derogatory term, while House Speaker Nancy Pelosi claimed protesters carried "swastikas and symbols like that." Janeane Garofalo called them "racist rednecks who hate blacks," and economist Paul Krugman wrote they were driven by "cultural and racial fear."
Breitbart became the movement's self-appointed media protector, warning them at every opportunity: "This is the media, and this is what they're going to do to you. You're focusing on what the country needs, but you need to focus on the key to the whole ball game - the media."
When Congressional Black Caucus members claimed racial slurs were used at a March 20 rally, Breitbart publicly offered $10,000 to anyone with evidence. Despite calls to Rep. John Lewis going unreturned, he raised the offer to $100,000. Four videos from different angles showed Representatives Carson and Lewis walking unobstructed with no slurs. "The media refused to acknowledge this proof," Breitbart writes, "demonstrating they are the real problem."
The Democrats' strategy became clear at the Searchlight, Nevada Tea Party rally in Harry Reid's hometown. Reid supporters deliberately misdirected traffic, threw eggs at Tea Party Express buses, and when confronted, created a human wall to hide the perpetrators from cameras. They even called the police on Breitbart, falsely claiming he threw eggs. Fortunately, video evidence exposed the truth, showing Brian DiMarzio, field director for the Nevada Democratic Party, as one of the main culprits.
"This is their playbook," Breitbart explains - "marginalize and demonize opponents, with Bill Clinton comparing Tea Party rhetoric to Timothy McVeigh's, while Obama dismissively laughs them off." But it wouldn't work. The American people saw through these tactics. The Tea Party movement, with its Constitution-mindedness and revolutionary spirit, had become what Breitbart called "the defender of America as the last outpost for freedom."
Kapitel 7
Rules for Conservative Activists
Breitbart's transformation from "empty-headed, pop-culture-infused, talking-points-parroting liberal" to New Media warrior taught him essential rules for fighting the left, which he shares as a tactical guide for others.
Rule #1: Don't be afraid to go into enemy territory. This principle, often ignored by the Republican Party and conservative establishment, is crucial. "They believe we should avoid hostile audiences like Maher's show," Breitbart writes, "which reflects the same mentality that surrendered Hollywood, academia, and mainstream media to the left."
The right's strategy of retreating to talk radio, Fox News, and independent websites is disastrous because these outlets are "exponentially outnumbered and outgunned by the Complex." When the left attacks these conservative platforms as "Faux News" and "hate radio," it works with apolitical voters who never directly consume this content.
"We can't win the political war until we win the cultural war," Breitbart insists. By ignoring mainstream entertainment shows like The View, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and David Letterman, conservatives allow them to distort the movement while elevating themselves. Young people consume pop culture, and conservatives lose by default when they refuse to fight for their attention.
Rule #2: Expose the left for who they are-in their own words. Citizen journalists are crucial here. From Dan Rather's downfall to exposing John Kerry's war record to debunking Reuters's photography fraud, citizen journalists have become a powerful force. "The key is making news by breaking news using MP3 recorders, phone cameras, and the blogosphere," Breitbart explains. Video journalism is particularly potent in our visual age.
Rule #3: Be open about your secrets. Take a page from Obama who revealed his past drug use in his autobiography. The left never gets cited for hypocrisy, but the right does because conservatives have standards. "I've admitted my libertine sensibilities from college," Breitbart notes. "George W. Bush did the same: 'When I was young and stupid, I was young and stupid.'" Embracing your mistakes makes you invulnerable to their attacks.
Rule #4: Don't let the Complex use its PC lexicon to characterize you. When they call you racist, sexist, homophobic, or jingoistic, don't back down. "Their bullets aren't real," Breitbart insists. When Max Blumenthal tried labeling him racist, Breitbart didn't defend himself with his civil rights record or mention his black friends. He simply pointed out the Alinsky tactics and showed righteous indignation.
Rule #5: Control your own story through serialization. Glenn Beck took down Van Jones piece by piece. Arianna used this strategy during the Larry Lawrence scandal, as did Drudge with Lewinsky. "Feed the media like training a dog-little bits at a time until they learn the lesson," Breitbart advises.
Rule #6: Ubiquity is key. When mainstream media works against you, develop relationships with like-minded allies and even enemies. "The ACORN story succeeded because I planted scoops with my 'competitors' and watched the story explode," Breitbart explains. The scarcity mentality in DC strangles the conservative movement. Ubiquity grows the pie for everyone.
Rule #7: Engage in the social arena. Social networks can give ideas legs. The Tea Parties used social media brilliantly-there are no leaders, just people gathering around shared values. In Hollywood especially, socializing is the basis of business.
Rule #8: Don't pretend to know more than you do. Not everyone can be Charles Krauthammer or Michael Barone. When unsure, play Socrates by asking pointed questions rather than citing uncertain facts. Breitbart learned this after embarrassing himself discussing John Roberts' Supreme Court nomination on CNN with only Wikipedia knowledge. "Don't bring a knife to a gunfight," he warns.
Rule #9: Don't let them pretend to know more than they do. The left often poses as experts, but you can deflate their pretensions with one word: why. "Ask for evidence supporting their assertions and the sources behind that evidence," Breitbart suggests. "Attack the fundamental basis of their arguments. When they claim healthcare is a right, ask why." Liberals operate on emotion, not reason. Force them to play on reason's field where they're weakest.
Rule #10: Ridicule is man's most potent weapon. Alinsky was right about this. Tina Fey damaged Sarah Palin more than mainstream media. Chevy Chase brought down Gerald Ford. Jon Stewart undermined Bush. "To bring down Obama, we need to get unserious," Breitbart argues. "Stuffy old white guys wearing bow ties and talking about national deficits don't get much done" - conservatives need talented people who translate political chaos into effective humor.
Kapitel 8
The Weinergate Scandal and Legacy
On May 27, 2011, as Breitbart's book tour for Righteous Indignation was in full swing, he discovered a retweet showing what appeared to be Congressman Anthony Weiner's inappropriate photo sent to a woman in Seattle. After confirming the tweet had indeed come from Weiner's official account, Breitbart knew he had a legitimate story. When Weiner tweeted "TiVo shot. FB hacked. Is my blender gonna attack me next?" - claiming he'd been hacked - the story took off.
The mainstream media initially tried to ignore the story, with Daily Kos declaring "Breitbart to use SEX SMEAR on Rep. Anthony Weiner" without investigating the facts. But the evidence mounted when Texas resident Megan Broussard came forward with damning evidence of inappropriate communications with Weiner, including photos he had sent her.
Rather than drip-feeding information as with ACORN, Breitbart developed a strategy to release Broussard's photos in escalating order of inappropriateness throughout a single morning. He arranged for Broussard to do exclusive interviews with ABC News' Chris Cuomo and Fox News' Sean Hannity, which would give her story maximum credibility while limiting her media exposure.
When Weiner called an emergency press conference at the Sheraton hotel, Breitbart went there intending only to observe. After plugging in his dying BlackBerry in the back corner, he was suddenly surrounded by reporters asking questions. With his voice nearly gone from a throat cough, the press urged him to use the podium microphone. He reluctantly took the stage, answering hostile questions for thirteen minutes, not realizing this was being broadcast live on television.
When Weiner finally appeared fifteen minutes late, he took full responsibility for his actions, confirming Breitbart's reporting was accurate all along. Despite Weiner's attempts to destroy his reputation, Breitbart felt momentary sympathy watching him break down. Three weeks into the scandal, with no allies remaining and under intense pressure from his own party, Weiner finally resigned.
Breitbart's vindication was short-lived when he made a critical error in judgment by showing the infamous photo to radio hosts who promised not to reproduce it - a promise they broke. This mistake threatened to undermine his credibility just as he had achieved mainstream recognition.
Looking ahead, Breitbart remained committed to his mission of transforming media. "The 2010 election was less about November 2 than about November 3 and beyond," he writes. "For me, 2011 would be about recommitting to leveling the media playing field - holding accountable not just politicians but the mainstream media itself."
Breitbart acknowledged the personal costs of his crusade. His wife had married an "almost inappropriately always-lighthearted guy" fourteen years earlier, but now woke up next to "a firebrand who is one of the most polarizing figures in the country." Yet he had also discovered an America silenced by media that was now awakening. "These are years we'll look back on and question whether we did enough for our country and children," he reflects. "That's why I'm determined, angry, and righteously indignant."
Breitbart's legacy extends far beyond the specific stories he broke. He created a template for conservative media activism that continues to shape American politics today. By understanding the cultural and intellectual roots of progressive media dominance, developing effective countermeasures, and training a generation of citizen journalists, he fundamentally altered the media landscape. His final words in the book - "Excuse me while I save the world" - reflect both his characteristic humor and the earnestness with which he approached his mission to transform American media and politics.
