What a loss for conservatism. The founder of Big Government and Big Journalism websites, Andrew Breitbart’s influence will last far beyond his life as an absolute lion of the conservative cause, someone who was not afraid of liberals, liberalism, and their entrenched syncophants and champions in the mainstream dino-media. Along with the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, and Michelle Malkin, Breitbart never shied away from confrontation and controversy – in fact, he enjoyed seeking out Democrats and liberals on their own turf to call out their unabashed hypocrisy and the double standards they always held Republicans and conservatives to.

It was Breitbart who funded James O’Keefe’s undercover work to expose the widespread corruption in the government-funded ACORN community activist group. It was Breitbart who countered the charges of the liberal media that black Democratic congressmen were called racial epitaphs on the steps of the Capital, offering anyone $100,000 cash for proof (no one ever came forward). And it was Breitbart who not only broke the Anthony Weiner scandal, but audaciously took the podium at Weiner’s own scheduled press conference to defend the charges levied against him by liberal bloggers at to how he broke the story.

How important was Breitbart to the next-generation conservative cause? This from Byron York of WashingtonExaminer.com:

Breitbart knew instinctively, as people in Washington and most other places did not, that movies, television programs, and popular music send out deeply political messages every hour of every day. They shape the culture, and then the culture shapes politics. Influence those films and TV shows and songs, and you’ll eventually influence politics.

The Left had known that for generations, but on the Right, so many people in politics thought only about politics. To Breitbart, that was folly. “The people who have money, every four years at the last possible second, are told, ‘You need to give millions of dollars, because these four counties in Ohio are going to determine the election,’” Breitbart told the National Policy Council in October 2009. “I am saying, why didn’t we invest 20 years ago in a movie studio in Hollywood, why didn’t we invest in creating television shows, why didn’t we create institutions that would reflect and affirm that which is good about America?”

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A lot of young conservatives, born into the web world, considered Breitbart not just a role model, or a mentor, but a hero. He returned the affection. “I have spoken at the Leadership Institute, Young America’s Foundation, and College Republicans,” he said in 2009. “I will go for free wherever the kids will listen to me.”

If Limbaugh brought conservatism to the masses, it was Andrew Breitbart who brought conservative activism into the 21st century, influencing bloggers and young conservative activists in organizing through the new media for years to come. To say Andrew Breitbart was a visionary is to discount the many other ways he hit the reset button on showing others how conservatism’s message could be made mainstream. He died so young, and my thoughts and prayers go out to his wife and four young children, and all those friends and associates shocked and saddened at his untimely passing. May he rest in peace and rise in glory! He will be greatly missed.