I agree that Hitchens never “abandoned the Left for conservatism.” Nor did he claim to have done so.

I’m pretty sure, however, that he abandoned Trotskyism proper (although not a continuing admiration of Trotsky) for a more center-left position. He said that he was “no longer a socialist, but still a Marxist” (because he considered a materialist conception of history valid).

He was certainly not a “neoconservative,” like so many Trotskyists (Jean Kirkpatrick, Paul Wolfowitz, et. al) became.

His basis for supporting the War on Terror was not Trotskyist/neoconservative “permanent revolution”  theory of “spreading democracy,” but on “the essential question of defending civilization against its terrorist enemies and their totalitarian protectors.”

Unlike most neoconservatives — and most self-identified American conservatives — he was not only not especially supportive of Israel, but described himself specifically as an “anti-Zionist.”

He endorsed Obama in 2008, calling McCain “senile” and Palin a “pathological liar” and a “national disgrace.”

He was about as far from a social conservative as it was possible to get — not just non-religious but anti-religion, and a personal libertine who dedicated an entire book to slagging Mother Teresa.

I think it would be a mistake to let any particular ideological bloc claim him in death, as he didn’t allow that to happen in life.

He was three things: An American (by choice — he moved here and asked to become a citizen, and explained why in moving terms in Hitch-22); a hell of a writer; and an original in every sense of the word.

Joe,

I agree. I envy Stacy the experience of a drinking night out with Hitchens.

I too disagreed with Hitchens on a lot of things, but he was one of the finest writers, and in particular one of the most effective polemicists, of the late 20th/early 21st century.

Speaking of which, I probably don’t mention often enough that that’s the basis of my admiration for Stacy as well. Even when I find his ideas silly or repugnant, he delivers them skillfully; and has in common with Hitchens a certain gregarious bon vivantism that’s hard not to love.