Readers of the new memoirs of R. Emmett Tyrrell‚ Jr.‚ our venerable founder of The American Spectator‚ expect a fun‚ witty chronicle of the man and his times. The book offers just that. But it’s also good history. Tyrrell provides not only a history of his life and the magazine he launched in 1967 at Indiana University but a history of the modern conservative movement. Each chapter of Tyrrell’s memoirs testifies to that history‚ but there’s one section of the book that is particularly historically significant and — more so — unknown and unappreciated. As this magazine’s “court historian‚” so dubbed by the noble Tyrrell himself — who also bestowed upon me the glorious American Spectator title “Our Tacitus” — I feel obliged to bring attention to this key item in the memoir. Readers of The American Spectator need to know about it‚ as do Reagan conservatives and really all conservatives of the modern era. In chapter six‚ Tyrrell relates an intriguing Sept. 22‚ 1982‚ meeting at the Reagan White House‚ with The Great One himself. The purpose was to send Tyrrell upon a sort of conservative great commission. The objective was for The American Spectator’s founder to spearhead nothing less than a full-blown “conservative counterculture.” The choice of Tyrrell for that task was spot on‚ given that he had been doing precisely that since 1967‚ and by 1982‚ was still in his 30s. His magazine was initially titled The Alternative‚ a fitting name‚ as Tyrrell and his band of Bloomington rogues represented a new conservative counterculture among young Americans. Indeed‚ the ’60s counterculture was not‚ as was popularly believed‚ composed of the Woodstock-hippie-doper-SDS-Weathermen-sexual-revolution generation — those (to quote the Beatles) “carrying pictures of Chairman Mao.” Those “flower children” dropped LSD and burned their draft cards and spat on returning Vietnam War vets. Those flag-burning radicals actually represented the dominant campus culture. Rather‚ if you wanted a genuine counterculture‚ it was embodied by the likes of Tyrrell‚ The Alternative‚ and groups like the Intercollegiate Studies Institute and Young Americans for Freedom. (READ MORE: Getting Into How Do We Get Out of Here?) Those who read Tyrrell’s magazine through the late ’60s‚ the ’70s‚ and into the ’80s reveled in the brash‚ witty‚ irreverent‚ and often hilarious cultural alternative it offered. They embraced Tyrrell’s Alternative — which in November 1977 changed its name to The American Spectator — and wanted to be part of it. The “they” included leaders of the conservative movement‚ young and old alike‚ all the way to the level of Ronald Reagan‚ a faithful reader of the magazine. When Reagan became president of the United States in January 1981‚ Tyrrell’s movement suddenly had a significant‚ transformative ally. That brings us to that Sept. 22‚ 1982‚ meeting at the Reagan White House. The conservative president and conservative magazine editor sought to join forces to establish a conservative counterculture‚ one poised to battle what Tyrrell described as the Left’s Kultursmog. That term‚ long familiar to readers here‚ is so associated with Tyrrell that the Urban Dictionary defines it this way: “Kultursmog—A term coined by columnist‚ Bob Tyrrell‚ to describe the cloud of ‘liberal misconceptions and bugaboos’ that ‘pollutes the liberals’ minds and renders them oblivious of any evidence contrary to their gloomy views.’” That smog pervades the larger culture that liberals dominate. In his new memoirs‚ Tyrrell elaborates on the September 1982 meeting. It is a meeting that was news to me‚ and I’ve written more books on Ronald Reagan than anyone. Tyrrell relates that the goal of the meeting was “to create a conservative counterculture—a counterculture to the Kultursmog was what we needed.” The plan of action to formulate the conservative counterculture called for a series of White House lunches‚ proposed by Tyrrell. “Our solution was lunch‚” writes Tyrrell in his memoirs. “Reminding the president that he stayed in touch with conservative economists by holding a series of luncheons with them‚ I suggested a similar series of luncheons with conservative editors to keep the president and the conservative editors au courant with one another and‚ à la FDR and JFK‚ to put the presidential seal on our attempts to create a conservative counterculture.” The first of these conservative confabs hit on Sept. 22‚ 1982‚ when Tyrrell and several other conservative magazine editors lunched in the Cabinet Room with President Reagan. Tyrrell brought along Irving Kristol‚ Midge Decter‚ William Rusher (who represented National Review)‚ and Frank Shakespeare (a broadcaster‚ and later Reagan’s ambassador to the Vatican). Tyrrell was the young conservative maverick among them. Tyrrell went into the meeting with high hopes‚ but that changed when he was “somewhat startled by the retinue that accompanied [Reagan].” Accompanying Reagan was the regrettable troika of mischief makers: Chief of Staff James Baker; Deputy Chief of Staff Mike Deaver; and David Gergen‚ White House director of communications and planning. Fortunately‚ also attending to keep an eye on the Baker cabal were two true Reaganites: National Security Adviser Bill Clark and Chief Counsel to the President Ed Meese. (RELATED: The Happy and Thoughtful Memoirs of R. Emmett Tyrrell‚ Jr.) It was midday‚ and Reagan affably looked to Tyrrell and said something to the effect of: “Okay‚ Bob. Go ahead. This is your show‚ after all.” Tyrrell made his case for a plan of action for the conservative counterculture‚ to which Reagan responded very favorably‚ as did Bill Clark‚ who was always a rock of reliability. The meeting went well. Reagan delegated the follow-up to his assistants‚ chiefly David Gergen‚ who‚ Tyrrell discerned‚ “had no appetite for a conservative counterculture.” Said Tyrrell of Baker‚ Deaver‚ and Gergen: “All my talk of ‘ideas‚’ and ‘culture‚’ were only seen by them as menacing. Dave [Gergen] told me that he would enlist the overworked but ‘friendly’—that is to say‚ conservative—Ed Meese to schedule further meetings. Alas‚ our project was about to become lost in Ed’s congested attaché case.” How lost? Tyrrell regretted‚ “Our group never met in the White House again.” Never again. It was one and done. That quick death was likely the doing of the Bakerites‚ the mischief makers. Those Reagan “pragmatists” were themselves part of the Washington Kultursmog. They breathed it‚ exhaled it‚ fanned it. The likes of Bill Clark and Ed Meese eschewed the smog. Clark‚ in fact‚ couldn’t wait to get out of Washington and back to the unpolluted air of his central California ranch. “When I made my case for a counterculture in 1982‚” wrote Tyrrell four decades later‚ “only the president and his national security advisor‚ Bill Clark‚ favored it. The fumes of the Kultursmog had made their way into the White House long before I arrived.” Alas‚ so ended any hopes of a coordinated effort by the Reagan White House and The American Spectator to promote a conservative counterculture. Tyrrell regrets that there was a real failure here by Reagan and the conservative movement to reshape American culture. But all was not lost. To that end‚ here is my own historical interpretation. The counterculture task was left to Tyrrell and The American Spectator‚ which far outlived the two-term limit (1981–89) of President Reagan. The charge continued in the pages of Tyrrell’s publication‚ quite riotously in the raucous 1990s Clinton decade that followed‚ when Tyrrell and friends exposed Boy Clinton exposing himself. The magazine’s circulation soared to 350‚000. No other conservative magazine ever‚ including National Review‚ had that kind of run. Looking back‚ Bob Tyrrell today laments that he had failed to create a long-term conservative counterculture. He has several times shared that regret with me. But I think it would be terribly unfair to lay such an alleged failure at the feet of Tyrrell. The American Spectator certainly did what it could. By the 21st century especially‚ the youth culture changed dramatically; I believe irrevocably. The lunatic LGBTQ Left has transformed everything from bathrooms to boardrooms. Today’s youth culture is barking mad. How do you have rational dialogue with guys with penises who think they’re girls‚ or with woke moms who tote their toddlers to drag queen story hour? That culture is toast. But even then‚ much credit is due to Tyrrell and this publication‚ even as Tyrrell humbly shies from it in his memoirs. Here’s the reality regarding that conservative counterculture: In its own era and space‚ The American Spectator drew a huge mass of young people to the conservative movement‚ with or without the direct coordination or involvement of the Reagan White House. I can attest that it was Tyrrell and The American Spectator — along with Ronald Reagan — that brought me and young people I knew in the late 1980s to the conservative movement. As the conservative editorial page editor of my daily campus newspaper‚ the Pitt News‚ I had a bunch of fellow likeminded writers who were attracted to the movement started by The American Spectator. We relished the writings of R. Emmett Tyrrell‚ Jr.‚ who was a hip conservative. In the 1980s‚ it was cool to be conservative. A symbol of that was “Alex P. Keaton” of the hit TV sitcom Family Ties. Played by Michael J. Fox‚ Alex was a wise-cracking‚ precocious‚ confident conservative who busted on his two ex-hippie parents who served as constant ripe targets for his delicious digs at liberals. In an insightful observation‚ Reagan biographer Steve Hayward notes that the 1980s Family Ties’ Alex Keaton replaced the 1970s All in the Family’s Mike Stivic (“Meathead”) as the pop-culture representative of the current generation; that is‚ a Reagan Republican generation. It was cool to be a young conservative in the ’80s. The very life and vitality of The American Spectator during this period was testimony to that. The magazine plainly thrived among young conservatives‚ whether with the writing of the likes of Tyrrell or Andrew Ferguson or the uproarious P.J. O’Rourke‚ a National Lampoon–Rolling Stone sort of rebel conservative. The magazine was attracting brash young writers like Malcolm Gladwell‚ Mark Lilla‚ Fred Barnes‚ Tom Bethell‚ Bill McGurn‚ Dinesh D’Souza‚ John Podhoretz‚ and Greg Gutfeld‚ to name merely a handful. Mark Lilla‚ who today is an influential Ivy League academic (and‚ like Gladwell‚ I believe no longer identifies as a conservative)‚ recalled happening upon a copy of Tyrrell’s magazine in his college lounge‚ whereupon: “I laughed. I laughed some more. I couldn’t stop laughing‚ and was asked to leave.” Dan Flynn‚ one of our star writers‚ told me he had the same experience in his college library. Many of us did. For many‚ Tyrrell’s magazine was the gateway into the movement. It was also our gateway to Reagan Republicanism rather than Rockefeller Republicanism. Young Democrats had Jimmy Carter‚ who was not only a failure as a president but a geek and a square. They had Alexander Cockburn and the Nation. We had Reagan and Tyrrell and The American Spectator. This was captured well by a good friend of Tyrrell and The American Spectator‚ New York Democratic Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan: “I’ll tell you what chills the blood of liberals‚” said Moynihan. “It was always thought that the old bastards were the conservatives. Now the young people are becoming the conservatives and we’re the old bastards.” Indeed. The Nation’s Alexander Cockburn was an old bastard. An old commie bastard. Incidentally‚ he was also a favorite target of P.J. O’Rourke in the pages of The American Spectator. When P.J. hilariously called for a “New McCarthyism” in the July 1989 issue‚ he listed Cockburn among those deserving of being chased down with torches. Who couldn’t help but laugh at that — and cheer? Got a match? Sign me up! Today‚ Bob Tyrrell feels that he and Ronald Reagan failed to generate that conservative counterculture. I disagree. I think they succeeded‚ mightily. But like any movement‚ it wasn’t permanent. Each subsequent generation must fight anew. To the extent that the conservative counterculture wasn’t sustained is not the fault of Reagan or Tyrrell or this magazine. Those young conservatives who today want to create a conservative counterculture must pick up Tyrrell’s torch. It’s your turn. Order your copy of How Do We Get Out of Here? today! The post <;i>;The American Spectator<;/i>;’s Conservative Counterculture appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.