Introduction/A Letter to the President
Tyrrell, R. Emmett Jr.
Reagan II: Appraisal & Prognosis INTRODUCTION A LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT Dear Mr. President, Where's the Rest of Me? is an intriguing title for an autobiography, but it will make an even better...
...It is as though Einstein were to explain quantum theory as the will of leprechauns...
...Significant numbers of thoughtful Liberals had for years been wandering from the Word, and America was clearly ready to move on to a new political culture, one more moderate, more concerned with liberty, reason, and the pursuit of excellence...
...Only the Keepers of a decaying orthodoxy would ever have believed the earlier fable...
...Bring in those old Liberals and old Conservatives who now in the face of our radicalized Liberalism have so much in common...
...You more than most American pols have dealt with ideas...
...The rising political culture will surely be as effective...
...After decades of bawling magniloquently about the critical importance of leadership, about the mastery of FDR, about the galvanic charisma of JFK, when asked to explain your career of-shall we say- "sailing against the wind," its triumphs, its moments of heroism, of high good humor, of drama, of-and here is the word that so often sozzles them-change, the keepers can speak only of chance, Fortune, accidents...
...That is the kind of thing the intelligentsia can achieve...
...something is missing...
...is an intriguing title for an autobiography, but it will make an even better title for your political memoirs...
...In a modern world where politics is peculiarly caught up with ideas, the prudent statesman knows the value of ideas and consorts with those who manage ideas...
...Bring in members of the New Right, the Religious Right, Libertarians, and populists...
...Well, according to the Keepers of American Orthodoxy there simply is not a lot more...
...Imagine, your successes are to be explained by far-off stars banging into each other, by a drop in the barometer and the cow jumps over the moon...
...You have similar groups advising you on other matters...
...Its chief proponents and its chief ideas had been discredited by events...
...You have a board of informal economic advisers...
...One of the developments I perceive is that all the aforementioned groups share a vast commonality...
...As long as it remains unchallenged it will make the politics of the Reagan Administration difficult...
...Its writers and intellectuals are very talented, and owing to the greater opposition they have had to overcome they are considerably tougher...
...Cowboy boots, California sun, conservative principles, and a winning smile-to hear the pundits on either side of the Atlantic tell it, those are the constituent elements of your two gubernatorial campaigns, four presidential campaigns (two fruitless, two stupendously successful), eight years as governor of California, five years in the political wilderness, and what the pundits call the Reagan Revolution...
...This new culture needs a boost, and if the Reagan Revolution is to endure that boost will have to come from you...
...The new political culture, a political culture eminently compatible with the policies of the Reagan Revolution, has been very successfully resisted by the old orthodoxy...
...All this you achieved in the last third of your life, yet the pundits see only banalities...
...In pursuit of their delusions the Keepers will inevitably believe in the palpably absurd...
...Let them speak portentously of the colossal narcotic effect of that . smile of yours...
...They know it has failed, but they do not want to be driven from their pulpits, and so they hang on desperately, intoning their pious piffles, and diverting their followers from the new political culture that might release us all of the grim obsessions that the Liberals bring down on us...
...Moreover, their commentaries will illuminate the rest of you for years to come...
...All have accommodated themselves surprisingly well to one another's quirks, for they seem to sense that the country-is threatened by a critical loss of freedom and security if the old political culture, now so decadent and idiotic, is not radically reformed or overthrown...
...The Liberal dominance of culture here is far more pervasive than in such countries as England and France...
...Unlike the Keepers of the Old Orthodoxy they understand why things are changing in the land...
...Recall if you will how in the 1950s they believed that Dwight Eisenhower, formerly the supreme commander of history's most powerful army, was, as President, merely the dumb tool of sharp pols...
...Of this the Keepers are vaguely aware, but how do they account for it...
...By the time you entered the White House the orthodoxy had practically blown up...
...Affairs of a literary and patriotic nature have forced me to travel extensively this year...
...A new political culture was indeed there, but only the audacious have participated in it...
...It is time you attended to the business of cultural politics...
...They need your support and you need them...
...With anxious eyes darting furtively toward the ceiling they speak of accidents (the oil glut...
...Their values are no longer quite so robust as were their fallen leader's, but they endure and they have transformed into legend a very mediocre presidency...
...incredibly good weather, Paul Volcker, your overwhelming smile, sheer luck...
...Why not establish a group with which you could consult on a somewhat regular basis about developments in the political culture...
...I suggest you bring the intelligentsia of this new political culture together...
...Now the historians are discovering the decisive role he played in his administration...
...There you have it...
...Your friends are up against an orthodoxy that has almost total control of the redoubts of culture and intellectual influence...
...Where's the rest of you...
...Of course adherents to the old orthodoxy no longer really believe in it...
...Let the Keepers remain secure in their touching,belief in accidents and good luck...
...Yours faithfully, R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.tt Tyrrell, Jr...
...Read for yourself the news stories of the past four years or turn to the scanty number of books and articles about you...
...The political culture of Liberalism was demoralized...
...At the outset of the 1960s JFK encouraged writers and intellectuals who to this day serve as heralds of the New Frontier...
...Let me make a suggestion...
...Since 1968, when I decided that you were the most likely candidate to reverse the steady politicization of areas theretofore off-limits to American politics, there has been something missing in the coverage of you...
...Vast changes are transforming the American economy, society, and government...
...I for one believe that once again the current wisdom is a dunce...
Vol. 18 • February 1985 • No. 2
