R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr.

R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. is the founder and editor in chief of The American Spectator and a New York Times best-selling author. He makes frequent appearances on national television and is a nationally syndicated columnist, whose articles have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Baltimore Sun, The Washington Times, National Review, Harper's, Commentary, The (London) Spectator, Le Figaro (Paris) and elsewhere.

Articles by R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr.

TYRRELL: Is it 2016 yet?

It has happened again. Our gaffe-prone president has filed another blunder on his presidential record. At the dedication of George W. Bush's presidential library, he invoked history with his usual mastery of detail. He placed President John F. Kennedy in Air Force One, "on the flight back from Russia, after negotiating with Nikita Khrushchev at the height of the Cold War."

May 2, 2013

TYRRELL: It depends on who’s angry

A derogatory term in American politics has come to my attention. It is the "angry white male." I am apparently a member of this lowdown grouping of Americanos. According to Wikipedia, "the free encyclopedia," the term delineates a male who is "characterized by opposition to racial quotas, political correctness, affirmative action, anti-discrimination policies, and other liberal policies."

April 25, 2013

TYRRELL: Fanaticism and violence on the left

When asked on left-leaning MSNBC why President Obama refrained from describing the Boston bombings as a "terrorist attack," David Axelrod, Mr. Obama's longtime political adviser, readily saw a political opportunity. The blood had not been washed away from the streets. We had yet to count the casualties.

April 18, 2013

TYRRELL: Reflections on the Iron Lady

On the occasion of Margaret Thatcher’s death, there is widespread admiration and even applause for her premiership, but surely there ought to be gratitude, too. After all, without her — and without President Reagan — the poor would be much poorer and without hope of bettering themselves.

April 11, 2013

TYRRELL: Deterring gun violence, the NRA way

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York City ought to know by now that gun owners do not trust him. The more he agitates against guns, the more they dig in their heels. The more magnificoes he gets behind his Mayors Against Illegal Guns, the more gun owners and advocates of the Second Amendment see him as their enemy.

April 4, 2013

TYRRELL: The left’s crocodile tears for the right

The American left cares so much for humanity that it even expends copious draughts of compassion toward us, toward you and me, toward suave, degage conservatives. The left's members really fret over how elements of the "extreme right" are undermining the Republican Party, consigning it to oblivion.

March 28, 2013

TYRRELL: Bloomberg’s search for a legacy

New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg apparently whiles away his last hours in the mayor's palace daydreaming. He has been mayor for almost three terms and though his mayorship may not have been as heroic or even as effective as that of predecessor Rudy Giuliani, it has, at least, kept the city up to Giuliani's standards of cleanliness, law and order, and an approximation of a sense of financial rectitude.

March 21, 2013

TYRRELL: Rand Paul comes of age

When Sen. Rand Paul took to the floor of the United States Senate the morning of March 6, he really -- as they say -- may have made a difference. It is a difference in our awareness of the issues facing the country. It is a difference in our perception of the man who is leading the country, President Obama.

March 14, 2013

TYRRELL: A lie by any other name

I do not know about you, but to me this sequestration imbroglio is getting interesting. Last week I wrote of my surprise that a basic untruth was being repeated over and over again by the White House, to wit, that the Republicans were responsible for the monstrosity of sequestration.

March 7, 2013

TYRRELL: Sequestration’s birth certificate

I have long contended that public policy issues are as complicated as they appear because the giants of Capitol Hill like it that way, particularly the giants of the left. Bills can be written more simply. Decisions can be phrased with a certain lucidity.

February 28, 2013

TYRRELL: Why ‘Silent Cal’ was such a successful president

I am indebted to Amity Shlaes for gently correcting a joke of mine that dates back to July 8, 1972. On that day in the New York Times, I joshed that President Calvin Coolidge "probably spent more time napping than any President in the nation's history" and therefore was a successful president.

February 21, 2013

TYRRELL: A misapplied conservative label

It has happened again. Sam Tanenhaus, the editor of The New York Times Book Review, referred to by Paul Krugman the other day as "a longtime conservative," has essayed in the New Republic the modern conservative movement and traced us all back to John C. Calhoun.

February 14, 2013