New Management

Steve Clemons reports that Ron Unz is going to be taking over as publisher of The American Conservative which seems like basically excellent news to me. Scott McConnell will continue as editor. I have, obviously, any number of disagreements with the general editorial line over there, but it would be a healthy thing for there to be stronger voices arguing for a vision of conservatism that amounts to something other than relentless cheerleading for the GOP leadership and perpetual war.

3/20/07 11:07AM del.icio.us this incoming links

Comments

I caught a bit of CNN (or was it CBS?) last night and they interviewed several recently retired, high ranking military officers. The all had first hand experience with both Iraq wars. To a man they confidently predicted a U.S. military presence in Iraq for 25 years to several decades in length. None saw a drawdown below 20,000 troops basically ever. Most saw 50>70,000 stationed there at least for 5 years but more likely 10 years. Pretty close to perpetual I'd say. No cheerleading needed, we're getting it whether we wave those pom-poms or not.

Posted by: steve duncan on March 20, 2007 11:34 AM

I also read TAC and find the editorial direction far more consistent than most conservative publications. They remind me of my old Senator, Jesse Helms, who could be as hard on Republicans as Democrats if they didn't toe his line. A pretty frightening and often dispicable line but one he adhered to. My favorite was after Bush I named Quayle as VP and Helms reaffirmed his belief that people who avoided Vietnam by pulling strings to get into the National Guard were draft dodgers while his fellow travelers were backtracking as fast as possible. I hope this change does not mean TAC will become Republican cheerleaders.

Posted by: Th on March 20, 2007 11:45 AM

One of the more disappointing elements of the political arguments to arise over the Bush years was the total abdication of the conservative intelligensia of their prior, non-partisan role. Bill Buckley was a conservative, not a Republican. Up until the second term of Reagan's administration, conservative organs felt free to criticize Republican leadership. I may not have agreed with much of it, but at least it was honest.

The cheerleading that the Weekly Standard, the American Spectator and the National Review have inflicted on us over the past several years was anything but honest. It was "root for Bush, he's our team!" The American Conservative, at least, is not full of crap. Well, at least in that way. It's wrong on most of everything, but at least it is, well, bullshit that has an honest predicate to it.

Posted by: IP Guy on March 20, 2007 11:46 AM

I have a subscription to the American Conservative and think it's an excellent publication. Their coverage of trade policy is far better than most "conservative" magazines.

Posted by: Steven Capozzola on March 20, 2007 12:44 PM

Unz is an interesting character. He was a driving force behind trying to eliminate the current ESL system - he sponsored, for instance, the 2002 MA ballot initiative for English-only education, and was behind similar efforts in California and Colorado.

When I was a reporter in the north Boston suburbs, I was covering this issue and called the 800 number listed on the ballot measure's website to try and get a press contact. It turned out that the number actually went straight to Ron Unz, who was nice enough to give me a local name. So not only is he a slightly eccentric right-wing millionaire on a crusade to fight the pernicious effects of multiculturalism, but he also answers his own 800 number.

Posted by: Seth D on March 20, 2007 01:35 PM

"I hope this change does not mean TAC will become Republican cheerleaders."

Oh, I don't think you have to worry about _that_.

Posted by: gcochran on March 20, 2007 01:38 PM

McConnell is the problem there. He's a musty old worm, obtuse in a way that only old eunuchs are.

Posted by: Trevor on March 20, 2007 02:30 PM

McConnell is the problem there. He's a musty old worm, obtuse in a way that only old eunuchs are.

obtuse enough to support john kerry and obvious back dean during the democratic primaries? you know frank foer talking about TNR and 'never getting a pulse on us'? sure as hell is true for TAC.

Posted by: razib on March 20, 2007 02:33 PM

According to his own bio, McConnell is affiliated with the paleo-conservative antiwar.com site. If that's being a Bush cheerleader for "perpetual war", I'd like more of it.

Posted by: Potato Head on March 20, 2007 02:57 PM

He's even more "interesting" than that. Unz is a vocal supporter of generous immigration levels, and, AFAIK, has been sympathetic to efforts aimed at regularizing the status of the country's 12 million illegal aliens. He sees assimilation as the key to making our current immigration levels work for America, and views pushing for explicitly assimilationist policies as a far superior strategy -- both from a practical and moral perspective -- to closing the country's borders to newcomers. In some respects he's the anti-Tancredo. I find his philosophy has much to recommend it.

Posted by: Jasper on March 20, 2007 07:35 PM

TAC can be interesting and relatively honest (relative to Bush-Rove-Cheney; AEI/Heritage; etc.; which is not saying much).

But I have trouble with thier connection to some outright racists such as Buchanan (yes, he is).

I wonder how "interesting" TAC will be once we past the Iraq war and the fantacist NeoCons? Or will they just be turn out to be the mix of John Birchers and upper-class twitty Anglophiles, who happened to be right about Iraq though perhaps not for the right reasons, that they were before Iraq?

Posted by: DrSteveB on March 21, 2007 03:31 PM

Some on the Old Right, though, are worried about Unz

http://conservativetimes.org/?p=352

Posted by: Real Conservative on April 17, 2007 03:48 PM

Thank you

Posted by: epilasyon on October 6, 2007 08:05 PM

Thank

Posted by: lazer epilasyon on October 6, 2007 08:06 PM

Tbak you

Posted by: sohbet on October 6, 2007 08:06 PM

Thank yotu

Posted by: sohbet on October 6, 2007 08:09 PM