Thread: Is Unz, Editor of Amer Conservative, Con. on Illegal Aliens?

Based on some of his writings, there seems to be some question about whether Ron Unz, the current editor of "The American Conservative", truly is a conservative when it comes to his position on illegal aliens. A background article about his appointment together with link to Unz's article entitled "His-Panic" written for the 03/13/10 edition of TAC and one to a rebuttal by Edwin S. Rubenstein appear below.


California Anti-Bilingual Proposition King Ron Unz to be Next Publisher of The American Conservative

I just got a scoop on who the next publisher of The American Conservative is going to be -- and it's an intriguing choice.

I read The American Conservative because Vice President Cheney hates the publication and thinks that its editorialists run in the same gaggle of "Not-Republicans-Enough-for-Cheney" as Chuck Hagel and Chris Shays.

Ron Unz -- a software magnate who led a successful California ballot initiative against bilingual education in California -- will become the magazine's new publisher, succeeding current publisher Scott McConnell. McConnell will continue to serve as The American Conservative's editor.

Pat Buchanan was the former editor and is now editor emeritus of the publication but according to sources has not been involved in the magazine's work for a couple of years.

Unz is an intriguing choice because he is not a predictable conservative -- and certainly not a predictable liberal. He's more of an entrepreneurial libertarian who is -- at the same time -- an advocate of pro-immigrant policies while also an opponent of bilingual education programs, which he thinks retards the ability of Hispanic and other immigrants to quickly assimilate into U.S. society.

In 1994, Unz challenged incumbent Governor Pete Wilson of California in the Republican primary for Governor and got 34% of the vote. He helped organize the opposition to an anti-immigration initiative, Proposition 187, and organized one of the largest immigrant marches (at that time) in California. Later, he became one of the leading experts in citizen-based electroral propositions by drafting Proposition 227, which effectively dismantled a third of the country's bilingual programs and advocating and building an extensive network of English language immersion programs.

According to inside sources, Ron Unz strongly supports the generally "realist" direction that the magazine has adopted in its U.S. foreign policy commentary but also is comfortable with the more classically conservative policy of the magazine on domestic policy.

All I can say about Unz, who I have met a half dozen or so times, is that he is an energetic ideas guy and is far less predictable -- than say, New Republic editor Martin Peretz who has unleashed a predictable salvo against George Soros today for Soros' interesting Israel-related commentary that also ran today in the New York Review of Books. (more on that later)

In any case -- an interesting move in the political journalism world that I wanted to bring to your attention. . .

-- Steve Clemons

http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/002005.php

Update: Matthew Yglesias offers a concurring perspective.

Related:

"California and the End of White America"
Ron Unz
Commentary
November 1999, COVER STORY.
http://www.onenation.org/9911/110199.html

Recently related:

"His-Panic
"Talk TV sensationalists and axe-grinding ideologues have fallen for a myth of immigrant lawlessness."
By Ron Unz
The American Conservative
March 01, 2010
http://amconmag.com/article/2010/mar/01/00022/

Ron Unz Vanishes Hispanic Criminality...Not!
February 24, 2010
http://vdare.com/rubenstein/100224_nd.htm

Ron Unz is an open-borders liberal who opposed Proposition 187 in California

He bought the American Conservative after Pat Buchanan left



Here are some articles criticizing Unz's article:



A Reply to Unz

http://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/index ... se-to-unz/



Unzism, A Dangerous Doctrine

http://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/index ... -doctrine/



According to The American "Conservative", Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is as Law Abiding as Mary Poppins

http://statsaholic.blogspot.com/2010/01 ... ative.html



Will the “AMERICAN CONSERVATIVEâ€

There's a lively debate going on in the comments section here

http://www.amconmag.com/blog/response-to-rubenstein/

Unz says Hispanics basically have equal crime rates to whites

Unz was against bilingual education because he thought it scared people away from supporting immigration...and he wants Mexico to move to the US

Unz is as pro-immigration as one can get

read the above articles

jeffrey987,

Thanks for pitching in with all the good additional links, references, and information! Welcome to ALIPAC.