Some of my favorite conservative writers blog for The American Conservative - Rod Dreher, Daniel Larison, Daniel McArthy to name a few – and now one of my favorite liberals is blogging there, too. Noah Millman has been blogging at The American Scene for years and now has his very own digs at AmConMag.
As pleased as I am by this, the comments on his introduction post make me a little sad. Frankly, as good as the publication is on war, it’s still got a pretty solid portion of anti-immigration advocates in its readership. And while the really questionable voices on the right tend to flock to publications like Taki Mag or Alternative Right or VDare, etc. there are obviously still some of that contingent at The American Conservative.
It’s too bad, really, but it is what it is. I still think there really isn’t a great liberal, anti-war, broadly pro-market publication out there. There are market-friendly rags like TNR, but they’re generally more hawkish. The more anti-war liberal pubs out there are typically very anti-market. Then, of course, there are the libertarian magazines but they’re hostile to things like universal healthcare and other issues that liberals tend to care about.
Is this a niche we could exploit?
Is your next project starting a magazine? Maybe just keep working on taking over Forbes?
Once I find some rich donors…
Some might say that the League qualifies for most of those descriptors already — so all you need to do is pressure Rufus to get a move on with that printed edition plan of his.
If we go that route, I volunteer to do the obligatory monthly new
celebrity diet stories.
Maybe I’m in a minority, but I’ve never understood the appeal of Rod Dreher. Nearly everything he writes has some sort of backhanded insult to one minority group or another all tied together with a substantial amount of condescension. I mean take his recent little spat about medical services fraud. He loves talking about the immorality of the “underclass” and how they’re taking away from the “deserving poor”. Add that to his homophobia, and we’re on a nice little bigot express train.
He may couch this stuff in better terms, but he strikes me as an exceptionally unempathetic and narrow-minded man.
Overall, I’m not a huge fan of AmConMag. I mean yes, they have a couple decent bloggers, but their commentariat is awful.
Sounds like a project for you and Matt Yglesias.
You’re looking for something like a less hawkish TNR or a more statist Reason. The Economist might qualify, though they supported the Iraq war at the time and are maybe too pro-Nato to be what you’re looking for.
Actually that sounds about right.
I really liked your blog article.Really looking forward to read more.