1997: The New York Post
Paleoconservative Scott McConnell was fired as the New York Post's editorial page editor on September 4, 1997 after writing editorials critical of Haitian immigration and Puerto Rican statehood. About the latter, he had cited statistics that "half the island's 3.7 million inhabitants receive Food Stamps" and "59.4 percent of Puerto Rican children born on the U.S. mainland are born to unwed mothers."[43] He concluded:
We believe that the looming vote on Puerto Rico's status is yet another sign of how the congressional GOP has lost its way. The current leadership seems more interested in trying to placate the liberal Washington establishment—or hatching schemes it imagines are popular with minority voters—than in protecting the interests of the voters who elected it.
This is a feckless way to guide America's destiny.[44]
McConnell, an heir to the Avon cosmetics fortune,[45] later remarked that "our society had developed an expected script of white Anglo contrition and apology... and that I had failed to follow it." He found himself replaced by John Podhoretz, who denounced him as a "very dangerous" sort of Conservative.[46] About his former employer, he said:
When push comes to shove, Rupert Murdoch does not want any difference of opinion with the Hispanic community. So if you have to put on one side appeasing a growing demographic and on the other side a conservative principle having to do with the language and traditions of the United States, he falls clearly on the first side.[47]
Two years after the incident, McConnell said he had changed his mind about Pat Buchanan and joined his campaign as an adviser. He once dismissed his presidential hopes as "not worth discussing."[48] Soon he helped found The American Conservative.
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