It’s Giving Tuesday, which means that today’s a good day to make a donation to the Washington Monthly and make sure that you’re a subscriber to the magazine. Donations are tax-deductible.
In explaining the importance of the Monthly, our editor-in-chief Paul Glastris referred to the “nearly unbridled power of the Trump/Ryan/McConnell juggernaut” that we’re about to be facing, and I think that’s an apt description. I recently said that this election represents a bigger a swing in power between the two parties than we’ve seen since 1932. To say that the left in this country is on its heels would be to badly minimize the crisis and the resulting danger.
Nancy has adequately described the collapse of the corporate media, including their humiliation yesterday at Trump Tower. Suffice to say, it’s not a good omen it you’re expecting them to stand up to and report adequately on the incoming administration. Their business model is simply too weak and vulnerable to check Trump and his white nationalist alt-right chief adviser Stephen Bannon.
Only the corporate media has the resources to cover everything that the Trump administration will do, but it’s more a matter of how they present that information that should concern you. They’re chastened and frightened, and they fear lack of access and all manner of retribution.
So, the Monthly is critically important for two reasons. The first is that our business model isn’t vulnerable to easy punishment and so we aren’t so easily pushed around. We’re in a better position to interpret the news. The second reason is that we already are experienced in doing reporting and research on over-the-horizon and deep-below-the-surface issues that don’t get covered by the corporate media, and this is exactly what the left needs as it seeks to regroup.
A current example is my brother Phil’s excellent piece on the history of anti-trust enforcement. I think this is an absolutely key idea that the left needs to embrace as it looks to respond to the collapse of support in rural counties all over America.
With your help and support, we’ll be hard at work during this unfortunate era, coming up with fresh ideas and providing the fearless analysis that will be so sorely lacking in the big circulation papers and the cable news.
So, on this Giving Tuesday, please consider us. Consider it a present to yourself.
