When it comes to why people like to read the Washington Monthly, it’s hard to find better words than my boss, Paul Glastris:
The hundreds of thousands of people who read our content are a diverse lot, and it’s dangerous to generalize. But one thing we know is that they are highly educated and voracious consumers of political and policy information. They read multiple mainstream national newspapers, listen to public radio, and often watch cable shows. Yet they come here because they feel they are not getting the full story.
That pretty well describes the positive feedback I get from my readers, too. My fans, at least, value hearing from a progressive voice that doesn’t sound like every other progressive voice. They don’t need and don’t really want one more example of someone whose take on every story is an effort to gin up outrage using sanctimonious arguments. They want someone who is looking for something that others are missing to help them understand an increasingly complex and confusing political landscape.
The reason I fit in at the Washington Monthly despite probably representing a more progressive band of the ideological spectrum is because we see eye to eye on many of the things that are ailing the country and the Democratic Party. Paul also describes this well:
…because we all have a sense that none of the candidates have exactly the right messaging and mix of policies to dislodge the president, we spend a lot of time searching out and advocating for bold new policy ideas that push Democrats out of their comfort zones—ideas that could not only solve the major problems facing the country but change the dynamics of the election. We believe, for instance, that candidates who get behind strengthening antitrust enforcement can win a substantial number of rural voters, who, more than most Americans, feel their economic well-being crushed by the jackboot of agricultural monopolists. We know that the single best way to ensure that more citizens cast ballots is to expand universal vote by mail.
The Washington Monthly prides itself on being ahead of the curve on the big issues, and we don’t really mind (that much) if we don’t always get the credit we deserve so long as our ideas eventually are accepted and adopted by the Democratic Party or by Congress. In recent years, we’ve been gratified to see this kind of progress on antitrust and vote-by-mail, and we’ll continue our efforts to push our ideas into the mainstream.
We’ll also cover the impeachment process and the upcoming election with our unique style that you won’t find anywhere else. But we can only provide this value if we can pay our staff and keep the lights on.
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