As we face a Left-shifting Washington, here at National Review Online we approach this new political reality “with a considerable — and considered — optimism,” to borrow the words and attitude from the very first issue of National Review.
How in the World Wide Web can we be optimistic? As we watch the construction of the Obama administration? As we watch Republicans pray that indicted senator Ted Stevens pulls out his reelection bid? As we prepare to accept the possibility of a Sen. Al Franken? As we take slings and arrows from allies? As lessons seem to go unlearned – or worse, forgotten?
We’re optimistic because we’re still here and we still have some fight in us. We’re optimistic because we live in a great land where peaceful transitions happen — even when it’s not the transition we endorsed. We’re optimistic because we’ve come out victorious before, facing deadly odds.
National Review Online is determined to continue to be an essential forum for conservatism at this critical time. Where there are disagreements, we do not and will not hide from them or discourage debate. To the contrary, in our most-trafficked features, we will continue to have them. And we’ll encourage your input and advice.
And we’re optimistic because here at NRO we read the words from the Publisher’s Statement from that first issue of National Review, November 1955:
We have nothing to offer but the best that is in us. That, a thousand Liberals who read this sentiment will say with relief, is clearly not enough! It isn’t enough. But it is at this point that we steal the march. For we offer, besides ourselves, a position that has not grown old under the weight of a gigantic, parasitic bureaucracy, a position untempered by the doctoral dissertations of a generation of Ph.D’s in social architecture, unattenuated by a thousand vulgar promises to a thousand different pressure groups, uncorroded by a cynical contempt for human freedom. And that, ladies and gentlemen, leaves us just about the hottest thing in town.
With your help, we will work to ensure that statement is always true.
National Review and National Review Online have always needed the support of its readers, people who recognize the vital importance of such a contribution to the war of ideas. With so much fog in the air, bringing clarity and truth to policy debates is needed now more than ever. We dedicate ourselves to vigilantly cover (and uncover) the new Washington with reporting and analysis from the likes of Jonah Goldberg, Byron York, Victor Davis Hanson, Andrew C. McCarthy, Mark Steyn, and others who have become familiar friends in the lives of National Review Online readers.
We plan to bring you bigger and better presentations — these next months will include new experiments in video and audio, to add to our current lineup of “Radio Derb,” “Red Meat,” “Between the Covers,” and the Hoover-sponsored “Uncommon Knowledge.” We hope to branch out to include expanded cultural coverage. Even in the midst of belt-tightening all around, we will get up each morning and offer the best that is in us.
And so as we approach this new beginning, the next stage in the fight for real fairness (contra the Fairness Doctrine) and real choice (contra the Freedom of Choice act) — in this fight for what’s Right, we ask for your help.
This year, we’ve added a few new levels of sponsorship support (and additional tokens of thanks) for those who invest $100 or more in the present and future of NRO. Donations of $1,000 or more include new opportunities for access to our editors and writers.
Your donation — whether it be $5,000 or $50 — will go directly toward the cost of running NRO: our recent necessary server upgrade, salaries, author’s fees (which have not grown with inflation since NRO was first established) and essential support services. Your generosity, in other words, will keep this light on and shining bright in the wilderness.
And as you donate, I encourage you to e-mail me with your suggestions as we look toward the next four years together.
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