Dear Friend,
We thought we’d let the holiday pass, giving you time to digest the turkey, see the family off, and get in some shopping. So here we are in December, hoping that, while Thanksgiving Day is behind us, the spirit of Thanksgiving still remains.
More hoping: that you will find this your opportunity to show just how thankful you are for National Review with a donation, which can be made here.
Thanks goes both ways. At NR, we’re extremely thankful for our friends and readers, a number of whom have proven to be regularly supportive and generous. They have stepped up time and again because they want NR to exist. To thrive. They know their support is a vote of confidence in our beliefs and in the best means of articulating them. It’s a vote of confidence in National Review. And they know the alternative — a world without NR — is an idea they’d rather not contemplate or consider.
Us neither! If ’you’re thankful that National Review does indeed exist; that it regularly, daily, hourly, provides the kind of profound, sound, and sane commentary and analysis of current events that you need — that America needs, that the world needs — that it continues to brazenly and spectacularly uphold the mission that Bill Buckley declared in 1955; that it stands athwart History and yells “Stop ” better than any other entity or institution can yell it; then please, show it. Show your thanks.
Especially if you are an NRO regular.
You know that two or three times a year we interrupt NRO with an appeal for your help. That time is now. This is our second and final webathon of 2014, and we’d like to think that those of you who range from NRO fans and aficionados to groupies and junkies — if you come here regularly, daily, multiple times a day, to enjoy and be inspired by the great writings of Mona Charen, Charlie Cooke, John Fund, Jonah Goldberg, Victor Davis Hanson, Eliana Johnson, Larry Kudlow, James Lileks, Kathryn Jean Lopez, Rich Lowry, Andrew McCarthy, Jillian Melchior, Jay Nordlinger, Ramesh Ponnuru, Kat Timpf, Kevin Williamson, and too many more to name — will find it in your hearts (and your wallets!) to help sustain this imperative conservative voice.
Everything (it’s all so very very much!) we provide here daily is, as you know, free. It costs you . . . nada. Zip. Zero.
But since you are a smart conservative you also know this: There is no such thing as a free lunch.
Indeed, it’s very costly to run this website, and what revenues we derive from advertising and other sources fall short of meeting our costs. This is where you come in. If you have donated to past webathons, know (and you do) that we are terribly appreciative, and hope you can once again see fit to assisting.
If you have spent years here enjoying great writing, smart writing, profound writing, consequential writing, and have yet to give: Well, the time has come for you to pitch in.
Others have (pitched in). That’s why you’ve been able to get so much out of NRO. Return the favor, and do so knowing this isn’t just about you helping us handle red ink. Sure, your support does that, but it also helps us do more, and better. For example, in early 2015 we will be revealing a brand new website that we expect will afford National Review the opportunity to reach millions more every month.
Imagine a world where millions more are influenced by the wisdom NRO’s great writers provide. You can help make that happen.
These are critical times for us conservatives. If you’re like me, you feel there’s something hanging in the balance; that we’re at a tipping point concerning the tattering of our social fabric, the fate of our nation, its ability to live to its true potential, its standing in the world, the kind of peace and security that emanates from a Pax America, and the legacy we’re leaving our children.
Whatever it is – our fate, America’s fate, the world’s fate — all have a better chance with National Review playing the instrumental role — of being the articulate conservative voice of sanity and wisdom — it has marvelously performed and championed these past 59 years.
All done thanks to the help of people such as yourself.
You’ll be hearing from my colleagues over the next few days and weeks. I’m sure they’ll be making a better case for your assisting NR than The Suit. But whether you respond to me, or to them, please — do respond. Please help.
You can do it by credit card, safely, here. May I suggest a gift of $100? Can’t do that? Drop a zero if you must — we appreciate crumbs from the rich man’s feast, and the widow’s mite. How about a sustained gift: $25 a month, or $50 a month, easily done through PayPal, also here?
Whatever you can do, whatever you can give, know, especially if you’ve yet to give, that . . . it’s time.
And that we’re thankful. Very thankful.
Best,
Jack Fowler
Publisher