You can keep us strong.
Donald Trump issued, by his standards, a fairly mild denunciation of National Review the other day.
He didn’t insult anyone’s wife, give us a nickname, or say that the title of our magazine somehow sounds Chinese.
He only said that we are lightweights who serve no purpose and whose publication deserves to die.
If you think he has a point, the rest of this post is probably not for you.
If you think, to the contrary, that it’s more important than ever to have a fearless voice speaking the truth to try to get the party past the cycle of failure and frustration currently gripping it — thanks largely to the destructiveness of the 45th president — then I’m hoping you will contribute to our little fundraising effort.
Our position in the Trump era hasn’t necessarily been a popular one — and certainly not an opportunistic one.
The dynamic of the past several years has been that if you lose your mind about Trump and allow him to unmoor you from your conservative foundations, you will get widely praised and have opportunities in the mainstream media that you wouldn’t otherwise, and hard-core Never Trump and/or Democratic donors will fund your publication.
On the other hand, if you a find a way to evade or justify all of Trump’s failings and allow him to unmoor you from your conservative foundations (just in a different way from the category of people above), you will be hailed for your bravery and handsomely rewarded by MAGA world.
If you eschew both of those approaches and are happy to give Trump credit where it’s due and maintain all your preexisting conservative commitments, but call out Trump as warranted and warn of his deleterious political effects, well, then, you are condemned as quislings or cowards by both the “Never” and “Always” factions.
I’m not complaining. I think the ground NR has staked out is principled, prudent, and correct. The point is that no one would do it for self-serving reasons.
And, indeed, we haven’t.
Even now, when the damage Trump is doing is completely obvious, it’s still not easy to find unadorned truth-telling about him. Indeed, it’s telling that among his top targets for attack after the election have been DeSanctimonious, Young Kin, and your humble servants at the “failing” National Review.
He wonders who’s funding us, and that’s an easy one — people like you who believe in our cause and who are willing to help out.
Check out, if you’re interested, the donation module below. If you scroll through the more than 500 donors, you’ll find some $2,500 or $1,000 donations. All honor to those generous folks. But most everything else is $50 or $100 donations. And read the comments from deeply patriotic, committed people who, like you, want to save the country and know a strong, healthy conservatism is the only way to do it.
What we want for the party and conservatism is not unreasonable.
We want the future, not the past.
We want a Republican Party that can win majorities and that doesn’t limit itself to trying to eke through with 46 percent in presidential elections.
We want a conservatism that is unapologetic and serious-minded and not distorted by one man’s ego or abased by ridiculous conspiracy theories.
We want to win, not for its own sake, but because denying power to the other side and moving the ball substantively are the only alternatives if we are to save ourselves from destruction.
If you believe in these things, too, please help a publication that has stood up for them in fair weather and foul, that has refused to be discouraged or intimidated, that, if the GOP gets back on a better track, is going to be part of the solution not the problem.
There’s a reason that Mar-a-Lago wants us to die, and if you envision and hope for a better American future, you should help us live.
Thanks for reading, as always.
