Dear Reader (and I suppose you twisted deviants who just like to rub up against the screen),

This is not a G-File. It’s a real letter, to you. I’ve written these things so many times now, I think the words “See ‘Jonah Goldberg’s Annual National Review Online Fundraising Pitch’” will appear in the Webster’s entry on “Nietzsche’s Eternal Return of the Same.” So forgive me if I repeat myself a bit in this Spring Fundraising Drive request.

National Review is a community. There’s not a person who works here who doesn’t recognize and appreciate how much we get from our readers and friends. I’m not even talking about the money (more on that in a moment). The feedback, support, suggestions, and — yes — ample criticism is one of the things that makes NR such a joy to work for. It also makes it a privilege. We are constantly reminded by our friends and foes alike how much NR means to the national debate. More important, we’re constantly reminded how we are but mere temporary stewards of an institution and a cause that both is older than us and will outlive us.

My own gratitude is bottomless. Whenever I travel around the country, I meet people who ask about the magazine, about Rich, Derb, Ramesh, Kathryn, Mark Steyn, Jim Geraghty, or, of course, Cosmo (and not necessarily in that order!). During good times and bad — perhaps especially bad — I’ve felt as if I have a vast network of friends I can lean on.

I bring this up first and foremost to simply say thank you in a wholesale way because it is impossible to do it adequately retail.

In a just world, we’d pay you. Okay, maybe that’s a bit far-fetched. But in a more rightly ordered universe, we certainly wouldn’t ask you for money. You already give us so much. But, alas, that’s not the way things work.

NR is a labor of love first and foremost. If this were just another job, Bill Buckley would never have founded the place and he certainly would never have kept it afloat all those years. We believe in the cause and therefore we work for the institution. And, were it not for the folks who likewise believe in the cause, and support it as best they can, all of that work would be for naught.

These are tough times and they’ll likely get tougher yet. But if you can help us out with our efforts, I promise we’ll continue to work as hard as we can to repay your generosity. I can’t promise you’ll always agree with everything we say or believe. No intellectually honest magazine can promise that, and nobody who loves NR would want us to.

But as stewards of this hopefully timeless institution we will certainly do everything we can to be worthy of your support.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Jonah Goldberg