It’s just your average day. A billionaire who, come this time next year, could be back in the White House or, if his partisan opposition has its way, stuck in the big house, hit it big on a major tech merger that could double his net worth – even as that same opposition turns up the lawfare heat, demanding that he pay up on a half-billion-dollar bond or start seeing his iconic assets seized.
Meanwhile, we’re reminded that jihadists never got the memo that the world had moved on from the war on terror to a renewal of great-power conflict. Even as Russia prosecutes its savage war of aggression against Ukraine, it is itself ravaged by a mass-murder attack – over a hundred killed in Moscow, with ISIS crowing that it is responsible. The atrocity echoes Hamas’s unspeakable October 7 siege in Israel, where war also rages, inspiring Iran to activate its proxies in a thrumming jihad against American forces and international commerce. Appeasement hasn’t worked with Tehran, either. Our arch great-power rival, the patron of Putin, the mullahs, and Kim Jong-un watches with interest as it ravenously eyes Taiwan. With deterrence failing in every theater, are we ready for what may come next?
And have you seen video of the Southern border lately? Illegal-alien hordes have shifted from passive-aggressive – you know: they just show up by the tens of thousands expecting our docile government to “process” them on into the country. Now they’ve gone kinetic-aggressive, storming what passes for the gates and bowling over the vastly overmatched security forces. The incumbent administration’s plan? Why, to continue suing Texas, of course. The Lone Star state is trying the apparently radical strategy of arresting trespassers who have no legal right to be present there – i.e., to enforce the laws of the United States and the privilege of state sovereignty on which our federalist constitutional system was founded. Alas, how the federal courts will react to this vindication of federal law is hard to gauge.
The above ought to be more than enough trouble over a long haul. Instead, it’s just an another day in our turbulent times. And that means it’s a day when you’ll find all of it, and much more, covered thoroughly, thoughtfully, and provocatively in the pages of NR, in the news reporting and opinion columns posted on our website, in our vibrant array of podcasts, and in our growing library of video content.
I haven’t even gotten to Capital Matters, a project of National Review Institute, the think-tank established by NR’s legendary founder, William F. Buckley Jr., to promote the cause liberty through the championing of conservative principles. What are the wages of relentlessly-mounting debt in a heedless political culture? Can an economy sustain itself under loopy progressive notions of climate sustainability? Our writers and analysts grapple with these core questions every day. It’s must-reading and must-listening.
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If there is a front in the battles over civilization, culture, ideology, religion, politics, national security – over the preservation of our republic – NR is on it. Day in and day out. But we simply cannot do it without the support of our readers, of the whole NR community.
Look, we wish we didn’t have to run occasional webathons. But there is an upside to it, and I don’t just mean fundraising. It’s a good reason to remind ourselves, as we try to project for you, that we are all over every single one of the signal issues of our time. We are committed to giving them to you in all candor. Yes, we’ll tell you what we think of it. But we’ll make sure, first and foremost, that we’re doing our best to be accurate. As we do that, it turns out the “we” – for all our writers’ concurrence on the big things – don’t always agree. As many of you tell us, that robust debate, passionate and civil, is NR at its best.
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We appreciate your generosity. As Phil noted, we’d raised about $80,000 as of yesterday; we’re hoping to hit $100K when we wrap up our campaign on Monday. If you appreciate what we’re doing, and especially if you haven’t contributed during the webathon already, we’d be deeply grateful for any help you’re in a position to give.
Again, there are two ways to support our mission. One is to give directly to NR, a for-profit enterprise that engages directly in political advocacy. I wish contributions to NR were tax deductible because they are vital to our work, but they’re not. They are just generous, as the NR community has always been.
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