We Still Believe in Debate


		November 14 2017

VISIT NATIONALREVIEW.COM

Dear NR Friend,

National Review has always been a joint enterprise with our readers, which has considerable advantages. We become close friends with many of our subscribers, and we constantly meet people around the country who care about our little enterprise as much as we do.

The disadvantage is that if we are going to survive and thrive, we need your support, which means periodically interrupting our regularly scheduled programming to ask for your help.

NRO's Fall fundraising drive is upon us.

Let me report that the State of the Union is sound, except for the, ahem, a persistent shortfall of funds. I hazard to say that we have the most talented collection of writers NR has had in a very long time — they are eloquent, well-informed, sharp-elbowed, funny, and fearless. I learn from them every day.

They also cover all points of view and perspectives about The Elephant in the Room. You don't need me to tell you that it's a divisive time on the right, with practically every presidential tweet the cause for a clash of visions. No one is going to agree with everything that appears on NRO — heck, even I don't agree with everything I read here.

But you know that even pieces you don't like are going to be passionately and sincerely argued, and very often we will litigate points of contention among ourselves. In just the last couple of months, I've been party myself to sharp exchanges on nationalism (I support it, broadly speaking) and NFL kneeling (I hate it, always).

With seemingly all the Internet devoted to serving one tribal faction or another, often with propaganda loosely disguised as journalism, we still believe in debate and in writing that seeks to meet the best arguments of the other side head on, and defeat them with facts and reason.

The market for this, I hate to say, has never been robust. This is why serious opinion journals need a Sugar Daddy (we've never had one), or they need a devoted and very generous readership, which we've been blessed with pretty much ever since NR became something more than a gleam in William F. Buckley Jr.'s eye.

Every time we ask you to step up, you do. This spring we raised $250,000 in our fundraising drive, and we hope to raise $200,000 this month. You can donate $1,000, $250, $100, $25, or even just $10 (any amount is a help and is appreciated) here.

We are seeking to fund some growth projects. Over the last year, we have gone from one podcast — "The Editors," which I record weekly with Charlie Cooke, Reihan Salam, and Michael Brendan Dougherty — to seven and on the way to a dozen. We have recently added Jonah's "The Remnant" podcast and John J. Miller's excellent "Great Books" podcast. With this volume of content, we can no longer produce our podcasts out of our back pocket. We need to hire someone full time.

What we've done with podcasting, scaling up very quickly, we want to do with video, as well. That will require some relatively pricey new software.

We are also hiring a revenue officer (why didn't we think of that before!). This is part of an ongoing effort to make our business side as robust as possible. We have seen results, with advertising revenue growing both online and in print month-over-month over the last year. We want to build on that momentum.

All of this of course takes money, on top of our daily, and hourly, operations.

If you like what you read here; if you think conservatism should be defended with intelligence and wit; if you fear for our values, our Constitution, and our civilization; if you believe in our mutual cause and want to see it thrive; if, in short, you count yourself a friend even if we don't know you yet, please consider giving what you can.

If you give $1,000, Jack Fowler will do somersaults in the office — a danger to others and especially himself — but we are grateful for any amount. We read all the comments sent along with donations, and know that each and every contribution is a testament to the special bond we are privileged to have with our readers.

Thanks, as always, for reading, and for all you do to sustain and encourage us.

Rich Lowry
Editor-in-Chief

P.S.: There are two other donation options: You can contribute via PayPal here if you prefer, or you can send a check, made payable to "National Review" and mailed to 19 West 44th Street, 17th Floor, New York, NY 10036.

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