October 15, 2010

The New Normal

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I didn’t see last night’s debate between Harry Reid and Sharron Angle, but the consensus seems to be that both speakers were terrible. However, Angle may have benefited from galactically low expectations. “Angle repeatedly found herself in verbal cul-de-sacs which she only escaped by returning to well-rehearsed talking points,” said Politico’s Jonathan Martin, “all the while blurring over some of her controversial statements or ignoring questions about them altogether.” And the Las Vegas Sun’s Jon Ralston more or less agreed: “Angle won because she looked relatively credible, appearing not to be the Wicked Witch of the West.”

So I guess that’s where we are. Freakish candidates are now held to such low standards that all they have to do is surprise us by not sounding like they belong in a locked mental ward. Welcome to 2010.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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