| Dear NR Friend, It would make inherent sense if the Democratic Party's frontrunner was . . .a Democrat. But if you follow the news day in and day out, you know that the reality actually makes more sense: That it is a Socialist who is the ever-Leftward-veering party's top contender to be its presidential nominee. In the face of the news from New Hampshire, we make this timely and surely compelling case for your assistance in helping National Review combat socialism, the virulent virus that has emerged as a political pandemic in this election year. Why NR? Let's talk a little history first, and share Ludwig Von Mises's encouraging words for this institution, applauding its first foray into journalism and history-athwart-standing, and gracing the back cover of National Review's 1955 premiere issue: I am delighted to learn that national review plans to stand for political, intellectual and economic freedom and to fight unswervingly the sinister forces of totalitarian statism. I wish you full success. This from a man who knew a thing or two about the horror of socialism and related ideologies. Some 1,700 or so issues and 65 years later, the magazine, abetted daily by its website offspring, continues this unswerving fight against the creed that speaks to man's worst impulses and that, like an indestructible force, has manifested itself in the current American political climate, championed in the person of Bernie Sanders. In our recent February 10th issue, the crypto-Soviet image of the Vermont socialist is front, center, and very red on the cover — the dictator-loving redistributionist who seeks government housing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is the subject of Kyle Smith's powerful profile. To borrow from Winston Churchill's joke about Clement Attlee, Sanders is a wolf in wolf's clothing. As Kyle's piece makes clear, Bernie is no Karl Come Lately. Sanders has spent decades telling the people of Burlington, and of Vermont, and of the United States, why Marxist fantasies can be theirs. With an enabling media, he has slowly crafted an allure — through his cantankerous, gruff, goofy true-believer lecturing; his humorless, disheveled determination; and his aura of genuine leftist apostleship. Especially in juxtaposition to the cavalcade of political mediocrities who seek to be president, Sanders is appealing to a large bloc of radical voters, and outpacing the field of knock-off Democrats in their own party's presidential primaries. As to our appeal: National Review's embrace of the obligation to wage war on socialism (and its Bernie-esque agents) has been anything but passive. Or of recent origin. In that same aforementioned 1955 premiere issue, in "The Magazine's Credenda," written by our founder, Bill Buckley let it be known from the get-go that "the growth of government (the dominant social feature of this century) must be fought relentlessly." WFB had no illusion that socialism was something, like smallpox, that could be eradicated. Bill and the magazine's founders knew that waging war against socialism, Communism, and all their ideological kin would be a permanent endeavor. They knew that one could hold the upper hand in that fight only fleetingly, and that when the battle seemed to be flagging, it would be the broader duty — of NR and its friends — to fight all the harder. We are at that point. Last year, in yet another example of its commitment, NR published a special "double issue," two back-to-back editions, each one collecting over a dozen major pieces by leading conservatives. The first issue stood strongly In Defense of Markets; the following one stated the case Against Socialism. It was powerful stuff, and evocative. All along the way, from NR's Volume 1, Number 1, to the double issue last year, to our most recent "Bernie" cover piece, we've published hundreds of articles, essays, and editorials that, decade in and decade out, battered at the lies and false promises of socialism. Here's what we know: Socialism is not some fair-haired step-sibling of Communist Stalinism, or some Eden-like egalitarian construct free of gulags and show trials and destitution, that can only "happen" to other people. Maybe the nicest thing that could be said about socialism is that it is like a gateway drug. Or about socialists, that they can be patsies for their nastier relations. But whatever role it plays, whatever level of ideological intensity it displays, however it has manifested or can manifest itself, whoever its agents and foot-soldiers, socialism is in its bones and marrow and DNA an inherently rotten thing. It's a thing that must be fought, and this particular fight is our legacy, our permanent, indelible institutional mandate, a very real thing bequeathed by our founder. We embrace it. But: Fighting socialism is your fight, too. And we ask that you fight it through NR, and now. This brief webathon we launch this week (it will expire Sunday) seeks to raise $25,000 to empower our editors to hire more, to publish more, to promote more of these necessary efforts against Marx and Engels and all their acolytes and empty promises. This fight will never be over, but right now, it must be enjoined with fervor, with you alongside us, fixing bayonets and charging. We can prevail. We can set socialism back. This may be modern conservatism's Little Round Top. How can we not enjoin? Do stand with NR. Donate here, and do so knowing you have our deep appreciation.
Truly, Jack Fowler
Vice President For those who would like to support NR's ongoing efforts to battle resurgent socialism, personified by Bernie Sanders (and so many other presidential aspirants and Democratic officeholders), make your selfless and generous donation here. If you prefer to send a donation by check, make it payable to "National Review" and mail it to National Review, ATTN: Defeat Socialism, 19 West 44th Street, Suite 1701, New York, NY 10036. |
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