Impending Execution Has Concentrated Republican Minds Wonderfully

James Borchuck/Tampa Bay Times via ZUMA

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The Wall Street Journal proves once and for all that Republican politicians are brain dead:

President Trump, unaccustomed to campaigning for others, has settled into a new rhythm with Republican candidates who have found the key to securing a vigorous endorsement from their party’s leader….At rallies in the past two weeks, Republican contenders appear to have figured out how to captivate the party’s leader less than 100 days before the midterm elections. The formula: Cram compliments for the president into a few minutes in the spotlight, and exit the stage with a valuable, superlative endorsement from a beaming president.

They just figured this out? How is this possible? Are they really so obtuse that until recently they didn’t understand the most basic personality characteristics of the guy they and their entire party voted for? Or have they always known but retained slightly too much self-respect to publicly abase themselves thoroughly enough for Trump’s liking—until, that is, the prospect of losing an election concentrated their minds sufficiently? Or both?

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

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Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

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