February 14, 2007

For Love Or Money, Er…Politics

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Wasn’t there a saying back in the day claiming three things lovers should never discuss — money, politics and religion? Surely things have changed if the presence of online dating services to find your political soulmate is any indication. It seems only natural that our dating habits (and online services for those so inclined) would reflect the increased prominence of politics in our lives and its polarization in the country. Finding a mate is no longer just about attraction and compatibility, it’s about your view on abortion (there really is no middle ground) or what place you think religion has within the government. Liberals seeking liberals, conservatives seeking conservatives – you see where they were going when John Hlinko and Brian Barcaro founded political matchmaker sites ActForLove and Conservativematch a few years back.

But, before I get anymore earnest in talking about this subject, let’s poke a little fun, shall we? ActForLove’s tagline is “take action, get action!” No, really, it says it on the homepage. And they appear to deliver on both, the site has 50,000 members and urges liberals to get involved directing them to sites like the ACLU and StemPAC.org. Conservativematch calls for “sweethearts not bleeding hearts” (not as clever, I know) on their site and has an online mag with headlines like “Abortion Hurts Women: The Hard Proof” and “Male Passivity: The Root of All Evil,” which documents the mistakes Adam made with Eve. Really, both sites are worth a quick once-over, even if just for a chuckle, but if you find something more, don’t forget who to thank.

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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.

Because the in-depth journalism on underreported beats and unique perspectives on the daily news you turn to Mother Jones for is only possible because readers fund us. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism we exist 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 need readers to show up for us big time—again.

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.

If you can right now, please support the journalism you get from Mother Jones with a donation at whatever amount works for you. And please do it now, before you move on to whatever you're about to do next and think maybe you'll get to it later, because every gift matters and we really need to see a strong response if we're going to raise the $253,000 we need in less than three weeks.

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