November 20, 2015

Republicans Play “Can You Top This?” Over Refugees

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I think it’s been nearly 24 hours since I last looked in on our Republican candidates and their prudent, thoughtful stands on Syrian refugees. So where do we stand?

  • Ben Carson compared Syrian terrorists to rabid dogs, suggesting this means we’d be wise to avoid all dogs.
  • Marco Rubio made some strained analogy to Nazis because…. Nazis.
  • Donald Trump wants to keep a database of Muslims. All Muslims? Only newly arrived Muslims? Who knows.
  • Ted Cruz wants to ban all Syrian refugees except Christians.
  • Jeb Bush thinks that’s a great idea too.
  • John Kasich has proposed that we create a Department of Judeo-Christian PR.
  • Carly Fiorina, Rand Paul, and Chris Christie all want to flatly ban Syrian refugees.

We’ve seen variations of “Can You Top This?” before, perhaps most notably in 2012 regarding illegal immigration. That’s probably no coincidence. But that was before Donald Trump joined the field of presidential wannabes and upped the stakes considerably. Now they’ve gone from merely odious to actively loathsome.

What’s the answer? I think maybe Ben Carson has the right idea. These guys are like rabid dogs, which means it might be wise for us to simply avoid all Republicans. You can’t be too careful, after all.

More detail here if you can stomach it.

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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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