A very Mother Jones holiday message.

Don’t let the democracy doomsayers get you.   [Mother Jones]( MoJo Reader, Dread. That’s the feeling that I have been hearing about from a lot of people as 2023 draws to a close. It is also a weird vibe to start what’s supposed to be a warm, holiday weekend message with, but here we are. It doesn’t get any better if we don’t name it first. And maybe you’re feeling some of it, too? We’re on the eve of another presidential election—how did three years go by so fast?—, and the stakes for democracy seem catastrophically high. Our screens are full of news of war. And so, the dread, the sense that more bad stuff is coming and you can’t do anything about it. It’s the paralyzing feeling of the rabbit staring at the snake. Which is exactly what the snake wants. And that’s what I try to remember to help me snap out of the dread. I remember that I have the ability to stop staring at the snake. I have the ability to DO STUFF—sometimes a little, sometimes a lot. I try to remember, too, that one reason people sometimes feel paralyzed is that we in the media can make it seem that way—as if there are only problems, never solutions. Witness the recent boomlet of democracy doomsaying from some of America’s most influential newsrooms. You might have seen the stories. The Atlantic published [a full issue]( plumbing the consequences “if Trump wins.” The New York Times has been reporting on the plans that Trump allies are drawing up for turning a second term for him into [a revenge-fest](. The historian Robert Kagan [wrote]( an essay in the Washington Post whose headline literally was “A Trump dictatorship is increasingly inevitable. We should stop pretending.” These are grim, necessary reads. But aren’t they also about eight years overdue? It was [not hard to see](, way back in 2015 and 2016, how Trump was telling white supremacists and fascists that he was one of them. It was not hard to see that Trump was not going to move to the center when he took power. It was not hard to see that he wouldn't give up power without a fight. Very little of it all has been hard to see. Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg notes, in [an essay]( that opens with an anecdote about a lunch he had with Jared Kushner in the White House (…!) that the Republican Party has “mortgaged itself to an antidemocratic demagogue.” But… that is hardly news, is it? Shouldn’t we be further along in the conversation by now? The tone of this coverage is one of inevitability. “We continue to drift toward dictatorship,” writes Kagan “still hoping for some intervention that will allow us to escape the consequences of our collective cowardice, our complacent, willful ignorance and, above all, our lack of any deep commitment to liberal democracy. As the man said, we are going out not with a bang but a whimper.” A whimper? That’s not what I see when I go looking. Who’s this “we” that is just sitting idly by? Maybe Kagan, a former Republican, is thinking of his onetime colleagues in the GOP. But he certainly isn’t looking at the election workers who stand up to intimidation and harassment each November, or the voters who have rallied in state after state to protect women’s right to choose. Or for that matter of Mother Jones readers. We hear from a lot of you during this season, when you write us beautiful holiday greetings (like the multigenerational ornament and note that touched me this week, pasted in below). You tell us about knocking on doors, writing postcards to voters, doing phone banks. Some of you protest, some tutor children. Some of you take this time at the end of the year to [donate]( to work you care about. You are not getting columns written about you in the Washington Post. But this note is about you, because knowing that you’re out there is what helps us face up to the dread and take action. I hope we can do the same for you. Mother Jones was the first national outlet to report on voter suppression regularly and deeply, exploring how the [push for minority rule]( may be the greatest threat to our democracy, and we’ve been going nonstop on documenting these battles. Like when Garrison Hayes [took on]( Ron DeSantis’ argument that slavery benefited the enslaved, or Ari Berman [revealed]( a secret push to dramatically undercut what’s left of the Voting Rights Act. These are stories that get out in front of the rest of the media—to sound the alarm and shine a light where others are not looking yet, just like our coverage of the dangers of Trump’s authoritarianism did back in 2016. And we can do them only because our readers support our ability to do it. Because of you, we don’t have to cover [what Ivanka Trump wore to court](. This magazine was named after a woman who stood up, [in a very dark time](, when someone like her was not supposed to have any power. And by becoming part of a movement of many thousands of people who did the same, Mary Harris Jones became one of the most powerful people in America. Laws and policies changed. Kids got to go to school instead of down into the mines. It’s during times of dread that the greatest change often happens. And right now, tens of thousands of people come together every year to make Mother Jones change-minded journalism happen. You want the truth—including difficult truths, ones that challenge you—but you don’t freeze in the face of it. You put the truth to work. And that’s how we overcome the dread we might feel from time to time. I don’t know, maybe I should have just kept this simple and sent you all the great card our team made this year which is not dreadful at all? Let me know what you think, and if you’re feeling dreadful or have a story of hope to [share here](. [Joy(nalism) to the world] And here’s the beautiful handwritten card and ornament we received this week that really moved me: “I have wondered if anyone now at Mother Jones remembers this Christmas ornament. This has been on our tree over 40 years. My father-in-law was a union man, UE-Local 107 in Philadelphia. He wrote their union paper. I don’t know where we got this cardboard ornament—he gave it to me many years ago. I love Mother Jones, read it every month, subscribe to it and donate yearly. Have a good New Year!” [Mother Jones] Thanks for reading, and for everything you do to make Mother Jones what it is. I’m not going to make a big fuss about the [year-end donations]( we need this weekend, but I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t point out the big red button below these emails—and thank you so much to everyone who has already pitched in. Onward, [Monika Bauerlein, CEO] Monika Bauerlein, CEO Mother Jones [Donate](   [Mother Jones]( [Donate]( [Donate Monthly]( [Subscribe]( This message was sent to {EMAIL}. To change the messages you receive from us, you can [edit your email preferences]( or [unsubscribe from all mailings.]( For advertising opportunities see our online [media kit.]( Were you forwarded this email? [Sign up for Mother Jones' newsletters today.]( [www.MotherJones.com]( PO Box 8539, Big Sandy, TX 75755