Let’s Make 2020 a Better Year For Common Decency

Kevin Drum

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I am ending the year much as I began it: worn out and mad at the world. But! At least I have Mother Jones. I may not be able to do anything concrete about Donald Trump until 2020, but in the meantime MoJo allows me to vent my spleen while reminding me every day that not everyone has gone nuts. Some of us are still fighting for a world that’s not delusional—and, better still, a world where we believe in treating people decently.

And that’s it. Am I setting my bar too low these days? Maybe. But I don’t insist on brotherly love or universal kindness or generosity of spirit. Those would be nice, but I’ll settle for treating people decently. Anybody who’s committed to doing at least that much—along with a government that reflects it—is OK in my book. Sadly, it seems like we have a longer way to go on that front than we did a decade ago.

Now, it occurs to me that this is not a very uplifting start to a fundraising pitch. But common decency is undervalued, and it’s something that Mother Jones has always been dedicated to. It doesn’t matter if we’re running an article about undocumented immigrants or schools that work or Donald Trump’s latest bit of hatefulness. Read an inch below the surface and the message is that everyone deserves to be treated decently. We’ve been doing this for nearly 50 years, and one of the things that keeps us going is donations from the people who agree with us. Tomorrow is the last day of our year-end fundraiser, so if you’re a fan of common decency then this is a great time to donate some money to the cause. It will help make 2020 a better year for everyone.

To donate via credit card or PayPal, click here.

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Fact:

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2022 demands.

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