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But only for a very limited time.   [Mother Jones]( MoJo Reader, Let me get the business end done first, then a bit of the personal. Our fall fundraising drive ends next Wednesday. We've raised half of our $325,000 budget, and that's tough. But we've learned so much from your heartfelt and helpful feedback when I first [shared]( this one was struggling like never before. And a longtime friend of Mother Jones stepped up and pledged an incredibly generous gift, so all [online donations]( will be MATCHED dollar for dollar to help us finish this campaign as strong as we possibly can. [If you can right now, please support Mother Jones when your gift will be doubled and go twice as far](. No donation is too small. They all add up to make our independent journalism possible. They all are urgently needed right now. Talk about a whirlwind, trying my best to raise the money it takes to keep MoJo charging hard over the last month. It's never easy, but with the election and the economy and the email after email we're all bombarded with, this fall push has been particularly hard to figure out. Well, it was, until I turned to the MoJo community and found that the most effective messages were the ones you all shared with each other about what you're going through, and what Mother Jones means to you. I'd like to share one with you as the week winds down, about what keeps me getting up in the morning and going to work for Mother Jones, and why I so very much believe it's worth [investing in today](—when your gift will be doubled and have twice the impact. Years ago, former Slate editor David Plotz described Mother Jones as "our bravest, toughest magazine," which was both an amazing compliment and a perfect, four-word mission statement. It meant, to me, that MoJo should be more fearless than conventional media; should go where they aren't (yet) going; should insist on talking about the things that matter, even when others aren't. Right now, that means talking about a concerted attack on democracy—one that doesn't come from just one person and his followers, didn't just begin in 2016, and isn't over when next week's midterms are. Ever since I came to Mother Jones in the Stone Age early 2000s, it has been clear that our institutions were insufficiently equipped to protect democracy. For decades, the best and brightest treated voting rights and election integrity as a worthy, but second-tier priority. When I'd talk to foundation executives about Mother Jones' voting rights and democracy reporting—even in 2017!—they'd commend us, and then explain that their priorities were elsewhere. Wealthy donors supported an authoritarian leader because he gave them low taxes and pliant judges. Politicians catered to racists and extremists because they vote. And the press—with exceptions—failed too. Many of the elite, national news organizations that set the tone and agenda for political campaigns ignored or obscured the racism inherent in the Tea Party and birther movements. They covered Donald Trump's first run for president as either a spectacle (that drove ratings) or a somewhat unorthodox version of a normal political campaign—until it was too late. This was, and still is, a failure of imagination: Many journalists and commentators in Washington saw American politics as a contest of equals on a level playing field, with rules and norms everyone buys into. They could not see a story that didn't fit that framework. It was also a failure of courage. It would have taken—and still would take—courage for mainstream journalists to say that Fox News is a propaganda network, not a news organization. It would have taken courage for Republicans to call Donald Trump in public what they called him in private. It would have taken courage for Democrats to stand up to some of their disparate constituencies and don't-rock-the-boat donors and present a united front against an unprecedented threat. But it's never too late to grow a spine. And if powerful people want an example of how to do that, all they need to look at is you. Yes, you. That's the brave, tough part of Mother Jones—the people who seek out the truth and put it to work. You are the people who demand the facts because you want to make up your mind independently of trends, conventional wisdom, or the loudest voices on social media. You want to find out what's really going on, and use it to stand up to bullies, propagandists, and power grabbers. In my time here, I've seen it time and again. Twenty years ago, you were the people who didn't fall for the lies about WMD and Iraq. Ten years ago, you understood that the backlash against the first Black president was not a mere, polite disagreement about policy. Five years ago, you stood up, in your own way, to an authoritarian movement seeking to undermine American democracy. Whether that movement will succeed in the coming years is America's next unwritten chapter. But what we already know is that a lot of people like you are committed to not letting it happen. Protecting and expanding small-d democracy is what an overwhelming majority of Americans wants. And it's what millions are stepping up to do every day, with the acts of courage that we should be seeing from our leaders. That's what Mother Jones­­—our reporting, our community—has always been about to me. And whether you've been with us since the early years or more recently found our journalism and it spoke to you, I'm grateful to have seen you all set such a powerful example for the rest of us to follow. Thanks for reading, and for everything you to do make Mother Jones what it is. [Monika] 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