Discouraging Metrics

As you may have noticed on the main page, our fund drive is pretty darn sluggish. We're less than halfway to where we should be by this point. Which must be good news. I mean, if Antiwar.com can't scrape up a few bucks each from a fraction of its daily readers, it must mean that the past few months were all a bad dream. George W. Bush obviously wasn't reelected. The current president doesn't think he has a mandate to conquer the world. The neocons must be on the run. The threat to our civil liberties and basic human dignity has subsided. We withdrew from Iraq, where everything's going A-OK. And there's no way in hell we're going to attack Iran. Right? Nope. I just pinched myself and realized that this is no nightmare: this is Bush 2.0. Here's what I wrote the weekend before the U.S. election:

The notion that Bush will ditch the imperial project, while comforting, does not jibe with what we know of human nature, particularly as it plays out in politics. Success is affirmation, and the only real measure of success politicians have is reelection. Even from a market perspective, the Great Bush Conversion to noninterventionism makes little sense: why switch to New Coke when the old stuff is selling so well? We're talking about a man who interpreted his purely technical (though nonetheless valid) win in 2000 – without even a plurality, much less a majority, of the popular vote – as a blank check to pursue policies far different from what he had promised. (Remember that "humble" foreign policy?) With Iraq growing less sexy every day, who believes he isn't tempted by the hussy next door? Four years of Michael Ledeen purring "faster, please" in his ear must be having some effect. Wishful thinking aside, Bush isn't going to dump the neoconservatives or the fundamentalists. They're the Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of the Bush coalition: without both, the group is nothing. The neocons need the fundies for grassroots support, and the fundies need the neocons to provide a secular cover for holy war. And though everyone knows Bush is a fundie, it's time to concede that he wasn't hijacked by the neocons – he is one.

And it's all coming true. For Pete's sake, Bush's inaugural address gave even full-time GOP shill Peggy Noonan the creeps! But don't expect Peggy and the rest of the MSM to keep you informed as the neocons and the fundies march us toward another precipice – one that promises to bring about that Clash of Civilizations the warmongers have been dreaming about, and with it, the death blow to our Republic. Look, I know these quarterly fundraisers are a nuisance. We would rather not bother with them ourselves. But until the Richard Mellon Scaifes and Rupert Murdochs experience a 180-degree change of heart, we'll be forced to ask our readers for the money to go on. And if you read this site regularly, you can't say we haven't earned it. Our news collection alone is second to none. Again, if you're a regular around here, I'm willing to venture that Antiwar.com's news section saves you at least an hour per day – how long would it take you to comb through, oh, THE ENTIRE WORLD WIDE WEB??? Now, at current U.S. federal minimum-wage rates, an hour is worth $5.15. If time is money, then it's fair to say that Antiwar.com saves you at least $36/week, $144/month, $1,800/year! Of course, we would never ask for that much (on the other hand, we won't reject it if you send it, either!). But if a meager 10% of our daily readers put themselves down for just $5 – one minimum-wage hour! – per month, we'd have more than enough to continue. Instead of dreading the quarterly fund drive, enduring our guilt trips, having to decide how much is appropriate to give, etc., why not just become a monthly contributor? That way, when the next drive comes around, you can just click past all the pleading with no guilt whatsoever – and you'll be keeping the best source for antiwar news and views alive. Become part of the heroic 10% today!