Happy Thursday, readers. I want to welcome new and long-time free subscribers to the full Off Message experience by offering a significant, year-long discount on monthly and annual memberships. If you’re interested in receiving three additional posts in full each week (no more pesky paywalls), submitting questions for our Thursday mailbag, joining live conversations, participating in our commenter community, and various other perks, please consider becoming a paid member. I believe (and am proud) that Off Message has distinguished itself at a disorienting time as a rare bastion of clear thinking and analysis. We’ve become a leading hub for vigorous but good-faith debate within the broad, pro-democracy movement—a virtue that had gone missing in the Trump years—and are (slowly, steadily) rekindling a lost spirit of fighting liberalism. Join us in that effort! If you sign up before the end of the week, you’ll be good to go through the coming midterm elections and (knock on wood) the early months of a new Democratic majority. You’ll gain access to everything we publish going forward, plus all the other goodies I mentioned above—the whole deal. You’ll also help insure the future and independence of this publication. Your support is like a moat. I occasionally nudge people to sign up, and (in return) members get my solemn promise that this newsletter will never be compromised by political pressure, or become an A.I. slop farm, or choose access over accuracy. Just a bunch of real humans, writing and reading and thinking together in community, insulated from these destructive forces. This is a make-or-break year for American democracy; nobody should have to white-knuckle it alone. I’ve strived to be a steady guide through this seemingly endless crisis, and that remains my commitment: To see things steady and whole, and (with your help) to bring about changes in progressive and liberal media and politics so that we emerge from this dangerous period in one piece. That same ethic will guide me and my contributors through whatever awaits us in the coming year. Whether you take me up on the offer or not, thank you sincerely for your support. It means everything. Brian
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