It’s hard to believe that it’s been almost two full years since my first French Press newsletter. I left my good friends at National Review, took one entire weekend off, and then hit the ground running. And ever since that day, I’m constantly asked, “How’s The Dispatch? How’s it going?”
There are two reasons why I can confidently respond that things are going very well. The Dispatch is thriving. First, the numbers just don’t lie. Every day more people sign up. Every week our newsletters go out to a bigger and bigger list. It turns out that people want fact-based reporting and analysis.
The second reason, however, may even be more meaningful. Each member of the team constantly receives the same compliment: “Thank you. You’ve helped keep me sane.”
I can completely understand the sentiment. Consider where we’ve been since we launched in October 2019. We started out covering Trump’s first impeachment, and that ended up being the least controversial, most conventional controversy we covered over the next two years.
Think about what happened after Trump’s acquittal. The pandemic flared, the economy briefly collapsed, George Floyd was murdered, protests and riots swept American cities, Trump lost, he tried to cling to power, Trumpists stormed the Capitol, Trump was impeached again, and then– after everything allegedly started to go back to “normal” after Biden was sworn in–the new president decided to go ahead and lose the Afghan war.
I’m exhausted just typing that paragraph. As Michelle Goldberg pointed out in the New York Times when the George Floyd protests started in May 2020, in that year alone it was like we endured 1974 (Watergate), 1918 (Spanish flu), 1929 (Great Depression), and 1968 (urban riots) all at once. By 2021 we had added another 1974 and a 1975 (fall of Saigon) to the mix. In January we came closer to flirting with 1861 than any time in my life.
I’m proud of my colleagues. Through it all, they kept their heads. They cut through the rhetoric, they reported the facts, and they called out both sides without fear or favor. They kept you sane? They kept me sane.
If you’ve opened this email, chances are you’ve opened a lot of our emails. But unless you join, you’re honestly missing some of our best stuff. You’re missing Jonah’s outstanding midweek G-File. You’re missing the full, excellent reporting of The Morning Dispatch. You’re missing the best economics newsletter around and some of the best original national security reporting and analysis you’ll read anywhere.
You’re also missing our Dispatch Live events, where we speak directly to our members and answer their questions. And you’re missing most of my work (if you want to read more!).
If you’re on the fence, now’s a good time to hop off and give us a chance. This week only, we are offering a special 30-day free trial offer. Sign up for an annual membership and get 13 months of all of our work for the price of 12. And if you decide you don’t want to continue, for any reason, you can cancel at any time.
You don’t have to read it all. You can customize your experience and choose exactly the newsletters you want to read. You’ll never feel overwhelmed. But I hope you’ll join. Your membership makes our work possible. So here’s my pitch. It’s simple.
Join today, and let’s stay sane together.
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