Forward, into the Future.

• Author: Lueders, Bill
• Position: EDITOR'S NOTE - Editorial

First and foremost, thank you.

Readers of The Progressive from all over responded to our appeals in the last issue for help in our time of dire financial need. We received more than 1,600 contributions large and small. The magazines finances remain precarious. We are still tens of thousands of dollars in debt. But for now, our heads are off the chopping block. And we know that, in our 109th year, our readers are there for us. You will sustain us into the future.

Here are some suggestions for ways to help do that:

Renew your subscription and consider giving more than the basic price. The cost is nominal because we want to reach as many people as possible, but we rely on subscribers who give more.

Buy gift subscriptions for people you know, and talk up the magazine. Consider becoming an ambassador of The Progressive, calling attention to the excellent work being done. The writers and staff who contribute to this magazine deserve far more recognition than they get.

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter (@theprogressive) and check us out online. We devote a great deal of energy to producing high-quality content for our website. We have daily dispatches on important issues and developments, archives of the op-eds we produce for use by hundreds of U.S. newspapers, and hysterically funny videos by Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Mark Fiore. (See our ad listing some recent stories on page 24.) And subscribe to our free weekly newsletter, at http://tiny.cc/ProgressiveNewsletter, which highlights what we do online.

Remember: In a political climate dominated by a President who has open contempt for the institutions of American democracy, including a free press, our readers have the power to keep us going. We're here and viable because of you.

The theme for this issue is One Year of Trump, but the pieces it includes are not as depressing as that sounds. For every outrage, there is pushback. The battle has been joined. This President can and must be defeated.

Melissa Ryan explores Trumps ties to the haters and lunatics known as the alt-right, which constitutes "a key constituency and a significant portion of his political base." Bryce Covert probes Trumps propensity to lie about the economy, leading to "a mass distrust in reality and an atrophied policy debate." Mark Anthony Rolo looks at how Trump has revived the federal governments longstanding efforts "to end Indian...