It’s Because of You
A community like nothing else on the internet.
Hey fam,
I’m burying the lede with this note so stick with me until the end where I have an exciting announcement and a reminder for founding members—but I wanted to first start with a THANK YOU.
I finally got my picture in the Washington Post and I have you to thank.
The Post ran a big profile of The Bulwark a few weeks back, but it wasn’t really about The Bulwark. It was about you guys: The Bulwark’s community. I’m so proud of us.
How did we build this community worthy of Washington Post coverage? Well let me tell you about one reason: Years ago, in the beginning, I’d get tons of emails every day from Bulwark readers. I’d try to answer as many of them as I could and over the years I’ve become close friends with a bunch of these people. I felt pretty confident when we moved to Substack and turned on comments that this new community had interesting things to say and could provide some support for each other. I was right.
The comments section in The Triad is unlike any place on the internet. It’s a real community built on good faith where people don’t call each other names. When people disagree, sometimes they change their minds. A few weeks ago one person in the comments said that she thought that a guy replying to her was being dismissive—he apologized and they went on to have a great conversation.
This community that has grown up around The Bulwark doesn’t just talk. We frequently raise money together. Every so often, I’ll come across a need somewhere. One time it was an autistic kid trying to raise money so that other autistic kids could attend a summer camp that changed his life. Another time it was putting together enough money to rescue an Afghan interpreter who had helped American soldiers from the Taliban. (Will Selber recently wrote about what The Bulwark means to him in a note to our free readers. Read it here.)
Point is: Every time I put out the call, The Bulwark community responds to the need. It’s one of the most extraordinary things I’ve seen in 28 years of working in journalism. THANK YOU.
Another extraordinary thing about this family is your support of us. Your founding membership is supporting the mission of helping to defend democracy. By becoming a Bulwark+ member you’ve helped to keep most of what we do here free so it can reach the widest possible audience—because you can’t help save democracy from behind a paywall.
(Another thing your support allows is for us to grant membership to people who can’t afford to be members of Bulwark+. We never turn away anyone who wants to be part of this family just because they can’t afford the membership. Think about how crazy this is! Your support doesn’t just keep the lights on, it pays for people who can’t. And we can only operate this way because of you. THANK YOU.)
The growth of this community and of the The Bulwark’s stature on the national stage is why the Washington Post saw fit to send a reporter to cover our recent live shows. And that coverage helps us reach even more folks who are Bulwark people, but just don’t know it yet.
Which, in turn, allows us to bring more pro-democracy voices to the family—like former congressman Adam Kinzinger, George Conway, and Marc Caputo, who all joined the team recently.
And today, I’m pleased to announce that we’re bringing on Sam Stein. You’ll know him from HuffPost, the Daily Beast, Politico, and MSNBC.
Again: We’re able to bring on aces like Sam because of your support. Thank you. Sincerely, from the bottom of my heart: THANK YOU.
I’m excited about what’s ahead this year—for The Bulwark anyway. And you can trust we’ll be right here for as long as it takes to win this fight.
Best,
JVL
Reminder: June 25th Founders Town Hall on Zoom: “Ask Me Anything” with Tim Miller and Adam Kinzinger. We’ll email you the Zoom link on Tuesday.