Liberal Currents Needs Your Help

Here at Liberal Currents we recognized the threat that Donald Trump presented from day one. Now, as he openly seeks to make himself a dictator, we need your help. Help that you can give by contributing to the Liberal Currents Startup Fund.

In this time of authoritarian consolidation, building and supporting true opposition media is more important than ever. A loud opposition press with a long reach is a critical factor for successfully resisting presidents with ambitions of becoming dictators. There is a reason that consolidating control over the media system is one of the very first things that authoritarians do, every single time. And Trump has sought to do exactly that, with more and more signs every day that he is making headway.

But even where he has not consolidated his control, supposedly liberal media have been utterly inept at opposing him. As masked thugs kidnap people in broad daylight, as the military is sent into American cities, as the press itself is under assault, the owner of the New York Times proudly proclaimed: “We’re not the resistance. We are nobody’s opposition.” At a time when entire states are threatened by the administration for allowing a single transgender woman to participate in women’s sports, The Atlantic is publishing anti-trans writers who rant about “liberal misinformation bubbles.”

We are not a news organization. We won’t be replacing the New York Times anytime soon. But the country deserves a better, more principled publication that has the place in our media industry that The Atlantic does. Liberal Currents could one day occupy that role, if our growth continues as it has.

If you want to help us take our first real steps down that long road, please donate to the Liberal Currents Startup Fund today. This is your chance to make a material difference in what voices are heard in this country.

Why Liberal Currents

The importance of supporting opposition media cannot be overstated. But we are not alone. Why should you support us, specifically?

Before I give you our case, I’d like to let a few others speak for themselves:

"Liberal Currents is reclaiming the radical, vigorous legacy of liberalism, all but forgotten over the decades in an increasingly helpless and confused Democratic Party. We badly need that energy as part of the popular front against Donald Trump's fascism." —Ryan Cooper, Senior Editor at The American Prospect and cohost of Left Anchor

"At a time when many liberals were chasing fashionable anti-woke nonsense, Liberal Currents took actual liberal principles of equal freedom seriously. Now, as the second Trump administration has vindicated the Liberal Currents approach, its work is more important than ever." —Zack Beauchamp, Senior Correspondent at Vox

"Liberal Currents is raising funds to continue its work promoting a principled, humane liberalism: one that refuses to pick and choose whose freedom matters." —Sharon Kuruvilla

"Liberal Currents is an important space for expansive progressive thought in a media environment saturated by center-right opinions. Most notably, they offer variety without ever sacrificing the humanity of any of their readers." —Marisa Kabas, independent journalist at The Handbasket

"The core values of liberalism—democracy, liberty, pluralism, rationalism—built the modern world, but many of our institutions have grown embarrassed of them. Liberal Currents has stepped into the breach to defend these vital ideas." —Will Stancil

"Liberal Currents is an indispensable guide to understanding politics in the present and reimagining a broad-based, small-l liberalism for the future." —Elizabeth Popp Berman, Professor of Organizational Studies and Sociology at the University of Michigan

"Indie media that’s a real outlet, with multiple contributors and a strong collective voice. Liberal Currents is a welcome influence on political discourse, unabashedly standing up for liberalism, and making it seem like something worth standing for." —Nicholas Grossman, International Relations Professor at the University of Illinois

"At a time when most publications chase wherever the Overton Window shifts, we need ones like Liberal Currents that stay grounded in principles." —Mike Masnick, Founder and Editor of Techdirt

"Liberal Currents is doing some of the most important intellectual work out there deconstructing the underpinnings of our ongoing slide into illiberalism. Deeply theoretical and creatively argued, it's finding new ways to fire up the liberal imagination with an eye toward explaining what a liberal future might really look like." —Greg Sargent, staff writer at The New Republic and the host of the podcast The Daily Blast

From the moment of Trump’s victory in November of 2016, we began to prepare a new publication, one dedicated to helping liberalism find its footing in a new and dangerous era. We launched the following March, in 2017. We have learned a great deal since that time, but one thing that has not changed is our steadfast commitment to opposing the resurgence of racism and patriarchy in this country, the kind that dispenses with dogwhistles and announces itself proudly.

While larger media outlets have wavered since the first Trump term, we have remained steadfast in our categorical rejection of MAGA in all its aspects and our affirmation of liberal democracy and the principles that it rests on. We did what we could during the 2024 campaign, but prepared for the worst. Since Trump’s election, we have covered his attack on the federal payments system, the white supremacists that have been put in charge of the federal government, and the brewing crisis of pedophilia in conservative politics. We have launched two new podcasts, Neon Liberalism and Half the Answer, exploring every aspect of the ongoing crisis. We will not abandon our commitment to the liberal ideals of truth, freedom, and democracy. 

What is more, this approach is working. Since the election of Trump in 2024, the influence of Liberal Currents has surged. We have grown traffic to LiberalCurrents.com by 600 percent and our 2025 revenue will be ten times our 2024 revenue. Social media follows have gone from four thousand to over thirty thousand. An article by our editor-in-chief Adam Gurri was published by MSNBC, and associate editor Samantha Hancox-Li appeared on CNN to discuss an article she wrote for Foreign Policy. Contributing editors Toby Buckle and Alan Elrod consistently see large readership for their Liberal Currents essays. And our work is frequently cited in prominent sources, such as the newsletter written by Jamelle Bouie for the New York Times.

At present, nearly 100% of our funding goes straight to our writers. With every advancement in the scale of our funding, we have increased the fee we pay to writers. This year, we’ve started paying for some other things as well—for audio and video editing from Trent Nelson, and for editing on a per-piece basis, for example.

But in 2025, that isn’t enough. We need full-time staff dedicated to pursuing our core mission as effectively as possible. We need to make some major one-time investments to transform Liberal Currents into a fully professionalized organization.

The Liberal Currents Startup Fund is our shot at doing just that. If we met our goal, we would be able to take a big leap ahead in terms of organizational capacity. It would mean doing some projects we’ve struggled to get off the ground this year, such as special issues made available in print, and regularly produced video essays. And in general it would mean that we had more time to commit to making Liberal Currents the best and biggest version of itself that it can be.

If the idea of an Atlantic run by liberals who mean it sounds good to you, please consider giving us your support and sharing our fundraiser with others who feel the same way.