The Nation: Socialism Another Casualty of the Recession

Q: What's black and white and red all over? A: The Nation.

Now here's proof that the Great Recession is an extreme right-wing plot to destroy the left and so take over the world for fascism. The Politico reports that venerable lefty rag The Nation is in desperate financial straits, even enlisting journalists to send fundraising letters for help in offsetting its million-dollar deficit.

Our last experience with The Nation in print was while riding the CTA's 22 bus north on Clark Street through the city's tonier residential districts to our cheap, obscure hotel in a more modest quarter. There we watched a well-turned out, genteel, elderly lady turn its pulp pages--laden with graphics strongly reminiscent of so-called "socialist realism" but notably unburdened with advertising, save appeals from the ACLU and The Nation itself for charitable gifts, including especially estate gifts. We recall thinking that the fine lady's gloves certainly cost more than several years' subscription to her reading material, while her hat and coat would certainly exceed the value of certain autos in the SWNIDish fleet.

Doubtless the subscriber whom we saw decamp from the bus near a Lincoln Park high-rise condo building could fund the journal's seven-figure deficit without much trouble. Whether relying on the charity of the top 1% indefinitely is a feasible business plan for an avowedly socialist publication is still questionable.