September 25, 2015

Donald Trump Is Not Fit to Win the War on Christmas

<a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-159780773/stock-photo-santa-claus-over-the-city-with-red-sack.html?src=5EZLWIS9hsIJbJhDP91NmQ-1-24">Ollyy</a>/Shutterstock

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Donald Trump is pandering to some social conservatives today, so naturally he brought up the nonexistent War on Christmas:

“The word Christmas, I love Christmas,” Trump said. “You go to stores, you don’t see the word ‘Christmas.’ It says ‘happy holidays’ all over. I say, ‘where’s Christmas?'”

“I tell my wife, don’t go to those stores,” he continued, as the crowd began cheering. “I want to see Christmas. You know, other people can have their holidays, but Christmas is Christmas. I want to see ‘Merry Christmas.’ Remember the expression, ‘Merry Christmas?’ You don’t see it anymore. You’re going to see it if I get elected, I can tell you that right now.”

Trump did not explain how he would, as president, compel business owners to promote Christian expressions.

But if President Trump really wants to defend Christmas, he’s going to have to explain his earlier flirtations with the enemy:

 

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We'll also be quite transparent and level-headed with you about this.

In "News Never Pays," our fearless CEO, Monika Bauerlein, connects the dots on several concerning media trends that, taken together, expose the fallacy behind the tragic state of journalism right now: That the marketplace will take care of providing the free and independent press citizens in a democracy need, and the Next New Thing to invest millions in will fix the problem. Bottom line: Journalism that serves the people needs the support of the people. That's the Next New Thing.

And it's what MoJo and our community of readers have been doing for 47 years now.

But staying afloat is harder than ever.

In "This Is Not a Crisis. It's The New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, why this moment is particularly urgent, and how we can best communicate that without screaming OMG PLEASE HELP over and over. We also touch on our history and how our nonprofit model makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there: Letting us go deep, focus on underreported beats, and bring unique perspectives to the day's news.

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