Back during the 2008 campaign, Barack Obama liked to talk of the inflection point facing this nation in large terms: the economic challenges facing the country as we rescued the banksters from their foolishness, the tipping point on climate change, the damage Cheney’s unitary executive fantasies did to our nation’s place in the world, and our country’s increasing lack of competitiveness because our nation squanders so much money on health care. Obama’s administration still speaks in terms of inflection points–both in grand terms and more self-serving political ones. But on none of these issues has Obama implemented the bold solutions demanded by the challenges facing us and on most, Obama’s Administration has hastened the embrace of policies that threaten our way of life.

Meanwhile, we at FDL–to the extent you can generalize about the diverse work we do–have been pushing to respond to the same challenges with the seriousness the moment requires. As Obama put backroom deals ahead of saving money on healthcare delivery, Jon Walker pushed for the public option and drug reimportation. As the Senate threatens to gut real derivatives legislation, David Dayen has prevented the Senate from whitewashing what it was doing (and Jane pushed for a Bill Halter challenge to help pressure the Senate to do the right thing). As Democrats in DC repeatedly refused to help banksters in a way that might also help struggling homeowners, Cynthia Kouril and masaccio contributed their real expertise to advocate for homeowners getting screwed. And a number of us continue to fight for rule of law even as most of DC gets bored with the idea.

We fight this fight because the stakes are so high, because the time we live in is so challenging. Obama was right: this is an inflection point, a real turning point in our nation’s history. And we need to continue to fight for progressive solutions to our problems. But we can’t continue to do so without your help. We need to raise at least $50,000 by the end of the month to keep fighting for progressive solutions to the challenges we face.

Click here to donate $20, $50 or more to keep FDL strong.

Last year, a bunch of you donated money to support the work I do. That money has supported–and continues to support–my work on accountability and rule of law. At a time when some folks in DC wanted me to work for them on completely different issues, for example, your support allowed me to instead spend over six weeks wading through OPR documents to expose key details about our torture regime. Your support allowed me to get research materials and travel to do research. Your support allowed me to continue to focus on topics–like torture and wiretapping–that I wouldn’t have had the time to research otherwise.

Now, I’m asking for your donation of $20, $50–or whatever you can afford–to support our larger FDL effort: our fight for real financial reform, for improvements to the health care bill, to save social security, for a real climate change bill, for some sanity in our Afghan policy. Your support will go to keep the servers running, the editors preparing content, the moderators ensuring the vitality of our ongoing conversation. Your support will go to ensure that our many talented posters will have a place to contribute their work. Your support will help Jane keep this special place running.

We’re at a turning point. We’re fighting those who want to turn our country into a corporatist security state. We’re fighting those within the Democratic party that place paying off campaign donors ahead of the good of the country. They’ve got a lot more people and an unbelievable amount of money and the ability to dry up institutional funding to enforce their policies. What we’ve got to combat those forces is you: an unbelievable community of smart, passionate people, some of whom have the wherewithal to support this effort financially. If you’re one of those who can, please donate $20, $50, or more to keep the efforts of FDL strong.