I believe magazines of opinion are an essential source for the great political ideas and debates that shape and confront our country.

So, at The Nation, we were saddened by the news that The American Prospect might cease publication at the end of May if it’s unable to raise close to $500,000. In this age of consolidation and conglomeratization, when Citizens United has unleashed tens of millions of dollars to excessively influence our politics through brutish and misleading ads, we need the Prospect’s truth-telling independent journalism more than ever.

Founded in 1990 by Robert Kuttner, Robert Reich and Paul Starr as a response to the intellectual ascendancy of conservatism in the 1980s, The American Prospect offers up intelligent liberalism, smart reporting and coverage of movements, progressive thought and policy. It also offers incisive reporting on labor and the progressive infrastructure—of which the Prospect has been an anchor.

It’s also been a remarkably fertile training ground for many of American’s finest progressive journalists, including Josh Marshall, Matt Yglesias, Ann Friedman, Ezra Klein, Garance Franke-Ruta, Kate Sheppard and Jonathan Chait. And in the last year, the Prospect, like The Nation, has invested in the online world, broadening its reach through social media and other digital platforms. Whether founded twenty-two years or 147 years ago, we understand that these investments are a critical part of our future.

The Nation shares some great DNA with the Prospect: Nation writer and education expert Dana Goldstein got her start at TAP. Nation blogger Ben Adler blogged and wrote a weekly web column for the Prospect. Thenation.com’s national security writer, Robert Dreyfuss, was formerly an editor at The Prospect. Nation blogger Jamelle Bouie is a Prospect writing fellow. The Prospect’s executive editor Bob Moser was formerly a senior editor at The Nation. The Prospect’s web editor Gabriel Arena, whose recent moving piece on so-called cures for homosexuality received the site’s highest traffic ever, is a former Nation intern. And that’s just recent history!

The American Prospect urgently needs help to continue publishing. Its passing would be a major loss for the country. Here’s how to help. Please join me in keeping the Prospect alive.