THE ASCENT

We don’t know if we’ll hit #1. We just know that Huckabee is in our rearview, and we have you to thank for that.

We’re not supposed to be here. No one invited us. No one held the door. We found an open window, climbed through it bleeding, and started broadcasting with a fax machine and a flame.

Closer to the Edge was built on the idea that the truth doesn’t have to be polite. That real reporting can be messy, hilarious, furious, and alive. That sometimes the only way to confront power is to shout the truth while laughing through your own panic attack.

And now? We’re #6 on Substack’s Rising U.S. Politics list.

That wasn’t a marketing team. That was you.

Every free subscriber. Every paid subscriber. Every rage-click. Every shared post. Every glorious bastard who saw Mike Huckabee slap a bass and said, “No. Not today. Not while these people still have toner.”

But we don’t control what happens next. We can’t buy our way forward. We don’t have think tanks or ad dollars or Peter Thiel’s blood-chilling Bitcoin fund behind us. Only you can push us further. And if you want us to keep rising — to #5, to #3, to the top of this jagged little mountain — we need you now more than ever.

Let’s take a look at some of the names still ahead of us. Let’s say their names with respect and/or necessary sarcasm.

THE MEIDAS TOUCH
Loud. Omnipresent. The political equivalent of an airhorn duct-taped to a YouTube channel. They are very online, very good at what they do, and yes, they have merch. We tip our hats, but we also know they’ve got a full studio and a hashtag army. We’ve got... a cursed printer, a pot of coffee, and a growing library of subpoenable quotes. If we pass MeidasTouch, it’s because you made it happen — because readers decided substance and style don’t have to be mutually exclusive.

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON
The reigning queen of calm context. She writes with poise, with care, with the long arc of history curling through every sentence like steam off a cup of tea in a Vermont cabin. If she’s the Ken Burns of newsletters, we’re the punk band spray-painting the archive doors. Passing Heather doesn’t mean disrespect — it means balance. It means the rage and the reason can sit side by side in this moment. We’re not here to dethrone her. But if we’re going to share this mountain, we want to earn that seat. With your help, we can.

THE FREE PRESS
Ah yes. The big tent for people who believe “cancel culture” is the real pandemic. Bari Weiss & Co. built an empire of “actually...” energy. If The Free Press is the place where hedge fund managers go to feel brave, Closer to the Edge is where whistleblowers, teachers, medics, immigrants, anarchists, and one really angry fax technician gather to drag the truth into daylight by the ankles. If we pass them, it won’t be because we catered to power — it’ll be because we exposed it.

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So here we are. #6. Rising. Not because we gamed the system. Not because we threw money at Facebook for ad placements. But because you read something and said, “Holy shit, this matters.”

If you’re already subscribed — thank you.

If you’re already a paid subscriber — please know that you’re the fuel in the engine.

If you’re still deciding — now’s the time.

We have no control over how fast we rise. Only you do.

We don’t have interns spamming X. We have you. That’s it. And it’s enough — if you believe in it. If you want this newsletter to reach more people, shake more cages, and break into the top five, the top three, the top of the goddamn food chain — it starts with a click.

Subscribe. Free or paid. Upgrade if you’re able to. And please tell someone else what’s happening here. Loudly.

We're building something that scares the establishment. That makes people in positions of power sweat. That makes history uncomfortable. And we’re just getting started.

This is not the end. This is the ascent.