I have admired The American Conservative for years, but I finally came on board in the middle of 2016. I could not have picked a better time.

This has been an eventful year for the country, but it has been an especially eventful year in our little corner—or is it bigger than we thought?—of the conservative movement. Against all expectations, Donald Trump won the presidency by emphasizing issues that have concerned TAC since its inception. We and our friends had mixed views about the man himself, to say the least, but we all agree on one thing now that he’s headed to the White House: it’s time to hold his feet to the fire.

The American people deserve to know if they’re getting what they thought they voted for, and we are uniquely qualified to scrutinize every move that Trump and the conservative establishment make. We are openly conservative ourselves, but we are not beholden to Republican Party orthodoxy—an orthodoxy that, as it turns out, has few true adherents. Nor are we beholden to the mainstream media’s pieties, or to Trump’s electoral prospects. We believe what vast swathes of the American public believe, and we are free to say honestly whether politicians’ behavior is consistent with those beliefs across a wide range of issues.

In my own writing, for example, I have focused on the domestic-policy debate, seeking to frankly answer the key questions bedeviling the right today. How would Trump’s tax ideas affect the budget? Could he really just kill two regulations for every new one enacted? How would he treat labor unions? And just what would it take to fix Obamacare? My answers have not been consistently flattering or unflattering of Trump or the GOP, but they have constituted the truth as I see it, as messy as it may be.

It costs a lot, though, to keep a website and magazine running, even one with a small staff like ours. This is why I urge you to contribute to our year-end fundraising drive—and why I thank all those who have helped the magazine stay afloat all these years.

Robert VerBruggen is managing editor of The American Conservative.