I do not know, dear reader, if you are the kind of person who thinks about tax liabilities at year’s end–and how to mitigate them with exclusions, deductions or credits. Left to my own devices, I’m more of a think-about-in-on-April-14 kind of guy. But that ain’t right: thinking ahead is a good idea, particularly if it encourages you to go ahead and make some IRS-preferred spending decisions you want to make anyway.

As 2013 winds down, we ask each and every one of you to think ahead and if possible make a tax-deductible contribution to the Washington Monthly, which involves diverting some monies from the tax man with his permission.

George and Eric would approve.

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Ed Kilgore is a political columnist for New York Magazine; a longtime contributor to the Washington Monthly; and a former policy adviser to three governors and a U.S. senator from his home state of Georgia.