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Glenn's Show Prep

Mercury Confidential: Laurie Dhue talks about her remarkable career and what it's like to host For The Record

August 22, 2013
Wilson

Writer

By Meg Storm

Ever wonder what goes on behind-the-scenes at Mercury Radio Arts? Just how do all of Glenn’s crazy ideas get done? Does anyone ever get a chance to sleep? Well, over the next few months we are going to take you inside MRA, giving you the inside scoop on everything from publishing to special events, 1791 to TheBlaze. We will be interviewing members of our New York, Columbus, and Dallas staff, bringing you all the info, so you can know what it’s really like to work for Glenn.

Previous Installments: Kevin Balfe, Liz Julis, Joel Cheatwood, Eric Pearce, Michele Vanderhoff, Tiffany Siegel, Joe Weasel, Buck Sexton

Don’t miss Laurie TONIGHT on a brand-new episode of For The Record at 8pm ET only on TheBlaze. Not a subscriber? Start your 14-day free trial HERE.

Laurie Dhue is one of the most recognizable names in news. She is the only anchor to have hosted shows on the three primary cable news networks – CNN, MSNBC and FOX News – and her experiences span from running the teleprompter at CNN in the late 1980s to anchoring primetime news programs. She has met presidents, traveled the world, and been the voice of some of the most important news stories of the last two decades.

Laurie began working with TheBlaze in March as the host of For The Record, and she joined the team full time in July. Starting in September, you will see a lot more of Laurie as she anchors the ever-expanding primetime news updates on TheBlaze TV, in addition to hosting For The Record.

Born in North Carolina and raised in Atlanta, Laurie always knew exactly what she wanted to be when she grew up. “I was lucky,” Laurie said. “Unlike most of my college friends, I knew what I wanted to do by the age of 19. I had an internship at CNN in Atlanta the summer of 1988 – before some of TheBlaze.com folks were even born – which changed the course of my life.”

She attended the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, where she studied political science with a concentration in dramatic arts. Laurie was a member of the varsity swim team, an academic all-American, and a member of the Loreleis – a female a cappella group that toured the East Coast. “I still love to sing, and one of these days I’m going to do a cabaret performance for my friends,” she said smiling. “I’ve been saying this for years.”

It was the 1988 Democratic National Convention in Atlanta that ultimately jump-started her career. “The Democratic National Convention was held in Atlanta the summer of 1988, and I was smack in the middle of all the excitement,” Laurie explained. “As a booth runner for the anchors, including Larry King, I was responsible for everything from delivering scripts to making coffee, procuring sandwiches and straightening ties. The highlight was meeting Walter Cronkite.”

“I went back to UNC that fall knowing that I wanted get into news. At that point, I had not yet declared a major and the folks at CNN advised me to get a liberal arts degree and not limit myself to journalism,” she continued. “‘We’ll teach you more in a month than you’ll get in the next 2 years sitting in a classroom,’ one of my mentors told me. It was true. I learned an incredible amount in a very short period of time. I interned for CNN the next two summers – including an internship in London the summer of 1990 – then began working there full-time in the spring of 1991. The headquarters and main studios were in Atlanta at the time, though now most of CNN’s shows are based in NYC.”

When Laurie first started at CNN, her job was very much behind-the-scenes. “Between 1991 and 1997, I did just about every job at CNN you can imagine,” she said. Those jobs included running teleprompter, running scripts, checking show rundowns, pulling tapes, logging tapes (“one of the more tedious and humbling experiences”), running tapes, etc. You name it, she did it.

“Eventually, I became a guest booker and segment producer,” Laurie explained. “After a couple of years of researching and writing the anchors’ interviews – in the pre-Internet age – I knew I had to pursue my dream of being on-camera. I knew I had it in me and truly thought it was my destiny, I just needed a chance.”

Breaking into the media industry has never been easy, but in the early 1990s it was especially difficult to become an on-air talent without having previously spent some time in a small market. “In those days, it was much tougher. If you wanted to be an anchor or reporter, you had to start in a very small market,” she recalled. “I begged my boss to let me talk to the then-President of CNN, Tom Johnson, about doing something, anything, on camera. He saw how serious I was and agreed to let me do updates on the CNN Airport Network – yes, such a thing existed back in the day – but only in my spare time, nothing could interfere with my segment-producing job. So I taught myself how to use the teleprompter and practiced for hours and hours. My first Airport Channel hit lingers in the back of my mind somewhere. I don’t remember the moment, but I do remember thinking ‘Well, I’m on my way.’ It felt absolutely natural to me.”

Laurie’s big break came a few months later, in the summer of 1996, when she was offered the chance to anchor overnight news updates for CNN’s sister network Headline News (now HLN), but she would have to continue her producing job as well. As you can imagine, it was a pretty busy schedule.

“It was a hectic time,” Laurie explained. “By day, I was booking and pre-interviewing guests. By night, I was anchoring the news. I slept very little, but I didn’t care. Within six months, in January of 1997, I was offered a full-time anchor spot on CNN, becoming the youngest anchor in the network’s history. I anchored the midnight, 1AM and 5:30AM shows for a year – sleeping from 7AM till 3PM, which I really never got used to – then I moved to weekends.”

She anchored CNN Saturday and CNN Sunday for a year, before getting a call from her agent saying NBC was interested in meeting her. Laurie flew to New York and met with the NBC executives about hosting her own weekday show on MSNBC. Beginning in 1999, Laurie anchored several shows for MSNBC – covering breaking news and reporting long-form stories as well.

“My goal had always been to get to New York City, so I was thrilled to get the chance. Saying goodbye to my life, friends, and family in Atlanta was tough, but I knew it was the right decision and fell in love with the city the day I arrived,” Laurie said. “I had the privilege of reporting from Times Square on New Year’s Eve in 1999, which is one of the highlights of my career. Celebrating the turn of the millennium  (remember how the world was supposed to end on Y2K?)  with several million people was rather extraordinary!”

In mid-2000, Laurie made the move to Fox News. During that time she offered primetime news updates during Special Report with Britt Hume, The O’Reilly Factor, Hannity, and On the Record.

“I also hosted weekend shows and got the opportunity to report from the Middle East for several months over a period of two years,” she explained. “I later joined Geraldo At Large as a news anchor/primary correspondent and had a weekly segment on The O’Reilly Factor called ‘The Dhue Point.’ During my eight years at FNC, I also anchored live hourly updates on Fox News Radio. I was the voice of the official launch!”

It was during her time at Fox News that Laurie made the decision that would ultimately save her life. After battling alcoholism for some 15 years, Laurie made the decision to get sober on March 14, 2007. She chose to go public with her recovery a few years later, and her admission surprised many in the industry who knew Laurie and the quality of her work. She recently opened up to Glenn about her struggle with addiction and her road to recovery:

“Glenn and I have a commonality: we are both in recovery from alcoholism and share the beautiful, challenging journey through recovery,” Laurie said. “He has been nothing but supportive about the work I do in the recovery community, encouraging me to continue my public advocacy, and acknowledging that my battle with addiction has made me a stronger person.”

Laurie left Fox News in 2008, and founded her own media training and communications consultancy, Laurie Dhue Media, which helps people prepare for media interviews of all kinds. She fronted several corporate broadcasts, in addition to co-hosting The PIX 11 Morning News in New York City for several months – an experience that provided its own set of unique challenges. “Local morning news is a completely different experience, very fun but a lot harder than it looks,” Laurie admitted. “I also had to get up before 2AM every day, which was rather horrible.”

At the end of last year, opportunity once again came knocking when Joel Cheatwood, President and Chief Content Officer at TheBlaze, reached out to Laurie. While she never crossed paths with Glenn at Fox News, Laurie was familiar with TheBlaze.

“I first heard about TheBlaze TV when it was still GBTV. After Glenn left Fox News Channel, I, like millions of other people, was curious about his next act. When I learned that he’d created his own online-only network, I thought: That’s smart. He sees the future and it’s not network news,” Laurie said. “In the back of my mind, I thought it would be interesting to meet him and perhaps even become an occasional contributor, if it was a good fit.”

In January, Laurie traveled to Dallas to meet with Glenn and Joel, an experience she described as “an instant meeting of the minds.”

“Glenn’s candor was both surprising and refreshing. There was no intimidation, no ‘trick’ questions, just an honest conversation. Glenn and I talked about many things that morning,” she explained. “We asked each other questions, swapped war stories about our experiences in cable news, and compared philosophies. It just felt like a natural fit for everyone. Then it was a matter of figuring out what opportunity would best fit my strengths.”

Fortunately, it didn't take long for a good fit to come along. “In mid-March, that first opportunity came in the form of hosting the inaugural episode of the new investigative series For the Record,” she said. “I'm honored to host this program and grateful to work with an experienced, knowledgeable and fearless group that's dedicated to bringing viewers the truth, even if it's not pretty.”

For The Record is unlike any other project Laurie has worked on mainly because it is unlike any other show on television.

“For the Record is a return to investigative journalism the way it used to be: probing, unforgiving and fair. The program is built around the simple but essential principle of truth. There's no political agenda; rather, we dedicate ourselves to telling stories with sincerity and integrity,” Laurie explained. “Network news organizations have been known to spend millions of dollars and thousands of hours in focus groups designing their shows with their primary considerations being: Who's the audience? What's the main theme? Who will be the key sponsors? For the Record was designed differently. The mandate was simple: find stories the mainstream media either refused to report or simply didn’t have an interest in reporting. We've never had a discussion about target markets or themes. Finding stories has actually been rather easy because so many of them are either disliked or ignored by others. And the truth of the matter is, other outlets are simply too scared to report them.”

The stories may be easy to find, but with topics ranging from sex trafficking to Christian persecution, government surveillance to fallen heroes, the material is both time sensitive and emotionally sensitive.

“For the Record isn't easy to deliver. We've got sources and contributors literally around the world, many of whom have faced grave consequences to provide information,” Laurie said. “When you watch an episode you’ll never notice the late night cross-country flights – and the delays that go along with them – with gear in tow, the cold winds that pierce your body when you’re doing an interview in the dead of winter, the 8AM Saturday script writing sessions that sometimes linger into Sunday mornings. And you're not supposed to.”

The one thing that keeps both Laurie and the For The Record team going is the desire to provide TheBlaze audience and the world with these important stories that simply aren’t available anyplace else.

“Glenn has given us the gift of time, a precious commodity in this business. We take the necessary time and resources to tell the stories that need to be told, the stories no one else is telling,” Laurie said. “Many of our sources and interview subjects won't talk to any other new outlets because they know their words will be twisted. Our stories – in particular, the shows about the NSA whistleblowers and Extortion 17 – are getting plenty of attention. While we're gratified that Washington is sitting up and taking notice, that's certainly not our raison d'etre.”

With Laurie now a member of TheBlaze team fulltime, audiences will soon see her return to her roots – providing news updates throughout TheBlaze TV’s primetime lineup, in addition to afternoon news updates on TheBlaze Radio. She will continue to host For The Record and offer original commentary on various programs. Apart from her work for TheBlaze, Laurie began hosting a weekly talk show on Veria Living TV called Over the Hump in June, which tackles issues of concern to women.

Laurie’s career has taken her all around the industry, and she quite familiar with the trappings and shortfalls that often plague media conglomerates. One of the reasons she was so excited to join TheBlaze was because of the freedom it offered.

“Why did I join TheBlaze? That’s easy: the opportunity to be on the ground floor of something truly groundbreaking doesn’t come along very often, if ever. TheBlaze is growing by leaps and bounds, expanding every day as other media outlets downsize. Oh, and saying no to Glenn Beck is impossible,” Laurie joked. “The slogan, 'The Truth Lives Here’, is bold, just like Glenn. Glenn once told me that there are no sacred cows at TheBlaze except for freedom and decency. He’s both sincere and fearless, a rare combination in news, and isn’t beholden to anyone but the viewers. There’s no parent company telling him what he can and cannot say. I think that’s real freedom of the press!”

Don’t miss Laurie TONIGHT on a brand-new episode of For The Record at 8pm ET only on TheBlaze. Not a subscriber? Start your 14-day free trial HERE.

Why do Americans feel so empty?

Mario Tama / Staff | Getty Images

Anxiety, anger, and chronic dissatisfaction signal a country searching for meaning. Without truth and purpose, politics becomes a dangerous substitute for identity.

We have built a world overflowing with noise, convenience, and endless choice, yet something essential has slipped out of reach. You can sense it in the restless mood of the country, the anxiety among young people who cannot explain why they feel empty, in the angry confusion that dominates our politics.

We have more wealth than any nation in history, but the heart of the culture feels strangely malnourished. Before we can debate debt or elections, we must confront the reality that we created a world of things, but not a world of purpose.

You cannot survive a crisis you refuse to name, and you cannot rebuild a world whose foundations you no longer understand.

What we are living through is not just economic or political dysfunction. It is the vacuum that appears when a civilization mistakes abundance for meaning.

Modern life is stuffed with everything except what the human soul actually needs. We built systems to make life faster, easier, and more efficient — and then wondered why those systems cannot teach our children who they are, why they matter, or what is worth living for.

We tell the next generation to chase success, influence, and wealth, turning childhood into branding. We ask kids what they want to do, not who they want to be. We build a world wired for dopamine rather than dignity, and then we wonder why so many people feel unmoored.

When everything is curated, optimized, and delivered at the push of a button, the question “what is my life for?” gets lost in the static.

The crisis beneath the headlines

It is not just the young who feel this crisis. Every part of our society is straining under the weight of meaninglessness.

Look at the debt cycle — the mathematical fate no civilization has ever escaped once it crosses a threshold that we seem to have already blown by. While ordinary families feel the pressure, our leaders respond with distraction, with denial, or by rewriting the very history that could have warned us.

You cannot survive a crisis you refuse to name, and you cannot rebuild a world whose foundations you no longer understand.

We have entered a cultural moment where the noise is so loud that it drowns out the simplest truths. We are living in a country that no longer knows how to hear itself think.

So people go searching. Some drift toward the false promise of socialism, some toward the empty thrill of rebellion. Some simply check out. When a culture forgets what gives life meaning, it becomes vulnerable to every ideology that offers a quick answer.

The quiet return of meaning

And yet, quietly, something else is happening. Beneath the frustration and cynicism, many Americans are recognizing that meaning does not come from what we own, but from what we honor. It does not rise from success, but from virtue. It does not emerge from noise, but from the small, sacred things that modern life has pushed to the margins — the home, the table, the duty you fulfill, the person you help when no one is watching.

The danger is assuming that this rediscovery happens on its own. It does not.

Reorientation requires intention. It requires rebuilding the habits and virtues that once held us together. It requires telling the truth about our history instead of rewriting it to fit today’s narratives. And it requires acknowledging what has been erased: that meaning is inseparable from God’s presence in a nation’s life.

Harold M. Lambert / Contributor | Getty Images

Where renewal begins

We have built a world without stillness, and then we wondered why no one can hear the questions that matter. Those questions remain, whether we acknowledge them or not. They do not disappear just because we drown them in entertainment or noise. They wait for us, and the longer we ignore them, the more disoriented we become.

Meaning is still available. It is found in rebuilding the smallest, most human spaces — the places that cannot be digitized, globalized, or automated. The home. The family. The community.

These are the daily virtues that do not trend on social media, but that hold a civilization upright. If we want to repair this country, we begin there, exactly where every durable civilization has always begun: one virtue at a time, one tradition at a time, one generation at a time.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

The Bubba Effect erupts as America’s power brokers go rogue

Gary Hershorn / Contributor | Getty Images

When institutions betray the public’s trust, the country splits, and the spiral is hard to stop.

Something drastic is happening in American life. Headlines that should leave us stunned barely register anymore. Stories that once would have united the country instead dissolve into silence or shrugs.

It is not apathy exactly. It is something deeper — a growing belief that the people in charge either cannot or will not fix what is broken.

When people feel ignored or betrayed, they will align with anyone who appears willing to fight on their behalf.

I call this response the Bubba effect. It describes what happens when institutions lose so much public trust that “Bubba,” the average American minding his own business, finally throws his hands up and says, “Fine. I will handle it myself.” Not because he wants to, but because the system that was supposed to protect him now feels indifferent, corrupt, or openly hostile.

The Bubba effect is not a political movement. It is a survival instinct.

What triggers the Bubba effect

We are watching the triggers unfold in real time. When members of Congress publicly encourage active duty troops to disregard orders from the commander in chief, that is not a political squabble. When a federal judge quietly rewrites the rules so one branch of government can secretly surveil another, that is not normal. That is how republics fall. Yet these stories glided across the news cycle without urgency, without consequence, without explanation.

When the American people see the leadership class shrug, they conclude — correctly — that no one is steering the ship.

This is how the Bubba effect spreads. It is not just individuals resisting authority. It is sheriffs refusing to enforce new policies, school boards ignoring state mandates, entire communities saying, “We do not believe you anymore.” It becomes institutional, cultural, national.

A country cracking from the inside

This effect can be seen in Dearborn, Michigan. In the rise of fringe voices like Nick Fuentes. In the Epstein scandal, where powerful people could not seem to locate a single accountable adult. These stories are different in content but identical in message: The system protects itself, not you.

When people feel ignored or betrayed, they will align with anyone who appears willing to fight on their behalf. That does not mean they suddenly agree with everything that person says. It means they feel abandoned by the institutions that were supposed to be trustworthy.

The Bubba effect is what fills that vacuum.

The dangers of a faithless system

A republic cannot survive without credibility. Congress cannot oversee intelligence agencies if it refuses to discipline its own members. The military cannot remain apolitical if its chain of command becomes optional. The judiciary cannot defend the Constitution while inventing loopholes that erase the separation of powers.

History shows that once a nation militarizes politics, normalizes constitutional shortcuts, or allows government agencies to operate without scrutiny, it does not return to equilibrium peacefully. Something will give.

The question is what — and when.

The responsibility now belongs to us

In a healthy country, this is where the media steps in. This is where universities, pastors, journalists, and cultural leaders pause the outrage machine and explain what is at stake. But today, too many see themselves not as guardians of the republic, but of ideology. Their first loyalty is to narrative, not truth.

The founders never trusted the press more than the public. They trusted citizens who understood their rights, lived their responsibilities, and demanded accountability. That is the antidote to the Bubba effect — not rage, but citizenship.

How to respond without breaking ourselves

Do not riot. Do not withdraw. Do not cheer on destruction just because you dislike the target. That is how nations lose themselves. Instead, demand transparency. Call your representatives. Insist on consequences. Refuse to normalize constitutional violations simply because “everyone does it.” If you expect nothing, you will get nothing.

Do not hand your voice to the loudest warrior simply because he is swinging a bat at the establishment. You do not beat corruption by joining a different version of it. You beat it by modeling the country you want to preserve: principled, accountable, rooted in truth.

Adam Gray / Stringer | Getty Images

Every republic reaches a moment when historians will later say, “That was the warning.” We are living in ours. But warnings are gifts if they are recognized. Institutions bend. People fail. The Constitution can recover — if enough Americans still know and cherish it.

It does not take a majority. Twenty percent of the country — awake, educated, and courageous — can reset the system. It has happened before. It can happen again.

Wake up. Stand up. Demand integrity — from leaders, from institutions, and from yourself. Because the Bubba effect will not end until Americans reclaim the duty that has always belonged to them: preserving the republic for the next generation.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Warning: Stop letting TikTok activists think for you

Spencer Platt / Staff | Getty Images

Bad-faith attacks on Israel and AIPAC warp every debate. Real answers emerge only when people set aside scripts and ask what serves America’s long-term interests.

The search for truth has always required something very much in short supply these days: honesty. Not performative questions, not scripted outrage, not whatever happens to be trending on TikTok, but real curiosity.

Some issues, often focused on foreign aid, AIPAC, or Israel, have become hotbeds of debate and disagreement. Before we jump into those debates, however, we must return to a simpler, more important issue: honest questioning. Without it, nothing in these debates matters.

Ask questions because you want the truth, not because you want a target.

The phrase “just asking questions” has re-entered the zeitgeist, and that’s fine. We should always question power. But too many of those questions feel preloaded with someone else’s answer. If the goal is truth, then the questions should come from a sincere desire to understand, not from a hunt for a villain.

Honest desire for truth is the only foundation that can support a real conversation about these issues.

Truth-seeking is real work

Right now, plenty of people are not seeking the truth at all. They are repeating something they heard from a politician on cable news or from a stranger on TikTok who has never opened a history book. That is not a search for answers. That is simply outsourcing your own thought.

If you want the truth, you need to work for it. You cannot treat the world like a Marvel movie where the good guy appears in a cape and the villain hisses on command. Real life does not give you a neat script with the moral wrapped up in two hours.

But that is how people are approaching politics now. They want the oppressed and the oppressor, the heroic underdog and the cartoon villain. They embrace this fantastical framing because it is easier than wrestling with reality.

This framing took root in the 1960s when the left rebuilt its worldview around colonizers and the colonized. Overnight, Zionism was recast as imperialism. Suddenly, every conflict had to fit the same script. Today’s young activists are just recycling the same narrative with updated graphics. Everything becomes a morality play. No nuance, no context, just the comforting clarity of heroes and villains.

Bad-faith questions

This same mindset is fueling the sudden obsession with Israel, and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in particular. You hear it from members of Congress and activists alike: AIPAC pulls the strings, AIPAC controls the government, AIPAC should register as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The questions are dramatic, but are they being asked in good faith?

FARA is clear. The standard is whether an individual or group acts under the direction or control of a foreign government. AIPAC simply does not qualify.

Here is a detail conveniently left out of these arguments: Dozens of domestic organizations — Armenian, Cuban, Irish, Turkish — lobby Congress on behalf of other countries. None of them registers under FARA because — like AIPAC — they are independent, domestic organizations.

If someone has a sincere problem with the structure of foreign lobbying, fair enough. Let us have that conversation. But singling out AIPAC alone is not a search for truth. It is bias dressed up as bravery.

Anadolu / Contributor | Getty Images

If someone wants to question foreign aid to Israel, fine. Let’s have that debate. But let’s ask the right questions. The issue is not the size of the package but whether the aid advances our interests. What does the United States gain? Does the investment strengthen our position in the region? How does it compare to what we give other nations? And do we examine those countries with the same intensity?

The real target

These questions reflect good-faith scrutiny. But narrowing the entire argument to one country or one dollar amount misses the larger problem. If someone objects to the way America handles foreign aid, the target is not Israel. The target is the system itself — an entrenched bureaucracy, poor transparency, and decades-old commitments that have never been re-examined. Those problems run through programs around the world.

If you want answers, you need to broaden the lens. You have to be willing to put aside the movie script and confront reality. You have to hold yourself to a simple rule: Ask questions because you want the truth, not because you want a target.

That is the only way this country ever gets clarity on foreign aid, influence, alliances, and our place in the world. Questioning is not just allowed. It is essential. But only if it is honest.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

The melting pot fails when we stop agreeing to melt

Spencer Platt / Staff | Getty Images

Texas now hosts Quran-first academies, Sharia-compliant housing schemes, and rapidly multiplying mosques — all part of a movement building a self-contained society apart from the country around it.

It is time to talk honestly about what is happening inside America’s rapidly growing Muslim communities. In city after city, large pockets of newcomers are choosing to build insulated enclaves rather than enter the broader American culture.

That trend is accelerating, and the longer we ignore it, the harder it becomes to address.

As Texas goes, so goes America. And as America goes, so goes the free world.

America has always welcomed people of every faith and people from every corner of the world, but the deal has never changed: You come here and you join the American family. You are free to honor your traditions, keep your faith, but you must embrace the Constitution as the supreme law of the land. You melt into the shared culture that allows all of us to live side by side.

Across the country, this bargain is being rejected by Islamist communities that insist on building a parallel society with its own rules, its own boundaries, and its own vision for how life should be lived.

Texas illustrates the trend. The state now has roughly 330 mosques. At least 48 of them were built in just the last 24 months. The Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex alone has around 200 Islamic centers. Houston has another hundred or so. Many of these communities have no interest in blending into American life.

This is not the same as past waves of immigration. Irish, Italian, Korean, Mexican, and every other group arrived with pride in their heritage. Still, they also raised American flags and wanted their children to be part of the country’s future. They became doctors, small-business owners, teachers, and soldiers. They wanted to be Americans.

What we are watching now is not the melting pot. It is isolation by design.

Parallel societies do not end well

More than 300 fundamentalist Islamic schools now operate full-time across the country. Many use Quran-first curricula that require students to spend hours memorizing religious texts before they ever reach math or science. In Dallas, Brighter Horizons Academy enrolls more than 1,700 students and draws federal support while operating on a social model that keeps children culturally isolated.

Then there is the Epic City project in Collin and Hunt counties — 402 acres originally designated only for Muslim buyers, with Sharia-compliant financing and a mega-mosque at the center. After public outcry and state investigations, the developers renamed it “The Meadows,” but a new sign does not erase the original intent. It is not a neighborhood. It is a parallel society.

Americans should not hesitate to say that parallel societies are dangerous. Europe tried this experiment, and the results could not be clearer. In Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, entire neighborhoods now operate under their own cultural rules, some openly hostile to Western norms. When citizens speak up, they are branded bigots for asserting a basic right: the ability to live safely in their own communities.

A crisis of confidence

While this separation widens, another crisis is unfolding at home. A recent Gallup survey shows that about 40% of American women ages 18 to 39 would leave the country permanently if given the chance. Nearly half of a rising generation — daughters, sisters, soon-to-be mothers — no longer believe this nation is worth building a future in.

And who shapes the worldview of young boys? Their mothers. If a mother no longer believes America is home, why would her child grow up ready to defend it?

As Texas goes, so goes America. And as America goes, so goes the free world. If we lose confidence in our own national identity at the same time that we allow separatist enclaves to spread unchecked, the outcome is predictable. Europe is already showing us what comes next: cultural fracture, political radicalization, and the slow death of national unity.

Brandon Bell / Staff | Getty Images

Stand up and tell the truth

America welcomes Muslims. America defends their right to worship freely. A Muslim who loves the Constitution, respects the rule of law, and wants to raise a family in peace is more than welcome in America.

But an Islamist movement that rejects assimilation, builds enclaves governed by its own religious framework, and treats American law as optional is not simply another participant in our melting pot. It is a direct challenge to it. If we refuse to call this problem out out of fear of being called names, we will bear the consequences.

Europe is already feeling those consequences — rising conflict and a political class too paralyzed to admit the obvious. When people feel their culture, safety, and freedoms slipping away, they will follow anyone who promises to defend them. History has shown that over and over again.

Stand up. Speak plainly. Be unafraid. You can practice any faith in this country, but the supremacy of the Constitution and the Judeo-Christian moral framework that shaped it is non-negotiable. It is what guarantees your freedom in the first place.

If you come here and honor that foundation, welcome. If you come here to undermine it, you do not belong here.

Wake up to what is unfolding before the consequences arrive. Because when a nation refuses to say what is true, the truth eventually forces its way in — and by then, it is always too late.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.