Will 2014 be the year America says enough is enough?

TheBlaze's national security editor Buck Sexton opened Monday's Glenn Beck Program with a simple question: Will 2014 be the year America says enough is enough? As Buck explained, the United States has been teetering on the edge of big government progressivism for quite some time now, and soon the weight of a bloated government and overregulation will prove to be too much for this country to bear. With the midterm elections just around the corner, 2014 provides the opportunity to take a step back and reevaluate the current state of this country. Will Americans finally be ready say enough is enough?

Full transcript of the monologue below:

Now, Barack Obama promised Dmitry Medvedev that he’d have more flexibility after the 2012 election. You remember that. And they turned out to be truer words than I think even any of us could have imagined.

It was quite a harbinger for 2013. I mean, I thought Mr. Fundamental Transformation couldn’t get much worse after round one which brought us, let’s just take a little joyride through the wreckage, shall we? ObamaCare, we know how that’s been, QE ad infinitum, the QE, the easing that can never stop, Solyndra and the never-ending parade of green investment fails because it’s not their money, so why do they care? It’s your money.

Benghazi, we know that Hillary Clinton says it doesn’t make much difference, right? What difference does it make at this point that Benghazi happened? A lot, Hillary, a lot, we’re going to remind you of that in 2016. That’s what we’ve had to deal with over the past year, these issues, including Fast and Furious and others like them. I mean, this is right here, if you will, this is the pinnacle you would think of the problems this administration could possibly offer for us. But he was actually just getting warmed up.

Tonight, we take a look back at 2013, but more importantly, we’re going to look ahead to 2014 as well. And here’s my question, is this the year? Will 2014 be the year the pendulum finally swings back away from Progressives? Can Conservatives finally retake the high ground? It should be the year. Look, how many more big government failures and scandals does one need before they realize it ain’t working?

I bet you’ve forgotten more Obama scandals and debacles than most administrations ever have. In 2013, we saw tremendous amounts of scandals. Now, of course there was the IRS targeting scandal, right? The Associated phone records scandal, that was the thing that Eric Holder, by the way, said he had no idea, right? But he did have an idea, just like he said he learned about Fast and Furious through press reports, but I thought he knew about it before that – hmm, silly me. Oh, there was the ObamaCare rollout, after the NSA spying. NSA spying of course, there we go, and NSA spying, we know that that’s now something that the administration says they’re going to do something about.

What are they going to do about it though? They’re contesting it in court. They say okay, maybe we went too far. And the ObamaCare rollout, wow, even the staunchest Marxist left wing I-don’t-even-think-America-should-be-pretending-to-be-capitalist kind of guy knows that the ObamaCare rollout was a disaster, the round two of the Obama administration, the round two.

Now, if Conservatives cannot turn this disaster that we’ve talked to you about here into a winning message, if we can’t transform it into some kind of story for the American people that makes them trust Conservatives with government power so that they can limit government power and restore some semblance of liberty, we deserve our fate. We’re toast.

So something needs to change fast, because the other side is relentless. They’re pushing for more bills. They’re pushing for more huge comprehensive bills on immigration, for example, on climate change, also known as amnesty, and yet another redistribution of wealth scheme. There’s tons of those going around.

So 2014 is going to be a fight. It’s going to be a fight against the Marxist administration that we see now increasingly trying to take money from some people and give it to others. But the biggest fight for 2014 isn’t against Obama per se, there is also going to be a fight, because this is a midterm election, between the establishment increasingly progressive GOP with the Ted Cruzes of the world, the conservative members of Congress.

We have a choice that we’re going to have to face on our side, go with the moderate establishment Republican who can win or go with the candidate who stands on Tea Party conservative principles. Will we go with the Ted Cruz type even if the outcome doesn’t look all that great? I remember when Ted Cruz’s outcome didn’t look all that great. He had to win the primary against Dewhurst during Texas.

See, we’ve seen the lesser of these two evils approaches before. We know where it’s gotten us. And not only now are we in a dire fiscal situation, we’re approaching dangerous territory when it comes to centralized power in general. I mean, everybody should be appalled at how the president has been haphazardly ad hoc tinkering with the Affordable Care Act law.

Look, like it or not, it’s a law. As they have said so many times when there was the government shutdown and the fights over it, it’s the law. Well, they know that for Conservatives, for constitutionalists, that has meaning that it’s the law. When we read the words on the page that are supposed to be the law that Congress has passed, we care about those.

We find ourselves increasingly in a place where there is not a moral necessarily issue with what’s going on. We don’t feel like we have to give into this because the government is doing good. We have to give in because the government has force, can make us do these things.

So the president can go in and change a law as he pleases, it seems. Those are the sorts of things that maybe a Hugo Chavez or a Robert Mugabe may do. Now, last week President Obama changed the healthcare law again, this time extending the deadline for people to choose plans and relaxing the rules for those who had their plans canceled.

The press is so hyperfocused on making this stupid law work that they’re overlooking the fact that the administration thinks nothing of just changing laws without Congress or any process whatsoever. Remember all that talk in the first term about being tempted to do it on my own? President Obama said it over and over again, he’s going to do it on his own. I’m going to do it on my own, all this gridlock in Congress.

It looks like Obama has given himself over to his temptations. By the way, he was also tempted to enroll at least as sort of an act of good faith in his own ObamaCare law. By the way, he chose a bronze plan. Oh yeah, I don’t think he’s going to get that level of care. Now to be fair, the White House said that the military is still going to give the commander-in-chief his medical care, but that really tells us a lot, doesn’t it?

The president thinks that it’s an act of solidarity to pretend to sign up under the healthcare law that he’s making millions of Americans sign up for after getting millions of their plans canceled. He thinks that’s solidarity. He thinks that should make us feel better, even though it will never touch him or his family or anybody that he knows. It will never be a problem for them.

Oh, but it’s all about political theatre then. It’s all about the president saying I picked my bronze plan. He picked a bronze plan. Let’s be serious for a second. This is the President of the United States. It was all ridiculous, but it shows you how out of touch they are with your problems, with your healthcare concerns. Because this president can’t resist the flexibility offered to him in his second term. He just can’t.

Now look, Bill Clinton, he was maybe a little powerless against the sexual advances he received from a zoftig intern. This president apparently is tempted whenever a chance to override Congress walks by in something low-cut and lacey. You know Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid would be going all oh, the Constitution, the separation of powers, the prerogative of the legislature, if it was a Republican in the White House.

If the next conservative president announced that he was going to alter income tax rates to 10% or let’s make it 1%, hey, across-the-board 1% to help people in a tough economy…hang on a second. I want to take a moment to reflect on a 1% tax. As Glenn would say, that’s some good old-fashioned conservative red meat right there. It shouldn’t matter if you agree or disagree with the changes made. Everyone should be alarmed when a president goes around Congress.

A 1% flat tax, if President Obama can change the ObamaCare law all the time willy-nilly as he sees fit, why can’t all of a sudden we just have a president declare that the IRS is only going to enforce a 1% tax rate? Well, there’s no good reason, and in fact, this might actually be a really good idea. This could help people. I would love to pay a 1% tax per year.

But you see, changing laws without any accountability, changing laws without even consulting the representatives of the people, changing laws that absolutely blur any sense of separation of power into government, that’s what dictators do. So back to the original question if I can for a moment, is this the year?

Is 2014 the year people drop their allegiance to party? Is this the year even those on the left realize that government has grown too dangerous and unprecedented levels of control? Is this the year people say enough is enough? I sure hope so, because there’s only so much big government Progressivism this country can withstand, and we are teetering close to the edge.

The Deep State's NEW plan to backstab Trump

Brandon Bell / Staff | Getty Images

We cannot make the same mistake we made in 2016 — celebrating victory while the deep state plots its next move.

In 2016, Donald Trump shocked the world by defeating Hillary Clinton. Conservatives cheered, believing we’d taken back the reins of our country. But we missed the bigger battle. We failed to recognize the extent of the damage caused by eight years of Barack Obama and decades of progressive entrenchment. The real war isn’t won at the ballot box. It’s being waged against an insidious force embedded deep within our institutions: the administrative state, or the “deep state.”

This isn’t a new problem. America’s founders foresaw it, though they didn’t have a term for “deep state” back in the 1700s. James Madison, in Federalist 48, warned us that combining legislative, executive, and judicial powers in the same hands is “the very definition of tyranny.” Yet today, that’s exactly where we stand. Unelected bureaucrats in agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy, and the Department of Justice hold more power than the officials we vote for. They control the levers of government with impunity, dictating policies and stifling change.

This is the fight for the soul of our nation. The founders’ vision of a constitutional republic is under siege.

We’ve felt the consequences of this growing tyranny firsthand. During COVID-19, so-called experts ran our lives, crushing civil liberties under the guise of public safety. Our intelligence agencies and justice system turned into weapons of political warfare, targeting a sitting president and his supporters. Meanwhile, actual criminals were given a pass, turning American cities into lawless war zones.

Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1816 that “the functionaries of every government have propensities to command at will the liberty and property of their constituents.” Today, we see Jefferson’s prophecy fulfilled. The deep state exercises unchecked power over our freedoms, and information itself is controlled by the fourth branch of government: the legacy media.

Even when we win elections, the deep state doesn’t concede defeat. It switches to survival mode. Trump’s first term proved this. Despite a historic mandate to dismantle the bureaucracy, the deep state fought back with everything it had: leaks, investigations, court rulings, and obstruction at every turn. And now, with the possibility of Trump returning to office, the deep state is preparing to do it again.

Progressives are laying out their attack plan — and they’re not even hiding it.

U.S. Rep. Wiley Nickel (D-N.C.) recently boasted about forming a “shadow cabinet” to govern alongside the deep state, regardless of who’s in the White House. Nickel called it “democracy’s insurance policy.” Let’s be clear: This isn’t insurance. It’s sabotage.

They’ll employ a “top down, bottom up, inside out” strategy to overwhelm and collapse any effort to reform the system. From the top, federal judges and shadow officials will block Trump’s every move. Governors in blue states like California and New York are gearing up to resist federal authority. During Trump’s first term, California filed over 100 lawsuits against his administration. Expect more of the same starting January 20.

From the bottom, progressive groups like the American Civil Liberties Union will flood the streets with protesters, much as they did to oppose Trump’s first-term immigration reforms. They’ve refined their tactics since 2016 and are prepared to unleash a wave of civil unrest. These aren’t spontaneous movements; they’re coordinated assaults designed to destabilize the administration.

Finally, from the inside, the deep state will continue its mission of self-preservation. Agencies will drag their feet, leak sensitive information, and undermine policies from within. Their goal is to make everything a chaotic mess, so the heart of their power — the bureaucratic core — remains untouched and grows stronger.

We cannot make the same mistake we made in 2016 — celebrating victory while the deep state plots its next move. Progressives never see themselves as losing. When they’re out of power, they simply shift tactics, pumping more blood into their bureaucratic heart. We may win elections, but the war against the deep state will only intensify. As George Washington warned in his Farewell Address, “Government is not reason, it is not eloquence — it is force; and force, like fire, is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.”

This is the fight for the soul of our nation. The founders’ vision of a constitutional republic is under siege. The deep state has shown us its plan: to govern from the shadows, circumventing the will of the people. But now that the shadows have been exposed, we have a choice. Will we accept this silent tyranny, or will we demand accountability and reclaim our nation’s heart?

The battle is just beginning. We can’t afford to lose.

Editor's Note: This article was originally published on TheBlaze.com.

Drone mystery exposes GLARING government incompetence

Gary Hershorn / Contributor | Getty Images

The drone issue is getting way out of hand.

Earlier this month, Glenn first reported on the mysterious drones stalking the night sky over New Jersey, but the situation is increasingly concerning as the sightings have escalated. Not only have drones been seen across the Northeast Coast, including over New York City, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, but recently, they have been spotted over the night skies of San Diego and other parts of Southern California.

It doesn't take an expert to identify the potential dangers and risks that dozens of undetectable, unidentified six-foot or larger drones pose to national security. Yet, our government's response has been one of unimaginable incompetence, leaving us to speculate on the origin and intention of these drones and wonder in astonishment at the government's ineptitude. Here are three examples of the government's lackluster response to the mystery drones:

Iranian Mothership and Missing Nuclear Warheads

- / Stringer | Getty Images

After several weeks of hubbub, New Jersey Representative, Jeff Van Drew gave an interview on Fox News where he claimed that the drones originated from an Iranian "mothership" off the East Coast of the United States. This theory has since been disproven by satellite images, which show that all Iranian drone carriers are far from U.S. shores. Another theory suggests that drones may be equipped with sensors capable of detecting nuclear material and that they are looking for a nuclear warhead that recently went missing! With these apocalyptic theories gaining traction in the absence of any real answer from our government, one can't help but question the motive behind the silence.

Pentagon's Limp Wristed Response

Alex Wong / Staff | Getty Images

In a recent press conference, national security spokesman John Kirby responded to reporters demanding answers about the government's lack of transparency, which has caused increasing public anxiety. He insisted that the drones did not pose a threat and were not assets of a foreign power, such as from Iran or China--even though he is still uncertain about their identity and origin. He also claimed that many of the sightings were simply misidentifications of normal aircraft.

This lackluster answer has only further inflamed national anxieties and raised even more questions. If the government is unsure of the identity of the drones, how do they know if they are a threat or if they aren't foreign assets? If they aren't foreign, does that mean they are U.S. assets? If so, why not just say so?

The Pentagon has also stated that they are leaving it up to local law enforcement to spearhead the investigation after concluding that these drones pose no threat to any military installation. This has left many feeling like the federal government has turned a blind eye to a serious issue that many Americans are very concerned about.

Where's Pete Buttigieg?

Chip Somodevilla / Staff | Getty Images

We are in the closing weeks of the Biden administration, and with the finish line in sight, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg probably figured nothing else could go wrong on his watch—but boy was he wrong. As Secretary of Transportation, Buttigieg is in charge of the FAA, the agency responsible for managing all air traffic across the nation. One would think that mysterious, 6-foot-long, seemingly intractable drones are invisible on radar and flying above major cities would pose a serious threat to the myriad of legal aircraft that traverse our skies. Yet, Buttigieg has been silent on the issue, adding another failure to his resume which includes: malfunctioning airplanes, the train derailment in Ohio, and the Baltimore Key Bridge collapse, just to name a few.

Glenn: How Alvin Bragg turned hero Daniel Penny into a villain

Michael M. Santiago / Staff | Getty Images

We cannot allow corrupt institutions to punish those who act to protect life and liberty.

America no longer has a single, shared understanding of justice. Two Americas now exist, each applying justice differently depending on who you are and where you live. One America, ruled by common sense and individual courage, praises heroes who stand up to protect others. The other, driven by political agendas and corrupted institutions, punishes those same heroes for daring to act.

This stark division couldn’t be clearer than in the case of Daniel Penny, the Marine whose trial in New York City this week drew strong reactions from both sides across the divided line of justice.

If we let this slide, we accept a world in which heroes are treated as criminals and the law is a weapon for ideological warfare.

Penny was on a subway train last year when Jordan Neely — a man suffering from severe mental illness and reportedly high on drugs — began threatening passengers, saying, “I’m going to kill you all.” The fear on that subway car was palpable, but nobody moved. Nobody, that is, until Penny did what needed to be done. He took action to protect innocent lives.

In the America many of us used to believe in, Penny’s response would be heralded as heroic. His actions mirrored the courage of Todd Beamer on Flight 93, who, on September 11, 2001, rallied others with the words, “Let’s roll,” to prevent further tragedy. But in New York, courage doesn’t seem to count anymore. There, the system turns heroes into villains.

Penny subdued Neely using a chokehold, intending only to restrain him, not kill him. Tragically, Neely died. Penny, filled with remorse, told the police he never meant to hurt anyone. Yet, instead of being recognized for protecting others from a clear and present threat, Penny stood trial for criminally negligent homicide.

In Alvin Bragg’s New York, justice bends to ideology. The Manhattan district attorney has made a career of weaponizing the law, selectively prosecuting those who don’t fit his narrative. He’s the same prosecutor who twisted legal precedent to go after Donald Trump on business charges no one had ever faced before. Then, he turned his sights on Daniel Penny.

A jury may have acquitted Penny, but what happened in New York City this week isn’t justice. When the rule of law changes depending on the defendant’s identity or the prosecutor's political motives, we’re no longer living in a free country. We’re living in a state where justice is a game, and ordinary Americans are the pawns.

The system failed Jordan Neely

It’s worth asking: Where were activists like Alvin Bragg when Neely was suffering on the streets? Jordan Neely was a tragic figure — a man with a long history of mental illness and over 40 arrests, including violent assaults. The system failed him long before he stepped onto that subway train. Yet rather than confront that uncomfortable truth, Bragg’s office decided to target the man who stepped in to prevent a tragedy.

This isn’t about justice. It’s about power. It’s about advancing a narrative where race and identity matter more than truth and common sense.

It’s time to demand change

The Daniel Penny case — and others like it — is a wake-up call. We cannot allow corrupt institutions to punish those who act to protect life and liberty. Americans must demand an end to politically driven prosecutions, hold DAs like Alvin Bragg accountable, and stand up for the principle that true justice is blind, consistent, and fair.

If we let this slide, we accept a world in which heroes are treated as criminals and the law is a weapon for ideological warfare. It’s time to choose which America we want to live in.

Editor's Note: This article was originally published on TheBlaze.com.

CEO Brian Thompson's killer reveals COWARDICE of the far-left death cult

Jeff Swensen / Stringer | Getty Images

Early on the chilly morning of Wednesday, December 4th, Brian Thompson, CEO of health insurance giant, UnitedHealthcare, was walking through Midtown Manhattan on his way to a company conference. Suddenly, a masked and hooded figure silently allegedly stepped onto the sidewalk behind Thompson, drew a 3-D printed, silenced pistol, and without warning fired multiple shots into Thompson's back before fleeing the scene on an electric bicycle. After a multiple-day manhunt, a 26-year-old lead suspect was arrested at a McDonald's in Altoona, Pennsylvania after being recognized by an employee.

This was not "vigilante justice." This was cold-blooded murder.

As horrific as the murder of a husband and father in broad daylight in the center of New York City is, the story only gets worse. Even before the murder suspect was arrested, left-wing extremists were already taking to X to call him a "hero" and a "vigilante" who "took matters into his own hands." Even the mainstream media joined in on the glorification, as Glenn pointed out on air recently, going out of the way to show how physically attractive the murder suspect was. This wave of revolting and nihilistic fanfare came in response to the findings of online investigators who surmised the murder suspect's motives to retaliate against healthcare companies for corruption and denied coverage. The murder suspect supposedly underwent a major back surgery that left him with back pain, and some of his internet fans apparently viewed his murder of Thompson as retribution for the mistreatment that he and many other Americans have suffered from healthcare companies.

The murder suspect and his lackeys don't seem to understand that, other than depriving two children of their father right before Christmas, he accomplished nothing.

The murder suspect failed to achieve his goal because he was too cowardly to try.

If the murder suspect's goals were truly to "right the wrongs" of the U.S. healthcare system, he had every tool available to him to do so in a constructive and meaningful manner. He came from a wealthy and prominent family in the Baltimore area, became the valedictorian at a prestigious all-boys prep school, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a master's in engineering. Clearly, the murder suspect was intelligent and capable, and if he had put his talent into creating solutions for the healthcare industry, who knows what he could have accomplished?

This is the kind of behavior the far-left idolizes, like communists on college campuses who wear shirts that celebrate the brutal Cuban warlord, Che Guevara. Merchandise celebrating the UnitedHealthcare CEO murder suspect is already available, including shirts, hoodies, mugs, and even Christmas ornaments. Will they be sporting his face on their T-shirts too?

This macabre behavior does not breed creation, achievement, success, or life. It only brings death and risks more Americans falling into this dangerous paradigm. But we still have a chance to choose life. We just have to wake up and take it.