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Hollywood says there’s no future for family films - here’s why they’re wrong

May 01, 2015
Staff

WRITER

Glenn’s made no secret of his love for the new movie ‘Little Boy’, a family film that shows how individuals can perform miracles through the power of faith. Leo Severino, producer of ‘Little Boy’, joined Glenn on radio to discuss the film and why people in Hollywood who say there is no room for family films are completely wrong.

Below is a rush transcript of this segment:

GLENN: I'm really excited about a new friend I made here the last couple of days. He's a guy who has started Metanoia Films and made the movie "Little Boy" and previously before that, "Bella" and is a like-minded thinker and a guy who is trying to change the culture from the inside. And you were with Twentieth Century Fox. Right? Flip up your mic. Leo Severino is with us now. Hi, Leo. You have to flip on that red button. Push it up. Or down.

LEO: There it is. Well, I have to say, first of all, what's up, my crackers? I'm Hispanic. No. My wife is Hispanic.

GLENN: Yeah, your wife is Hispanic. No. It's what's up my, cracka? We're not crackers.

LEO: You can call me your Wheat Thin.

STU: Julio, it's okay for us to say that to each other, but it's not okay for you.

GLENN: Yeah, you're Hispanic. It's totally fine for us.

LEO: As you can tell, I've been a fan of you guys so long. Pat, Stu, Glenn, as well.

GLENN: Notice he left out Jeffy.

LEO: Why do you have Jeffy standing? You can't even give him a chair or something?

GLENN: No. Can you imagine how big he'd be if we let him sit down?

PAT: Oh, my gosh. Plus, no chair could hold him.

GLENN: So, my Wheat Thin, so tell me, first of all, I want to get this movie stuff out of the way here. If I have recommended that you go see "Little Boy" -- this weekend is very important for you to see "Little Boy", if you haven't seen it. Because it probably won't be in the movie theaters for very much longer if you don't go see it. Had a good weekend. But it's open on limited screens. And all of the biggies are coming out here the next couple of weeks.

PAT: Ah.

GLENN: So this is the weekend to see "Little Boy."

PAT: Yeah, it's getting to be that time of year when they push the little ones out of the theaters.

LEO: That's it. David and Goliath time.

GLENN: And there are really great names in this movie. Kevin James, who I think is hysterical.

LEO: Greatest guy on the planet.

GLENN: You're friends with him. Right? What's he like?

LEO: He's fantastic. Hilarious. He's hilarious.

GLENN: I love him.

LEO: Not as funny as Stu, but hilarious.

STU: Wow. That's not going to help his career.

GLENN: Wow. That's really taking him down many, many notches.

LEO: By the way, completely kidding. The guy is hilarious. For real. If you ask me, Kevin James. Emily Watson.

JEFFY: That's fantastic.

LEO: Tom Wilkinson. It's an insanely good cast.

GLENN: It is.

LEO: We were blessed to have that caliber of people.

GLENN: This is the kind of movie that we've said -- have you guys seen it yet?

PAT: Not yet. I'll see it this weekend.

LEO: You're killing me. You have to see it this weekend.

GLENN: We've talked about this. This is the movie that Rotten Tomatoes, the critics gave it 10 percent.

PAT: That's unbelievable.

GLENN: And the audience has given it 88 percent.

PAT: I don't think I've ever seen a disparity between critics and people that wide.

LEO: I think the publicity team said we broke the records.

STU: Congratulations.

GLENN: So here's the thing. The reason it's like this is because it -- it showcases the -- the Frank Capra America. It has that idyllic peaceful, loving sweetness to it that we all love in Frank Capra movies. I think this is a modern day Frank Capra Walt Disney. Not what Walt Disney is now. I mean So Dear My Heart. His movies.

LEO: Back when she was ostracized as well.

GLENN: Right. People said it's all candy corns and sweetness and saccharine crap. That's what made those two guys.

LEO: You said something so wonderful, Glenn, when you said about this film. You said you want to believe in the America that we presented. This Norman Rockwell. We do too. That's why we make these films.

GLENN: I don't know if you know this. You're Hispanic, I don't know if you know this.

LEO: It's an odd thing. And the director. The director doesn't speak English. It's between English and Spanish. Somewhere in the middle. And he believes in that America too. Eduardo, you were gracious to have on the show. The three of us -- he is from Mexico. And he believes in that America too because the US has opened the doors for opportunity that we wouldn't have anywhere in the world.

GLENN: It's always the immigrants. It's always the immigrants that renew us.

LEO: This is our love letter in a sense to America.

PAT: I can't tell you how often we go through the list of movies that are open that weekend, and want to go with the family. And there's literally zero movies we can all go to as a family. It's great to actually have something that you can take the kids to and feel good about.

GLENN: We were talking off the stage yesterday that Leo and I were, that we've brought History House, which is -- you know, our kind of, you know, 30-minute television, kind of our ode to Walt Disney and what he did with the Wonderful World of Disney. And they're telling us now, there are no buyers for family television.

LEO: It's complete rubbish. It's absolute nonsense. When you down to the statistics of what actually sells. I actually brought some stuff. There's this great entity. It's called Movie Guide. MovieGuide.org. Ted Baehr is fantastic. He's been a voice screaming in the wilderness in Hollywood saying, sex doesn't sell. Nudity doesn't sell. Vulgarity doesn't sell. It's not just not the case. When you look at the combined averages of the films, for example, in 2013, his latest report, rated R films, films with graphic elements, accounted for about 11 percent of the combined average of the box office.

GLENN: Eleven.

LEO: Eleven. And they accounted for 47 percent of the films being distributed, en masse. So the diplomatic way of saying this is, you know, the supply is not measurable to the demand out there. It's disproportionate to the amount of the demand. Really what it means is that there's something more than the profit motive going on.

PAT: It means there's an agenda.

LEO: If they wanted to make money, you would just make family -- you're doubling the audience. It's pure economics.

PAT: Wow.

GLENN: You worked at Twentieth Century Fox. I don't want to single them out. Because Hollywood is Hollywood. Do you think this movie would have -- do you think "Little Boy" could have been made or would have been made by Hollywood?

LEO: No.

GLENN: Why?

LEO: Pixar, perhaps. That's the model that we really, really, really believe in.

GLENN: Yeah.

LEO: But no.

GLENN: It almost looks like a Pixar.

If Pixar did live action, it looks like a Pixar.

LEO: Thank you for that. And our cinematographer was at Pixar previously.

GLENN: Can I ask you a question. Was it filmed?

LEO: It was on film. The last film in wide distribution that was on --

GLENN: It is beautiful.

LEO: Thank you.

GLENN: I was watching it this weekend, I was thinking I think this is film --

PAT: That was my next question, was it filmed or was it digital? I had to know. I had to know.

GLENN: You won't know why this film hearkens back to that Frank Capra film. You won't know exactly why it feels like those old films. But it's because of film.

LEO: Yes.

PAT: Leo, how was the filmed blocked?

GLENN: Shut up.

STU: What kind of gaffing did you have --

LEO: You have no idea what gaffing is.

STU: No, I don't. These guys do a lot of things to make us look --

LEO: There's something to be said of that. We really thought that we wanted to depict this Americana. The way it would have been predicted if Norman Rockwell were shooting this film. Even at a greater expense and greater time. And you were shooting with a little kid because of these silly labor laws that they have nowadays. You can't shoot so many hours. It was much more expensive. But we thought it was worth it because we wanted something authentic. That was really Americana.

GLENN: Two stories I want you to tell. Tell the story of Eduardo, who he is, and what he's given up to tell these stories.

LEO: If you were a 16-year-old Wheat Thin. I don't know what the appropriate term is. But if you were Hispanic, you would know who Eduardo is. He was this heartthrob, kind of the Brad Pitt of Mexico. Also part of a boy band.

PAT: From a soap opera?

LEO: Yeah, from soap operas. First boy bands then television.

PAT: Was it Maria?

GLENN: Wait. Listen to him say -- go ahead.

PAT: [foreign language]

GLENN: Isn't that great? I think he just lives it. All of a sudden, he's there.

LEO: [foreign language] that was his show. That was Eduardo's big one. [foreign language] was another one. He was on a few. He was like the go-to guy. And his boy band of selling out stadiums with 50,000 screaming women, that sort of thing.

STU: And now he has you.

LEO: And now he has me.

GLENN: Wow. That's good. Big part in this movie.

LEO: That was great. We needed to get him in. But we were like, you don't fit with Norman Rockwell. We'll come up with something. You won't recognize him.

GLENN: At one point they open up a door, and he's like Maria.

LEO: But he had this change of heart. When he came to Hollywood, he did this film called Chasing Papi. Where he was the Latin lover that had three women, he was dating them at the same time. That sort of crazy stereotype. That's when he realized, what in the world am I doing? And then I think God touched his heart. And the rest is history.

GLENN: He told me that he made a promise to his mom and he said, Mom, I will not make a movie that you can't go to.

LEO: That's right.

GLENN: So he has passed on a lot. All the women in the control room when he was on that one day, they were like, you can keep him on. I think we're out of stuff to talk about. Doesn't matter. Keep him going. Because he has quite the opportunity especially in today's world. But he's not going for it. He's not going for the cash. He's going for, let's do the right thing.

LEO: And after he made that promise, he stopped working for years. And him and I met randomly. Not randomly. I think providentially on a random Wednesday at a church. Him and I had kind of similar ideas and similar concepts. At the time I was at Fox, like you mentioned. And I was striving for something of greater meaning. And we connected. And the next thing we know, we did this. It's crazy to start something independent with no connections at the time. No money. We went broke trying to do this thing. And, but we were really firm in the conviction that we needed to do something. You know, there's so much darkness around. We wanted to light a candle.

GLENN: Tell me about the little boy. The actual -- the actor.

LEO: Jakob Salvati. He's fantastic.

GLENN: He is a superstar. I've seen child actors where you're like, that kid will be -- when you saw, Haley Osment. You said, okay, he'll be a star. This kid is off the charts. And it wasn't him that was trying out.

LEO: That's right. They brought in his brother. And he was there as well. Give him a try. First audition didn't go so well. Him and the director kept having the giggles. We passed him up. The casting director was like, this kid got something. He has something.

GLENN: He's magic.

LEO: Not according to the critic. He's been slammed so hard.

GLENN: He carries this movie.

LEO: They call him saccharine. His heart is so pure. He said, I don't understand why -- I don't understand why the critics are saying that. He said, people really love the film.

GLENN: How old is he?

LEO: He was eight when we shot. He's 11 now.

PAT: Wow.

GLENN: He's great.

LEO: He's fantastic.

GLENN: But I hear and, correct me if I'm wrong, the story was told to me because his brother tried out, they went back and got him. And when you decided that it was going to be him, that his brother broke out in tears.

LEO: Yeah. We were in a room together. He said, the director interviewed him, and I was there with him. And the brother starts crying. And we thought it was just a moment of -- you know, maybe he was a little sad he didn't get the role or whatever it was. And he pulled me aside and he said, we're kind of broke right now. And this will save our family. It will save our house. So we talked to his dad. And he's cool with us saying that publicly because they're humble and awesome. This film has touched people in many ways.

GLENN: The kid broke out in tears of joy that his brother got the job. How great -- that is just unbelievable.

PAT: Cool.

GLENN: That's unbelievable.

LEO: , yeah.

GLENN: I'm thrilled to know you. I really am.

LEO: Thank you so much. I am a big fan. Our hearts in the same place. Kind of in different industries. Thank you for supporting. Any way we can support you. We're here.

GLENN: Well, it's an honor. Please go see this weekend "Little Boy". You will not be disappointed. I warn you, it's Frank Capra. So if you didn't like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. If you didn't like, you know, It's a Wonderful Life.

PAT: Well, first of all, you're a communist.

GLENN: You know, if you don't like Norman Rockwell, you're not going to like this. But if you have that heart for America of what it really can be, you're going to love this movie.

LEO: Thank you. Thank you so much for saying that. Frank Capra is my hero when it comes to filmmakers. It's a Wonderful Life.

GLENN: You're Hispanic.

LEO: I know. You keep reminding me of this. I keep having to check to make sure that that's the case. Turns out, it still is. But -- sometimes it takes -- I mean, I was born here. My parents are from South America. Columbia. I love them to death. Obviously. They raised me with the right values. It turns out it's the American values. The same ones. Sometimes it takes an outside perspective like our director who didn't speak the language until he was 17 to show the beauty of this country. That's part of what we're trying to do. I wanted to say, Ben, your cohort --

GLENN: American Dream Labs.

LEO: Yes. He said, say the cities where you need help. So is it all right?

We need help in St. Louis, Las Vegas, Nashville, and Salt Lake City. Those are the four cities, if we can really do well this weekend, we can hopefully retain the theaters going forward. So that's St. Louis, Las Vegas, Nashville, and Salt Lake.

GLENN: Go see this movie. Please, take your family. Take your friends. Take your friend's family. Don't even ask the parents. Just disappear the children for a couple of hours. And go see "Little Boy". You will love it! Truly love it. Thank you so much.

LEO: Thank you, Glenn. Thank you, Pat.

Grim warning: Bad-faith Israel critics duck REAL questions

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.

Shocking: AI-written country song tops charts, sparks soul debate

VCG / Contributor | Getty Images

A machine can imitate heartbreak well enough to top the charts, but it cannot carry grief, choose courage, or hear the whisper that calls human beings to something higher.

The No. 1 country song in America right now was not written in Nashville or Texas or even L.A. It came from code. “Walk My Walk,” the AI-generated single by the AI artist Breaking Rust, hit the top spot on Billboard’s Country Digital Song Sales chart, and if you listen to it without knowing that fact, you would swear a real singer lived the pain he is describing.

Except there is no “he.” There is no lived experience. There is no soul behind the voice dominating the country music charts.

If a machine can imitate the soul, then what is the soul?

I will admit it: I enjoy some AI music. Some of it is very good. And that leaves us with a question that is no longer science fiction. If a machine can fake being human this well, what does it mean to be human?

A new world of artificial experience

This is not just about one song. We are walking straight into a technological moment that will reshape everyday life.

Elon Musk said recently that we may not even have phones in five years. Instead, we will carry a small device that listens, anticipates, and creates — a personal AI agent that knows what we want to hear before we ask. It will make the music, the news, the podcasts, the stories. We already live in digital bubbles. Soon, those bubbles might become our own private worlds.

If an algorithm can write a hit country song about hardship and perseverance without a shred of actual experience, then the deeper question becomes unavoidable: If a machine can imitate the soul, then what is the soul?

What machines can never do

A machine can produce, and soon it may produce better than we can. It can calculate faster than any human mind. It can rearrange the notes and words of a thousand human songs into something that sounds real enough to fool millions.

But it cannot care. It cannot love. It cannot choose right and wrong. It cannot forgive because it cannot be hurt. It cannot stand between a child and danger. It cannot walk through sorrow.

A machine can imitate the sound of suffering. It cannot suffer.

The difference is the soul. The divine spark. The thing God breathed into man that no code will ever have. Only humans can take pain and let it grow into compassion. Only humans can take fear and turn it into courage. Only humans can rebuild their lives after losing everything. Only humans hear the whisper inside, the divine voice that says, “Live for something greater.”

We are building artificial minds. We are not building artificial life.

Questions that define us

And as these artificial minds grow sharper, as their tools become more convincing, the right response is not panic. It is to ask the oldest and most important questions.

Who am I? Why am I here? What is the meaning of freedom? What is worth defending? What is worth sacrificing for?

That answer is not found in a lab or a server rack. It is found in that mysterious place inside each of us where reason meets faith, where suffering becomes wisdom, where God reminds us we are more than flesh and more than thought. We are not accidents. We are not circuits. We are not replaceable.

Europa Press News / Contributor | Getty Images

The miracle machines can never copy

Being human is not about what we can produce. Machines will outproduce us. That is not the question. Being human is about what we can choose. We can choose to love even when it costs us something. We can choose to sacrifice when it is not easy. We can choose to tell the truth when the world rewards lies. We can choose to stand when everyone else bows. We can create because something inside us will not rest until we do.

An AI content generator can borrow our melodies, echo our stories, and dress itself up like a human soul, but it cannot carry grief across a lifetime. It cannot forgive an enemy. It cannot experience wonder. It cannot look at a broken world and say, “I am going to build again.”

The age of machines is rising. And if we do not know who we are, we will shrink. But if we use this moment to remember what makes us human, it will help us to become better, because the one thing no algorithm will ever recreate is the miracle that we exist at all — the miracle of the human soul.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Shocking shift: America’s youth lured by the “Socialism trap”

Jeremy Weine / Stringer | Getty Images

A generation that’s lost faith in capitalism is turning to the oldest lie on earth: equality through control.

Something is breaking in America’s young people. You can feel it in every headline, every grocery bill, every young voice quietly asking if the American dream still means anything at all.

For many, the promise of America — work hard, build something that lasts, and give the next generation a better start — feels like it no longer exists. Home ownership and stability have become luxuries for a fortunate few.

Capitalism is not a perfect system. It is flawed because people are flawed, but it remains the only system that rewards creativity and effort rather than punishing them.

In that vacuum of hope, a new promise has begun to rise — one that sounds compassionate, equal, and fair. The promise of socialism.

The appeal of a broken dream

When the American dream becomes a checklist of things few can afford — a home, a car, two children, even a little peace — disappointment quickly turns to resentment. The average first-time homebuyer is now 40 years old. Debt lasts longer than marriages. The cost of living rises faster than opportunity.

For a generation that has never seen the system truly work, capitalism feels like a rigged game built to protect those already at the top.

That is where socialism finds its audience. It presents itself as fairness for the forgotten and justice for the disillusioned. It speaks softly at first, offering equality, compassion, and control disguised as care.

We are seeing that illusion play out now in New York City, where Zohran Mamdani — an open socialist — has won a major political victory. The same ideology that once hid behind euphemisms now campaigns openly throughout America’s once-great cities. And for many who feel left behind, it sounds like salvation.

But what socialism calls fairness is submission dressed as virtue. What it calls order is obedience. Once the system begins to replace personal responsibility with collective dependence, the erosion of liberty is only a matter of time.

The bridge that never ends

Socialism is not a destination; it is a bridge. Karl Marx described it as the necessary transition to communism — the scaffolding that builds the total state. Under socialism, people are taught to obey. Under communism, they forget that any other options exist.

History tells the story clearly. Russia, China, Cambodia, Cuba — each promised equality and delivered misery. One hundred million lives were lost, not because socialism failed, but because it succeeded at what it was designed to do: make the state supreme and the individual expendable.

Today’s advocates insist their version will be different — democratic, modern, and kind. They often cite Sweden as an example, but Sweden’s prosperity was never born of socialism. It grew out of capitalism, self-reliance, and a shared moral culture. Now that system is cracking under the weight of bureaucracy and division.

ANGELA WEISS / Contributor | Getty Images

The real issue is not economic but moral. Socialism begins with a lie about human nature — that people exist for the collective and that the collective knows better than the individual.

This lie is contrary to the truths on which America was founded — that rights come not from government’s authority, but from God’s. Once government replaces that authority, compassion becomes control, and freedom becomes permission.

What young America deserves

Young Americans have many reasons to be frustrated. They were told to study, work hard, and follow the rules — and many did, only to find the goalposts moved again and again. But tearing down the entire house does not make it fairer; it only leaves everyone standing in the rubble.

Capitalism is not a perfect system. It is flawed because people are flawed, but it remains the only system that rewards creativity and effort rather than punishing them. The answer is not revolution but renewal — moral, cultural, and spiritual.

It means restoring honesty to markets, integrity to government, and faith to the heart of our nation. A people who forsake God will always turn to government for salvation, and that road always ends in dependency and decay.

Freedom demands something of us. It requires faith, discipline, and courage. It expects citizens to govern themselves before others govern them. That is the truth this generation deserves to hear again — that liberty is not a gift from the state but a calling from God.

Socialism always begins with promises and ends with permission. It tells you what to drive, what to say, what to believe, all in the name of fairness. But real fairness is not everyone sharing the same chains — it is everyone having the same chance.

The American dream was never about guarantees. It was about the right to try, to fail, and try again. That freedom built the most prosperous nation in history, and it can do so again if we remember that liberty is not a handout but a duty.

Socialism does not offer salvation. It requires subservience.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.