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Glenn's Show Prep

Why Glenn invited himself to the Freedomworks 9/12 Grassroots Summit

September 11, 2015
Staff

WRITER

Adam Brandon, president of Freedomworks, joined Glenn on radio Friday, to tell listeners how they can begin to network with other like-minded activists to help fix our country. Freedomworks will hold a 9/12 Grassroots Summit in Orlando, Florida on Saturday 9/12, where Glenn will be speaking along with GOP presidential candidates, members of Congress and other political influencers.

During the interview, Glenn pointed out he felt so strongly about this event, he actually invited himself to be a part of it.

"If my memory serves me right, I asked you if I could come. And I want the audience to know that," Glenn said.

While admitting he often says, "I'm done with politics" on air, Glenn said it's critical we actually stay engaged.

"It's really easy for us to say, 'I'm not going to be engaged.' But we are actually winning," Glenn said.

Listen to the full interview or read the transcript below.

Below is a rush transcript of this segment, it might contain errors.

GLENN: Adam Brandon is with us. He's from FreedomWorks. I wanted to give him a couple of minutes here to talk a little about the 9/12 Summit that we're doing tomorrow, or that he's doing tomorrow and I'm a part of. They graciously asked me to attend. And the people that are coming. So, Adam, what's the key to tomorrow?

ADAM: Well, thanks for having me on, Glenn. I'm excited to see you. You've had one busy week. Events in Washington, events down in Florida. Jeez, where are you going next, my man?

GLENN: I know. On Sunday, I'm doing three other events as well. So it's been good though. I get to see a lot of people.

ADAM: Yeah, it is. And that's the thing. There's a lot of people that want to see you. Because we're dealing with a lot of very important issues. And I do have to applaud you for going to Washington and taking a stand on hyping the awareness of the problem with this around you. I know it's not on the FreedomWorks issue set, but pat on the back to you and to everyone else that did that that day.

GLENN: I will tell you that the people that were there are the Tea Party people. And I don't know if the politicians -- even some of the good ones, you know, I don't judge them. They're just so far out of -- they're so far away from where the people are, that they just don't -- I don't think they even really get it. So, Adam, what is coming? And what are we going to learn tomorrow?

ADAM: Well, that's the perfect segway. Earlier in the year, we knew that tomorrow was going to be 9/12. We knew we had to do something to commemorate that march that we did years and years ago that some estimates as high as 2 million people marched on the National Mall. And that was kind of the coming-out party for both FreedomWorks and the Tea Party movement. And we wanted to do something to kind of show progress. Because it's very easy to look around at all these problems and say, "Hey, we're doing all this work. We've been in the streets. We've been in elections. We've been on the phone. What's the progress?"

So we wanted to have a day where we get everyone together to kind of fire people back up and show, "Look, there is progress." So we're going to come together, kind of celebrate that march and kind of show -- you mentioned the politicians. We are going to have a bunch of them on that stage tomorrow. Members of this House Freedom Caucus. This is the caucus that has given Boehner all the problems. There was a headline last week showing that John Boehner knows he doesn't have the votes to survive a vote of confidence. He could be removed. John Boehner might not make it out of this Congress.

GLENN: Go ahead.

ADAM: It's people like Congressman Mark Meadows, talk about courage. Ron DeSantis. Thomas Massie of Kentucky. This is the hit list for the establishment. But none of these guys -- none of these guys wouldn't have been in office if it wasn't for your listeners and if it wasn't for this movement that we all created.

GLENN: And I will tell you this, that I am meeting -- and I want to talk to you off-air tomorrow a bit about some guys that I've met in the last few weeks that are so far under the radar. They are not guys -- and what really gives me hope, they don't want the publicity. In fact, they told me some things that they were doing. They were like, "Don't talk about this. Please don't talk about this." And I said, "But that's really inspiring." And they're like, "Don't talk about it. I don't want the publicity. I don't want anything. They'll never see it coming." And there are some things on people that the Tea Party has put in, they are not stopping. They're not sleeping. There's some really good people and some dramatic things on the horizon. Would you agree with that?

ADAM: I 100 percent agree with it. And I fall prey every day to talking about presidential politics. When there are about 30 members of Congress -- and we all know Mike Lee. We all know Ted Cruz. We all know Rand Paul. But these 30 members of the House Freedom Caucus. And I hope everyone who is listening who has never heard about the House Freedom Caucus, Googles it, learns about it, and supports those folks because this is that thin red line in the House of Representatives.

GLENN: It is.

ADAM: And we need to grow that thin red line. And folks tell me, "Hey, Adam, let us -- you know, we want to do our work quietly." But I'm sorry, I'm going to the top of the roofs and scream their praises for the work that they're doing because I know it's lonely, it's awful, and it's horrible. And they're doing it. They're going to Washington and they're doing it. It's not enough yet. It's not critical mass yet. But that's why we want to get together tomorrow in Florida to celebrate our movement and to show those guys some love and respect and give them courage to keep going.

GLENN: Yeah, I will tell you this, I -- I'm not going to shout their name from the rooftops, the few that I want to talk to you about them. Because I don't even know if you know what's going on in some of these things. I'm sure you do. But I am so encouraged by what I see behind the scenes. And out of these 30 guys, let's say in Congress. They're the ones -- I don't think the average American understands how close we are to eviscerating the G.O.P.

ADAM: Yes.

GLENN: I don't think they have any idea. They see the G.O.P. -- well, the G.O.P. is winning. The G.O.P. is winning. The G.O.P. is winning. And they don't look afraid. But I'm telling you, they're about to be done. They're about to literally be finished as a party if they don't get their own leadership out of the way and change their ways. And I don't think the average American feels that yet.

ADAM: No. And I think it's -- there's always -- I always love that saying "the Stone Age didn't end because they ran out of stones." And I think the G.O.P.'s age, the old establishment's age, they have all the trappings of the power that they used to have. But all those television ads they used to run and the committee chairs they used to control and the lobbyist state dinners, none of that has the effect that it once did because you've got these congressmen who are going to Washington -- Tim Hill's camp, who will be speaking from Kansas, votes against bloated agriculture subsidies. In Kansas. And he's got two establishment challengers already. And we either step up as a movement to protect him, to support him, to keep him elected, or the old guys will take -- you know, get one of their own back in there. So it will be a fight from coast-to-coast. Not just the presidential race. Not just Senate races. And there will be a bunch of doozy Senate races. But we have to make sure we protect these 30 members of the House Freedom Caucus and grow their ranks.

GLENN: Well, I will tell you, I don't think you guys asked me to be a part of this. If my memory serves me right, I asked you if I could come. And I want the audience to know that. If you're listening and you're anywhere in the Orlando area, I asked to come to this because while I say on the air I'm done with politics, I'm done with politics, I want you to know, this is critical that we actually stay engaged. It's really easy for us to say, "I'm not going to be engaged." But we are actually winning. You know, that seven stages of a movement, we're at that seventh stage where you think you've lost and you're about to fall apart.

ADAM: Right. Right.

GLENN: The next stage is, "Surprise, you've won." But we have to do the things that we need to do for this next election. We can't just get frustrated with big government progressives in the G.O.P. leading in the polls. We need to understand, we're still a long way away. And there's a lot of hearts and minds to be changed. And there's a lot of mistakes to be made by all of these candidates yet.

ADAM: We're going to be talking about -- Steve Moore, who joined Freedom Works recently, is going to be talking about a very pro-economic growth agenda. And one thing that is scary to me, throughout our history, basically since the Pilgrims, we've grown at about three and a half percent per year, on average. And now we're growing at about one and a half percent, 2 percent. And that's not good enough. This is why America's middle class has not seen a raise in 25 years. We need to grow as a country.

And the only reason we're not growing is the regulations, is the bureaucrats, is Washington, is Obamacare. You could go down the list. And that hurts people. The people that have been hurt the most in this in the last few years are single mothers, they're black Americans, young Americans. The very people who got Barack Obama elected have been the ones who have been hurt the most in this nongrowth era. And so let's take that positive pro-growth vision and message to all corners and all parts of our society.

GLENN: You know nobody looks at it this way, but I've been in so many churches over the last six months, and I'm speaking at three churches -- or, two services and another church. So two different churches just this Sunday in Tampa. And what amazes me is nobody looks at it this way, but the churches aren't really hurting for money. The churches are able to build these great buildings. They're able to change neighborhoods. I mean, it was just in Houston, and I was talking to all of the politicians and all of the firefighters and all of the people in Houston, and that one church, where they had that service in Houston last week, that one church has fundamentally changed the way services are required and passed out through the local government because the church just took it. And why are the churches growing in money and ability? Because they're the least regulated. You can't regulate.

ADAM: Right.

GLENN: So when a church says, "I want to fix something in our community," they just do it. The reason why we're having these problems is because everything else in our society is overregulated and overtaxed. And so you don't have the ability to do anything.

ADAM: No.

GLENN: If we would just start to get our own country, our own private industry and our own private households closer into line to where the churches are, where they're not asking for permission, they're just doing it, we could fix the problems.

ADAM: Just do it. Here about this economy right now. We have some of the lowest levels of entrepreneur start-ups in our history. When you look at the trends. When you look at the labor force -- it is, since the 1970s, the lowest level of labor force participation. This affects people's lives. We're talking about opportunities and dreams that are not happening because the bureaucracy is growing. And these guys in the House Freedom Caucus get it and they're fighting it every day.

And I think that's one of the reasons we did that march back in -- five, six years ago on 9/12, was because people just wanted to unleash American prosperity. They just wanted to, let's go back to our core principles that made us great. And I see the hope. And as you travel, you see the hope. But we have to do it together, in the sense, you got to get together with your church, your neighbors. And that's why it's important to do these events like we do every once in a while, just so you can also feel that fellowship, walk in there with a few thousand people who think and act the way that you do and believe in this country and get fired up and go be an evangelical in your own community about how great America is.

GLENN: Thank you very much, we'll see you tomorrow.

ADAM: All right. Can't wait.

GLENN: If you'd like to attend. Go to 912summit.com. 912summit.com. The Orlando area at the arena here -- I think it's in Orlando. Where is it? Yeah, in Orlando. So come on out and join us. And you can find out all the information at 912summit.com. That's tomorrow. Then I'm also going to be speaking at Crossing Church. That is Sunday. And I'm going to be speaking at the 8:30 service and the 10:30 service at Crossing Church in Tampa. You can find out the information on that. And then at 4:00 p.m. -- I think it's at 4:00 p.m. in the afternoon. And I don't even have the location, but it will be up at GlennBeck.com. And I'm speaking at an LDS steak center at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. And you're welcome to attend either one of those. But that's this Sunday. If you're anywhere near the Florida area, I would love to see you. And find out all the details on all those activities this -- for this weekend at GlennBeck.com.

A Sharia enclave is quietly taking root in America. It's time to wake up.

NOVA SAFO / Staff | Getty Images

Sharia-based projects like the Meadow in Texas show how political Islam grows quietly, counting on Americans to stay silent while an incompatible legal system takes root.

Apolitical system completely incompatible with the Constitution is gaining ground in the United States, and we are pretending it is not happening.

Sharia — the legal and political framework of Islam — is being woven into developments, institutions, and neighborhoods, including a massive project in Texas. And the consequences will be enormous if we continue to look the other way.

This is the contradiction at the heart of political Islam: It claims universal authority while insisting its harshest rules will never be enforced here. That promise does not stand up to scrutiny. It never has.

Before we can have an honest debate, we’d better understand what Sharia represents. Sharia is not simply a set of religious rules about prayer or diet. It is a comprehensive legal and political structure that governs marriage, finance, criminal penalties, and civic life. It is a parallel system that claims supremacy wherever it takes hold.

This is where the distinction matters. Many Muslims in America want nothing to do with Sharia governance. They came here precisely because they lived under it. But political Islam — the movement that seeks to implement Sharia as law — is not the same as personal religious belief.

It is a political ideology with global ambitions, much like communism. Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently warned that Islamist movements do not seek peaceful coexistence with the West. They seek dominance. History backs him up.

How Sharia arrives

Political Islam does not begin with dramatic declarations. It starts quietly, through enclaves that operate by their own rules. That is why the development once called EPIC City — now rebranded as the Meadow — is so concerning. Early plans framed it as a Muslim-only community built around a mega-mosque and governed by Sharia-compliant financing. After state investigations were conducted, the branding changed, but the underlying intent remained the same.

Developers have openly described practices designed to keep non-Muslims out, using fees and ownership structures to create de facto religious exclusivity. This is not assimilation. It is the construction of a parallel society within a constitutional republic.

The warning from those who have lived under it

Years ago, local imams in Texas told me, without hesitation, that certain Sharia punishments “just work.” They spoke about cutting off hands for theft, stoning adulterers, and maintaining separate standards of testimony for men and women. They insisted it was logical and effective while insisting they would never attempt to implement it in Texas.

But when pressed, they could not explain why a system they consider divinely mandated would suddenly stop applying once someone crossed a border.

This is the contradiction at the heart of political Islam: It claims universal authority while insisting its harshest rules will never be enforced here. That promise does not stand up to scrutiny. It never has.

AASHISH KIPHAYET / Contributor | Getty Images

America is vulnerable

Europe is already showing us where this road leads. No-go zones, parallel courts, political intimidation, and clerics preaching supremacy have taken root across major cities.

America’s strength has always come from its melting pot, but assimilation requires boundaries. It requires insisting that the Constitution, not religious law, is the supreme authority on this soil.

Yet we are becoming complacent, even fearful, about saying so. We mistake silence for tolerance. We mistake avoidance for fairness. Meanwhile, political Islam views this hesitation as weakness.

Religious freedom is one of America’s greatest gifts. Muslims may worship freely here, as they should. But political Islam must not be permitted to plant a flag on American soil. The Constitution cannot coexist with a system that denies equal rights, restricts speech, subordinates women, and places clerical authority above civil law.

Wake up before it is too late

Projects like the Meadow are not isolated. They are test runs, footholds, proofs of concept. Political Islam operates with patience. It advances through demographic growth, legal ambiguity, and cultural hesitation — and it counts on Americans being too polite, too distracted, or too afraid to confront it.

We cannot afford that luxury. If we fail to defend the principles that make this country free, we will one day find ourselves asking how a parallel system gained power right in front of us. The answer will be simple: We looked away.

The time to draw boundaries and to speak honestly is now. The time to defend the Constitution as the supreme law of the land is now. Act while there is still time.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

The Crisis of Meaning: Searching for truth and purpose

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.

A break in trust: A NEW Watergate is brewing in plain sight

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.