Glenn's Closing Remarks at CPAC 2016

Glenn's speech at CPAC is receiving rave reviews! Thank you for watching and for the kind comments. Below is a sampling of what people are saying.

Comments From Viewers:

"Absolutely. Amazing. Best speech I have ever heard. Glenn, I hope you can write this speech out, and sell it. My compassion for you grows daily, as does my love for freedom, liberty, and those who are imprisoned, killed, and murdered to protect this liberty."

"Just WOW! I am literally blown away. This is the most Brilliant, Inspiring and Factual speech I have ever heard. How can anyone not agree with every word. Our CONSTITUTION, it IS what America is about. When we lose those principles, we have lost our country and our souls. Whether you like Glenn or not, every American needs to hear this"

"Phenomenal speech! I dare say it was one of the most succinct, passionate, and timely speeches on the necessity of the Constitution and returning to those principles. Perhaps you are our Thomas Paine, delivering "Common Sense" in a time when the Republic desperately needs it. Let it be said that the principles you spoke on transcend party and politician and speak to our individual liberty. Let us return to those principles. Let us look inward and realize they are true. Then, let us turn outward and elect those that emulate those principles."

"Loved this speech! Shared it to my personal page. Very inspiring and honest! I think everyone, no matter who you will be voting for, should watch this. This wasn't just a speech for an election or for Americans. It is a speech for humans everywhere! I've got a golden ticket!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! "

"Just finished listening to the speech, I loved it! Now let's take our golden ticket and get our country back on track. Thank you Glenn Beck."

"Glenn, all I can say is WOW! By far your best speech ever; you are a wise and gracious leader. Let's hope this speech unifies conservatives to unite and reclaim the moral high ground, and educates the next generation aspire for greatness.."

"Your messages were spot on, Glenn. This election IS all about saving The Constitution and Bill of Rights. I pray your speech is heard around the world."

"...when you finished one of the most inspirational speeches I have ever heard I wished they had given you a hand held mic. To drop on the stage as you walked away... Like a boss. Not to sound too much like a millennial (I was born in '80 so I ride the fence) but that speech last night was bad @$$. That is all.

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"Wonderful speech. The constitution has never before been explained more clearly. Thank you GLENN BECK. We needed to hear these words"

"Glenn, I am a fellow Texan and have been listening/watching you for years. Your CPAC 2016 speech was the best speech of your lifetime thus far! It was masterful, inspirational, and electrifying, and a glorious reminder of our founding fathers' blueprint for a free and exceptional America. I was moved to tears. This is the "golden ticket" we are to "conserve" as Conservatives! May God fearing, Liberty lovers continue to wake up and stand up for our PRINCIPLES! Keep fighting the good fight, Glenn. You are making a huge difference!"

"Just now watching your closing statements, Glenn... This speech was ABSOLUTELY PHENOMENAL! So well done. I hope as many people as possible will watch this and share it."

"Most inspired, uplifting speech on the Federalist Papers original idea for the U.S. Constitution, and the road map back to our greatness as a people, and nation, in recent or distant memory."

"Absolutely inspiring......countries have poet laureates.......the conservatives have a brilliant story teller laureate......You should be at the top of the list at every college for commencement speaker.....God be with you in all that you do."

"A speech that should be examined carefully and taught in our elementary schools, secondary schools and colleges throughout our nation as Government 101. Everyone should understand the principles taught in this speech."

"Fantastic speech and delivery, Glenn. Every single American needs to hear it...and those not Americans too!"

"Excellent speech. By the time it was over I have hope for our nation. It is we the people and our time is now"

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Transcript of Glenn's CPAC Speech

You are coming into adulthood at a time when the amount of debt created by Central Banks and Socialist programs around the world exceeds the value of all combined human wealth and assets. We owe the bankers more in debt than the combined value of every dollar, ounce of gold, every home and car, every factory and every farm. In the US, our combined debt and unfunded socialist mandates now exceeds seven times total GDP.

We steal the future from the young to allow for our own prosperity today. But we need cleaner air, right? We must provide free college for illegal immigrants! We have to pay for abortions for 16 year olds! We have to bail out Wall Street to protect Main Street, don’t we? We have to make sure everyone gets their fair share!! What a pack of liars we all are. And yet in the hallways of CPAC, you see smiles — determination, energy, hope. The young are resilient.

It reminds me of a boy we’ve all read about. He, too, was born into a world where he was burdened by the mistakes and laziness of his parents — Charlie Bucket. Yes, Roald Dahl’s Charlie Bucket, from "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory". Charlie was born into a world of hopelessness. Naturally bright and hard-working, he provides for a family wholly dependent on him for their food and shelter. A family who has left to him the burden of providing for their survival, a burden that is his birthright, his simply because he is capable. But somehow Charlie is still bright and cheerful. Somehow he still has hope.

When Wonka announces that there are Golden Tickets, the world goes into a frenzy. A chance to escape from the dreary 12-hour work days, struggling to get by. Free passes into the candy-filled world behind his gates. Wonka is saying, “There is still magic in the world, Charlie.” Charlie can’t afford to buy the chocolate bars, but is perceptive enough to find a coin dropped in the gutter. He buys a bar. He opens it and discovers one of the magical tickets inside. I’ve got a Golden Ticket!

There is a scene in the movie where a crowd on the street discovers that Charlie has found the last of the Golden Tickets. A mob forms around him, cheering him, tugging on him, patting him, jostling him, tugging at his clothes and hair, wanting to be close to him, or wanting to get his ticket! They are drawn to him, drawn to it. Drawn to the magic of the ticket in his hand, to this thing that can free them from the doldrums of their day to day lives. A man grabs Charlie and tells him to run . . . Run Straight Home, and Don’t Stop Until You Get There! He does run. Runs for home, but on the way he is stopped.

He has his ticket, wants to rush home to his family and share the wonderful news! But he is stopped. Do you remember what stops him? Slugworth. See, in Rahl Dahl’s world, whenever you get a Golden Ticket, Slugworth shows up. Whenever you are given the thing you want, the thing that can give you freedom, the thing you have hoped and wished for, the thing that represents magic . . . Slugworth is always right there. The businessman, with a wry smile and pockets full of cash.

He is there to tempt Charlie, offering to buy the boy’s virtue . . . a chance to double-up his good fortune and exploit the opportunity fate has given him. All Charlie has to do is steal a little piece of candy from Wonka’s factory. Just a single piece of candy, and he’ll be free of the burden the world has left him. Charlie meets Wonka and tours the factory. Along the way, he gives into his temptation and pockets an Everlasting Gobstopper. As you’ll recall, he and his grandpa also break the rules. At the end of his tour, after having seen his fellow tourists picked off by their own greediness, Wonka throws him out for having broken those rules. “You lose! You get nothing!” His Grandpa, in anger, says to him, “If Slugworth wants his Gobstopper, he’s going to get it!”

But Charlie’s principals shine through. He overcomes his greed. After all, he did break the rules. He walks back into the room, takes the candy from his pocket, and places it on the desk next to Wonka. Wonka says, “So shines a good deed in a weary world.” He turns to Charlie and says, “Charlie, my boy . . . you’ve won!”

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Why do I tell you this story? What is our Golden Ticket? What is the magical thing that has the chance to free you from the burden’s your parents and grandparents have left you? The past few days, we have heard some great ideas about how to advance conservative initiatives. Tonight, I want to speak to you about ideas that will seem, perhaps, less practical, less . . . tactical. Perhaps they will not do as much to increase our reach on Facebook or improve our email open rates.

They will probably not result immediately in convincing our courts to restore water-rights to our farmers, or result in the repeal of Obamacare next year. But while they may not have any immediate practical effect, they are actually the entire reason we are here at all. We, the self-proclaimed guardians of Libert, are here to protect ideas. Ideas that we often take for granted. We assume that we’re covered just because we’re voting for our Party, or at least voting against the other Party. When do we start voting for the candidate who represents our Principals, instead of voting against the other guy? We’re here this weekend at the Conservative Political Action Conference. Well, these are the ideas that we’re here to conserve:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. The right of the people to keep and bear arms

shall not be infringed. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated. The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Do any of these sound familiar? Do you think they would sound familiar in most homes in America? In the halls of the White House? In the hallways of government-funded schools? How about our churches? Would they sound familiar around your own kitchen table? Two hundred and forty years ago, our Forefathers pledged to each other and to the people that they would defend those principals with Their Lives, Their Fortunes and Their Sacred Honors. The Sons and Daughters of Liberty bled together to throw off the chains of a Dictator in order to “secure the blessings of Liberty for themselves and their posterity . . .” Do you feel it? Personal Liberty. Individual Rights. Privacy. Religious Freedom.

What is it that unites us as conservatives? What defines our cause? Ask a Fox News or CNN pundit about the core of the conservative movement. They might say something like “Smaller Government”. Fine, but Smaller Government is not a cause, it is an effect. It is the result of dedication to the original principals and an understanding of the rights endowed to us by our Creator, by Nature’s God. Not just for Republicans or Democrats, not just for Independents, but for the entire species of man. The men who founded our nation understood those principals. That we possess free agency. A capacity to choose our own morality, our own faith. We are capable of working with others in voluntary cooperation for the common good. We are also capable of competing with others for resources and achievement. We are individuals. Each of us is a whole entity, distinct from the rest. They knew that our rights are part of us. That without those rights, we cease to be whole. We cease to be human beings. That is why they did not found their new nation as a

They chose instead not to subvert their nature by giving some men power over the lives of others, but rather to allow each man to live as an individual. They recognized that each of us should be allowed to pursue happiness in our own way, according to the verdict of their own mind. The American Revolution was not a war against England. It was a war against the idea that some men have the right to control the lives of others. That was revolutionary. For the first time in world history, a government was created with a single justification for existing: The recognition and protection of each citizen’s rights. Rights that were inherent to them as individuals. Not granted to them by the government, but simply automatic. “That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among men”. That is the reason our government exists: to protect the rights of man. The Founders don’t cite any other reason in the Declaration. The Declaration doesn’t say “To ensure there is a chicken in every pot.” It doesn’t say “To create safe spaces on college campuses where nobody can say anything mean.” It doesn’t say “To ensure everyone gets free tuition, to secure deals for oil fields in the Middle East.” It doesn’t say, “To bail out big banks and Wall Street cronies who pay us the biggest speaking fees.”

I don’t recall seeing that in there.

Progressives in both Parties believe that governments should do more than simply protect our liberties. They are baffled by our love and dedication to the Constitution. To them it is an inconvenience, maybe something that worked when America was a frontier nation, but it doesn’t offer functional solutions to a modern, industrial society. We have Facebook now, and airplanes, inner city blight, and radical Islamists trying to build nuclear bombs.

So many people believe the world is so complex that 200-year-old documents can’t have relevance anymore. They believe that governments should also eliminate poverty, should plant trees, should create jobs. It should control our resources to ensure nobody gets more than their fair share. They find our allegiance to the Constitution and the Founding Fathers puzzling.

Tonight, we’ll dispel their confusion once and for all. And I want each of you to personally think for a minute and rediscover what it means to be conservative. We are dedicated to the Constitution and its principals not because we cling to our Bibles and our guns. We are dedicated to the Constitution and its principals because we are clear-minded. Because we are rational. Because we have courage enough to recognize the self-evident truth: That mankind, by his nature, has an identity. We are endowed by our creator with inherent, unalienable rights. They are ours simply because we exist. If you don’t understand why the Constitution matters, then you’re the one who’s confused. You don’t understand the nature of man. How can you look at yourself in the mirror and not see who you are? You are a sentient being. You’re born with free agency. You’re capable of choosing right from wrong, morality from immorality.

The world tells you that you are powerless, that you need government programs and rules and edicts. I tell you that you are the most powerful being ever created. When we say we are dedicated to the eternal principals of the Constitution, that is what we mean: We recognize and embrace mankind as the powerful beings we are. Man is who he is. A is A. The Constitution is remarkable and will continue to endure because it is factually correct. It recognizes that no man or woman has any inherent power over any other. Rights are ours individually just like our own DNA. And because rights belong to us individually, the rights of five of us together can never outweigh the rights of one of us.

Those who stand opposed to these principals would dismiss natural law. They wish to live in a world where man isn’t man, because you are too imperfect for them. They detest you. They fear you. They believe you are too corrupt, too stupid and too selfish to be allowed to make your own decisions. They are terrified of the real world, because it is not in their control. They wish for a world

where we don’t have unique talents that may allow us to achieve something others do not. In their world, man’s nature should be subverted, transformed . . . bent to their will, always for reasons they claim are for ‘the common good.’

They can’t have us believe we’re individuals. Instead, we are the possessions of the state, to be used to create a better world. And because they believe we aren’t capable of creating this world on our own, we must be forced to live as we are told so the elites can create this world for us. And in the end, those who call themselves our saviors pull out guns and make us slaves. To them, Mao is right: you don’t have power! To them, power comes from the barrel of a gun.

What is the most precious commodity on earth? Measured in terms of dollars, Gold is the highest valued commodity. Oil, perhaps, or water some say. Others have argued that media airtime is the more valuable a digital society, or a million likes on Facebook. But they are all wrong.

The most valuable commodity on planet earth is man. That is what Progressives and Liberals, Republicans and Democrats, egomaniacal businessmen and socialist senators, man is what they wish to control. There is no more valuable commodity in existence than the productive energies, the labor of mankind. The men and women who live in fear of a world they can’t control seek one thing: power over us. They want, they need to dictate our behavior. To use us as resources to enrich those in power, and to make the world feel safer for the elites. Progressives can never be satisfied. Their fear and shame make them want to have power over every man, woman and child forever.

Democracy. They didn’t elect to have a king. They didn’t choose a path of forced cooperation like socialism or communism, and they didn’t place power in the hands of the wealthy or the elite.

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The expense of maintaining that power is enormous. That is why we have staggering multi-generational debt, the unfunded mandates of a welfare state that assure every American is a slave. It is vital that you understand this. If you and your spouse have a child this year they are born owing a debt of $1,006,208 dollars, their “fair share.” Lincoln and the Republican party abolished slavery over 150 years ago. But make no mistake, today every child born in American is born a slave, burdened as indentured servants the instant they draw their first breath. And the Republican party, the party of Lincoln, has helped forge every link in every chain.

Why are we even allowing the conversation to be about $40,000 in college debt when our children are born owing millions? We’re all guilty. We’re enslaving our children for our own comfort. They are slaves to the unholy alliance between Big Government, Big Business and Big Banks. Slaves to each other. Slaves to the false prosperity we enjoy today. This is taxation without representation. I seem to recall that wars have been fought over that issue.

From the dawn of man until 1780, the advance of human progress was almost imperceptible. Key measures like life expectancy, household income, total wealth, starvation rates, infant mortality rates. For tens of thousands of years, improvements were so small, they could only be measured over centuries. But from 1790 onward, human progress began to accelerate at an exponential rate. The Industrial Revolution was born here, and America became the technology and production engine of the world. Why? What happened here in America?

It was The Constitution. Our principals. Equal justice. Our Golden Ticket. From the day the Constitution was ratified, America has been rising like a rocket, carrying the rest of humanity with us. Individual Liberty, and a government prevented by law from interfering. That is what made American Great. And that is the only thing that can “Make America Great Again.”

Let’s compare that experience to the alternative. Mankind has spent over a century experimenting with the live A / B test of Liberty vs. Tyranny. What are the results? What was the leading cause of unnatural death during the 20th Century? It wasn’t cancer. It wasn’t car accidents. It wasn’t drugs and alcohol, or terrorism. It wasn’t gang violence in the inner cities. The greatest murderer over the last century was governments. Socialist, communist, fascist and theist governments. During the last century, totalitarian governments murdered over 120 Million of their own citizens. And that doesn’t include the countless millions who died of disease and malnutrition, suffering on government health care plans, and on government food programs — always in the name of "progress." all for the greater good.

While the American people were delivering the cure for polio, nuclear fission, refrigeration, televisions, the internet and lunar rockets, the iPhone, and encryption. Progressivism and socialism were delivering death camps, forced starvation, gas chambers, forced abortions and genocide. If the goal really is to Make America Great Again, we don’t need more government deals or programs. We need the government to do the one thing it’s allowed to do in the Constitution. To get out of our way and let loose the productivity and ingenuity of the American people.

Our Founders recognized that fact over 200 years ago. They pledged their lives to one another, vowing to fight and die to protect each other’s rights against a government that sought to control them. As conservatives, it is our duty to bear that responsibility for this generation and the next. Our time is now. It falls to us, to follow our God-given principals.

I am so honored to be among you at this conference. Our movement isn’t about Parties, it’s about each other. Does either party discuss or claim these principals as their own? Who is even talking about it outside this conference? Have they demonstrated a willingness to actually defend our liberty? The Parties don’t matter, our core principals matter. It’s about what we stand for, not who we stand against. We cannot lose our movement, your movement, to a hostile takeover by a charming Slugworth bearing pockets full of cash. No candidate in this race reignited the interest in Conservatism and brought new people to the party. You did that. The Tea Party generated that interest and began defending Liberty years ago.

Most Republicans believe being a Conservative means you’re unpopular, that you will lose at the ballot box. I say BULL. Because of your efforts, right now there are more Republicans in office at the state and local level than there have been at any time since 1920. Don’t tell me conservative principals can’t work. Don’t tell me conservative principals can’t win. This movement belongs to you. You are the wave that is turning Blue into Red all over the country. Loyalty oaths should never be made to parties. That’s a step toward Fascism. This is far beyond Republican or Democrat, Liberal or Conservative, Tea Party or Evangelical or atheist. You don’t owe loyalty or an oath to any party that fails to defend these principals. And it definitely isn’t an oath to the Government. No, our loyalty and our dedication are owed to the Original Principals, to our God, and to each other. That is what our country is. That is what we fight and die for. This is the core of it. Our nature as beings on this earth and our survival as a nation. It comes down to what we owe ourselves, our children and each other. Look around the room. Really look at the people sitting around you. Our principals are found in each other. Our principals are found in the oath of the declaration it is time to restate them to one another clearly:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights. That among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government

becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. ...It is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

As we leave here today and move toward this election, let these words ring true for you. Let the Politicians who would seek your vote hear those words and understand that they are your servants, not you theirs. Demand that they uphold the Oath of Office they take above their oath to their party. That they reaffirm their singular vow: To Preserve, Protect and Defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Let the party bosses and Super Pacs hear that they will only have your support as long as they take and uphold this oath with you. Let the media hear it from you in interviews and social media posts, in articles and books that you author. Let the bartender and cab driver hear it tonight. Let your family hear it tomorrow morning. We are all brothers and sisters,

defenders of freedom.

I have great confidence in American because our cause, the cause of freedom and individual liberty, is a righteous cause. Like our rights, it was endowed to us by our Creator. Those who fight against it are battling nature itself, and they will lose. We need only raise our voices, honor our pledge to one another and refuse forever to surrender our way of life.

May you carry that spirit into the hallways of this hotel tonight and into the streets outside tomorrow. These are the principals that we must run home to. This is our Golden Ticket. Let’s have faith in our principals, rediscover them. Have faith in them and in the God who granted them to you. Let it be said of us, “So shines a good deed in a weary world.” So that when we are judged, when it comes our turn to face our Creator and tell him of our deeds, he can turn on his throne and smile at us and say, “You’ve Won! You've won!”

Featured Images: Courtesy of Lange Studio

A nation unravels when its shared culture is the first thing to go

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.

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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

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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.

Is Socialism seducing a lost generation?

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.

Rage isn’t conservatism — THIS is what true patriots stand for

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Conservatism is not about rage or nostalgia. It’s about moral clarity, national renewal, and guarding the principles that built America’s freedom.

Our movement is at a crossroads, and the question before us is simple: What does it mean to be a conservative in America today?

For years, we have been told what we are against — against the left, against wokeism, against decline. But opposition alone does not define a movement, and it certainly does not define a moral vision.

We are not here to cling to the past or wallow in grievance. We are not the movement of rage. We are the movement of reason and hope.

The media, as usual, are eager to supply their own answer. The New York Times recently suggested that Nick Fuentes represents the “future” of conservatism. That’s nonsense — a distortion of both truth and tradition. Fuentes and those like him do not represent American conservatism. They represent its counterfeit.

Real conservatism is not rage. It is reverence. It does not treat the past as a museum, but as a teacher. America’s founders asked us to preserve their principles and improve upon their practice. That means understanding what we are conserving — a living covenant, not a relic.

Conservatism as stewardship

In 2025, conservatism means stewardship — of a nation, a culture, and a moral inheritance too precious to abandon. To conserve is not to freeze history. It is to stand guard over what is essential. We are custodians of an experiment in liberty that rests on the belief that rights come not from kings or Congress, but from the Creator.

That belief built this country. It will be what saves it. The Constitution is a covenant between generations. Conservatism is the duty to keep that covenant alive — to preserve what works, correct what fails, and pass on both wisdom and freedom to those who come next.

Economics, culture, and morality are inseparable. Debt is not only fiscal; it is moral. Spending what belongs to the unborn is theft. Dependence is not compassion; it is weakness parading as virtue. A society that trades responsibility for comfort teaches citizens how to live as slaves.

Freedom without virtue is not freedom; it is chaos. A culture that mocks faith cannot defend liberty, and a nation that rejects truth cannot sustain justice. Conservatism must again become the moral compass of a disoriented people, reminding America that liberty survives only when anchored to virtue.

Rebuilding what is broken

We cannot define ourselves by what we oppose. We must build families, communities, and institutions that endure. Government is broken because education is broken, and education is broken because we abandoned the formation of the mind and the soul. The work ahead is competence, not cynicism.

Conservatives should embrace innovation and technology while rejecting the chaos of Silicon Valley. Progress must not come at the expense of principle. Technology must strengthen people, not replace them. Artificial intelligence should remain a servant, never a master. The true strength of a nation is not measured by data or bureaucracy, but by the quiet webs of family, faith, and service that hold communities together. When Washington falters — and it will — those neighborhoods must stand.

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This is the real work of conservatism: to conserve what is good and true and to reform what has decayed. It is not about slogans; it is about stewardship — the patient labor of building a civilization that remembers what it stands for.

A creed for the rising generation

We are not here to cling to the past or wallow in grievance. We are not the movement of rage. We are the movement of reason and hope.

For the rising generation, conservatism cannot be nostalgia. It must be more than a memory of 9/11 or admiration for a Reagan era they never lived through. Many young Americans did not experience those moments — and they should not have to in order to grasp the lessons they taught and the truths they embodied. The next chapter is not about preserving relics but renewing purpose. It must speak to conviction, not cynicism; to moral clarity, not despair.

Young people are searching for meaning in a culture that mocks truth and empties life of purpose. Conservatism should be the moral compass that reminds them freedom is responsibility and that faith, family, and moral courage remain the surest rebellions against hopelessness.

To be a conservative in 2025 is to defend the enduring principles of American liberty while stewarding the culture, the economy, and the spirit of a free people. It is to stand for truth when truth is unfashionable and to guard moral order when the world celebrates chaos.

We are not merely holding the torch. We are relighting it.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.