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Direct From the Source: Quotes From General 'Mad Dog' Mattis, Donald Trump's Phenomenal Pick for Sec. of Defense

December 02, 2016
Lori Hanes

Writer

He's being called the most revered marine in a generation from the Marine Corps Times. He's Donald Trump's pick for Secretary of Defense --- General James "Mad Dog" Mattis.

"This is the guy that Barack Obama fired for good reason, because --- I want to get this exactly right --- he rubbed civilian officials the wrong way," Glenn said sarcastically Friday on his radio program.

RELATED: General ‘Rudely’ Fired by Obama Makes Trump’s Short List for Secretary of Defense

Actually General Mattis was fired for disagreeing with Obama's stance on the Iran Deal. General Mattis, you might say, is an outspoken military man who let's his opinions be known.

"Can I read some of his quotes?" Glenn asked Friday on radio.

Here are just a few of the general's more memorable comments:

I don't lose any sleep at night over potential for failure. I can't even spell the word.

I come in peace. I didn't bring artillery, and I'm pleading with you, with tears in my eyes. If you "F" with me, I will kill you all.

Demonstrate to the world that there is no better friend, no worse enemy than a US marine.

There's nothing better than getting shot at and missed. Seriously, it's really great.

"I have to tell you, this is what our military is missing," Glenn said.

Enjoy this complimentary clip from The Glenn Beck Program:

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

GLENN: This is bad. If this happens -- if "Mad Dog" Mattis, General James Mattis --

STU: I mean, obviously a lot of talk about that.

GLENN: Yeah. But if this happens, this is bad. He's being called the most revered marine in a generation from the Marine Corps Times. So you wouldn't want a guy like that in. You know --

STU: Yeah.

GLENN: -- may I just say how spooky -- can I read some of his quotes?

STU: Oh, no.

GLENN: You're not going to like this guy. Now, first of all, this is the guy that Barack Obama fired for good reason, because -- I want to get this exactly right. He rubbed civilian officials the wrong way.

STU: Oh, no. No. Don't do it.

GLENN: Yeah. Yeah. So let me show you the rabid mad dog that may be joining us on the war front.

Try this quote: I don't lose any sleep at night over potential for failure. I can't even spell the word.

The first time you blow someone away is not an insignificant event. That said, there are some A-holes in the world that do need to be shot.

(laughter)

I come in peace. I didn't bring artillery, and I'm pleading with you, with tears in my eyes. If you F with me, I will kill you all.

(laughter)

Find the enemy that wants to end this experiment in American democracy and kill every one of them until they're so sick of the killing that they leave us and our freedoms intact.

STU: Hmm.

GLENN: That is the guy. This is shock and awe.

STU: And this -- this is -- you know -- there's a long process that goes to, you know, finalizing a Secretary of Defense. Not to mention some legal challenges because of an old rule with General Mattis. But, I mean, this is being praised by even some Democrats. And not because -- he's just well-respected.

GLENN: This is where we're going to see Donald Trump's backbone, is when all of these guys go to be confirmed.

STU: Right. But Mattis looks like he's going to do well.

GLENN: Be polite. Be professional. But have a plan to kill everybody you meet.

JEFFY: Think about it.

GLENN: You're part of the world's most feared and trusted force. Engage your brain before you engage your weapon.

There are hunters, and there are victims. By your discipline, cunning, obedience, and alertness, you will decide if you're a hunter or a victim.

No war is over until the enemy says it's over. We may think it's over. We may declare it over. But, in fact, the enemy gets a vote.

There's nothing better than getting shot at and missed. Seriously, it's really great.

(laughter)

You cannot allow any of your people to avoid the brutal facts. If they start living in a dream world, it's going to be bad.

You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil. You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot -- it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot at them. Actually, it's quite fun to fight them, you know. It's a hell of a hoot. It's fun to shoot some people.

I'd be right up there, however, because I like brawling.

STU: Hmm.

GLENN: I'm going to plead with you, do not cross us. Because if you do, the survivors will write about what we did here for 10,000 years.

Wow.

Demonstrate to the world that there is no better friend, no worst enemy than a US marine.

Fight happy, with a happy heart and a strong spirit.

I have to tell you, this is what our military is missing.

JEFFY: Yes.

PAT: Uh-huh.

GLENN: Now, I don't want monsters. I don't want people who love killing, but I want people who, when they're faced with a bad guy, oh, yeah. I don't mind killing you.

You're a bad guy, who is trying to kill us and take away our freedoms. Yeah, I'm going to kill you. And I'm going to kill you fast. And I'm going to kill you in such a way that everybody around you goes, oh, my gosh. I don't want any of that.

STU: Yeah. This looks like a great pick.

GLENN: Great pick.

STU: Again, long process to get there. Rumors and everything will fly. However, great -- very well-respected. Seemingly one of the best picks so far. And a guy -- there's a weird law passed in I think the '40s and '50s that says you have to be retired for seven years as a general to get one of these cabinet positions. Which is a -- I would like to -- I've not tracked down yet. I just heard it on TV, and I didn't --

GLENN: When was he fired?

STU: 2013, I think.

GLENN: Ah.

JEFFY: Oh.

STU: So -- but I think, even Democrats are saying, yeah, we'll probably overturn it for this guy. We'll probably get a waiver. There's been one other waiver I think in history, maybe -- in the '50s.

GLENN: So this guy -- okay. So I'm -- remember I told you I was with a farmer friend over the holiday?

STU: Yeah.

GLENN: So I was with this farmer friend, he is the most soft-spoken, nicest guy, serves in his church every Sunday, and works, you know, at the church on Saturdays as well. Hard-working. Nice guy.

STU: Uh-huh.

GLENN: He was lieutenant -- he was a lieutenant colonel -- yeah, lieutenant colonel in the Air Force.

And he said, "What do you think of 'Mad Dog' Mattis?"

And I said, "From what I know, I like him."

And he said, "Yeah, I like anybody whose call sign is 'Mad Dog.'" He said, "You know, you don't pick your call sign. That's -- they pick it for you. Your buddies pick it for you based on who you are."

And I said, "What was your call sign?" And he said, "Mad Dog."

And I thought -- and I said, "You were 'Mad Dog'?"

He said, "I was a very different man in the military."

He is the quietest, nicest, politest guy you could ever -- not a mad dog.

And I thought, "What was this general like when they gave him -- if this is who he is now, what was he when he was, you know, a grunt, when he was coming up in the ranks and he was called 'Mad Dog'?"

STU: Well, he is loved by the military.

GLENN: Oh, I know he is. I know he is.

STU: Loved. And what a great -- look, there's a lot of things you might have issues with. You know, and who knows? But what a great change from -- from a president who objectively -- while I'm sure he -- you know, Obama obviously just did not have the same sort of respect that many of us have for the military --

GLENN: No, hang on. That's not the problem. Excuse the slang here. But he sissified. He sissified us. He made us into schoolmarms. He made us into a very sensitive bunch of people that I don't want to -- no. No. That's not what your military -- that might be what the -- the civilian force is like, saying, "Hey, hey, hey. Don't open the door for this military because they're madmen back there. Don't."

You want a disciplined set of -- you want a killing machine that is disciplined and under control. You can have heart, but when you open that door, you should be opening up the gates of hell.

I don't understand. If we don't -- if we don't change the culture of our military, we're doomed.

Now, the question is: Can we change the -- I mean, I would really -- it would be very interesting to see if we teach the Christian ethics again. Remember, that was one of the first things Barack Obama did.

Remember?

PAT: Was to stop that.

GLENN: Yeah, he took out Christian ethics as one of -- that was a required course for everybody at West Point and everybody where else. You had to take the ethics class.

I can't remember -- do you remember what it was called, Pat? It wasn't Christian ethics.

PAT: I can't remember.

GLENN: But it was based on Christianity. That we're not fighting for vengeance or any of that. And he stopped that immediately. Which, when you're sissifying a bunch of battle people, why wouldn't you keep that in? Unless you had a problem with religion. And so we took that out. And that was what really tempered us.

So it will be interesting to see if we reinstate that class because we need that class more than ever. Because if we have a bunch of people who -- whose instinct is vengeance, whose instinct is, "Get them. Make them pay," it needs to be tempered. And we put the teeth back into this military. We better be really careful. Make sure we put them back in the way they were in the first place.

STU: I will say too that this pick has very little in common with a person who is not an interventionalist or a person who is going to hold back and avoid conflict. Now, Mattis is very balanced and very smart.

GLENN: Hang on.

STU: But, again, a supporter of our conflicts.

GLENN: Hang on. Hang on.

Pat, you and I are more interventionalist than probably you guys, right? Pat and I are both: Close down our bases overboard seas. Come home. I don't want anything to do with anybody else.

Pat, I am the president of the United States and I think it would be the same with you, you're my adviser, do you think that I would want you to come in with a bunch of namby-pamby guys in the Defense Department or people who have been in the worst battles in the history of America and know it and know that war is to kill the other guy faster than they can kill you?

PAT: Definitely that.

JEFFY: Yeah.

STU: Again, to me, it's just another piece of evidence that he is closer to the average Republican in -- in these matters, than he is --

GLENN: Not necessarily.

STU: -- to the Democratic positions he had leading into the --

GLENN: Because you could say -- I mean, look, I want to stop the wars. And I want to bring people home. So I'm going to put the biggest bad guy in I could find. I don't mean bad guy, but biggest war dog I could find, who is going to make my military rough and tumble again. Because here's what's going to happen. I'm going to go finish those wars so I can bring everybody home. And I'm going to finish them in such a way that everybody goes, "Good God Almighty, don't mess with them."

STU: And it's consistent with what he said, for example, ISIS. Right? Like, I'm going to bomb the hell out of -- like that type of attitude.

GLENN: Right. Right. Finish it. Bomb them, fight them. Kill them. Finish it. Come home, and you won't have to go back.

I think this is a great pick.

STU: Right. I'm with you.

JEFFY: That's kind of -- I mean, that's Donald Trump's way forever anyway. I'll destroy you, and then, ah, you're okay now. I've destroyed you. I beat you. You're down. I'll talk to you.

PAT: Well, you know --

GLENN: Well, he doesn't do that with everybody.

PAT: No. Not everybody.

GLENN: Not everybody. Mitt Romney.

JEFFY: It's funny that you say that.

GLENN: But he hasn't done that with everybody.

PAT: He does claim he's a counterpuncher though, and that's what you want now, right? That's what we want.

JEFFY: Yes.

PAT: We don't want to go out and get our fat face into everybody's business. But if you attack us, we're going to hit back so hard, you'll never do that again.

JEFFY: Yes.

GLENN: Right. I don't want a guy who wants vengeance.

PAT: Right.

GLENN: But I do want a guy who, when you punch me in the face --

PAT: We're coming after you.

GLENN: -- I'm going to break your arms and your legs and maybe snap your neck.

PAT: We're coming after you. Yeah.

GLENN: Don't ever punch us in the face.

Featured Image: US President-elect Doanld Trump poses for a photo with US Marines General (Ret.) James Mattis James Mattis and Vice President-elect Mike Pence on the steps of the clubhouse at Trump National Golf Club November 19, 2016 in Bedminster, New Jersey. / AFP / Don EMMERT (Photo credit should read DON EMMERT/AFP/Getty Images)

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.

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: Chart-topping ‘singer’ has no soul at all

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.

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

Gary Hershorn / Contributor | Getty Images

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.

Eric Lee / Stringer | Getty Images

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.