The Oval: What History Teaches Us

July 18, 2012

Writer

Good afternoon.

If you have watched my show for just two minutes or met me for 20 seconds you know one thing about me: I love history. I can’t stop thinking about it. I can’t stop talking about it. I love old things, I love relics, anything that came before me that history has blessed…I’m honored to see and hold.

Maybe that makes me odd but I don’t think so.

I think Americans love their history. We are a young nation but we love to learn about our past. And there is a good reason for that. Our past is where we discover who we really are as a nation, just as children inherit certain things from their parents and grandparents and great-grandparents. Our nation has inherited certain things from those who came before us. And it’s critical, we know what those things are. Otherwise, we leave our inheritance on the table. And it just will wash away.

That’s why I wish that the person who sits at this desk, and the people who advise him, took the time and topped thinking about the next news cycle, the next attack ad. And just stopped. And walked over to the bookshelf right here and read one of these books. They’re not just there for decoration!

They are there because our history tells us who we are. What we built. What problems we faced and how we overcame them.

The people who work in this office, not just now, but in every administration, ought to spend a lot of time studying history.

Because if they did, they would learn soon enough that some of the biggest problems they face are small compared to those which have come before. That some of the solutions they think will work have been tried and have failed before. That America may never have been perfect, but that America has been better than this. And America can be better than this again.

The problem we have Is that the people who sit behind this desk have so much going on around them. And they confuse action with accomplishment. They don’t spend time doing something that would solve a lot of their problems. They don’t read. They don’t study. They don’t learn from the past.

History is the greatest weapon against one of mankind’s strongest enemies: forgetfulness.

Forgetting is such a human trait. I go to the supermarket, and I forget to buy a gallon of milk. I come into the office, and I forget my keys in my car. Someone asks me: ‘Glenn, how old are your parents?’ And I forget. I have to think about it before I answer.

But forgetting to buy milk is one thing. Forgetting our nation’s history is another.

Let me give you an example.

This nation was once attacked on its shores and the enemy worked to infiltrate our populations. They placed in our cities sleeper agents. Gathering intelligence. Preparing for the day of attack. They watched. They listened.

So this nation took action. We discovered the plots. We disrupted their plans. We found those who were guilty. And we hung them. Because in America, we have always believed that treason and treachery is a crime punishable by death.

Today, our nation faces a similar threat. The enemy has slipped past our thinly guarded borders. And we don’t know where they are. But when we discover these plotters we don’t know what to do! We say: ‘There is no precedent for this!’ And so people sitting at this desk and working in this office - they simply make things up as they go along.

They bungle prosecutions. They expose vital intelligence. They give comfort to the enemy. And they allow treachery and treason to build further. All because they didn’t know their history.

They didn’t know that a prior administration – seventy years earlier –faced the same issue. Developed a plan. Took action. And solved the problem.

The cost of this historical illiteracy can be measured. It can be measured in the lives that have been lost. To terrorist attacks in our cities, at our military bases, all because our leaders didn’t study their history.

They didn’t read. They pretended like they were the first Americans to face a challenge.

But they were not the first. Not even the second.

The circumstances change. The cast of characters change. The culture changes. But in the end the challenges are the same.

Prosperity or stagnancy.

Freedom or dependency.

Justice or injustice.

Unity or disunity.

The individual or the state.

These are the choices that every American has known. Every generation of Americans has been asked to choose. These are not new choices. And our problems are not new problems.

What’s new is ignorance.

Ignorance of history.

Ignorance of what America stood for 236 years ago.

Ignorance of what America has learned in those years.

Ignorance of the successes.

Ignorance of the failures.

That’s new.

You can get ignorant by not learning. Or you can get ignorant just by being arrogant. By thinking you know more than those who came before you. By thinking that you know what you need to know. That’s arrogance.

And we see it today.

Wouldn’t it be great if the president sat behind this desk and spoke to the nation once a week for 43 consecutive weeks each time talking about a single president? One man, one president - five minutes. Just a little message about each former president.

Each time, saying: “This president – Jefferson, Grant, Arthur, Truman… whatever…He led the nation for so many years. He tried to do these things. He succeeded here and he failed there. And this is what I learned from his time in office. So I thank him for his service to the nation.”

That’s it. Five minutes. Just a simple acknowledgement that nobody – not even the president – is above it all. Above his predecessors. Above history.

And here is my hope: that if the current president, or any president, stopped to learn some history, stopped to think about what history teaches him, he might realize that America is better than he thinks. Is stronger than he thinks. More independent. More industrious. More capable of great things. That he does not need to wave a wand, give a speech, even sign a law that will solve a problem. That Americans are quite capable of solving themselves. America is better than its leaders. And that if Americans are trusted and if Americans are encouraged, Americans can restore this nation. Can rebuild it. Using the original blueprints. Using the original documents.

And just maybe if we had a president sitting at this desk who appreciated that history is the best adviser, we would begin to recognize that history is alive! And history is to be celebrated. Honored.

Let me close with one story, because it tells you why history matters.

This desk is called the Resolute. It was a gift from the British. It came from a ship called the HMS Resolute. The Resolute was a ship in search of the explorer Sir John Franklin in 1852. And on that search, deep in Arctic Seas, it had to be abandoned by the crew.

Three years later, an American whaler, the George Henry, found it. Broke it free from the ice. Towed it to port. And America restored it. Outfitted it. And gave it back to the British Crown as a gift.

The ship spent three more decades in service. Then it was retired.

Queen Victoria had an idea. She ordered that craftsmen use wood from the ship to make a desk. And she gave that desk to the president Rutherford Hayes. It has been in the White House for all but a few years ever since. And it has been in the Oval Office for nearly four decades.

Maybe it’s easy to read that history and think “Well, that’s just stuff that happened way, way back. And everyone in the story is dead!” And if you think that, you probably are bored by history. Or, If you’re like me, you love that story because it tells you something about a friendship and about national honor.

It tells you in one story: Why America and Great Britain share a special friendship. A friendship both nations have fought and died to preserve.

And from that story, you learn what it means to sustain that friendship over decades.

That story might have helped the current president when he was thinking about what to give as a gift to the queen and to the prime minister in his first year of office.

Maybe, instead of an iPod and some DVDs, he might have looked at this desk and thought: “We can do better. We should do better.” And for once in his presidency he might have avoided a mistake just by studying history. Just by acknowledging that he’s not the first smart guy to sit in that chair.

That’s how history is. It’s like an instruction manual for the world. An instruction manual for the president. An instruction manual on America.You can be president and not read the instruction manual, but you know how it is with instruction manuals. Whether it’s a TV or a mobile phone or a country, if you don’t read the manual, you won’t know how the dang thing works. You won’t get to use all the features. And in the end – it might break on you because you didn’t read the manual.

So even if our president won’t study our history, you should. Because one day, we’re going to have to fix this mess and it would be good if you’ve read the manual first.

Thanks for watching.

May God bless you, and may God bless this Republic.

The Deep State's NEW plan to backstab Trump

Brandon Bell / Staff | Getty Images

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Drone mystery exposes GLARING government incompetence

Gary Hershorn / Contributor | Getty Images

The drone issue is getting way out of hand.

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

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

Iranian Mothership and Missing Nuclear Warheads

- / Stringer | Getty Images

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

Pentagon's Limp Wristed Response

Alex Wong / Staff | Getty Images

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

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

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

Where's Pete Buttigieg?

Chip Somodevilla / Staff | Getty Images

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

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

Michael M. Santiago / Staff | Getty Images

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The system failed Jordan Neely

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

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

It’s time to demand change

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

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

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

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

Jeff Swensen / Stringer | Getty Images

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

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

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

me liking tweets celebrating the assassination of the united healthcare ceo pic.twitter.com/N41w51ZuZR
— 🔻 (@pegasustits) December 5, 2024

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

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

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

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

A liberal TikToker is selling a t-shirt that glorifies the recent assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in NYC.
“deny , defend, depose” was reported to have been on the shell casings. pic.twitter.com/IWpHYkx2lF
— SteveSant66 🇺🇸 (@SSant66) December 8, 2024

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

Glenn's Show Prep