Glenn: Time to get out of the herd because you're being led to the slaughter

It was twelve years ago people were inspired by the words "let's roll", willing to undergo self-sacrifice to help others. Today, people seem willing to just be cattle. The latest example? A Baltimore man was arrested for simply standing up and asking tough questions during a Common Core town hall meeting. Could this just be the latest step to government taking control of the American people, and using force and intimidation to suppress objections? Glenn thinks so, and he opened the show by explaining just what happened and what it all means.

Watch:

Below is a transcript of Glenn's opening monologue:

If you’ve been watching my show for a long time, you are familiar with this – nudge, shove, shoot, and it’s how every Marxist utopian dream begins with just, it starts simple with just a little nudge. It’s cash for clunkers. It is trying to figure out a way to make energy prices necessarily skyrocket, nudge you into hybrids or french fries versus carrots, you know? You put them in front of the chip so the kid eats healthy.

Then when this doesn’t work anymore, then they have to start shoving, and that’s when it gets more serious. That’s when they use the IRS to shut down the opposing voices. They use the NSA to monitor and track American citizens. They use labor intimidation, send the labor unions over to people’s houses. Then they start using regulation, and they start arresting people to scare everybody.

Eventually, that doesn’t work anymore, because people want to be free, and they understand common sense, and they want to live in a world that makes sense to them. And so when this doesn’t make sense, and this no longer works, if you really want your Marxist utopia, then it goes to this, and that’s when you start shooting. You start shooting people or you send them to a reeducation camp or you send them to an internment camp.

It happens every time, and it happens when you forget about the individual, and you make it about the collective. It happens with every revolution, whether it is a revolution in the French Revolution or if it is a revolution in Egypt. So now where are we on the scale? Are we at nudge, shove, or shoot? Well, it really comes down to this, how do you transform a nation? How do you do it?

This is the list that I made about six years ago when I first started, maybe right before I started at Fox. I saw what was coming, and I thought okay, so if you’re going to do fundamental transformation, what do you need? How do you do it? How do you take a nation that’s free and do it? And I came up with a list of things you had to control.

You had to control the media. They had that one a long time ago. They control the media. They control the culture through Hollywood. Education, they’re putting the final nails on that. They’ve controlled it for a long time but not like they’re trying now. Banking, well they pretty much control everything. They control through the Fed your money. They control the value of what you’ve even saved.

Medical, they’ve got that coming in the next couple of weeks. Communication, three little letters, NSA, they pretty much have that done. Food and farms, they are currently working on that like you wouldn’t believe. We’ll show you in the next couple of weeks. Police, have you noticed how much money the Department of Homeland Security has put into your local police force? Have you noticed that the Department of Homeland Security is actually being used now as a local police force?

And the military, I never thought they’d get that one. That one’s almost completely done, and of course labor. So they have all this done now. They didn’t have all this done six years ago. They do now. And then they have to do one other thing, they have to use, exploit, or create an economic crisis, security fears, war. And when you’re in war, you get to define who your enemies are, so you redefine the enemies.

Propaganda, we just had, our government just okayed, our Congress actually said it’s okay for our United States government now to do propaganda on our own people. Since when? Why did they need that piece? They have to use behavioral scientists. They have to figure out how to nudge and when to reeducate. Well, we know from The New York Times the president uses behavioral scientists, and nudge, shove, shoot. So where are we? Where are we?

Well, on Thursday, there was an event that happened that I found out about Friday night, and I couldn’t sleep for two hours, because I believe it is a very important piece that moves us further towards shoot. It happened in Towson, Maryland, an upscale, or it used to be upscale suburb of Baltimore. A dad was arrested after a public forum. This is it, Common Core State Standards. This was the invitation. This was the flyer that went out.

It says here “Your chance to get answers to your Common Core questions.” Well, that’s what it was. Dad stands up, and he’s got a question about Common Core. His name is Robert Small, and he wasn’t merely arrested. He was removed with excessive force and today, he faces ten years in prison.

By the way, this story is getting national coverage now. It hasn’t received any local coverage yet. Now, if I told you that story, you would say there’s got to be a catch. I want you to decide for yourself, because it’s all thank goodness captured on video.

But before I show it to you, here’s what was going on: The school board decided that they instead of actually engaging with the parents in a back-and-forth question-and-answer session, that your questions, all the answers to your Common Core questions would need to be written down on paper and then handed in to the schoolmarm.

Now with this method, sure, maybe it’s a little more orderly, but it also removes the possibility of follow-up questions on the spot, takes the microphone out of the crowd, takes the emotion out of the room, which I guess could be argued good thing or bad thing. But what happens is you suppress and minimize any possible objections.

Okay, so you could play that either way. You could be okay, well, they’re just trying to move things along, make sure people don’t get longwinded, and make sure nobody gets angry, but then they screened and edited the questions in advance. So for over an hour, the crowd had to listen to the county superintendent talk about how wonderful Common Core was. Then they showed a video on how great Common Core is. Then they started reading some of the softball questions, and that’s when Robert Small couldn’t take it anymore, but he stood up in total self-control, and here’s what happened. Watch.

VIDEO

Robert Small: I went to Community College. I finished at the University of Maryland. And now I move my family out to Howard County because of the reputation the schools. My children are being prepared for community college. You’re not talking to them about which colleges. You’re not preparing them for Harvard.

Take control. We’re sick of this. This is not a CNN political debate. This is a public town hall. Don’t stand for this. You’re sitting here like cattle. You have questions. Confront them. They don’t want to do it in public. Is this America? This is not a CNN political debate. Parents, you need to question these people. Do the research. It’s online.

Look at this. Okay, now did he look at all out of control? That guy was intimidating him. He was manhandling him. This is the way it used to happen in mother Russia, not America. Now here’s the kicker: The reason why I couldn’t sleep on Friday is because this guy, the father, was charged with second-degree assault of a police officer, faces a $2,500 fine and up to ten years in prison. Excuse me? Show me the physical threat. Show me the assault.

The assault happened the other way around as the officer was violently yanking him by his arm in an attempt to remove him. Remove him from what? What was his crime, asking a question about what’s going to happen with his children? What law did this man break that warranted such a use of force? I’ll tell you what it was, doing this, doing this. You know this picture? You know what that is?

That’s Norman Rockwell, a guy standing up in a school board meeting and speaking his mind. That’s what Norman Rockwell said was one of the four freedoms, stating your opinion. As Small was being dragged out, he said don’t stand for this. You’re sitting here like cattle. Mr. Small’s admonition to the herd is spot on.

Where were the teachers as he was being removed, you know, the ones that always teach about it’s a wrong to bully people? Did no one feel that he was being bullied? Did not one person have the decency to say stop, stop, stop? Up there on the board, no one said lets him…stop? One woman taping asked that question. Another woman stood up, said something to the guard to no avail, but other than that, nothing, nothing.

We have seen in the last few months teachers stand up for a colleague who sexually molested and raped an eighth grade student, but the teachers don’t stand up against this? No one, none of the parents dare ask a question out loud or directly addressed the almighty school board without writing it down on paper first; otherwise it will turn into the Salem witch trials. Cattle, time to get out of the herd, because you’re being led to slaughter.

Perhaps people were afraid to speak because they were afraid of being dragged off by a police officer, and so the option is I sit here with my mouth closed like cattle. And when nobody is there to stand up for you, it’s because you weren’t there to stand up for everybody else that was dragged off. I just want you to put this in perspective. It was 12 years ago. We’re still the same Americans. It’s not like some past generation. We’re still the same generation that 12 years ago we were inspired by the rallying cry of the typical American that said let’s roll.

We’ve gone from let’s roll to cattle in 12 years. Don’t tell me that we haven’t lost our country. Don’t tell me that we haven’t been fundamentally transformed. I don’t even recognize Americans anymore. Now, here’s why I want you to remember this video: I want you to write this down. If you keep a journal, I want you to write this down, because you’re going to look like a prophet to your kids someday. Believe me on this.

Do you remember when I was at Fox and I told you about the fruit cart vendor in Tunisia that set himself on fire? And I said that guy, that, nobody will understand, and everybody will call me crazy, which they did, but that will lead to a watershed moment, and it will spread across the Middle East, and it will turn everything into chaos. And it did. Write it down in your journal. This is a watershed moment.

It doesn’t matter if this guy goes to jail or not. Did people learn their lesson? It’s dictatorship 101, make someone an example, and the rest will stay in line. The next meeting of that school district, they should have 10,000 people there, but I doubt they will. To quote Mr. Small, “is this America?” I don’t know.

Now, I want to take you to the other big story that happened this weekend, but I want to make sure you couple it with this story, because remember, we started with that list of how do you take over a nation like this. This story’s happening on the other side of the globe. It happened in Kenya, where at least 62 people are dead as terrorists have taken an upscale mall by violent and coordinated attack that targeted non-Muslims.

Now, by the way, Kenya is a country that has all kinds of gun restrictions, can’t have an automatic weapon, can’t have a semi-automatic weapon. You can’t even have a handgun yourself. If you use a gun in self-defense, you’re in trouble. So what happens? The group responsible for this was an Al Qaeda affiliated group, you know, Al Qaeda, the one that’s on the run that we’ve pretty much put out of business.

This group is called Al Shabaab. You need to know the name, Al Shabaab. They claim to be retaliating against “what Muslims in Somalia experienced at the hands of Kenyon invaders.” So when they went into this mall, they asked the shoppers what is the name of Muhammad’s mother? Sylvia isn’t the right answer apparently. If you couldn’t answer it, you got shot.

They tweeted the rampage live, “Like it or loathe it! Our mujahideen confirmed all executions were point blank range.” I loathe it, I don’t know about you. So people will watch this, and they’ll say how does this even affect me? I mean, we’re here in America. Well, here’s how: One of the Twitter accounts used by the terrorists identified ten of the gunmen. Three of them, at least three they say, were Americans, two allegedly from Minneapolis, an area which is Al Shabaab.

They have actively recruited in Minneapolis. Now, U.S. officials don’t have any confirmation of Americans having been involved in the attacks as of yet. They’re still working on it. We’ll focus on that angle tomorrow, but you’re not going to believe who our government is inviting and moving into our country, and you won’t believe the numbers that they’re doing it in.

This administration says they believe the U.S. is not really a priority for Al Shabaab right now. Really? That’s not what For the Record tells us. Two weeks ago, For the Record, a new program, the 60 Minutes of our generation – mark my words; put that in your journal as well – they reported just two weeks ago that there was documented proof that Al Shabaab members had crossed oh, our unsecured Mexican border into the U.S.

VIDEO

The Al Qaeda linked terrorist group Al Shabaab based in Somalia has attracted dozens of American recruits.

Sara Carter: I’ve covered stories where we know Somalians were attempting to cross into the United States from the Mexican border that were connected to Al Shabaab. That was documented. The documents were right there. I was able to write the story, prove that there were terrorists connected to Al Shabaab trying to enter the United States from Mexico. The Mexican authorities had released them, and then they disappeared inside Mexico. And there was a scramble to try to find them.

Really? Are they coming here looking for some undocumented jobs? Is that what it is? We have an administration that has sided with radical Islamist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood, who by the way were banned once again today in Egypt, while our own government is cozying up to the Brotherhood and turning a blind eye to dangerous extremists and making it easy, beyond making it easy, they are sending them here. We’ll tell you about that tomorrow.

In 2010, the president issued an executive order allowing 80,000 refugees to immigrate to the U.S. So what happens when all hell breaks loose? What happens to us when, let’s say, Al Shabaab members start shooting in our Westlake malls, and people plead for help? The top comes crashing down all too ready to help with all kinds of excuses that will be made to remove more freedoms from America, all of course in the name of safety.

And as the people in Baltimore demonstrated, even though people know it’s wrong, they won’t do anything. They’ll sit like cattle. Anyone who disagrees and stands will be deemed an enemy of the state, a security risk, and will be shoved and eventually shot. I said at the beginning, this is happening in Egypt. This is current. Fifty-five thousand unlicensed clerics were rounded up this weekend because they were deemed a threat to Egypt security. See, it happens this way every time.

If Egypt can round up that many people, I mean, do you think our government could do…I mean, can you imagine what we could do in a weekend? And please don’t start with me oh, yeah, he’s crazy talking. It’s never happened here. It already has happen. You need to go back and look at the images from the Japanese internment camps? All you need is a war. All you need is a threat. All you need is somebody at the top, and it’s always a Progressive that says round them up.

Oh, and in totally unrelated news that would make it easier for government to round people up, President Obama turned the naval yard memorial into a gun control speech, believe it or not, arguing that transformation was needed. Watch.

VIDEO

President Obama: These families have endured a shattering tragedy. It ought to be a shock to all of us as a nation and as a people. It ought to obsess us. It ought to lead to some sort of transformation.

And it will. Translation: We have to disarm more Americans. Watch the speech. It’s outrageous. Disarm more Americans, all in the name of safety, of course. Let me ask the question that I’ve asked a few times here, and I don’t seem to get an answer to. We are arming Al Qaeda and the rebels in the Middle East, not just with guns but automatic weapons and rockets, and some of the rebels are from here in the U.S., and yet at the same time, the same guy arming them is trying to disarm loyal American citizens.

The time to decide who you are and what you believe and what’s worth standing for, fighting for, dying for, going to jail for, is not when you’re sitting in a school district meeting. The time to decide who you are is right now, long before you have to make that decision.

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

VCG / Contributor | Getty Images

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

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

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

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

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

A new world of artificial experience

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

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

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

What machines can never do

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

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

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

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

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

Questions that define us

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

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

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

Europa Press News / Contributor | Getty Images

The miracle machines can never copy

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

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

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

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

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

Jeremy Weine / Stringer | Getty Images

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

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

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

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

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

The appeal of a broken dream

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

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

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

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

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

The bridge that never ends

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

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

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

ANGELA WEISS / Contributor | Getty Images

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

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

What young America deserves

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

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

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

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

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

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

Socialism does not offer salvation. It requires subservience.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

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.