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Glenn's Show Prep

There's no better way to react to a new gas tax than this

January 06, 2015
Wilson

Writer

Buy the Defund the GOP t-shirt

How do YOU feel about the possibility of a new gas tax? Yeah, Glenn doesn't think it's a good idea either. Nevertheless, Sen. Corker (R-TN) has gone out and said that amidst the falling gas prices - finally a breather at the pump - it's time for a new federal gas tax. An extra twelve cents a gallon will fix all of our infrastructure problems. YAY! 

Or not.

Glenn decided to take Sen. Corker to task, and it was by far the highlight of Tuesday's TV show.

WATCH:

Below is a transcript of the full segment:

Do you remember January 2009, gas prices were at $1.84? Everybody was freaking out about George W. Bush because it was $2.50. Oh my gosh, it’s $2.50. This guy is in bed with the evil oil corporations, right? What happens? The president gets in. Before he gets into office, it’s $1.84. As soon as he gets into office, it shoots up to $3.00 a gallon. Nobody says anything about it. It stays there for five years. Nobody says anything.

Now, prices dip. We get a breather at the pump. So, what do the clowns in Washington do? What are they doing? They want to push for a federal gas tax. I’ve got to tell you, I’m going to lose my mind. You watch him, Senator Bob Corker, he’s a Republican, by the way. Here’s what he said.

VIDEO

Sen. Corker: The user fee has not been raised since 1993. Other things typically are a percentage. This is per gallon, and so it’s way behind. It’s $100 billion shortfall that we have in our infrastructure program over the next ten years. So we could put this in place.

F: How much of an increase, Senator?

Sen. Corker: Six cents each year for two years, raising it to 12, which would solve the problem for a long, long time.

Oh, he’s going to solve the problem for a long, long time. All he needs is another $0.12 a gallon. Oh gee, Bob, Bob is $100 billion short. Oh, that’s bullocks. That’s what that is. But maybe, just maybe, you at home, you could help. Would you consider helping my little friend Bobby from Congress? He’s got himself into a little bit of a pickle today, he does.

You see, he took billions of your dollars, and he peed them all away. Now, he’s asking for even more from you. It’s crackers, I know. Could you spare some loose change? Oh, anything will do, a little bit of chocolate perhaps or maybe a little extra chocolate tax. Come to think of it, I don’t know why we even ask, because no matter what we do, they’ll go ahead and tax us up the wazoo.

Thank you. Thank you very much. I’ll be here all week. Anybody done? I’m done playing the game. Tiffany, can you get on the GlennBeck.com? By the way, I want to thank the staff for brand-new GlennBeck.com. It’s really great, lots of new things coming to it soon, but the skeleton is now on GlennBeck.com. Go to GlennBeck.com and see if you can pull up the T-shirt, because I’m selling it starting tomorrow.

I’m selling it, and you know what, I’m going to take all that money, and I don’t know, maybe we’ll all go on vacation someplace. I don’t know. Let’s spend it on something that the progressive Republicans and the progressives of the Democrats will really get pissed off about. Maybe I’ll give all of that money to a Ted Cruz campaign. I’m not sure yet, but I’ve had enough of their panhandling for more, shaking that cup at us. It is time to solve the problem by defunding the GOP. Defund them. Defund them.

Oh, we’ll never ask for another dime. Really? Are we that stupid? There it is, party’s over. Go home. You’re drunk on power. Party’s over. Defund them. You can buy the T-shirt. All the cool kids are wearing them.

So, hey, I know, why don’t we be complete morons and celebrate the low gas prices? Let’s do that. Well, we have to celebrate them for a little while. I don’t know about you. I celebrate filling up the car. It takes me 100 bucks. Now, it is just down to $60. That’s fantastic. I don’t know how you cannot feel good at least for the short term. You know, you feel like okay, well hey, at least I’ve got something going on here, okay?

No, no, the price is going to change. Why? Two reasons: one, because they’re going to add $0.12 a gallon in tax. Congratulations, there’s your new Congress. But let me tell you another reason why you should be a little concerned. Let me take you to a little stroll down oil town. Oil town, where everybody works for the oil companies. This is what those evil progressives have talked about all these times.

Now, everybody’s mortgaged to the hilt. Oh, these people, I’ll tell you right now, you’ve got these people living in this house, it takes $117 per barrel just to keep the doors open to the house, keep the lights on. It’s crazy, right? Ninety-eight dollars…this neighbor is $122, 106, $131 per barrel. They have to have $131 a barrel. Otherwise, their house is in trouble. One hundred eighty-four, can you imagine how panicked this family is in this house?

Because, let me remind you, it’s at $50 a barrel, so with $50 a barrel, if you need it to be 184 just to meet your monthly bills, you’re screwed as a family. Here, let me just see if I can—this house is on fire really bad. In fact, this one’s on fire. This one’s on fire. This one’s on fire. This one’s on fire. This one’s on fire. Here’s one for $106. This one is the only one currently not on fire. Isn’t that great?

Now, you would say hey, oil town fatcats, what you need to do is be more like this household. So maybe the people in this household should tell all of these people you have to live within your means and cut the expenses, right? Because I’m sure all the neighbors want to hear from this one. This one, by the way, has several cars. They’ve got a nice basketball hoop in the background, all kinds of electronics. These people are mortgaged out of their minds, but $40 a barrel, they can make ends meet.

These guys, they’re in trouble. Well, let me just show you a bit who these people are. This is Venezuela. This one is Russia. You see, they’re not really towns. This one is Nigeria. This one is 106. Who is that one, Tiffany? Oh, this one is Saudi Arabia. That’s good. None of these guys, they’re not unstable. They’re not going to cause any problems if their house is in panic. Oh, this one is Iran. They are totally stable. Don’t worry about it.

Oh, the house on fire at 184, yeah [Libya]. Nothing could go wrong there. Or here [Iraq], why worry about them? Oh, and the guys who can lecture everybody, that’s you and me, the good old USA. USA! USA! Let’s tell the rest of the world that they should live within their means. We are the last country that can admonish anyone about lowering their expenses.

In the last six years, America’s national debt has increased by 70% to more than $18 trillion. Do you remember when the President said that was immoral, it was un-American? It’s now $18 trillion, and we’re talking about John frickin’ Boehner. They’re not going to lower the expenses. They’re not going to, and these countries, these countries, they’re on fire right now, and so they’re going to weather the storm the best they can hoping to make it safely through to the other side.

Saudi Arabia is being accused of purposely not increasing production in order to inflict economic pain on Russia and Iran. Well, it’s having devastating effects. Russia is in the throes of economic crisis with soaring interest rates that go along with unsustainable energy prices. It’s a game of national survival of the fittest. It’s true Darwinian battle to the end—who can hold out the longest?

I don’t know. I don’t know. I will tell you this, the world is heading for a massive global correction, and we are not even ready as people. We’re not ready. We’re falling apart as people. Every country on earth is going to experience some economic pain, some much, much greater than others. The question remains what happens when the dominoes start to fall and when these countries start to go belly up? Well, I can show you Detroit—chaos, crime, corruption, desperation, ugly stuff.

Inflation rates are skyrocketing now in places like Russia and Venezuela, and they are set to start rising here in 2015. That’s the official word. You know they’ve already been rising. Except for gas prices, everything else has been rising. Everything else has been going up at the grocery stores. Remember when the president told you well, the only reason why milk and cheese and everything else at the grocery store is going up is because gas prices are so high? Really? Your food prices going down, America? No. Why?

Hey…hey, our breadbasket…California, how are you doing? Oh, is the EPA maybe choking you to death with the water? Don’t worry, Congress and John Boehner are going to be there to save the day. This is why I say I don’t want to talk about politics anymore, because it’s too late. It’s too late. We have to affect the culture. We have to affect ourselves. I still have to show you what’s going on. We’re talking in depth about the economic, the role the dollar will play in what is to come.

As Europe is struggling to hold it together, 2015 could be the year that it all starts to unravel. I hope not. I don’t know, but mark my words, I said this when I was at FOX, when the global economy falls apart, who is going to take the blame? You want to know? Listen to Putin. He’s already assigning it.

VIDEO

Vladimir Putin: Now, we are witnessing the falling down of prices, of oil prices, and there are many discussions on that topic, why is that happening, whether there is a conspiracy between the Saudi Arabia and the U.S. in order to punish Iran and influence the economy of Russia, Venezuela, etc.

Oh, oil my arms. Oil my arms. They’re going to blame us. America takes the blame. Putin is using this opportunity to stoke anti-western sentiment, and it is getting spooky. I want you to remember one thing from tonight’s show, because you’re going to meet somebody here in a few minutes who I think is very, very well-spoken, lots of credibility, probably, I don’t know, probably would hate my guts if she lived here in America. I don’t know. I don’t care, but I’m telling you right now, the one thing you have to get from today’s show is it’s real. What we’ve been talking about is real, and it’s on our doorstep.

People are going to look to save their own skin. This is why the special next week is so important, three days just on Russia. Meanwhile, the White House is publicly welcoming the lower gas prices, but behind closed doors they’re watching the tanking stock market. Don’t appear to agree that, you know, lower oil prices are a good thing. The stock market, what?

VIDEO

Josh Earnest: There are some who have observed that this is a little bit of a chicken and the egg thing, that some of the fall in energy prices is a direct response to a weakening of the economy and a fall in the stock market. We’re always monitoring the impact that any sort of—

Okay, the statement yesterday was the president is monitoring this constantly at the White House. Has he been monitoring other things, like the cost of your health care? Now, you think this is going to affect Wall Street? Gee, let’s think about that. Here’s what we could do, we could have a little more control of our own situation, and we could go ahead with projects like the Keystone Pipeline, but the president and longtime advisers, the Republicans, supposedly going to solve this now…right.

David Axelrod came out and said I’m not so sure. This is a tweet. This is a quote: “At a time of low oil prices and growing U.S. energy, is Keystone really the most pressing issue? Or is it just red meat for the GOP base?” Not everything is political. Some things are strategic as a nation. Yes, any sane responsible country would ensure our energy is cheap, plentiful as humanly possible.

We would also make sure that we were self-contained as humanly possible, still reaching out to the rest of the world, still being decent people, but also being able to weather storms. For the love of Pete, can somebody be proactive about securing resources? Russia is. Russia is getting pummeled by dropping oil prices, but wait until I show you next week what they’re doing to counter that. But they’re also buying gold.

They bought 130 tons of gold in 2014. China bought 2,100 tons of gold. Why? Because they know paper money is going to be worthless at some point. Responsible nations cut spending. Responsible nations shore up access to fuel and energy. Responsible nations have a monetary system that’s not on the verge of collapse, or if it is on the verge of collapse, they’re doing something for the future to make sure they have something in the end.

We’re the only one on that street that’s burning our house down to the ground. We’re watching little numbers roll by the screen in the stock market. Does our vault even have any gold? Clowns running the show in DC, they’re playing circus while the world is burning. Well, the good news is those little clown cars, they’re very economical, so…

And anti-Semitism is on the rise. I am telling you, we are entering the 1930s. I’m going to show you some things here in the next break that should open your eyes. It’s real. It’s no longer Glenn Beck says this is going to happen. It is happening, so it’s time for you to…I mean, I know that Bob Beckel kiss was great and everything, but history is repeating itself.

Troubled times are coming. We have anti-Semitism. You have armed Black Panthers now here in Dallas monitoring the cops in honor of cop-killer Huey P. Newton. Geez, I mean, you want to talk about biblical times, we had a…I think it was about a four on the Richter scale, I’m guessing, right before we went on the air. This whole building shook, and all of us were like what the…? We’re having earthquakes like crazy here in Dallas. Whew!

The melting pot fails when we stop agreeing to melt

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.