Why did Glenn call the GOP the amazing tower of Jell-O?

The GOP promised action on 12 issues in the first 12 weeks in Congress. They have acted, unfortunately they’ve acted extremely cowardly so far. From folding on immigration and Obamacare they have completely caved to progressive pressures. The latest failure was backing down on a slam-dunk bill outlawing abortions past the point where the baby can feel pain.

Below is a transcript of this story from radio

GLENN: It looks like the Republicans are abandoning the immigration campaign promises as they have abandoned the abortion promises too. So...

PAT: No. Because we were promised that they were going to hit hard. The 12 items in 12 weeks thing.

GLENN: But they are. They're hitting it hard. And the Keystone oil pipeline hasn't gone through either.

PAT: Except for those three things.

GLENN: But other than that...

PAT: So the first three weeks of the 12 weeks are a total wash. But after that, we'll buckle right down and get these taken care of. So nine items in nine weeks.

GLENN: But don't worry, it's only immigration. So they're folding on the small ones. Abortion, immigration --

PAT: It doesn't get any bigger than those.

GLENN: No.

PAT: It really doesn't.

GLENN: And you could even say, okay, abortion --

PAT: Let's keep killing babies. Let's just keep killing babies at the rate we have been. It's only 45 million now since 1972. Why not do another 45 million?

GLENN: Yeah. So let's just wait the next time.

PAT: Don't even worry about it. Why bother. Then the flood of illegals across the border, I wouldn't worry about that at all.

GLENN: You could say, why? But here's the deal, this is what scared them off of this, the president's approval rating is back to 50 percent.

PAT: Well, in Gallup, but it was 40 percent in some other poll last week.

GLENN: You don't understand, it's 50 percent in Gallup now. So they should panic. They should abandon their principles.

PAT: Because his approval rating is back up.

GLENN: His approval rating is back up. So the people must be with of him. It's insanity.

PAT: He has free health care going. Free Obama phones. Free food to the masses. Doing the free community college. Free child care. He's offering freebies to everybody not paying anything into the system. Of course, 50 percent are with him because 50 percent aren't paying any of the freight. Of course, they're always going to be with him. How is it they can't figure this out? How is it?

GLENN: I don't know. I don't know.

PAT: I don't understand it. It's really not rocket science.

GLENN: I was thinking this morning. I was listening to something Rand Paul said. And he was on stage with -- Rand Paul and Ted Cruz were on stage together. They were both talking and they both made a lot of sense. I thought to myself, how is it that Romney and Jeb Bush can get together, and they can -- they can work together to take people out, but we can't get Rand Paul and Ted Cruz together and say, look, you guys -- and maybe Scott Walker. You guys, work together. Bobby Jindal, work together. And take out the -- the progressive Republicans and take out the Jeb Bush and the Mitt Romneys, and then we'll decide between you guys. Why can't you guys all stand together? That's what they're doing. What the hell is wrong with you guys.

[break]

So I get up this morning, and I think to myself, why can't we get -- if we can get Jeb Bush and Mitt Romney to get together and meet and say, hey, I don't know -- you know, why don't we all meet and take out all those nasty Tea Party guys, why can't the Ted Cruz -- and what's his name? Rand Paul. Why can't they get together and maybe even -- I don't know. We need to talk -- let's get Walker on. Let's see if we can get him on.

PAT: I'd like to talk to Scott Walker. He seems great.

GLENN: Yeah, I think I'd like him. I think he's a candidate worth considering. And even Marco Rubio. Even Marco Rubio, why can't these guys get together and say, we're all for small government. So let's go against the progressives. When we get into the debates, all of us, we just focus on the progressive policies of these two.

If they all got together and said, look, we're just going to work together. We're nonprogressives. They're progressives. If you want progressive, then go vote for the Democrat. We don't believe in the progressive principles. So we'll all stand together. And when the debate questions are asked, we won't attack each other. We'll turn our guys to these guys and say, look, a few of us on stage, here's the big choice, America. The first choice you have to make is, are we going to believe in big government has the solution or that government is the problem?

If government is the problem and the people are the solution, then you should consider one of us four. If you believe that the government solves all the problem and needs to babysit everyone, then it should be Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush and Mike Huckabee. You take those guys. We believe in small limited government, and that's the first choice Republicans have to make. Which direction?

I don't know why they can't get together and do that. Because that's exactly what the progressive Republicans are doing. They're getting together and saying, let's take out Rand Paul and let's take out Ted Cruz. What are they thinking?

PAT: Mitt and Jeb already met in Utah. Right?

GLENN: Yeah, it's already happened. And Jeb Bush called the Clintons to say, hey, just want you to know, we're going to be running. They're all on it together.

PAT: The Clintons and the Bushes are incredibly close.

GLENN: What is wrong with our guys?

STU: I guess the argument is they would align themselves and have a situation where all four of them are splitting that vote. And then whoever from the establishment side pokes their head out, and they will work together, then, you know, you will have four Ted Cruz-type guys splitting votes and none of them win. I mean, the only way to work together --

GLENN: Here's what will happen. All the Jeb Bushes and the Mitt Romneys will work together, and they will take them out. They'll target them one after another. So what you do is you target all four of those guys. Target Jeb Bush. Number one target, Jeb Bush. And in the debates, you just target the policies of Jeb Bush. Look, I think it's important -- no matter what they ask you. I think it's important to understand, that Common Core is wrong. And I'm against Common Core and all the guys here are against Common Core. We don't believe that they should at that we should repeal and augment or replace -- we believe we should repeal Obamacare and then let the free market system work it out.

He likes big government health care. And so does Mitt Romney. And when you have people pointing that out, then they'll be forced to make a choice. I don't understand. That's exactly what they'll do. They can say the same thing. Well, one of us is going to lose.

STU: But they did. And they met together.

GLENN: Right. Because they're willing. Because they actually believe in something. They're willing to lose. Mitt Romney has even said this. Jeb, if it's not me, it should be you. Can I get Ted Cruz to say that about Rand Paul and Rand Paul say that about Ted Cruz? Hey, if it's not me, it shouldn't be Ted Cruz. If it's not me, it should be Rand Paul. No. I don't think they will.

GLENN: I don't think they will. And you already have Mitt Romney saying that about Jeb Bush.

STU: He's not outwardly saying that.

GLENN: Yes, he did. He said, if Jeb Bush runs, I don't think I will run because there will at least be someone there that will carry on what I believe needs to be done.

STU: And that was before he decided to run.

GLENN: Right. So now he won't say that. But he was saying that -- but in their meeting, they're bringing this up. Instead, we have all these progressive Republicans playing the game of, oh, we're going to be tough. Boy, are we going to be tough. Give me the 12 in 12. The idea -- and we need to have Chris Stewart on again.

STU: Yeah, he's not available today.

GLENN: Maybe tomorrow?

STU: Either later this week or next week. Do you have an update on that, Jeffy?

JEFFY: I do not.

GLENN: So he'll come on.

PAT: He will.

GLENN: He said, you know, I'll come on once a week and tell you about the 12 in 12. And the idea was, I voted for Boehner and a lot of us did because we have an agreement that Boehner will get really tough on these things. And we'll pass these 12 things in Congress. You'll see, Glenn.

Okay. Good, I want to be wrong. I want to be wrong.

And I like Chris. And I know Chris. And I disagree with his point of view here, but I know he's trying to do the right thing.

PAT: And if these 12 things worked out, it would be great.

GLENN: It would be great.

PAT: But so far, I haven't seen any of the 12 actually come to fruition.

GLENN: Okay. Well, here's what happened. I got up this morning, and I'm reading the news and I'm looking at how the Republicans seem to be folding on immigration. They just folded on abortion.

PAT: Right. That's two of the things.

GLENN: They're now talking about how Barack Obama's poll numbers are up. And so, well, if his poll numbers are up, we're worried about that, because maybe we should be more like Jeb Bush.

Oh, my gosh. Towers of Jell-O.

PAT: So the Keystone Pipeline was one of the issues.

GLENN: Let's go through the 12. Let's see where everything stands. Who has the list of 12?

PAT: I do.

GLENN: Okay. Go ahead.

JEFFY: I do.

PAT: So does Jeffy. Keystone Pipeline. Border security.

STU: Keystone Pipeline is --

GLENN: Was passed in the House. And it is now being dragged down by the Democrats in the Senate. So it's being blocked by the Democrats in the Senate.

PAT: Okay. Border security, which they've apparently folded on already. Right?

GLENN: Yes. What they're doing is, they're saying they're going to do the immigration reform, but not the border security.

PAT: This, to me, if it's not the most important, it's certainly top two.

GLENN: Can I tell you something, you know what pisses me off? Have you guys seen the fence that Saudi Arabia is building?

STU: Yeah, 600 miles.

GLENN: Yeah, of fence.

When Israel builds a fence --

STU: It is hateful.

GLENN: It is hateful, and it's the Holocaust. When Saudi Arabia builds a 600-mile fence, it's not apartheid, no, it's common sense.

STU: It's to keep ISIS out, by the way. Because they're implementing that policy because we couldn't handle ISIS in the country that we were supposed to be handling them in. We've let that happen.

So instead, now, Saudi Arabia has to build a fence, which is the supposed response we were going to have to another problem in America that we couldn't handle and never built the fence. It's just a cacophony of failure.

PAT: So you have Keystone.

GLENN: Keystone is bogged down in the Senate.

PAT: Border.

GLENN: Border looks like they're done -- no, they'll do the immigration reform. They'll make people citizens, but they won't secure the border.

PAT: Yes. That's what will happen.

The REINS Act, which is to pull back the regulatory agencies who have become the most powerful in Washington --

GLENN: Don't know anything about that.

STU: Very good. It's Mike Lee. Mike Lee priority. It actually would make a huge difference to the country.

PAT: It would be great.

STU: It's not sexy at all. Basically all the regulation that goes in there, Congress would have an opportunity to say, no, not on that part. No.

GLENN: You want to know one of the most non-sexy issues of FDR's reign, was the commerce laws. Nobody paid attention to that. I'm trying to remember. What was the name of that court case that went to the Supreme Court?

STU: Yeah, I know what you're talking about.

GLENN: So, anyway, it was a non-sexy thing. That changed everything in America.

STU: It's the justification of every single government action today.

GLENN: Because they said it's state lines. Crossing state lines. So anything crossing state lines now can be regulated by the federal government. So that one court case changed -- if you just reversed that one thing, it will roll back progressivism 100 years. One hundred years. Make huge difference in everyone's life. Make an impact you would actually feel. When Mike Lee says it's not sexy, the REINS Act, nobody is paying attention to it. Nobody even understands that court case. I can't even remember the name of that court case. Do you have it?

STU: There's been multiple ones. There's the one with the wheat. I'm trying to think of the one that is well-known. I can't find the stupid name of it.

Wickard versus Filburn.

GLENN: And the one with the wheat is really important too. That was the guy he was going to make bread with wheat on his own property, and he wasn't allowed to.

STU: That's Gibbons versus Ogden. Yeah, that was the one where he wanted to make it on his own property. In theory, that would affect the entire wheat market.

GLENN: Yeah.

STU: So they can regulate what he does on his own property because someone in Idaho might have the price of wheat affected by what he's doing in his backyard.

GLENN: So everything changed. When he says the REINS Act is not sexy. Fine. Little changes like that, that nobody is paying attention to, make all the difference in the world.

STU: This is essentially an anti-Cass Sunstein law. Which would make it so that people like Cass Sunstein, who aren't elected, who go in there and write thousands of pages of regulations after we pass a law --

GLENN: It's the health care bill.

STU: Yeah.

GLENN: The health care bill, it just said page after page after page, the regulations shall be determined by the Secretary. And so there were no -- there were no -- the law was just empowering people to come up with all the laws.

STU: Yeah, exactly.

GLENN: And that's not the way it's supposed to be. Congress is supposed to pass the laws of the regulations.

STU: Congress can say, wait a minute. We don't agree with that regulation. It's not in the spirit of the law. They can vote on that. There has to be approval on this. It's not sexy at all, but it would be very important.

GLENN: Huge. Any idea where a that stands?

STU: I have not heard a word about it yet.

PAT: I don't think they're doing anything on it.

JEFFY: Not yet.

STU: They have 12 weeks. They could get to some of the stuff before the 12. The progress so far, not so great.

PAT: Tax reform, the only one talking about it, that I've heard, so far is the president.

GLENN: Well, and Ted Cruz. He's talking about repeal the IRS. Shut down the IRS.

PAT: Yeah, but the one who is really driving this bus right now is the president, on raising taxes.

GLENN: Did you guys see the show last night? Did you get a chance to watch the TV show?

PAT: No.

GLENN: Tonight I have him on again. It is -- here's the biggest thing. David Buckner is an adjunct professor at Columbia. He's also a consultant for some of the biggest corporations around the world. He spends time all around the world. Mainly in Europe and in Russia and in China.

And we talked about tax policy and hyperinflation last night. And because he said, two years ago, that the United States government is going to start raising interest rates. And when they start raising interest rates, unless they put us in the poppy field and make us feel like everything is okay, that's when everything starts to fall apart. He explained this last night in a way that I have not understood. He's on again tonight. He'll go into it a little bit more.

The reason why we can't now lower our tax rates, think of this. What's happened to all of the money? The president prints all this money. And who gets all this money? We printed all the money. Who gets the money? Who is he giving the money to?

STU: You mean, like the fed?

GLENN: Yeah, the fed prints all the money, and where does it go?

STU: The banks. So they can have more capital.

GLENN: Correct. So we've all heard. The banks aren't giving out any loans.

STU: They're sitting on it.

GLENN: They're sitting on that money. They're not sitting on that money here. They're investing over in places like Europe because the interest rates are higher over there. Here it's 0 percent. So they're borrowing money. They're lending money overseas because they can make money overseas. If we start to raise our -- our -- or lower our income tax, that means that money is going to start coming back here. If we raise our interest rates, it means, okay, we can invest here, because you'll put the money back on shore, and that money will make money.

If you lower the rates, all that money that's off shore making money someplace else again will come back here. And when you do that, what happens? All of that inflated money comes rushing back into the United States, and now you have hyperinflation. He's like, we're just -- we're just screwed.

STU: Thanks, David.

[laughter]

JEFFY: Not if we make it through the list of 12.

[laughter]

GLENN: Watch last night's episode and watch tonight's episode with David Buckner. Really fascinating conversation. Understood things about the economy I just didn't understand. Really fascinating.

All right. What else is on the 12?

PAT: Appointing a special prosecutor to investigate the IRS.

GLENN: Not going to happen.

PAT: Continue to work to repeal Obamacare and have a replacement for it.

GLENN: A replacement!

PAT: Yeah.

GLENN: They're already folding on that.

PAT: The Unborn Child Act, which prohibits abortion for those unborn children who actually can feel pain. Twenty weeks and above.

GLENN: And they just folded on that.

STU: They say they'll revisit that one.

PAT: Audit the fed. They haven't done that.

GLENN: No. That's not going to happen.

PAT: Reform the EPA.

And the Antiquities Act, which deals with federal land in the west, and the president's ability to use a law that has nothing to do with that in order to claim that federal land, which I believe is exactly what he's doing with Alaska right now.

STU: So far so good is what you're saying?

PAT: Yeah.

GLENN: G.O.P. tower of Jell-O!

The Crisis of Meaning: Searching for truth and purpose

Mario Tama / Staff | Getty Images

Anxiety, anger, and chronic dissatisfaction signal a country searching for meaning. Without truth and purpose, politics becomes a dangerous substitute for identity.

We have built a world overflowing with noise, convenience, and endless choice, yet something essential has slipped out of reach. You can sense it in the restless mood of the country, the anxiety among young people who cannot explain why they feel empty, in the angry confusion that dominates our politics.

We have more wealth than any nation in history, but the heart of the culture feels strangely malnourished. Before we can debate debt or elections, we must confront the reality that we created a world of things, but not a world of purpose.

You cannot survive a crisis you refuse to name, and you cannot rebuild a world whose foundations you no longer understand.

What we are living through is not just economic or political dysfunction. It is the vacuum that appears when a civilization mistakes abundance for meaning.

Modern life is stuffed with everything except what the human soul actually needs. We built systems to make life faster, easier, and more efficient — and then wondered why those systems cannot teach our children who they are, why they matter, or what is worth living for.

We tell the next generation to chase success, influence, and wealth, turning childhood into branding. We ask kids what they want to do, not who they want to be. We build a world wired for dopamine rather than dignity, and then we wonder why so many people feel unmoored.

When everything is curated, optimized, and delivered at the push of a button, the question “what is my life for?” gets lost in the static.

The crisis beneath the headlines

It is not just the young who feel this crisis. Every part of our society is straining under the weight of meaninglessness.

Look at the debt cycle — the mathematical fate no civilization has ever escaped once it crosses a threshold that we seem to have already blown by. While ordinary families feel the pressure, our leaders respond with distraction, with denial, or by rewriting the very history that could have warned us.

You cannot survive a crisis you refuse to name, and you cannot rebuild a world whose foundations you no longer understand.

We have entered a cultural moment where the noise is so loud that it drowns out the simplest truths. We are living in a country that no longer knows how to hear itself think.

So people go searching. Some drift toward the false promise of socialism, some toward the empty thrill of rebellion. Some simply check out. When a culture forgets what gives life meaning, it becomes vulnerable to every ideology that offers a quick answer.

The quiet return of meaning

And yet, quietly, something else is happening. Beneath the frustration and cynicism, many Americans are recognizing that meaning does not come from what we own, but from what we honor. It does not rise from success, but from virtue. It does not emerge from noise, but from the small, sacred things that modern life has pushed to the margins — the home, the table, the duty you fulfill, the person you help when no one is watching.

The danger is assuming that this rediscovery happens on its own. It does not.

Reorientation requires intention. It requires rebuilding the habits and virtues that once held us together. It requires telling the truth about our history instead of rewriting it to fit today’s narratives. And it requires acknowledging what has been erased: that meaning is inseparable from God’s presence in a nation’s life.

Harold M. Lambert / Contributor | Getty Images

Where renewal begins

We have built a world without stillness, and then we wondered why no one can hear the questions that matter. Those questions remain, whether we acknowledge them or not. They do not disappear just because we drown them in entertainment or noise. They wait for us, and the longer we ignore them, the more disoriented we become.

Meaning is still available. It is found in rebuilding the smallest, most human spaces — the places that cannot be digitized, globalized, or automated. The home. The family. The community.

These are the daily virtues that do not trend on social media, but that hold a civilization upright. If we want to repair this country, we begin there, exactly where every durable civilization has always begun: one virtue at a time, one tradition at a time, one generation at a time.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

The Bubba Effect erupts as America’s power brokers go rogue

Gary Hershorn / Contributor | Getty Images

When institutions betray the public’s trust, the country splits, and the spiral is hard to stop.

Something drastic is happening in American life. Headlines that should leave us stunned barely register anymore. Stories that once would have united the country instead dissolve into silence or shrugs.

It is not apathy exactly. It is something deeper — a growing belief that the people in charge either cannot or will not fix what is broken.

When people feel ignored or betrayed, they will align with anyone who appears willing to fight on their behalf.

I call this response the Bubba effect. It describes what happens when institutions lose so much public trust that “Bubba,” the average American minding his own business, finally throws his hands up and says, “Fine. I will handle it myself.” Not because he wants to, but because the system that was supposed to protect him now feels indifferent, corrupt, or openly hostile.

The Bubba effect is not a political movement. It is a survival instinct.

What triggers the Bubba effect

We are watching the triggers unfold in real time. When members of Congress publicly encourage active duty troops to disregard orders from the commander in chief, that is not a political squabble. When a federal judge quietly rewrites the rules so one branch of government can secretly surveil another, that is not normal. That is how republics fall. Yet these stories glided across the news cycle without urgency, without consequence, without explanation.

When the American people see the leadership class shrug, they conclude — correctly — that no one is steering the ship.

This is how the Bubba effect spreads. It is not just individuals resisting authority. It is sheriffs refusing to enforce new policies, school boards ignoring state mandates, entire communities saying, “We do not believe you anymore.” It becomes institutional, cultural, national.

A country cracking from the inside

This effect can be seen in Dearborn, Michigan. In the rise of fringe voices like Nick Fuentes. In the Epstein scandal, where powerful people could not seem to locate a single accountable adult. These stories are different in content but identical in message: The system protects itself, not you.

When people feel ignored or betrayed, they will align with anyone who appears willing to fight on their behalf. That does not mean they suddenly agree with everything that person says. It means they feel abandoned by the institutions that were supposed to be trustworthy.

The Bubba effect is what fills that vacuum.

The dangers of a faithless system

A republic cannot survive without credibility. Congress cannot oversee intelligence agencies if it refuses to discipline its own members. The military cannot remain apolitical if its chain of command becomes optional. The judiciary cannot defend the Constitution while inventing loopholes that erase the separation of powers.

History shows that once a nation militarizes politics, normalizes constitutional shortcuts, or allows government agencies to operate without scrutiny, it does not return to equilibrium peacefully. Something will give.

The question is what — and when.

The responsibility now belongs to us

In a healthy country, this is where the media steps in. This is where universities, pastors, journalists, and cultural leaders pause the outrage machine and explain what is at stake. But today, too many see themselves not as guardians of the republic, but of ideology. Their first loyalty is to narrative, not truth.

The founders never trusted the press more than the public. They trusted citizens who understood their rights, lived their responsibilities, and demanded accountability. That is the antidote to the Bubba effect — not rage, but citizenship.

How to respond without breaking ourselves

Do not riot. Do not withdraw. Do not cheer on destruction just because you dislike the target. That is how nations lose themselves. Instead, demand transparency. Call your representatives. Insist on consequences. Refuse to normalize constitutional violations simply because “everyone does it.” If you expect nothing, you will get nothing.

Do not hand your voice to the loudest warrior simply because he is swinging a bat at the establishment. You do not beat corruption by joining a different version of it. You beat it by modeling the country you want to preserve: principled, accountable, rooted in truth.

Adam Gray / Stringer | Getty Images

Every republic reaches a moment when historians will later say, “That was the warning.” We are living in ours. But warnings are gifts if they are recognized. Institutions bend. People fail. The Constitution can recover — if enough Americans still know and cherish it.

It does not take a majority. Twenty percent of the country — awake, educated, and courageous — can reset the system. It has happened before. It can happen again.

Wake up. Stand up. Demand integrity — from leaders, from institutions, and from yourself. Because the Bubba effect will not end until Americans reclaim the duty that has always belonged to them: preserving the republic for the next generation.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Grim warning: Bad-faith Israel critics duck REAL questions

Spencer Platt / Staff | Getty Images

Bad-faith attacks on Israel and AIPAC warp every debate. Real answers emerge only when people set aside scripts and ask what serves America’s long-term interests.

The search for truth has always required something very much in short supply these days: honesty. Not performative questions, not scripted outrage, not whatever happens to be trending on TikTok, but real curiosity.

Some issues, often focused on foreign aid, AIPAC, or Israel, have become hotbeds of debate and disagreement. Before we jump into those debates, however, we must return to a simpler, more important issue: honest questioning. Without it, nothing in these debates matters.

Ask questions because you want the truth, not because you want a target.

The phrase “just asking questions” has re-entered the zeitgeist, and that’s fine. We should always question power. But too many of those questions feel preloaded with someone else’s answer. If the goal is truth, then the questions should come from a sincere desire to understand, not from a hunt for a villain.

Honest desire for truth is the only foundation that can support a real conversation about these issues.

Truth-seeking is real work

Right now, plenty of people are not seeking the truth at all. They are repeating something they heard from a politician on cable news or from a stranger on TikTok who has never opened a history book. That is not a search for answers. That is simply outsourcing your own thought.

If you want the truth, you need to work for it. You cannot treat the world like a Marvel movie where the good guy appears in a cape and the villain hisses on command. Real life does not give you a neat script with the moral wrapped up in two hours.

But that is how people are approaching politics now. They want the oppressed and the oppressor, the heroic underdog and the cartoon villain. They embrace this fantastical framing because it is easier than wrestling with reality.

This framing took root in the 1960s when the left rebuilt its worldview around colonizers and the colonized. Overnight, Zionism was recast as imperialism. Suddenly, every conflict had to fit the same script. Today’s young activists are just recycling the same narrative with updated graphics. Everything becomes a morality play. No nuance, no context, just the comforting clarity of heroes and villains.

Bad-faith questions

This same mindset is fueling the sudden obsession with Israel, and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in particular. You hear it from members of Congress and activists alike: AIPAC pulls the strings, AIPAC controls the government, AIPAC should register as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The questions are dramatic, but are they being asked in good faith?

FARA is clear. The standard is whether an individual or group acts under the direction or control of a foreign government. AIPAC simply does not qualify.

Here is a detail conveniently left out of these arguments: Dozens of domestic organizations — Armenian, Cuban, Irish, Turkish — lobby Congress on behalf of other countries. None of them registers under FARA because — like AIPAC — they are independent, domestic organizations.

If someone has a sincere problem with the structure of foreign lobbying, fair enough. Let us have that conversation. But singling out AIPAC alone is not a search for truth. It is bias dressed up as bravery.

Anadolu / Contributor | Getty Images

If someone wants to question foreign aid to Israel, fine. Let’s have that debate. But let’s ask the right questions. The issue is not the size of the package but whether the aid advances our interests. What does the United States gain? Does the investment strengthen our position in the region? How does it compare to what we give other nations? And do we examine those countries with the same intensity?

The real target

These questions reflect good-faith scrutiny. But narrowing the entire argument to one country or one dollar amount misses the larger problem. If someone objects to the way America handles foreign aid, the target is not Israel. The target is the system itself — an entrenched bureaucracy, poor transparency, and decades-old commitments that have never been re-examined. Those problems run through programs around the world.

If you want answers, you need to broaden the lens. You have to be willing to put aside the movie script and confront reality. You have to hold yourself to a simple rule: Ask questions because you want the truth, not because you want a target.

That is the only way this country ever gets clarity on foreign aid, influence, alliances, and our place in the world. Questioning is not just allowed. It is essential. But only if it is honest.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

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.