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Glenn's Show Prep

Which Revolutionary Will America Choose — Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump or Ted Cruz

February 09, 2016
Lori Hanes

Writer

The Context

Are we facing a revolution? Are we already there? Glenn thinks so. But the revolution could go either way.

"I think we're still pre-revolution, but the country is a lot farther down this road than anyone in Washington or the media really understands," Glenn said Tuesday on The Glenn Beck Program.

Four more years of moderate, wishy-washy conservatives like Chris Christie, Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush and John Kasich --- or a Hillary Clinton that keeps the steady "progress" going --- will only lead to more discontent. And if Bernie Sanders or Donald Trump get elected, that discontent will only escalate with their dramatic changes.

"I've been struck by the media saying that people like Ted Cruz are extremists, but at the same time they continue to say that Bernie Sanders is leading a revolution," Glenn said. "And it has stuck out to me because that's exactly what's happening."

If the People Ain't Happy . . .

American citizens are not happy with the way their government is being run — and they haven't been for a long time. Glenn listed these disturbing stats on what Americans currently believe:

• 81% believe the power of ordinary people to control our country weakens every day

• 80% believe the federal government is its own special interest, primarily looking out for itself

• 79% believe we need to recruit and support more candidates for office at all levels of government who are ordinary citizens, rather than professional politicians or lawyers

• 78% believe the Democratic and Republican Parties are essentially useless to create meaningful change because they both are beholden to special interests

• 76% agree with the statement that America cannot succeed unless we take on and defeat the corruption and crony capitalism that is happening in our government

• 75% believe the U.S. government is not working for the people's best interest

• 75% believe powerful interests have used campaign and lobbying money to rig the system for themselves

• 74% See the bias and slanted news coverage of the media as part of the problem

• 72% believe the U.S. has a two-track economy where most Americans struggle every day, where good jobs are hard to find and where huge corporations get all the rewards

• 72% believe the reason families and our middle class have not seen economic conditions improve for decades is because of the corruption and crony capitalism in Washington

• 71% believe our government is not only dysfunctional, but collapsing before our eyes

• 70% believe the government in Washington does not govern with the consent of the people

• 56% wish there was a third party with a chance of success to fight for their interests

• 15% say the values and principles of their political party are so important that they strongly prefer to vote for the candidates of their party

"If that's not a revolution waiting to happen, nothing is," Glenn said.

Common Sense Bottom Line

America is headed for a revolution. In fact, there are three revolutionaries that will dramatically change the country — Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump and Ted Cruz — currently in the race for president. Only one is tied to the Constitution.

"These are the three that understand what is happening right now in America," Glenn said. "And the choice is socialism, a strongman or the Constitution. Which one do you want? Because the others will just continue this same game."

Enjoy this complimentary clip from The Glenn Beck Program:

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

GLENN: You know, I've been struck by the media saying that people like Ted Cruz are extremists, but at the same time they continue to say that Bernie Sanders is leading a revolution. Have you heard that? They all are saying that there's a revolution that is going on, and they're saying it in a way to protect Hillary Clinton. You know, Bernie Sanders is calling for a revolution. You know, we don't want a revolution, right, Hillary? So revolution. And it has stuck out to me. And it stuck out to me because that's exactly what's happening.

I think we're pre -- I think we're still pre-revolution. But the country is a lot farther down this road than anyone in Washington or the media really understands.

Let me give you some stats. 84 percent of all Americans believe political leaders are more interested in protecting their power and privilege than doing what is right. We all agree with that? 84 percent do.

STU: Yes.

GLENN: 81 percent believe the power of ordinary people to control our country is getting weaker every day, as politicians of both parties fight to protect their own power and privilege. 80 percent believe the federal government is its own special interest, primarily looking out for itself. 79 percent of voters believe we need to recruit and support more candidates for office at all levels of government who are just ordinary citizens, rather than professional politicians or lawyers. 78 percent believe the Democratic and Republican Parties are essentially useless in changing anything because both political parties are too beholden to special interest to create any meaningful change. 76 percent of all Americans agree with the statement that America cannot succeed unless we take on and defeat the corruption and crony capitalism that is happening in our government. 75 percent of all Americans believe the US government is not working for the people's best interest. Seventy-five people -- 75 percent of the people believe that powerful interests have used campaign and lobbying money to rig the system for themselves.

So far, I agree with absolutely every one of these. Do you?

STU: The only one I disagree with was the one where you said both parties can't get anything done because they only care about their own interests. The Democrats get a lot of stuff done. They get stuff done all the time. They move the country significantly to the left. And they've been successful over a long period of time --

GLENN: It's all moving towards their interest, not the interest of the people.

STU: I suppose. But their interest -- their interest is to make the government bigger. I think that's against the interests of the people, but that's the only one I would even quibble with.

GLENN: Yes. 74 percent see the bias and slanted news coverage of the media as part of the problem. 72 percent of Americans believe the US has a two-track economy where most Americans struggle every day, where good jobs are hard to find and where huge corporations get all the rewards. 72 percent believe that the reason families and our middle class have not seen their economic condition improve for decades and economic growth is stalled, because of corruption and crony capitalism in Washington.

71 percent believe our government is not only dysfunctional, it is collapsing before our eyes. 70 percent of people believe the government in Washington does not govern with the consent of the people. The majority, 56 percent, say they wish there was a third party with a chance of success to fight for their interests. And only 15 percent say the values and principles of my political party are so important that I strongly prefer to vote for the candidates of my party.

If that's not a revolution waiting to happen, nothing is. That's why, quite honestly, if America picks Chris Christie, Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, John Kasich, or Hillary Clinton, we are setting ourselves up, I believe, for more revolution and revolutionary discontent in four years from now. Because things are going to get so bad that we need somebody who is going to be dynamic in their change.

Now, you get somebody like Donald Trump or Bernie Sanders, I believe that's going to be even worse. Because they are going to move the country, but they're going to move the country in a way that I believe Americans don't really fully understand at this point. They're looking for change. Because of these things they're looking for dramatic change, but neither of them are pegged to the Constitution. Rand Paul was pegged to the Constitution. Cruz is pegged to the Constitution. And there was an interesting thing that I heard Ted Cruz talk about, where Ted was -- was speaking about how he had respect for Bernie Sanders.

Now, he's the first guy that I've heard say this. Listen carefully.

TED: You know, actually when it comes to diagnosing the problem, many folks in the press are often surprised when I say in large part, I agree with Bernie Sanders. I agree with Bernie Sanders, that the fix is in, that Washington is corrupt, that it is responding to the giant corporations and the special interests, and the people getting the short end of the stick are the working men and women of this country.

(applauding)

GLENN: Listen to that. Applause, I agree with Bernie Sanders.

TED: Now, where I disagree with Bernie Sanders is on the solution. If government is corrupt, Bernie's solution is, we need more government. I think that's getting it backwards. So I think when it comes to income inequality, Republicans ought to be campaigning on it. What I'm campaigning is all the people trapped away from getting the economic dream, we can get back to the robust economic growth that enables anybody starting with nothing to achieve anything. I think that's the core of our message and how we win.

GLENN: Getting back to the principles of the Constitution. But the problem is that most people aren't talking about the Constitution. Most people don't even understand what the -- I Googled the Bill of Rights this morning, and I thought, "How low on the Google list is the Bill of Rights, compared to, what is socialism? How many people are actually A/B comparing, wait a minute. What is socialist? What is the Bill of Rights saying?" Nobody is paying attention to the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights and the Constitution are the things that have always brought us together.

On the other hand, you see Bernie Sanders with his righteous indignation, but nobody is listening to his solution. They don't know what socialism is. That's a proven fact now. Nobody knows what socialism really means.

On the other hand, you have Donald Trump playing into the same -- there are three revolutionaries. There is Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump, and Ted Cruz. Only one of those revolutionaries is pegged to the Constitution now. You also had the fourth for a while was Rand Paul.

PAT: Paul.

GLENN: Now you only have three left. So we know that Ted Cruz, revolutionary, but he is saying, "Go back to the Constitution." Bernie Sanders, his solution is socialism. But most people don't even know what that means. And Donald Trump is revenge. And let me show you an example here. This is getting an awful lot of -- cut 250. This is getting an awful lot of play now. What happened at a rally and what -- this is where the disagreement comes, what he called Jeb Bush after a woman in the audience called Jeb Bush this.

PAT: This is Ted Cruz.

STU: Ted Cruz.

GLENN: Or, yeah, Ted Cruz.

DONALD: Asked Ted Cruz a serious question: Well, what do you think of waterboarding? Is it okay?

And honestly, I thought he'd say absolutely, and he didn't. He said, well, it's -- you know, it's --

(inaudible)

DONALD: Okay. You're not allowed to say, and I never expect to hear that from you again. She said -- I never expect to hear that from you again. She said he's a (bleep).

Because some people -- she just said a terrible thing. You know what she said?

Shout it out because I don't want to --

VOICE: Pussy! (bleep)

DONALD: That's terrible. Terrible.

STU: Unbelievable.

PAT: It's so ridiculous. And he's -- he had her do it again so that everybody would know -- he repeats it.

GLENN: Yeah, he repeats. And his supporters are saying, he never said it. Well, yes, technically he did, and he was just using her as a foil to say this.

PAT: Yeah.

GLENN: Now, listen to how sick the supporters are. This is CNN. You're going to hear a woman fighting against this. She is clearly a leftist, but if you listen to her, she's making sense. And the other woman who is supporting Trump, is a woman who is wearing a cross prominently displayed on her chest.

Now, listen to this.

VOICE: Has anyone heard that word being used in a campaign before? Were you there?

VOICE: Never been used.

VOICE: Look, here's my take. I was not there. But here's my take on this. I'm not a prude, but I think this is the culture of degradation. I think this is an example of why Donald Trump is surging. I do not think you could get away with this even ten years ago. And I think this is an example of really -- I don't want to say the dumbing down, but the lowering of our standards for what is presidential. This should not be accepted.

VOICE: No. Well, but nobody else can get away with it either. I mean, this is very unique to Donald Trump.

PAT: Right. That's true.

VOICE: He has been able to say, really, the most outrageous, amazing things one after the other, time after time. And we've seen his poll numbers go up.

You see, tomorrow, he's going to go on TV, and he's going to tell us he was talking about a baby cat.

VOICE: You're probably right.

GLENN: Now, this is the leftist lady. This is the conservative.

VOICE: I don't think you're understanding what's happening in America. Everyone is talking about Donald Trump's rhetoric. But that's not why he's resonating with one-third of the Republican Party. He's resonating because Americans care about ISIS. They care that 60 ISIS fighters were in Europe on the day 130 Parisians were killed --

VOICE: But, Kaley, he's not saying that. He's calling someone the P-word or repeating that.

VOICE: He did not call someone that.

VOICE: Okay. You're right, but he's repeating a word.

VOICE: He said you shouldn't say that word.

STU: Come on.

PAT: Isn't that pathetic?

VOICE: I was embarrassed. I was there with my 15-year-old daughter, my intern/daughter. And there were a lot of kids in the crowd. I just thought it was one of those -- it was one of those wash-your-mouth moments. I mean, I'm glad my mom wasn't in the audience, or there --

VOICE: You don't have a problem with that as a woman?

VOICE: I don't have a problem with that --

VOICE: Well, I sure as hell do. He said that the POWs were losers.

VOICE: No, he did not. No, he did not say that.

VOICE: I don't know how much Kool-Aid you have to drink in order to lose your ability to hear.

VOICE: Words -- words matter.

VOICE: -- the man today was being sarcastic. Of course, words matter. That's what we're talking about.

GLENN: Did you hear what she just said? Stop for a second. I don't know how much Kool-Aid you have to drink to lose your ability to hear.

PAT: That's a great point.

STU: That's a great point.

PAT: That's a great, great point.

GLENN: Hang on just a second. Let me go back to the original point. How much Kool-Aid do you have to drink to lose your ability to question what socialism is? It goes back to these numbers. We are in a revolution. And the mainstream media refuses to see it. The -- the regular political class refuses to see it. There are three people now running that understand it: Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump, and Ted Cruz. Those are the three that understand revolution. Those are the three that understand what is happening right now in America. And the choice is socialism, a strongman, or the Constitution. Which one do you want? Because the others will just continue this same game.

At one level or another, they will continue the crony capitalism and deal-making. Strongman, socialist, or constitutionalist?

PAT: And what's the slogan of New Hampshire?

GLENN: Live free or die. They're picking the die part.

Featured Image: Getty Images

A nation unravels when its shared culture is the first thing to go

Spencer Platt / Staff | Getty Images

Texas now hosts Quran-first academies, Sharia-compliant housing schemes, and rapidly multiplying mosques — all part of a movement building a self-contained society apart from the country around it.

It is time to talk honestly about what is happening inside America’s rapidly growing Muslim communities. In city after city, large pockets of newcomers are choosing to build insulated enclaves rather than enter the broader American culture.

That trend is accelerating, and the longer we ignore it, the harder it becomes to address.

As Texas goes, so goes America. And as America goes, so goes the free world.

America has always welcomed people of every faith and people from every corner of the world, but the deal has never changed: You come here and you join the American family. You are free to honor your traditions, keep your faith, but you must embrace the Constitution as the supreme law of the land. You melt into the shared culture that allows all of us to live side by side.

Across the country, this bargain is being rejected by Islamist communities that insist on building a parallel society with its own rules, its own boundaries, and its own vision for how life should be lived.

Texas illustrates the trend. The state now has roughly 330 mosques. At least 48 of them were built in just the last 24 months. The Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex alone has around 200 Islamic centers. Houston has another hundred or so. Many of these communities have no interest in blending into American life.

This is not the same as past waves of immigration. Irish, Italian, Korean, Mexican, and every other group arrived with pride in their heritage. Still, they also raised American flags and wanted their children to be part of the country’s future. They became doctors, small-business owners, teachers, and soldiers. They wanted to be Americans.

What we are watching now is not the melting pot. It is isolation by design.

Parallel societies do not end well

More than 300 fundamentalist Islamic schools now operate full-time across the country. Many use Quran-first curricula that require students to spend hours memorizing religious texts before they ever reach math or science. In Dallas, Brighter Horizons Academy enrolls more than 1,700 students and draws federal support while operating on a social model that keeps children culturally isolated.

Then there is the Epic City project in Collin and Hunt counties — 402 acres originally designated only for Muslim buyers, with Sharia-compliant financing and a mega-mosque at the center. After public outcry and state investigations, the developers renamed it “The Meadows,” but a new sign does not erase the original intent. It is not a neighborhood. It is a parallel society.

Americans should not hesitate to say that parallel societies are dangerous. Europe tried this experiment, and the results could not be clearer. In Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, entire neighborhoods now operate under their own cultural rules, some openly hostile to Western norms. When citizens speak up, they are branded bigots for asserting a basic right: the ability to live safely in their own communities.

A crisis of confidence

While this separation widens, another crisis is unfolding at home. A recent Gallup survey shows that about 40% of American women ages 18 to 39 would leave the country permanently if given the chance. Nearly half of a rising generation — daughters, sisters, soon-to-be mothers — no longer believe this nation is worth building a future in.

And who shapes the worldview of young boys? Their mothers. If a mother no longer believes America is home, why would her child grow up ready to defend it?

As Texas goes, so goes America. And as America goes, so goes the free world. If we lose confidence in our own national identity at the same time that we allow separatist enclaves to spread unchecked, the outcome is predictable. Europe is already showing us what comes next: cultural fracture, political radicalization, and the slow death of national unity.

Brandon Bell / Staff | Getty Images

Stand up and tell the truth

America welcomes Muslims. America defends their right to worship freely. A Muslim who loves the Constitution, respects the rule of law, and wants to raise a family in peace is more than welcome in America.

But an Islamist movement that rejects assimilation, builds enclaves governed by its own religious framework, and treats American law as optional is not simply another participant in our melting pot. It is a direct challenge to it. If we refuse to call this problem out out of fear of being called names, we will bear the consequences.

Europe is already feeling those consequences — rising conflict and a political class too paralyzed to admit the obvious. When people feel their culture, safety, and freedoms slipping away, they will follow anyone who promises to defend them. History has shown that over and over again.

Stand up. Speak plainly. Be unafraid. You can practice any faith in this country, but the supremacy of the Constitution and the Judeo-Christian moral framework that shaped it is non-negotiable. It is what guarantees your freedom in the first place.

If you come here and honor that foundation, welcome. If you come here to undermine it, you do not belong here.

Wake up to what is unfolding before the consequences arrive. Because when a nation refuses to say what is true, the truth eventually forces its way in — and by then, it is always too late.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

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

VCG / Contributor | Getty Images

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

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

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

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

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

A new world of artificial experience

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

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

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

What machines can never do

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

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

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

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

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

Questions that define us

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

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

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

Europa Press News / Contributor | Getty Images

The miracle machines can never copy

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

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

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

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

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

Jeremy Weine / Stringer | Getty Images

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

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

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

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

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

The appeal of a broken dream

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

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

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

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

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

The bridge that never ends

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

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

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

ANGELA WEISS / Contributor | Getty Images

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

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

What young America deserves

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

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

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

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

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

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

Socialism does not offer salvation. It requires subservience.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

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

Gary Hershorn / Contributor | Getty Images

Conservatism is not about rage or nostalgia. It’s about moral clarity, national renewal, and guarding the principles that built America’s freedom.

Our movement is at a crossroads, and the question before us is simple: What does it mean to be a conservative in America today?

For years, we have been told what we are against — against the left, against wokeism, against decline. But opposition alone does not define a movement, and it certainly does not define a moral vision.

We are not here to cling to the past or wallow in grievance. We are not the movement of rage. We are the movement of reason and hope.

The media, as usual, are eager to supply their own answer. The New York Times recently suggested that Nick Fuentes represents the “future” of conservatism. That’s nonsense — a distortion of both truth and tradition. Fuentes and those like him do not represent American conservatism. They represent its counterfeit.

Real conservatism is not rage. It is reverence. It does not treat the past as a museum, but as a teacher. America’s founders asked us to preserve their principles and improve upon their practice. That means understanding what we are conserving — a living covenant, not a relic.

Conservatism as stewardship

In 2025, conservatism means stewardship — of a nation, a culture, and a moral inheritance too precious to abandon. To conserve is not to freeze history. It is to stand guard over what is essential. We are custodians of an experiment in liberty that rests on the belief that rights come not from kings or Congress, but from the Creator.

That belief built this country. It will be what saves it. The Constitution is a covenant between generations. Conservatism is the duty to keep that covenant alive — to preserve what works, correct what fails, and pass on both wisdom and freedom to those who come next.

Economics, culture, and morality are inseparable. Debt is not only fiscal; it is moral. Spending what belongs to the unborn is theft. Dependence is not compassion; it is weakness parading as virtue. A society that trades responsibility for comfort teaches citizens how to live as slaves.

Freedom without virtue is not freedom; it is chaos. A culture that mocks faith cannot defend liberty, and a nation that rejects truth cannot sustain justice. Conservatism must again become the moral compass of a disoriented people, reminding America that liberty survives only when anchored to virtue.

Rebuilding what is broken

We cannot define ourselves by what we oppose. We must build families, communities, and institutions that endure. Government is broken because education is broken, and education is broken because we abandoned the formation of the mind and the soul. The work ahead is competence, not cynicism.

Conservatives should embrace innovation and technology while rejecting the chaos of Silicon Valley. Progress must not come at the expense of principle. Technology must strengthen people, not replace them. Artificial intelligence should remain a servant, never a master. The true strength of a nation is not measured by data or bureaucracy, but by the quiet webs of family, faith, and service that hold communities together. When Washington falters — and it will — those neighborhoods must stand.

Eric Lee / Stringer | Getty Images

This is the real work of conservatism: to conserve what is good and true and to reform what has decayed. It is not about slogans; it is about stewardship — the patient labor of building a civilization that remembers what it stands for.

A creed for the rising generation

We are not here to cling to the past or wallow in grievance. We are not the movement of rage. We are the movement of reason and hope.

For the rising generation, conservatism cannot be nostalgia. It must be more than a memory of 9/11 or admiration for a Reagan era they never lived through. Many young Americans did not experience those moments — and they should not have to in order to grasp the lessons they taught and the truths they embodied. The next chapter is not about preserving relics but renewing purpose. It must speak to conviction, not cynicism; to moral clarity, not despair.

Young people are searching for meaning in a culture that mocks truth and empties life of purpose. Conservatism should be the moral compass that reminds them freedom is responsibility and that faith, family, and moral courage remain the surest rebellions against hopelessness.

To be a conservative in 2025 is to defend the enduring principles of American liberty while stewarding the culture, the economy, and the spirit of a free people. It is to stand for truth when truth is unfashionable and to guard moral order when the world celebrates chaos.

We are not merely holding the torch. We are relighting it.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.