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MNSBC Town Hall Highlights Media's Softball Treatment of Trump

February 19, 2016
Jon Boldt

Writer

The media has all the ammo needed to take down Donald Trump. They're holding back for ratings.

The Context

MSNBC's lightweight treatment of Donald Trump at their town hall is just another in a long line of softball questions to the real estate mogul -- but don't think for a minute they don’t have all the ammo needed to derail his candidacy. In an election cycle that has seen a lot of "look at me" moments, the media is the one cashing in on ratings as they watch Trump rise to the top. But once he is the nominee, the ratings game changes to "watch him burn" mode.

The Build-Up

At first glance, it might appear the media actually likes Trump – and why not? His ideas do line up more with the liberal mindset than with conservatives. But make no mistake, they are biting their tongues just hoping he becomes the nominee that will go up against either Hillary or Bernie.

“And I want you to know -- here's why -- it works two ways for the mainstream media. First, they get their ratings. They get their ratings on the buildup, all the way to the summer,” Glenn explained on radio Friday. “Then when he gets to the election, it's that tension and that anticipation. And is he going to win? Is he not going to win? What's going to happen?”

The Take-Down

Just when the ratings hit a fever pitch and you think it can’t get any more crazy, that’s when the media will unleash all the info they have on the Donald to watch him burn to the ground.

“And then once that happens, then they get all of the ratings of the beatdown. And then the tension of, who is going to win? Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump? So they win twice on this story. That's what's happening. They're taking a win two times. The ratings up and then the ratings down,” Glenn said.

Trump might think he’s made out of Teflon, but he probably doesn’t even see what’s coming.

“The media beatdown that's coming is going to be of biblical proportions because he's going to escalate it,” Glenn said.

The Huffington Post Isn’t Playing Along

In an article posted on The Huffington Post written by Slate.com, what could have happened during the town hall forum was juxtaposed to what actually occurred.

Here is what was written:

Is Donald Trump in trouble? After facing hostile questions from Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski Wednesday night—they comprehensively laid out his flip-flops, presented him with damning videotape, and asked him to explain the inconsistencies in detail—Trump was confronted by hostile audience members at MSNBC’s televised town-hall forum. When a Muslim questioner got up to ask why he had said such bigoted things about minorities, Trump seemed to struggle while Scarborough forced him to respond. The candidate looked uncomfortable, unhappy, and somewhat lost. It could be a turning point.

If only. Of course, none of this actually occurred Wednesday night, just like it hasn’t occurred once this entire campaign season. Instead, Scarborough and Brzezinski hosted what appeared to be a rehearsed and “safe” town hall, in which American voters asked the candidate such hard-hitting questions as “Why did you decide to run for president?” and “how will you set yourself apart” from other Republicans? It was completely worthless television, except in one sense: The program highlighted the many ways in which the media’s coverage of Trump has been soft, insufficient, and without substance.

Glenn explained why The Huffington Post is one of the only media outlets that have decided not to play along, because they know the truth about Trump.

“And it's only because Arianna Huffington has said, 'He's a fraud. He's a total and complete fraud. We're not playing this game.' Assuming -- just like we did -- that others on our own side would also say the same thing because they know,” Glenn said.

Common Sense Bottom Line

Donald Trump himself has said he can change to be whatever he needs to be, meaning he doesn’t have any deep-seated beliefs that can’t change to be what is best for Donald at the moment. So far The Huffington Post stands alone, but the media knows who Trump is and it’s only a matter of time before they go after him.

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

GLENN: MSNBC town hall with Donald Trump. This is from The Huffington Post. It was disgraceful.

STU: Well, they think everything is disgraceful.

GLENN: No, well, they're the ones coming out against Donald Trump. They're the only media outlet on the left that's telling the truth.

STU: Yeah, I mean, one of them. They found a lot of the stuff, I will say, and they get beat up a lot for the list of -- the 47 things you should never say to your plumber. But Buzzfeed has done a lot of the work to find these clips --

PAT: Buzzfeed.

STU: They have.

PAT: 89 things Donald Trump has said to his interior decorator about gold lame.

STU: They deserve credit for it though. They're the ones going back and listening to these interviews. Of course, the mainstream media will do all this work. They probably have done it.

GLENN: Yeah. Yeah.

STU: But they're waiting to release it until afterwards.

GLENN: And I want you to know -- here's why -- it works two ways for the mainstream media. First, the -- they get their ratings. They get their ratings on the buildup, all the way to the summer. Then when he gets to the election, it's that tension and that anticipation. And is he going to win? Is he not going to win? What's going to happen? And then once that happens, then they get all of the ratings of the beatdown. And then the tension of, who is going to win? Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump? So they win twice on this story. That's what's happening. They're taking a win two times. The ratings up and then the ratings down.

STU: And you know who doesn't lose in the situation no matter what the outcome is, is Donald Trump. He's going to come out of this and say, "Oh, well, the media beat me up and I'm still worth billions and billions of dollars. And I have deals all over the world."

GLENN: I think the media beatdown that's coming towards him, I don't know if he does as well. He's no longer on TV. I really don't think so. The media beatdown that's coming is going to be of biblical proportions because he's going to escalate it.

STU: So odd. I mean, think about this. I was watching MSNBC. It was my day. I was assigned to watch it. And what is MSNBC doing? That was two days maybe. They're running a countdown clock to an interview with Donald Trump.

JEFFY: Oh, my gosh.

STU: Now, when is the last time they did something like that for a Republican candidate?

GLENN: Yeah.

STU: When is the last time MSNBC bent over backward to promote to their audience an interview with a Republican? The answer is, never a clock. It doesn't happen. They don't do it because they don't like Republicans. They like Donald Trump. And that should make you question that whole thing.

JEFFY: Which is why he got sucked into the Mika question on socialism. Right?

STU: Did you see this, Glenn?

GLENN: Yes.

STU: If you missed it, Mika went through a list of descriptive items of a particular candidate. Do you have it, Pat?

PAT: Yeah, I have it here somewhere.

MIKA: I wanted to describe a candidate to you: The candidate is considered a political outsider by all the pundits. He's tapping into the anger of the voters, delivers a populist message. He believes everyone in the country should have health care. He advocates for hedge fund managers to have higher taxes. He's drawing thousands of people at his rallies and bringing in a lot of new voters to the political process. And he's not beholden to any super PAC. Who am I describing?

DONALD: Or any special interest or any donors, you're describing Donald Trump.

MIKA: Actually I was describing Bernie Sanders.

DONALD: Well, that's good.

PAT: Oh, that's good.

STU: And, Glenn, why does he fall for that? Donald Trump, as much as he's not necessarily to me informed on a lot of these issues, he's not an idiot. He knows the media. He knows what they're trying to do to him.

If you asked him that question, the exact same way, there's no way he's falling for it. Because he's thinking you're coming at him skeptically. He's so sure that MSNBC is a friend of his, that he's going down this road and falls for that, which she didn't even really deliver it convincingly.

GLENN: Listen to this: Is Donald Trump in trouble? After facing hostile questions from Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski Wednesday night, they comprehensively laid out his flip-flops, presented him with damning videotape, asked him to explain the inconsistencies in detail. Trump was confronted by a hostile audience of MSNBC's televised town hall forum. When a Muslim questioner got up and asked why he said such bigoted things about minorities, trump seemed to struggle while Scarborough forced him to respond. The candidate looked uncomfortable, unhappy, and somewhat lost. It could be a turning point.

Of course, none of this actually occurred Wednesday night. This is The Huffington Post. Of course, none of this occurred Wednesday night, just like it hasn't occurred once this entire campaign season.

JEFFY: Think about it.

GLENN: Instead Scarborough and Brzezinski hosted what appeared to be a rehearsed and safe town hall, in which American voters asked the candidate such hard-hitting questions as, why did you decide to run for president? And, how will you set yourself apart from other Republicans? It was completely worthless television, except in one sense: The program highlighted in many ways in which the media's coverage of Trump has been soft, insufficient, and without substance.

JEFFY: Wow.

GLENN: This is the left.

And it's only because Arianna Huffington has said, "He's a fraud. He's a total and complete fraud. We're not playing this game." Assuming, just like we did that others in our own -- on our own side would also say the same thing because they know.

PAT: Yes.

GLENN: We know -- Pat, any doubt in your mind that everybody on our side knows, I mean, --

PAT: No.

JEFFY: Oh, my gosh.

PAT: No.

GLENN: In positions that we are in, they all know.

PAT: They absolutely know.

GLENN: Stu.

JEFFY: Absolutely.

GLENN: They all know. Every one of them. They're not doing it. Why? I don't know why. I don't know why.

Arianna Huffington is the same way. She knows the media knows. She went out and said, "We're going to call this guy who he is. This is a joke. We're going to call who he is." So they've actually been doing reporting like this every time their side gives him a softball. They're like, "What the hell is wrong with you?"

Scarborough began the evening by noting that he and his cohost were prepared to debrief Trump and ask him important questions. Instead, the questions were mild. Follow-ups, nonexistent.

It remained shocking that after months of bigoted comments and almost a pathological dishonesty, Trump still lands these types of interviews. Wednesday night, there was no mention of his racist comments towards Mexicans, his praise for Vladimir Putin, his stigmatization of Muslims. He wasn't pressed hard for any policy detail or challenged about his well-cataloged dislike of the truth.

Scarborough began asking what else but about the polls, before ostensibly turning to the Supreme Court. After asking one question about the Second Amendment, which Trump dodged, Scarborough moved on. Scarborough's constant grinning at Trump's laughable dishonesty was the only suggestion that the host recognized the nonsense Trump was spewing. He simply didn't care.

When Scarborough had a chance to follow up on Trump's nonsensical answers, guns, health care, et cetera, he usually changed the subject.

Featured Image: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks to the media in the spin room after the Fox Business Network Republican presidential debate at the North Charleston Coliseum and Performing Arts Center on January 14, 2016 in North Charleston, South Carolina. The sixth Republican debate is held in two parts, one main debate for the top seven candidates, and another for three other candidates lower in the current polls. (Photo by Scott Olson/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.