Bernie Sanders and the Second Great Depression

March 02, 2020

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During the 1930s, the Great Depression made many Americans, especially among the elite class, question the merits of capitalism. Progressives of that era thought the Soviet system might provide some answers. Membership in the American Communist Party grew almost tenfold during the Great Depression (from 6,933 members in 1929 to 66,000 in 1939). While America stopped short of handing the Executive keys to an outright communist, it did elect Franklin D. Roosevelt, the most blatantly socialist president in U.S. history so far.

The rise of the cult of Bernie Sanders indicates something similar is going on today as happened during the Depression of the 1930s. Democratic Socialists of America membership grew almost tenfold over the past decade, with around 5,500 members in 2009 to over 55,000 now. A recent Economist/YouGov poll finds 60% of Democrats under 30 support either Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren.

Why the socialist surge? One factor is the absolutely dismal U.S. history and civics education throughout our nation. That's not to say the classes or teachers themselves are dismal – there are still many non-Marxist history teachers in public and private education across the U.S. But the cumulative time spent on U.S. history/civics in school is woefully inadequate to create a thriving electorate. Typically, before a student graduates from high school, they may have a couple years of U.S. history – one in middle school, one in high school – and maybe one year of government/civics. Remarkably, 82% of U.S. colleges don't require a single course in U.S. history or government to earn a degree. And then, even when it is taught, especially in college, it's frequently not the truth: like teaching that the U.S. committed acts in Vietnam almost as bad as things Hitler did (Bernie Sanders actually said this once to a group of ninth graders).

In his farewell address in 1989, President Reagan said: "An informed patriotism is what we want. And are we doing a good enough job teaching our children what America is and what she represents in the long history of the world?... We've got to do a better job of getting across that America is freedom – freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of enterprise. And freedom is special and rare. It's fragile; it needs protection… If we forget what we did, we won't know who we are. I'm warning of an eradication of the American memory that could result, ultimately, in an erosion of the American spirit."

The embrace of socialism by the Democratic Party is evidence that this "eradication of the American memory" that Reagan talked about has already happened.

The embrace of socialism by the Democratic Party is evidence that this "eradication of the American memory" that Reagan talked about has already happened. If we're not taught to appreciate the genius of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, it is so much easier to drift toward, and fall for, socialism.

Another factor explaining the modern socialist surge is the American university system. We take America's young people, largely starved of any real foundation in our constitution and history, and send them to college, ripe for reprogramming. For decades, our universities have been the training ground for the perpetuation of Marxism and zealous anti-American philosophy. Every day, millions of young, impressionable adults march into the lion's den like the pale prisoners of Ridley Scott's famous 1984 Macintosh ad, to receive their dose of Marxist indoctrination. America already has thousands of re-education camps – we call them colleges. And the twisted brilliance of this system is that we actually pay the Marxists to re-educate us.

Stark reminders of the effects of this indoctrination can be seen in a series of recently released videos of Bernie Sanders campaign field organizers. In these videos, several young, self-described Marxists discuss their dreams of communist revolution in the U.S. In one rant, a South Carolina field organizer talks reverently about how he learned the "truth" about the Soviet system from one of his college professors. The young man speaks glowingly about the former Soviet Union, as if it was some kind of golden era for humanity and something to aspire to now. America's impressionable students are similarly lied to every day about their nation by very convincing professors (coincidentally, many resemble Bernie Sanders).

So, our U.S. history and civics education is woefully inadequate and too-often tainted by the America-is-evil influence of Howard Zinn's absurd propaganda. And our universities are stocked with Zinn-like priests of the progressive-communist religion, daily molding disciples from the malleable minds of their captive audience. These are certainly serious factors helping create the revolutionary fantasies of Bernie's core supporters. But there is an even more dominant factor causing young adults to put their faith in socialism: the Second Great Depression.

The Second Great Depression is not economic. It is a spiritual depression resulting from erosion of the traditional family, lack of purpose, isolation, and the diminishing influence of religion. And the depression is exacerbated by the effects of technology and social media. The easy drug of tech/entertainment can temporarily numb the depression by distraction. Every time one's mind might veer into thinking about existence, the meaning of life, the state of one's own soul, just reach for that smartphone and scroll those pesky thoughts aside. But this distraction drug is a dark placebo, leaving people feeling even emptier. Our culture is surely the most vapidly distracted culture in world history. And it is also surely one of the most depressed.

Something must fill the spiritual void and, historically, socialism often rushes in.

Something must fill the spiritual void and, historically, socialism often rushes in. We saw it happen around the world, throughout the 20th century. A charismatic "prophet" of socialism comes along when people are hurting, touting the solutions to what people think are the biggest threats, and in short order tyranny makes itself at home.

Traditionally, the spiritual anchor for broad swaths of America has been religion. God provided meaning, identity, morality, and hope amidst uncertainty. Now our culture says you can't be sure of any of those things. It says we can't even know if those things exist (much less God). It says you must find your own truth, find your own meaning. Don't follow God – follow your heart. This is now one of the most common missives our culture aims at its youth. Follow your heart is one of the most dangerous lies our culture preaches. The Old Testament book of Jeremiah says, "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" (Jer. 17:9).

The follow your heart culture yields to feelings above all else. And no political philosophy caters to feelings more than socialism, especially the feeling of feeling sorry for yourself. Socialism provides the glass-half-empty view of America. It delineates clear villains – the rich and corporations! And it promises instant solutions. It will knock those villains down to size by seizing the means of production and the power of taxation. Forget praying to God for anything, just pull the lever for your local socialist in the voting booth and you'll get instant answers to your greatest needs. Got student debt from your years at re-education camp? Poof! Wiped away. Can't make ends meet with that minimum wage job? Poof! Here's double the money. Having apocalyptic nightmares about climate change? Poof! Green New Deal to the rescue. For young, depressed, spiritually famished socialists, Bernie is a Moses-figure, descending the mountain with his concise list of oppressions and solutions, ready to lead them to the Promised Land. They call it "revolution."

Ever wonder why Democratic Socialists, Bernie supporters, and affiliated groups like Antifa are so enraged? In the absence of God, pressure is put on his replacement to bring fulfillment. Socialism, and ushering in a Green New Deal, and achieving their vision of real justice, simply must work or else. Because there is no alternative for them. These young American socialists regularly frame the importance of these things in existential terms. They've put all their faith in the socialist religion and if they can't force it on everyone – to the streets!

The desperation young Americans feel today is real, but it's very different from the desperation felt by Americans their age during the first Great Depression. The current desperation is borne of affluence – gaining the whole world but losing your soul. It's like a version of survivor's guilt. Having your physical needs met in such abundance, that you become restless and miserable without a spiritual compass to steer you into serving humanity. It's truly mind-boggling that so many young Americans could be raised with a roof over their head, clothes on their back, never missing a meal, and a college education to boot, yet develop contempt for the nation that built such an environment for them. "Bernie Bros" doesn't quite capture the reality of this skewed, self-indulgent Democratic Socialist perspective – it's more like Bernie Brats.

Socialism has always thrived in this gap of hopelessness and despair, because it is people looking to government as God.

Socialism has always thrived in this gap of hopelessness and despair, because it is people looking to government as God. Yet, perhaps the easiest trend to spot in world history is that government makes a terrible, disastrous, and often blood-soaked substitute for God.

We are in the Second Great Depression, but it's not physical starvation this time – it's spiritual starvation. And that makes this Depression even more dangerous to America. A young generation of Americans may have to learn the hard way that socialism will never satisfy their hunger, it will only make it worse.

Be sure to watch the latest Glenn TV Special – Bernie's Radicals: The Fires of Revolution – available now on demand, exclusively at BlazeTV.com.

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Trump’s secret war in the Caribbean EXPOSED — It’s not about drugs

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The president’s moves in Venezuela, Guyana, and Colombia aren’t about drugs. They’re about re-establishing America’s sovereignty across the Western Hemisphere.

For decades, we’ve been told America’s wars are about drugs, democracy, or “defending freedom.” But look closer at what’s unfolding off the coast of Venezuela, and you’ll see something far more strategic taking shape. Donald Trump’s so-called drug war isn’t about fentanyl or cocaine. It’s about control — and a rebirth of American sovereignty.

The aim of Trump’s ‘drug war’ is to keep the hemisphere’s oil, minerals, and manufacturing within the Western family and out of Beijing’s hands.

The president understands something the foreign policy class forgot long ago: The world doesn’t respect apologies. It respects strength.

While the global elites in Davos tout the Great Reset, Trump is building something entirely different — a new architecture of power based on regional independence, not global dependence. His quiet campaign in the Western Hemisphere may one day be remembered as the second Monroe Doctrine.

Venezuela sits at the center of it all. It holds the world’s largest crude oil reserves — oil perfectly suited for America’s Gulf refineries. For years, China and Russia have treated Venezuela like a pawn on their chessboard, offering predatory loans in exchange for control of those resources. The result has been a corrupt, communist state sitting in our own back yard. For too long, Washington shrugged. Not any more.The naval exercises in the Caribbean, the sanctions, the patrols — they’re not about drug smugglers. They’re about evicting China from our hemisphere.

Trump is using the old “drug war” playbook to wage a new kind of war — an economic and strategic one — without firing a shot at our actual enemies. The goal is simple: Keep the hemisphere’s oil, minerals, and manufacturing within the Western family and out of Beijing’s hands.

Beyond Venezuela

Just east of Venezuela lies Guyana, a country most Americans couldn’t find on a map a year ago. Then ExxonMobil struck oil, and suddenly Guyana became the newest front in a quiet geopolitical contest. Washington is helping defend those offshore platforms, build radar systems, and secure undersea cables — not for charity, but for strategy. Control energy, data, and shipping lanes, and you control the future.

Moreover, Colombia — a country once defined by cartels — is now positioned as the hinge between two oceans and two continents. It guards the Panama Canal and sits atop rare-earth minerals every modern economy needs. Decades of American presence there weren’t just about cocaine interdiction; they were about maintaining leverage over the arteries of global trade. Trump sees that clearly.

PEDRO MATTEY / Contributor | Getty Images

All of these recent news items — from the military drills in the Caribbean to the trade negotiations — reflect a new vision of American power. Not global policing. Not endless nation-building. It’s about strategic sovereignty.

It’s the same philosophy driving Trump’s approach to NATO, the Middle East, and Asia. We’ll stand with you — but you’ll stand on your own two feet. The days of American taxpayers funding global security while our own borders collapse are over.

Trump’s Monroe Doctrine

Critics will call it “isolationism.” It isn’t. It’s realism. It’s recognizing that America’s strength comes not from fighting other people’s wars but from securing our own energy, our own supply lines, our own hemisphere. The first Monroe Doctrine warned foreign powers to stay out of the Americas. The second one — Trump’s — says we’ll defend them, but we’ll no longer be their bank or their babysitter.

Historians may one day mark this moment as the start of a new era — when America stopped apologizing for its own interests and started rebuilding its sovereignty, one barrel, one chip, and one border at a time.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Antifa isn’t “leaderless” — It’s an organized machine of violence

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The mob rises where men of courage fall silent. The lesson from Portland, Chicago, and other blue cities is simple: Appeasing radicals doesn’t buy peace — it only rents humiliation.

Parts of America, like Portland and Chicago, now resemble occupied territory. Progressive city governments have surrendered control to street militias, leaving citizens, journalists, and even federal officers to face violent anarchists without protection.

Take Portland, where Antifa has terrorized the city for more than 100 consecutive nights. Federal officers trying to keep order face nightly assaults while local officials do nothing. Independent journalists, such as Nick Sortor, have even been arrested for documenting the chaos. Sortor and Blaze News reporter Julio Rosas later testified at the White House about Antifa’s violence — testimony that corporate media outlets buried.

Antifa is organized, funded, and emboldened.

Chicago offers the same grim picture. Federal agents have been stalked, ambushed, and denied backup from local police while under siege from mobs. Calls for help went unanswered, putting lives in danger. This is more than disorder; it is open defiance of federal authority and a violation of the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause.

A history of violence

For years, the legacy media and left-wing think tanks have portrayed Antifa as “decentralized” and “leaderless.” The opposite is true. Antifa is organized, disciplined, and well-funded. Groups like Rose City Antifa in Oregon, the Elm Fork John Brown Gun Club in Texas, and Jane’s Revenge operate as coordinated street militias. Legal fronts such as the National Lawyers Guild provide protection, while crowdfunding networks and international supporters funnel money directly to the movement.

The claim that Antifa lacks structure is a convenient myth — one that’s cost Americans dearly.

History reminds us what happens when mobs go unchecked. The French Revolution, Weimar Germany, Mao’s Red Guards — every one began with chaos on the streets. But it wasn’t random. Today’s radicals follow the same playbook: Exploit disorder, intimidate opponents, and seize moral power while the state looks away.

Dismember the dragon

The Trump administration’s decision to designate Antifa a domestic terrorist organization was long overdue. The label finally acknowledged what citizens already knew: Antifa functions as a militant enterprise, recruiting and radicalizing youth for coordinated violence nationwide.

But naming the threat isn’t enough. The movement’s financiers, organizers, and enablers must also face justice. Every dollar that funds Antifa’s destruction should be traced, seized, and exposed.

AFP Contributor / Contributor | Getty Images

This fight transcends party lines. It’s not about left versus right; it’s about civilization versus anarchy. When politicians and judges excuse or ignore mob violence, they imperil the republic itself. Americans must reject silence and cowardice while street militias operate with impunity.

Antifa is organized, funded, and emboldened. The violence in Portland and Chicago is deliberate, not spontaneous. If America fails to confront it decisively, the price won’t just be broken cities — it will be the erosion of the republic itself.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

URGENT: Supreme Court case could redefine religious liberty

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The state is effectively silencing professionals who dare speak truths about gender and sexuality, redefining faith-guided speech as illegal.

This week, free speech is once again on the line before the U.S. Supreme Court. At stake is whether Americans still have the right to talk about faith, morality, and truth in their private practice without the government’s permission.

The case comes out of Colorado, where lawmakers in 2019 passed a ban on what they call “conversion therapy.” The law prohibits licensed counselors from trying to change a minor’s gender identity or sexual orientation, including their behaviors or gender expression. The law specifically targets Christian counselors who serve clients attempting to overcome gender dysphoria and not fall prey to the transgender ideology.

The root of this case isn’t about therapy. It’s about erasing a worldview.

The law does include one convenient exception. Counselors are free to “assist” a person who wants to transition genders but not someone who wants to affirm their biological sex. In other words, you can help a child move in one direction — one that is in line with the state’s progressive ideology — but not the other.

Think about that for a moment. The state is saying that a counselor can’t even discuss changing behavior with a client. Isn’t that the whole point of counseling?

One‑sided freedom

Kaley Chiles, a licensed professional counselor in Colorado Springs, has been one of the victims of this blatant attack on the First Amendment. Chiles has dedicated her practice to helping clients dealing with addiction, trauma, sexuality struggles, and gender dysphoria. She’s also a Christian who serves patients seeking guidance rooted in biblical teaching.

Before 2019, she could counsel minors according to her faith. She could talk about biblical morality, identity, and the path to wholeness. When the state outlawed that speech, she stopped. She followed the law — and then she sued.

Her case, Chiles v. Salazar, is now before the Supreme Court. Justices heard oral arguments on Tuesday. The question: Is counseling a form of speech or merely a government‑regulated service?

If the court rules the wrong way, it won’t just silence therapists. It could muzzle pastors, teachers, parents — anyone who believes in truth grounded in something higher than the state.

Censored belief

I believe marriage between a man and a woman is ordained by God. I believe that family — mother, father, child — is central to His design for humanity.

I believe that men and women are created in God’s image, with divine purpose and eternal worth. Gender isn’t an accessory; it’s part of who we are.

I believe the command to “be fruitful and multiply” still stands, that the power to create life is sacred, and that it belongs within marriage between a man and a woman.

And I believe that when we abandon these principles — when we treat sex as recreation, when we dissolve families, when we forget our vows — society fractures.

Are those statements controversial now? Maybe. But if this case goes against Chiles, those statements and others could soon be illegal to say aloud in public.

Faith on trial

In Colorado today, a counselor cannot sit down with a 15‑year‑old who’s struggling with gender identity and say, “You were made in God’s image, and He does not make mistakes.” That is now considered hate speech.

That’s the “freedom” the modern left is offering — freedom to affirm, but never to question. Freedom to comply, but never to dissent. The same movement that claims to champion tolerance now demands silence from anyone who disagrees. The root of this case isn’t about therapy. It’s about erasing a worldview.

The real test

No matter what happens at the Supreme Court, we cannot stop speaking the truth. These beliefs aren’t political slogans. For me, they are the product of years of wrestling, searching, and learning through pain and grace what actually leads to peace. For us, they are the fundamental principles that lead to a flourishing life. We cannot balk at standing for truth.

Maybe that’s why God allows these moments — moments when believers are pushed to the wall. They force us to ask hard questions: What is true? What is worth standing for? What is worth dying for — and living for?

If we answer those questions honestly, we’ll find not just truth, but freedom.

The state doesn’t grant real freedom — and it certainly isn’t defined by Colorado legislators. Real freedom comes from God. And the day we forget that, the First Amendment will mean nothing at all.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Glenn Beck joins Megyn Kelly LIVE — One night ONLY in Fort Worth!

Get ready for sparks to fly. For the first time in years, Glenn will come face-to-face with Megyn Kelly — and this time, he’s the one in the hot seat. On October 25, 2025, at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas, Glenn joins Megyn on her “Megyn Kelly Live Tour” for a no-holds-barred conversation that promises laughs, surprises, and maybe even a few uncomfortable questions.

What will happen when two of America’s sharpest voices collide under the spotlight? Will Glenn finally reveal the major announcement he’s been teasing on the radio for weeks? You’ll have to be there to find out.

This promises to be more than just an interview — it’s a live showdown packed with wit, honesty, and the kind of energy you can only feel if you are in the room. Tickets are selling fast, so don’t miss your chance to see Glenn like you’ve never seen him before.

Get your tickets NOW at www.MegynKelly.com before they’re gone!