Blog
LatestArticlesVideos
Radio
LivePodcastSerialsStations
TV
Podcasts
The Glenn Beck ProgramThe Glenn Beck PodcastThe Beck Story
Fine Art
Real Estate
Shop
More
AboutCharityBooksSponsorsContact
SEARCH
Live Radio

©2024 MERCURY RADIO ARTS.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

TERMS OF USE | PRIVACY POLICY

Live

Glenn's Show Prep

Cowardice: Father of murdered Navy SEAL reacts to news calls for help were denied three times

October 26, 2012
Wilson

Writer

Charles Woods was on with Glenn last night on TV and again on radio this morning to talk about the incredibly shocking interactions he had with the President, the Vice President, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Woods goes over those stunning details and also reacts to the breaking news that the administration denied his sons calls for help 3 times. How did he react?

"We have a report in just now that there is a source that has confirmed that there were at least two requests for help sent to the CIA when the attack in Libya commenced. Both of the requests were denied. The two SEALs that went in to help the ambassador went in against orders. They died four hours after the attack began. They report now that two SEALs who were at the CIA annex one mile down the road had a position that they could have coordinated artillery or mortar support but they were told in no uncertain terms to stand down," Glenn told Woods on radio.

Rather than react to the breaking news with outrage and anger, Woods simply called the order an act of "cowardice" that did not represent the strength and character of America.

"That is cowardice by the people that issued that order. And our country is not a country of cowards. Our country is the greatest nation on Earth. And what we need to do is we need to raise up a generation of American heroes just like Ty who is an American hero. But in order to do that, we need to raise up a generation that has not just physical strength but moral strength. We do not need another generation of liars who lack more strength."

"I was just going to say to you, Charles, you have so much restraint and you are a far better man than I am," Glenn said.

"Glenn, I totally respect what you're doing. You're doing this every day. And like I said yesterday, I have to make sure that I have total forgiveness towards everyone. Like I said yesterday after the president spoke, the representative from Libya came up to me and said he was sorry. Afterward I sought him out and I said total forgiveness. I may be coming across a little bit strong, but I sincerely from my heart, I want to have total forgiveness towards everyone, but I also want to see justice and I also want to see the people who were involved change the direction of their lives for the better. I want the best for them as well."

"I hope to be able to shake your hand someday. You are a remarkable man," Glenn said.

Full interview transcript from radio below:

GLENN: Last night, last night I spoke to a man on television who is a remarkable, remarkable man, Charles Woods, father of Navy SEAL Tyrone Woods. Tyrone was killed in Benghazi. Charles is a guy who lives in Kona, Hawaii and has just, has remarkable peace and was not planning on speaking out at all about his son's death in Benghazi, nor saying things about what he experienced on the tarmac as his son's body was coming off of the plane in the flag‑draped coffin. But when he heard that the memos ‑‑ that the White House knew at 5:00 in the afternoon that the Secretary of Defense was in the Oval Office at 5:00 in the afternoon, the president was there, that Hillary Clinton also had these cables that have been released and that CBS has reported and verified that there was a drone in the air. If there wasn't a drone, because now Geraldo Rivera's saying there wasn't a drone, if there wasn't a drone, then that has ‑‑ you have to ask a question: Why wasn't there one? This was a seven‑hour battle. Why was there not a drone? We had people that were stationed and ready to go in Spain and in Sicily. You could have had people to help these guys within the hour.

At 4:00 the White House gets the first notice, at 5:00 another notice. Goes all the way, the last notice is about mortar fire at 11:57 p.m. The White House didn't ‑‑ what, they didn't go downstairs in the situation room? Really? The Secretary of Defense, this is going on, an embassy or a CIA safe house is under attack on September 11th and the Secretary of Defense doesn't have access, the president doesn't have access, they don't go downstairs? Really? We have asked the White House. They haven't responded. They won't tell us where the president was during the attack. We know that he was in the Oval Office at 5:00 with the Secretary of Defense. We know that. Other than that, they won't tell us what the White House did, what the White House knew, they won't tell us where the president was.

We have after this interview last night with Charles Woods, we reached out to Joe Biden's office; no comment. We reached out to the State Department for a comment; no comment. This story is huge, but ABC and CBS and NBC and MSNBC and CNN, they're not going to play this story. They are not going to cover this story. And it is really important that the word gets out because this goes to honor. As you will hear from Charles, he's on hold now as we go to him, I want you to listen to who this man is. I have not been struck by anything that smelled at all like politics. He was not going to speak out... until he started reading the cables.

Charles Woods from Hawaii, how are you, sir?

Woods: Yes. Good morning, Glenn. It's good to speak with you.

GLENN: First of all, how has your night been?

Woods: Oh, it's fine. The one thing I really wanted to emphasize, Glenn, is this is not about politics. Allow this ‑‑ to allow this would be political would be to dishonor my son's death. This is about honor, this is about integrity, and this is about justice.

GLENN: Okay. So you weren't planning on saying anything at all about your son's death and ‑‑

Woods: No. Actually, Glenn, my immediate family had made the decision that we were not going to make any public statements, but as I mentioned yesterday, this week, the past few days it did become public knowledge that within minutes of the first bullet being fired that the White House actually did know in realtime that my son and the other heroes that were defending American lives would be slaughtered and immediate air support was denied. And now it has come out that people in the White House, they knew the capabilities. They knew you that there were C‑130s that were ready to respond immediately. They knew that in less than an hour, the perimeters could have been secured and the American lives, including my son, could have been spared. But, you know, they heartlessly, for seven hours, watched my son and the other American heroes there fight numerically superior forces and they basically watched him die. They knew he was going to die if they did not send immediate air support, and they took the cowardly action: They chose not to do that.

GLENN: So Charles ‑‑

Woods: Then ‑‑

GLENN: Charles, I want to bring you to ‑‑ we'll talk some more about the president and Joe Biden, but I want to bring you to Hillary Clinton because I think this is critical in the timeline of the story. The president said during the debates when Mitt Romney said, "Where were you guys?" And you said that this was a video. And the president came and said, "No, no, no, I did not say it was a video. I said on September 11th that this was a terrorist attack," but ‑‑ and so now the whole media is spinning that, yes, that's really what he said, and everybody's trying to cover for this president. But you say when you were on the tarmac at Andrews Air Force base to receive your son's body, Hillary Clinton came up and spoke to you.

Woods: No. Actually, Glenn, this was not on the tarmac before the president spoke at the hangar that was televised. There was a building, very nice, fairly large room where there were couches in four different areas of that room, and each one of the four families was being represented, was comforting each other in each one of these four pods. And so it was not on the tarmac. It was actually in a building.

GLENN: Okay. And she came up to you and she said what?

Woods: Basically Hillary, she came up to me and, you know, she looked quite frankly very worn out. She came up to shake my hand. I shook her hand and I put my arm around her shoulder and, you know, she did express sympathy, "I'm sorry for what happened to your son" and then she, I guess to comfort me, said, "We will make sure that the person who made this film is arrested and prosecuted."

GLENN: This flies in the face now of everything that they said because now they're saying that they ‑‑ no, they knew that it was attack. Again, this verifies the story that they are now trying to cover that they were blaming it on this video. Did any of them talk to you at all about a terrorist attack, or was it just this film, and is this the only thing that they said about it?

Woods: You know, Glenn, I really don't want to cast aspersions about any particular individual, okay? There were people in the White House who were morally not strong, who watched my son valiantly fight against superior forces for seven hours. There were people in the White House who made the decision to deny their cries for help. I don't want to suggest any particular people. Those people, they know who they are. And they need to have the moral courage to stand up.

GLENN: Can I ‑‑

Woods: So that they can change their lives. Well, Glenn, I did not want to pinpoint any particular person.

GLENN: Okay.

Woods: There are people that did not have the moral strength. They know who they are. My son showed courage. Now it is time for those people to stand up and to make a change in their lives for the better. I don't want to pinpoint any particular person. I do not want this to become political.

GLENN: I understand that and I'm ‑‑ what I'm trying to do, Charles, is just ask for the facts on ‑‑ because this is not political. This ‑‑ to me this is so important because Libya shows that we have changed as a country the way we treat our military. We always go in and get the last man. We always risk all to save. That's who we are as Americans and they are ‑‑

Woods: That's exactly right. And when Ty went into the Navy SEALs, that is what he went in for was to save life, not to take life. When he first went in, he went in to become a medic. Each team, each Navy SEAL team has a number of individuals. Each one of them has a different set of skills. His skill set was to become as skillful as an emergency room doctor. That's why for two years he was with the ambulance service in San Diego with the San Diego fire department, not dressed as a SEAL but dressed as one of them so that he could do that because that is always the policy of the SEALs and every other military operation that they never abandon their men in the field. They never leave anyone behind. That's the way our military works. That's because our military has a high code of ethics.

GLENN: Okay. Can you tell me about what the vice presidents ‑‑ I got yelled at by my wife last night.

Woods: You know, Glenn, what was said was said, and I really don't want to make any more statements. That was ‑‑

GLENN: Okay.

Woods: ‑‑ what was said.

GLENN: But do you stand by ‑‑ I want to make sure that you do stand by what you told me last night.

Woods: Oh, 100%.

GLENN: Okay.

Woods: What I said was quotes, was word for word. I do not speak that way.

GLENN: All right.

Woods: I did not speak those words.

GLENN: Okay. All right. Well, Charles, I thank you so much for your courage to stand up and I hope you don't mind that I said this morning ‑‑

Woods: No, I really ‑‑ Glenn, I appreciate very much what you're doing, and this is such an important issue, I don't want it to be forgotten. I don't want it to be swept under the rug. But all I want to do is I want to honor my son and I also want to give those people who did not have moral strength, the opportunity to voluntarily stand up and show the moral strength now that they should have shown while they were watching for seven hours my son fight while they were allowing my son to be murdered, when they showed a lack of moral courage to send in and respond to the cries for help.

GLENN: We have ‑‑ we have a report in just now that there is a source that has confirmed that there were at least two requests for help sent to the CIA when the attack in Libya commenced. Both of the requests were denied. The two SEALs that went in to help the ambassador went in against orders. They died four hours after the attack began. They report now that two SEALs who were at the CIA annex one mile down the road had a position that they could have coordinated artillery or mortar support but they were told in no uncertain terms to stand down.

STU: Jeez.

Woods: That is cowardice by the people that issued that order. And our country is not a country of cowards. Our country is the greatest nation on Earth. And what we need to do is we need to raise up a generation of American heroes just like Ty who is an American hero. But in order to do that, we need to raise up a generation that has not just physical strength but moral strength. We do not need another generation of liars who lack more strength.

GLENN: Charles ‑‑

Woods: And I hope my words are not too strong for you, Glenn.

GLENN: I was just saying you have ‑‑ I was just going to say to you, Charles, you have so much restraint and you are a far better man than I am. If the rules ‑‑

Woods: No, Glenn, I totally respect what you're doing. You're doing this every day. And like I said yesterday, I have to make sure that I have total forgiveness towards everyone. Like I said yesterday after the president spoke, the representative from Libya came up to me and said he was sorry. Afterward I sought him out and I said total forgiveness. I may be coming across a little bit strong, but I sincerely from my heart, I want to have total forgiveness towards everyone, but I also want to see justice and I also want to see the people who were involved change the direction of their lives for the better. I want the best for them as well.

GLENN: Charles, God bless you.

Woods: Thank you very much, Glenn.

GLENN: I hope to be able to shake your hand someday. You are a remarkable man.

Woods: Thank you very much, Glenn.

GLENN: God bless you. Thank you. I have to tell you something. I think this guy is... I mean ‑‑

STU: Amazing. Amazing.

GLENN: I mean, amazing. Amazing. Listen to that. His son, I just was handed this report in the middle that said they were told to stand down. They were told to do nothing and they were like, we cannot let people just die, our own people just die. And they went in and they had to have known. There's no help coming. They had to have known they were going to go in and fight. And I tell him that, and listen to that man. You can't tell me that's about politics.

STU: No.

GLENN: That is about honor. This is what this race is about. Because that's who we are. You just have to find the honor again. We have to reach higher than what we've reached for. Please, this story is not being told yet anywhere. Please get this story out to everyone you know. Take it. It will be posted up on TheBlaze. Last night's episode was already posted. This will be posted. Take it. Facebook it. Tweet it. Put it everywhere you know, as many places as you can. Send it to everyone you know. This is critical. Because this is really what it's all about and it shows they're lying. In a very dangerous and very callous way.

Grim warning: Bad-faith Israel critics duck REAL questions

Spencer Platt / Staff | Getty Images

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

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

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

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

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

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

Truth-seeking is real work

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

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

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

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

Bad-faith questions

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

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

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

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

Anadolu / Contributor | Getty Images

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

The real target

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

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

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

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

The melting pot fails when we stop agreeing to melt

Spencer Platt / Staff | Getty Images

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Parallel societies do not end well

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

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

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

A crisis of confidence

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

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

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

Brandon Bell / Staff | Getty Images

Stand up and tell the truth

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

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

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

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

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

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

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Shocking: AI-written country song tops charts, sparks soul debate

VCG / Contributor | Getty Images

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

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

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

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

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

A new world of artificial experience

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

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

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

What machines can never do

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

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

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

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

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

Questions that define us

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

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

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

Europa Press News / Contributor | Getty Images

The miracle machines can never copy

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

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

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

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Is Socialism seducing a lost generation?

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.