WATCH: Heroes and history

Over the weekend, Glenn spoke at a GOP fundraiser in Texas where he heavily criticized the national Republican party for turing away from the uniting principles of freedom and limited government. During the speech, he used several historical items to help illustrate his point, including items from heroes like Marcus Luttrell, Sam Brown, and the fallen Chris Kyle. He brought those items back to Dallas Monday night, where he used them to discuss heroism and freedom for the TV audience.

The below is based off a transcript of Glenn's monologue from Monday's show

Now, the news always seems to zero in on the bickering and the fighting, and there is a time to focus in on that and turn the tables over, but it shouldn’t be all the time. I don’t know about you, but last night I’m watching the Super Bowl, and I actually felt good. When’s the last time you watched a mass event, and you felt good afterwards? Been a very long time because usually there’s some political thing or there’s some, you know, sexual thing, or whatever.

This time I really felt like it was great because it was uniting, and that’s what we should be looking for. What unites us? This last weekend, I went, and I spoke to the GOP here in Texas. And I think everybody in the room liked it, except for really the, you know, traditional GOP people. They didn’t like it all that much, the establishment. But it was a good group of people, and they know the GOP is in trouble because the GOP is just not offering any real fixes to the problems.

They are like every party. This is their job, get people elected, and they’re about self-preservation and scoring points. And Karl Rove, his fundraising is now down 98% as Crossroads. Think of that, you want to talk about an unmitigated disaster, down 98% in fundraising. So what has he done? He’s started a new thing, what is it, Kentuckians for Real Solutions or something like that?

And so he’s taken his name off of it, and he’s raising funds hoping that people don’t know it’s Karl Rove behind it. And he is taking on Matt Bevin and instead trying to get Mitch McConnell reelected. I mean, if you don’t need more on Mitch McConnell on why he shouldn’t be elected, because Karl Rove is behind it. Maybe that should be it.

There’s lots of things that unite us, but none of them happen with the political people. They happen with real people. And the things that unite us are true. They’re not just things that make us feel good, but they are things that are good. And you see it from heroes, and I want to show you a couple of things.

Last week we had Sam Brown on. He is running for Congress in Texas. This is his pack. And you can see how it is burned, and I can’t imagine being on fire. And he said within 30 seconds he was crying out for his God and his mother. What makes a man recover from this without bitterness? What makes a man say I still want to serve my country after this?

This is the pack from Marcus Luttrell. I want to show you this. This is the pack from Marcus Luttrell and what he was wearing. You know, we’ve seen the movie, but this is the real uniform that actually was with him. I want to show you these pants. As you can see, his pants are all cut up and not in good shape.

What most people don’t realize is that when Marcus was, you know, falling down the hill, the movie doesn’t show this because Marcus is too, I think, too modest, but he was lying on the Republic of Texas. He was lying down in those pants with this and this helmet, and he crawled for eight miles. He took his knife, and he drew a line up at his head. And he was pretty much paralyzed from the shoulders down.

So he took his knife, and he drew a line in the sand, and then he crawled across that line. And he thought when my feet cross that line, I’ll draw another line because I’m getting out of here. He did that for eight solid miles. What makes a man do that?

And then there’s this. This weekend is a very special anniversary. Joe Namath had one of these on yesterday. This is something that Taya Kyle gave me to remember her husband, Chris Kyle, who died a year ago, the greatest American sniper, the one the president still hasn’t even recognized. But this was his helmet. This was his tripod for his gun, and these were his magazines, still with the rounds in it. What makes a man do that?

That, that. Now, these two men had this instead of the American flag. Why? Well, if I may show you one more piece of history. This is an amazing letter. This is from Davy Crockett. When I have shown this before in Texas, it gets audible gasps. People are like oh my gosh. I mean, it practically has to travel around in a Brinks truck. But it’s not the actual letter.

This is so amazing because Davy Crockett was an American that I think felt an awful lot like the way people today feel, and it explains what’s at the base of Chris Kyle’s helmet. I don’t know if you can see it, but it is the Texas flag. It explains why Marcus Luttrell had that, and it’s not hubris by any stretch of the imagination. It really comes from that letter from Davy Crockett.

In that letter, Davy Crockett wrote, I’ve almost given up the ship as lost. Do you feel like that? Because I do. I’ve almost given up. Several times I’ve almost just went you know what, it’s just lost. He says I’ve gone so far to declare that if the President, Martin Van Buren, is elected, I am going to leave the United States because I’ll never live under his kingdom. See, some things never really change.

He said I will not submit to his government. I will instead go to the wilds of Texas. I will consider that government a paradise to what this is. In fact, at this time, our republican government has almost dwindled into insignificancy. Our boasted land of liberty has almost bowed to the yoke of bondage. Our happy days of Republican principles…and what are Republican principles? I don’t mean the party. What are Republican principles?

This was before the Republican Party. Small government, Libertarianism, being free to be yourself, just doing the right thing. He’s talking about a president who has just expanded the government like crazy. He said our happy days of Republican principles are near an end when a few will transfer the many. This is the Van Buren principle. There are more slaves in New York and Pennsylvania than there are in Virginia and South Carolina, and they’re the meanest kind of slaves because these slaves volunteer to be slaves.

Is that not what we’re living now? So what are the principles? What are the uniting principles? What are the things that bring us all together? I will tell you, old, old dusty words that nobody even knows what they mean anymore, we hold these truths to be self-evident, meaning I can wake you up from a dead sleep. I can ask you hey, I’m the President of the United States, should I be able to kill you without trial? No. Okay, good, go back to sleep. Right?

We hold these truths to be self-evident. You can go and ask anybody anytime, uneducated or educated, they know it’s wrong to hold somebody against their will and make them a slave. They know. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal. Okay, that means that you’re not born a king. You have to earn your way to king or whatever it is. You have to earn your way, earn your keep.

You’re not just born into it. Just because you’re a Kennedy doesn’t make you any different than me. Do we still believe that? And by the way, created, all men are created equal. Well, created means, kind of lends credence to the next line, and endowed by their Creator. Creator, even Richard Dawkins, the atheist, he says it wasn’t God. It’s certainly not God. It’s probably some alien life form. I’m not kidding you, this is really what he really says, some alien life form that created man and then seeded him here. That’s what he thinks we’ll find out.

Okay, well whatever, so there is something we can agree on, we were both created. You say by a super intelligent alien life form. I say it’s by God. Either way, we were created, and we were created and given some inalienable rights, meaning nobody can change them. Except for God or the alien, nobody can change these rights because we’re all born exactly the same. We all have an equal shot.

And among these life…you can’t kill me because you’re not my creator; liberty, you can’t arrest me. You can arrest me if I’ve done something wrong, but you better tell me what the charge is, and I have a right to a speedy trial with all my other fellow beings. And I get to be able to see the evidence, and if you take my child away from me, you can’t put a gag order on me. I should be able to say hey, this is wrong.

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, that’s why Davy Crockett said he was going to come down to Texas. That’s why I came down to Texas. Can you still be your own man or do you have to do it somebody else’s way? You know, we’re building radio studios down here in Texas or looking to build radio studios here, and we’re also probably going to move our facilities in New York City, still in New York City unfortunately but move them, and we were talking about the expense of it today.

Here in Texas, I don’t need any special kind of light switches or anything else, but in New York, I have to, if I move into a space, I have to upgrade the entire facility, and I have to have motion light switches in every office. Well, when I asked what is this all going to cost me at the end of the day, all of these regulations, you’re almost putting me out of business. Are you free to be able to do business? Are you free to pursue your happiness?

Yes, the Internet makes it easy. I can connect with anyone in the world until they start to regulate that. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and in support of this, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. See, honor does play a role. Honor, it means that we have to be true with one another. We have to speak honestly and openly and treat one another with respect. That’s what honor means.

So to support this idea that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator, we have to have honor. There’s your fix. There’s your uniting principle. Forget about the Coke ad and are you a racist or not a racist, that’s it. And then coming to a place to where you say I don’t want anybody to feel sorry for me.

My wife last night, oh my gosh, she was talking to me during the Super Bowl. It got into the last quarter, and she was rooting for the Broncos in the last quarter because she felt bad for them. I mean, can’t the Seahawks just – I swear to you – can’t the Seahawks just let them score? I mean, just let them score one. I feel bad. They should have at least one touchdown.

I was like do you want me to call the president and see if we could just redistribute some of these points? What are you talking about? Earn it. Earn it. That’s what it’s all about, earn it. Do I feel bad for the Broncos? Not really. They were in the Super Bowl. How many teams didn’t make it to the Super Bowl? Do I wish they would’ve? Maybe, I mean, I think it was kind of cool, just the butt kicking, but maybe that’s because I’m from Seattle originally.

Find the things that unite us, and tonight we’re going to do just that.

A Sharia enclave is quietly taking root in America. It's time to wake up.

NOVA SAFO / Staff | Getty Images

Sharia-based projects like the Meadow in Texas show how political Islam grows quietly, counting on Americans to stay silent while an incompatible legal system takes root.

Apolitical system completely incompatible with the Constitution is gaining ground in the United States, and we are pretending it is not happening.

Sharia — the legal and political framework of Islam — is being woven into developments, institutions, and neighborhoods, including a massive project in Texas. And the consequences will be enormous if we continue to look the other way.

This is the contradiction at the heart of political Islam: It claims universal authority while insisting its harshest rules will never be enforced here. That promise does not stand up to scrutiny. It never has.

Before we can have an honest debate, we’d better understand what Sharia represents. Sharia is not simply a set of religious rules about prayer or diet. It is a comprehensive legal and political structure that governs marriage, finance, criminal penalties, and civic life. It is a parallel system that claims supremacy wherever it takes hold.

This is where the distinction matters. Many Muslims in America want nothing to do with Sharia governance. They came here precisely because they lived under it. But political Islam — the movement that seeks to implement Sharia as law — is not the same as personal religious belief.

It is a political ideology with global ambitions, much like communism. Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently warned that Islamist movements do not seek peaceful coexistence with the West. They seek dominance. History backs him up.

How Sharia arrives

Political Islam does not begin with dramatic declarations. It starts quietly, through enclaves that operate by their own rules. That is why the development once called EPIC City — now rebranded as the Meadow — is so concerning. Early plans framed it as a Muslim-only community built around a mega-mosque and governed by Sharia-compliant financing. After state investigations were conducted, the branding changed, but the underlying intent remained the same.

Developers have openly described practices designed to keep non-Muslims out, using fees and ownership structures to create de facto religious exclusivity. This is not assimilation. It is the construction of a parallel society within a constitutional republic.

The warning from those who have lived under it

Years ago, local imams in Texas told me, without hesitation, that certain Sharia punishments “just work.” They spoke about cutting off hands for theft, stoning adulterers, and maintaining separate standards of testimony for men and women. They insisted it was logical and effective while insisting they would never attempt to implement it in Texas.

But when pressed, they could not explain why a system they consider divinely mandated would suddenly stop applying once someone crossed a border.

This is the contradiction at the heart of political Islam: It claims universal authority while insisting its harshest rules will never be enforced here. That promise does not stand up to scrutiny. It never has.

AASHISH KIPHAYET / Contributor | Getty Images

America is vulnerable

Europe is already showing us where this road leads. No-go zones, parallel courts, political intimidation, and clerics preaching supremacy have taken root across major cities.

America’s strength has always come from its melting pot, but assimilation requires boundaries. It requires insisting that the Constitution, not religious law, is the supreme authority on this soil.

Yet we are becoming complacent, even fearful, about saying so. We mistake silence for tolerance. We mistake avoidance for fairness. Meanwhile, political Islam views this hesitation as weakness.

Religious freedom is one of America’s greatest gifts. Muslims may worship freely here, as they should. But political Islam must not be permitted to plant a flag on American soil. The Constitution cannot coexist with a system that denies equal rights, restricts speech, subordinates women, and places clerical authority above civil law.

Wake up before it is too late

Projects like the Meadow are not isolated. They are test runs, footholds, proofs of concept. Political Islam operates with patience. It advances through demographic growth, legal ambiguity, and cultural hesitation — and it counts on Americans being too polite, too distracted, or too afraid to confront it.

We cannot afford that luxury. If we fail to defend the principles that make this country free, we will one day find ourselves asking how a parallel system gained power right in front of us. The answer will be simple: We looked away.

The time to draw boundaries and to speak honestly is now. The time to defend the Constitution as the supreme law of the land is now. Act while there is still time.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Why do Americans feel so empty?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The crisis beneath the headlines

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

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

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

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

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

The quiet return of meaning

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

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

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

Harold M. Lambert / Contributor | Getty Images

Where renewal begins

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

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

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

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What triggers the Bubba effect

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

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

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

A country cracking from the inside

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

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

The Bubba effect is what fills that vacuum.

The dangers of a faithless system

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

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

The question is what — and when.

The responsibility now belongs to us

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

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

How to respond without breaking ourselves

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

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

Adam Gray / Stringer | Getty Images

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

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

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

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Grim warning: Bad-faith Israel critics duck REAL questions

Spencer Platt / Staff | Getty Images

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

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

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

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

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

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

Truth-seeking is real work

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

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

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

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

Bad-faith questions

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

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

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

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

Anadolu / Contributor | Getty Images

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

The real target

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

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

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

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.