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Burgess Owens: The NAACP Keeps People Angry and Hopeless to Shamelessly Breed Black Voters

September 24, 2016
Lori Hanes

Writer

Burgess Owens, former NFL star and author of the book Liberalism or How to Turn Good Men into Whiners, Weenies and Wimps, joined The Glenn Beck Program on Friday to address the current state of race relations across America and what role, if any, the NAACP has played.

Listen to this segment from The Glenn Beck Program:

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

GLENN: Burgess Owens is an NFL legend and the author of a book Liberalism: Or How to Turn Good Men Into Whiners, Weenies, and Wimps. And really tells it like it is and is a good friend of the program.

Hello, Burgess, how are you, sir?

BURGESS: Glenn, good talking with you again, my friend. Looking forward to our discussion today for sure.

GLENN: I want to talk to you a little bit about what's happening on the streets of North Carolina, what's happening on the streets of Tulsa. But first, your thoughts on Betty Shelby, the police officer being charged with manslaughter in the first degree.

BURGESS: You know, I haven't had a chance to get any real information on what's happening there, what's happening in Tulsa. So I'm just going to -- I'm going to hold off and make my decision on my conclusion on that until I can get a little more information. I do have a very strong impression about Charlotte. I'd love to talk to you about that.

GLENN: Well, hang on just a second, I've understood from the alt-right, that we're now living in a post-fact world and that's a good thing. I mean, you should be able to comment without facts, Burgess.

All right. So let's talk about -- let's talk about Charlotte. Because yesterday afternoon, I saw a press conference with the NAACP. And the NAACP was there in Charleston, South Carolina. Kind of trying to whip things up, when there was a shooting -- oh, no, no. South Carolina, when they were trying to whip up the -- after the shooting in the church.

JEFFY: Right.

GLENN: Remember when we went?

PAT: Charleston, yeah.

GLENN: And they were doing the same thing. Yeah, in Charleston. And now, in Charlotte, yesterday, they were doing the same in North Carolina. Can you comment a little bit on the NAACP?

BURGESS: Yeah, well, the NAACP, you have to understand, they're not trying to find justice. They're not trying to find fairness or even bring American people together. They have one issue and one thing that they're after right now. At the end of the day, they are shameless in breeding black voters. They want to get the black community up in arms and angry, more hopeless than they've already made them, so they go out and vote in November. At the end of the day, that is their goal.

It didn't matter what happened. In this case, here's a black man, a black policeman, who shot a black man with an armed -- a firearm. You have black police chief. You have a white Democrat mayor. All that is a perfect scenario for our affirmative action community that we have today. But yet it all takes in our community today, six weeks out, is for some black person to get shot. It doesn't matter why. Is to have the NAACP and their group trying to get in and rev up their voters.

GLENN: You've talked about the history of the NAACP that I don't think most people know. You talk about it in your book. And it's fascinating.

BURGESS: Yeah, it is -- the an interesting process when you understand the stealth that's been going on in our nation for a long, long time.

For those who are just hearing for the first time, the NAACP, back in 1910, when it was formed, was not formed by black people. It was formed by 21 white, socialist, atheist, Marxist, race-control Democrats. It was an environment at the time -- keep in mind, during that time, the race -- the black race was one of the most competitive, industrious, patriotic, Republican communities in our country.

And so in order to get into that community to do the things they needed to do, to take us down the route they have, they needed to use stealth, and they needed to use the face of another black person, W.E. DeBois, who is also a socialist and communist.

And that is actually what is happening today. It's a playbook they've used for a long time.

Today, they use the black BET to message out anti-police, anti-white messaging. And keep in mind, look at the people that are making the biggest noise. I can guarantee that they always have the same source: Black Entertainment Television, which is actually owned by white liberal Democrats, the Blackstones and Viacom, who have been messaging the black community for a long, long time to get them where they are today.

GLENN: So let me ask you about this: Here we have this police officer in Tulsa, who is first degree manslaughter. Going to be charged with that. And I don't know the situation anymore than anybody else does. I think every single shooting should be looked into.

BURGESS: Yes.

GLENN: But we also know black officers are much more likely to shoot and discharge their firearm than a white officer is. And we also know there has been an increase of, what is it? A 20 percent increase of violence and killings of -- of officers in the last year. And nobody seems to pay attention to that.

What you have is a situation to where the -- the officers -- black and white -- are going to be paralyzed with fear of doing anything, or they're going to get in trouble. And here's where I think the black community loses. If I'm a -- if I'm a cop and I'm called into a predominantly black neighborhood and, you know, there's something -- gunfire or something else. I'm thinking I'm saying, "I'm not going. I'm not going." Or if I go, I'm staying way away from this, because I don't want to be involved. I'm going to lose in this.

BURGESS: Well, you know, Glenn, the thing is, when you look at who has been hurt by this whole process, it is the black community. Not only -- and it's in a couple of ways. Not only for those innocent black -- those in the community that really do need the help and support. Because not only are the criminals -- the criminal element being empowered, encouraged. But you have again -- in this case, you have policemen who really want to do the right thing, but are afraid of not being backed up, not going in.

It is really a shame to see this dual process of division. And it comes down to one simple thing: This is why it's so devious, what's happening now.

We have a president who's been president for eight years. We have the second black attorney general after eight years. And it's interesting that the message that's being given to everybody -- America, is that the black race is truly inept. The black race cannot on its own stand up and best the black -- the white race, who has been their oppressors for 150 years. And this is why, when we disconnect ourselves from our past, our history, you have a narrative, in which now we are sitting back as victims, supposedly waiting for politicians and white legislators to give us the right and the power to do what every other culture has done in this country. That is to rise up, become the best we can be, and develop great successful people to lead status.

GLENN: You know, Burgess, we were doing -- we're talking to Burgess Owens. He's the author of Liberalism. We were talking about families and the destruction of families. We were doing a serial on it. And the black family was, you know, by 1960, the strongest family unit in the country. Now it is by far the weakest.

And the turning point, strangely, seems to be the Johnson administration and the Great Society. Have you ever done any research -- because we -- this piqued my interest.

Gee, that seems strange. And wait a minute, Johnson was a huge progressive racist. I wonder who wrote the Great Society bill. I wonder if there were these racist progressives in there that wrote this maybe even intentionally to tear the black family apart, knowing that it would disintegrate. Do you think there's anything to that?

BURGESS: Glenn, I'll tell you. It's interesting because I've done my history and done some research. At every point along the last 100 years -- and keep in mind, when I talk about the hundred years since 1865, the black race was doing so well. In other words, we were --

GLENN: Yep.

BURGESS: Again, we had 50 percent of black Americans that were part of the middle class. We had a the highest percentage of entrepreneurs. All those things. We had the strongest commitment to marriage.

Every single facet of change happened because of Democratic policies. Whether it was the Davis-Bacon Act, which took the entrepreneurs out of the marketplace, with the high unemployment or minimum wage now that keeps young teenagers from actually ever getting experience and work.

Look at those -- those young people who are rioting, looting, and stealing, think about it. You're looking at young men who are not working, who have no hopes -- have not been educated. Have no hopes of working. They're all walking around with their pants down to their knees, and they're upset because they can't get ahead or they don't have an opportunity. That's been all accomplished through a change of self-perception through the white liberals at BET and the policies of liberals that have stopped this from moving forward, like we had in the early '60s.

GLENN: We have something going on, the Ferguson effect. I mean, if it -- do you believe, Burgess, that if the president would have come out and said, "Hey, we're going to look into Ferguson. I'm not going to comment on this. But stop the rioting that's -- you're burning down your own city. Stop it." If he came out strong, do you think we would be in the situation we are in right now?

BURGESS: I'd say, Glenn -- we can look back in history and look at a man who had the greatest opportunity in the history of mankind to bring our country together.

The reason why white Americans and blacks voted for this man was because of the promise of getting past race.

We have never been more divided. More -- we're now turning black people into racists. Unapologetic racists.

And when you start to do that -- first of all, the blessings that go with anyone who has that kind of spirit goes away, very big time. And we cannot have conversations -- real reasonable conversations about how to get past this, until we get past the judgment that we now have of color. And we've got even worse than that -- we're now judging people based on the color of the uniform they're wearing.

GLENN: Yeah.

BURGESS: Now blue is becoming a racist call. That's how we've gone.

GLENN: But I'm looking at the Ferguson effect, which says now, since Ferguson, murders in the 50 biggest cities in the US have spiked 17 percent in the black community, as a result of cops being unwilling or reluctant to go in and police neighborhoods because of the fear of being labeled a racist. 17 percent jump in -- in murders in those communities.

That is a -- the liberals have been the champion of those who are crying racism.

BURGESS: Well, the thing you want to add to that -- and you're absolutely right. This is common sense. In all of us -- when we do our job, at the end of the day, we want to be with our family. We don't want to go into any situation or we come out with not good a chance of coming out alive. At the end of the day, we're dealing with a empathy-free liberalism does not care about the end result. It just cares about stealings and its goals. And, at the end of the day, we have more blacks now being hurt in so many different ways. And this has been the history of the Democratic Party. And so I -- I really do hope -- and this is where I think we have a conversation now, that as a total country, blacks and whites, we really start to look and hold these people accountable who have overseen the black misery that has happened over the last decades now.

GLENN: Burgess Owens, Liberalism or How to Turn Good Men Into Whiners, Weenies, and Wimps. Thanks so much for being on us, Burgess. Appreciate it.

BURGESS: Thank you, Glenn. Look forward to the opportunity to talk more as we move this thing forward.

GLENN: You bet.

Featured Image: Charlotte NAACP President Corine Mack, left, and Pastor Charles Jacobs pray where a man was shot the night before outside of the Omni Hotel September 22, 2016 in Charlotte, NC. Protests began on Tuesday night following the fatal shooting of 43-year-old Keith Lamont Scott at an apartment complex near UNC Charlotte. A state of emergency was declared overnight in Charlotte and a midnight curfew was imposed by mayor Jennifer Roberts. (Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images)

The government is WAGING WAR against these 3 basic needs

NICHOLAS KAMM / Contributor | Getty Images

The government has launched a full-on assault against our basic needs, and people are starting to take notice.

As long-time followers of Glenn are probably aware, our right to food, water, and power is under siege. The government no longer cares about our general welfare. Instead, our money lines the pockets of our politicians, funds overseas wars, or goes towards some woke-ESG-climate-Great Reset bullcrap. And when they do care, it's not in a way that benefits the American people.

From cracking down on meat production to blocking affordable power, this is how the government is attacking your basic needs:

Food

Fiona Goodall / Stringer | Getty Images

Glenn had Rep. Thomas Massie on his show where he sounded the alarm about the attack on our food. The government has been waging war against our food since the thirties when Congress passed the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938. They started by setting strict limits on how many crops a farmer could grow in a season and punishing anyone who grew more—even if it was intended for personal use, not for sale on the market. This sort of autocratic behavior has continued into the modern day and has only gotten more draconian. Today, not only are you forced to buy meat that a USDA-approved facility has processed, but the elites want meat in general off the menu. Cow farts are too dangerous to the environment, so the WEF wants you to eat climate-friendly alternatives—like bugs.

Water

ALESSANDRO RAMPAZZO / Contributor | Getty Images

As Glenn discussed during a recent Glenn TV special, the government has been encroaching on our water for years. It all started when Congress passed the Clean Water Act in 1972, which gave the government the ability to regulate large bodies of water. As the name suggests, the act was primarily intended to keep large waterways clear of pollution, but over time it has allowed the feds to assume more and more control over the country's water supply. Most recently, the Biden administration attempted to expand the reach of the Clean Water Act to include even more water and was only stopped by the Supreme Court.

Electricity

David McNew / Staff | Getty Images

Dependable, affordable electricity has been a staple of American life for decades, but that might all be coming to an end. Glenn has discussed recent actions taken by Biden, like orders to halt new oil and gas production and efforts to switch to less efficient sources of power, like wind or solar, the price of electricity is only going to go up. This, alongside his efforts to limit air conditioning and ban gas stoves, it almost seems Biden is attempting to send us back to the Stone Age.

4 signs that PROVE Americans are hitting rock bottom

Spencer Platt / Staff | Getty Images

As we approach the presidential election in November, many Americans are facing dire economic straits.

Glenn has shown time and time again that Bidenomics is a sham, and more Americans than ever are suffering as a result. Still, Biden and his cronies continue to insist that the economy is booming despite the mounting evidence to the contrary. But who is Biden fooling? Since the beginning of the year, gas has gone up an average of 40 cents a gallon nationwide, with some states seeing as much as a 60-cent per gallon increase. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Foreclosures and bankruptcies are on the rise, evictions are surging, and America is experiencing a record amount of homelessness. We can't survive another Biden term.

Americans across the country are hitting rock bottom, and here are four stats that PROVE it:

Evictions

John Moore / Staff | Getty Images

Across the country, people are being evicted from their homes and apartments. Between 2021 and 2023, evictions increased by 78.6 percent. With inflation driving up prices and employers struggling to raise wages to compensate, rent is taking up an increasingly larger percentage of people's paychecks. Many Americans are having to choose between buying groceries and paying rent.

Foreclosures

Justin Sullivan / Staff | Getty Images

Renters aren't the only ones struggling to make their monthly payments, foreclosures are on the rise. This February saw a 5 percent increase in foreclosures from last year and a 10 percent increase from January. More and more Americans are losing their homes and businesses.

Bankruptcies

Chris Hondros / Staff | Getty Images

High interest rates and inflation have driven bankruptcies through the roof. Total filings have risen 13 percent and business bankruptcies rose 30 percent in 2023. It's getting harder and harder for businesses to stay afloat, and with California's new law requiring most restaurants to pay all employees a minimum of $20 an hour, you can expect that number to keep climbing.

Homelessness

FREDERIC J. BROWN / Contributor | Getty Images

The result of all of these issues is that it is getting harder and harder for Americans to afford the basic necessities. January of 2023 saw a record-breaking 650,000+ homeless Americans, a 12 percent jump from the previous year. More Americans have hit rock bottom than ever before.

Stop blaming Gen Z for the problems WE created

Editor's note: This article was originally published on TheBlaze.com.

I want to talk to Generation Z. I’ve seen some clips of you complaining about your 9-to-5 jobs on social media and how life is really hard right now. To be honest, my first reaction was, “Suck it up, buttercup. This is what life is really like.” In a sense, that’s true. But in another sense, I think you’re getting a bad rap. You are facing unique problems that my generation didn’t face — problems that my generation had a hand in creating.

But I also think you don’t understand the cause of these problems.

I would hate to be in your position. When I was your age, we didn’t have to deal with any of the challenges you’re facing. In one sense, your life has been tough. At the same time, compared to previous generations, your life has been very easy. Everybody was rushing to save you, to protect you. You were coddled, which makes your life harder now.

You’ve grown up with social media and the definition of narcissism: somebody gazing into the pond looking at themselves all the time. I don't mean this as an offense, and I am not just including you in this. We’ve become a culture of narcissists. It’s all about “me, me, me, me.”

If you end up thinking more collectivism is the solution, then you haven't done enough homework.

You’ve been in territory that my generation never had to enter. You’ve already navigated a landscape that we didn't have to, where nothing is true, and you can’t trust anybody. I wouldn’t trust anybody either if I were in your position. But I do know a few things to be true and a couple of things I can trust.

First, life is worth it. Life is tough, but it is worth it in the end.

Second, life is not about stuff. As a guy who is kind of a pack rat, I can tell you that none of that stuff will create happiness in your life. In fact, I think your generation has a better handle on happiness in some ways than anybody in mine. You’re starting to realize that pharmaceuticals may not be as good as natural solutions in a lot of situations, that the huge house may not be as satisfying as just having a smaller house, that living your life instead of having to work all the time may be a better way to live.

I want to talk to those of you who feel like it’s not worth even trying to go to work because you’ll never get anywhere. You work 40 hours a week or more, and you still can't afford a place to live. You’re still living with your parents. You can’t afford food. I think you're right to feel frustrated because the problems you're facing weren't always the case.

I blame a lot of the current problems we’re facing today on the hippies. That may be wrong, but I hate hippies. Hippies have been screwing things up since the 1960s. While on their socialist march, they have become everything that they said they were against: lying, greedy politicians. They just won’t let go of their power even though their time has passed.

These are the people who have come up with policies that make you feel like this is the way the world is. I hope I can convince you that it doesn’t have to be this way. This isn’t the way our country has always been. We don’t have to keep these people in power. Actions have consequences. Votes have consequences. These people allow crime, looters, squatters, riots, and somebody needs to pay for that.

You say you can’t afford health care. I understand. Since Obamacare passed, the cost of individual health insurance has doubled. You need to remember that politicians promised that if we passed this massive health care overhaul, it would mean a savings of $2,500 per family. You're in school. You must know that $2,500 savings is not the same as an 80% increase. Moreover, the cost of hospital stays is up 210%. I understand when you say you can't afford health care at these costs. Who could afford health care? Who could afford insurance?

The generation coming of age is right to feel frustrated.This mess — with high costs and a massive debt burden — was not of their making.

Iwant to talk to Generation Z. I’ve seen some clips of you complaining about your 9-to-5 jobs on social media and how life is really hard right now. To be honest, my first reaction was, “Suck it up, buttercup. This is what life is really like.” In a sense, that’s true. But in another sense, I think you’re getting a bad rap. You are facing unique problems that my generation didn’t face — problems that my generation had a hand in creating.

But I also think you don’t understand the cause of these problems.

If you end up thinking more collectivism is the solution, then you haven't done enough homework.

I would hate to be in your position. When I was your age, we didn’t have to deal with any of the challenges you’re facing. In one sense, your life has been tough. At the same time, compared to previous generations, your life has been very easy. Everybody was rushing to save you, to protect you. You were coddled, which makes your life harder now.

You’ve grown up with social media and the definition of narcissism: somebody gazing into the pond looking at themselves all the time. I don't mean this as an offense, and I am not just including you in this. We’ve become a culture of narcissists. It’s all about “me, me, me, me.”

You’ve been in territory that my generation never had to enter. You’ve already navigated a landscape that we didn't have to, where nothing is true, and you can’t trust anybody. I wouldn’t trust anybody either if I were in your position. But I do know a few things to be true and a couple of things I can trust.

First, life is worth it. ≈

Second, life is not about stuff. As a guy who is kind of a pack rat, I can tell you that none of that stuff will create happiness in your life. In fact, I think your generation has a better handle on happiness in some ways than anybody in mine. You’re starting to realize that pharmaceuticals may not be as good as natural solutions in a lot of situations, that the huge house may not be as satisfying as just having a smaller house, that living your life instead of having to work all the time may be a better way to live.

I want to talk to those of you who feel like it’s not worth even trying to go to work because you’ll never get anywhere. You work 40 hours a week or more, and you still can't afford a place to live. You’re still living with your parents. You can’t afford food. I think you're right to feel frustrated because the problems you're facing weren't always the case.

I blame a lot of the current problems we’re facing today on the hippies. That may be wrong, but I hate hippies. Hippies have been screwing things up since the 1960s. While on their socialist march, they have become everything that they said they were against: lying, greedy politicians. ≈

These are the people who have come up with policies that make you feel like this is the way the world is. I hope I can convince you that it doesn’t have to be this way. This isn’t the way our country has always been. We don’t have to keep these people in power. Actions have consequences. Votes have consequences. These people allow crime, looters, squatters, riots, and somebody needs to pay for that.

If you end up thinking more collectivism is the solution, then you haven't done enough homework.

You say you can’t afford health care. I understand. Since Obamacare passed, the cost of individual health insurance has doubled. You need to remember that politicians promised that if we passed this massive health care overhaul, it would mean a savings of $2,500 per family. You're in school. You must know that $2,500 savings is not the same as an 80% increase. Moreover, the cost of hospital stays is up 210%. I understand when you say you can't afford health care at these costs. Who could afford health care? Who could afford insurance?

You are also starting your life with thousands of dollars in debt. Your parents didn't have that burden. People used to be able to work their way through college and graduate debt-free. Others were able to get jobs that quickly paid off their debt. You can't do that now. Once the government said that they were going to guarantee all student loans, university costs skyrocketed, and it hasn't stopped. You can thank the progressive President Lyndon B. Johnson for that.

The people who created this mess cannot fix it. But it can be fixed.

You are also starting your life with thousands of dollars in debt. Your parents didn't have that burden. People used to be able to work their way through college and graduate debt-free. Others were able to get jobs that quickly paid off their debt. You can't do that now. Once the government said that they were going to guarantee all student loans, university costs skyrocketed, and it hasn't stopped. You can thank the progressive President Lyndon B. Johnson for that.

Once the government said that they were going to guarantee everybody’s college tuition, universities found out that they could just charge more because the government would give you virtually any amount in your loan. And they have been charging more and more ever since. In 1965, the average college tuition was $450 a year. Adjusted to inflation, that's $4,000 a year. You're currently paying an average of $26,000 a year as opposed to the inflation-adjusted $4,000.

What happened? The answer is always the same: government regulations. Gas is up. Why? Government regulations. Can't afford a house? Well, that's due to several things. Many of them revolve around the fed and our national debt. But the simple answer is the same: government regulations.

Moreover, the U.S. government has run a staggering national debt. We have been concerned about it forever, but the people in power haven't been listening to your mom and dad and people like me. A lot of other people just thought, "Oh, well. We could get away with it. We're the United States of America, after all. Somehow or another, it will all work out."

People like me have been saying, "No. We can't pass this on to our children." You're now seeing what we have passed on. When you say that the adults are responsible for creating this world of problems, in some ways, you’re right. We were lied to, and as many people do, they want to believe the lie because it makes them feel better.

There are big lies being pushed in your generation as well. You're being told that a man is a woman and a woman is a man. At the same time, you’re being told that gender doesn't even exist at all. It makes us feel better to go along with the lie because we don't want to hurt anyone's feelings.

My generation believed the same kind of lie about our national debt. We were told that we could spend all this money on subsidized programs because it would provide you, our children, with a better life. Some people warned, "Wait, how will they pay this off? This will cost them." We didn't want to believe them. The lie sounded better, and it was easier to believe that than the truth. We never saw the consequences, and even if we did, they were always way out in the future. Nobody wanted to listen to the doomsday people saying, "No. It's going to come faster than you think."

And that time is right now. Our government now is printing $1 trillion every 100 days. That's never been done before. We have more debt than any country has ever had in the history of the world. But we’re not alone. Every country is doing this. They’re going into debt like we’ve never seen before, and we’re all about to pay for that. It’s going to make your life even harder.

There are Democrats and Republicans who still believe in spending all kinds of money and getting us involved in every global conflict. Then there are constitutional conservatives who believe that we should conserve the things that have worked and throw out the things that don’t and follow our Constitution and Bill of Rights. You haven't really learned about those most likely. But you should. All of our problems are caused by the government and the people who feel they can bypass the Constitution. That's what this election is really all about.

You might say, “I don’t really care. I don’t like either of the political parties.” I know a lot of people who don’t like either of them, but one is going to try to cut the size of this government and one is going to spend us into collapse.

The people who created this mess cannot fix it. But it can be fixed. You need to learn enough about the truth, about why this has happened to us, and about how our Constitution lasted longer than any other Constitution in the world. The average is 17 years. This thing has lasted hundreds of years. Why? How? And why is it falling apart today? That's what you should dedicate some of your time to figuring out today.

You can complain about the way things are. I complain. Everybody complains. But don't wallow there. Learn what caused this. And if you end up thinking more collectivism is the solution, then you haven't done enough homework. They always end the same way, and that's exactly where we're headed right now. We can either repeat the dreadful past of nations that have tried it before us, or we can choose freedom, liberty, and prosperity. The ball is in our court.

Government's SECRET crackdown on preppers threatens YOUR right to grow food

Glenn recently had Representative Thomas Massie on his show to sound the alarm about an important yet often overlooked issue affecting what we eat. Whether you're trying to be prepared to weather a catastrophe or just trying to keep food on the table without resorting to eating bugs, it's more important now than ever to source local food. Unnoticed by most, our right to eat home-grown or locally-sourced foods is under attack. The government doesn't just want a say in what you eat; they want you vulnerable and dependent on their system, and they are massively overstepping their bounds to ensure your compliance with their goals.

How did the attack on your food begin?

Government overreach on food can be traced back to 1938 under the autocratic eye of FDR with the Supreme Court case "Wickard v. Filburn." The case was pretty straightforward, but the results were devastating. The case began with the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938, which sought to control national food prices by placing limitations on how many crops farmers could grow in a season.

Filburn was one such farmer, who was allotted 11.1 acres of wheat to plant and harvest annually. Filburn planted and harvested 23 acres, arguing that the extra acres were not headed for the market, but were used for personal consumption. After being penalized for over-harvesting, he fought his case all the way up to the Supreme Court, arguing that Congress did not have the authority to regulate crops that never left his farm.

Unfortunately for Filburn (and the rest of us), the Supreme Court didn't agree. They ruled that the mere existence of that extra wheat—whether it left Filburn's farm or not—had an effect on the national value of wheat. Congress assumed the power to regulate just about anything that could be roped under the umbrella of "interstate commerce."

Under the precedent set by Wickard v. Filburn, Congress might bar you from growing tomatoes in your backyard, because it could affect national tomato prices. This was a major blow to our right to feed ourselves, and that right has been eroding ever since.

How is our right to feed ourselves under attack today?

Last June, the Virginia Department of Agriculture shut down Golden Valley Farms, a small Amish farm owned and operated by Samuel B. Fisher in Farmville, Virginia. Golden Valley Farms had started out selling dairy products, primarily, and processed some meat for personal consumption. However, by popular demand, Fisher began selling meat.

Fisher initially hauled his animals to a USDA processing plant, paid to have them processed, and then hauled them back. This process was time-consuming and costly, and Fisher's customers didn't want the meat processed by the plant. A survey done on Golden Valley Farms customers found that an overwhelming 92 percent preferred meat processed by Fisher. So naturally, Fisher began to process more and more meat for his customers.

Moreover, COVID shut down the USDA plant, which made it impossible for Fisher to process the animals by the USDA anyway, though the demand for meat was greater than ever. Fisher made the call to process 100 percent of his animals himself and didn't look back. That was until June when the Virginia Department of Agriculture caught wind of Fisher's operation and shut it down. The VDA seized all of Fisher's products, and he wasn't allowed to process, sell, or even eat his meat. Then they loaded it up in a truck and left it at the dump to rot.

Nobody ever got sick from eating meat from Golden Valley Farms. This was NOT about "health and safety." This was about control. The fact is that informed adults were not allowed to make a simple transaction without the government sticking its slimy fingers into Fisher's business and claiming it was somehow for "our benefit." But it's not for "our benefit." It's so they can regulate and control what we buy and what we eat, and they cannot stand it when we operate outside of their influence.

What comes next?

Where does this end? With so much of our ability to feed ourselves already eroded, is it too late? Is it going to get worse? Before long, will it be illegal to eat eggs from your chickens or pick vegetables from your garden without getting government clearance first? Fortunately, a solution is already in the works.

Kentucky Representative Thomas Massie recently told Glenn about a new constitutional amendment designed to limit government overreach regarding food production. The proposed amendment reads as follows:

And Congress shall make no law, regulating the production and distribution of food products, which do not move across state lines.

The amendment is still on the drawing board and has not been formally introduced to Congress yet. But this is where you come in. Call your representative and tell them to support Massie's amendment and take a stand for your right to provide sustenance for you and your family.