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Glenn's 2008 Message About Barack Obama Should Ring True for the Left in 2016

November 10, 2016
Lori Hanes

Writer

When Barack Obama was elected in 2008, Glenn went on air with a word of advice to Americans on both sides of the aisle. Hindsight being what it is, his message might be even more applicable today than it was back then.

RELATED: Dear Every Democrat Freaking Out Today: Learn From My Mistakes

From 2008:

He's going to be the President of the United States. Let's give the man the respect that the office deserves. Let's be better people than they were to George W. Bush, be better people than the left was to us. Let's treat them the way we would them to treat us.

And I believe that's by saying, congratulations, President-elect Barack Obama. You have the toughest job in the world. And in any way that I can, I will help you and support you. I am not going to sell out my values, but I think any man of honor, any man of integrity, any man who deserves to be in the Oval Office can appreciate that.

You're not their president. You're not the president of the left. You're the President of the United States. You're our President. You're my President.

In any way I can, without selling out my principles, we will help you.

Glenn reflected on this pivotal moment from the past during his radio program on Thursday. Echoing his own message from 2008, Glenn urged Americans --- and Republicans in particular --- to move forward with kindness.

"Let me give the advice on both sides: Republicans, please, do not push this pendulum. Do not go for revenge. Do not go for vengeance," Glenn said. "Dismantle the pendulum. Do not swing it so far, because as I said in 2008, it will swing back as far, if not farther than you push it."

He went on to call for Americans to reach out to those who did not vote for Donald Trump with decency and respect.

"It is our job to reach out now to our friends, our friends who didn't vote for Donald Trump," he said. "I know we had all kinds of words. Let's forget about that. Let's move forward."

Read below or listen to the full segment for answers to these pivotal questions:

• What did Glenn say in 2008 about the pendulum swinging?

• Why is it dangerous to concentrate too much power in one individual?

• Exit polling showed that 27 percent of voters want what?

• Why should we not dismiss the fears of those on the left?

• Should we treat liberals with more compassion and understanding?

Listen to this segment from The Glenn Beck Program:

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

GLENN: I want to play something that I said on this day in 2008, when Barack Obama -- and I want you to listen to this, especially if you didn't vote for Donald Trump or if you're on the left. I want you to listen what I said in 2008 on the day they announced that Barack Obama would be President-elect Barack Obama.

(audio starts)

I give the same warning to the Democrats that I gave to the Republicans in George Bush shortly after 9/11: Be careful how far you push this pendulum up. Because if you take this pendulum and try to swing it so far up, the pendulum always swings back. And when it does, it goes back as far, if not farther than you just swung it. That's what gave us Barack Obama.

What gave us Barack Obama was the pushing of that pendulum so far. The wrapping of America in the flag and everything else, and not really standing for anything, as they push this pendulum up. It's going to swing. Mark my words, Democrats. It will swing just as far the other way. And what I said was the danger after September 11th: You interject hunger and fear, that pendulum can stop. And it depends on who is in power that grabs that pendulum.

So while you may be happy today about Barack Obama, be careful what you do. Because we don't want an extremist on either end to grab the pendulum. We've got to -- we've got to bring the pendulum and stop it swinging so far and bring it closer to the center. We're not that different.

(audio ends)

PAT: That might be the truest best callback we've ever played of one of those clips, of something you said in the past.

GLENN: So that was 2008. So now let me issue an update on that.

We know that to be true now. We know that to be true.

PAT: Uh-huh.

GLENN: And one of the things we saw last night in the exit polling is that 27 percent of those who voted wanted a strong man. Wanted a strong man. That is the interjection of fear and hunger of -- it could be a million different things for a million different people. The pendulum swung too far.

If anybody was worried about the power of the government, like we were, if you weren't worried about that, during the Obama administration, we kept saying, "Somebody is going to come in that you're not going to like. You don't want to give them that much power."

So let me give the advice on both sides: Republicans, please, do not push this pendulum. Do not -- do not go for revenge. Do not go for vengeance. Do not take the IRS -- de-weaponize the IRS. Do not even allow it to continue to be weaponized. Dismantle the pendulum. Do not swing it so far -- because as I said in 2008, it will swing back as far, if not farther than you push it.

Now, let me give -- let me give some advice to the left that comes not from knowledge, but from wisdom. Because I've lived it.

Last night, I heard Donald Trump called everything. Everything. I realize -- I realize, as I pointed out under Barack Obama, there are echoes of 1933.

Now, you didn't want to hear that when I said that about Barack Obama. Too much power is being concentrated in one guy. Be careful. That's what happened in 1933. Okay. You didn't like it.

Last night, I heard so many comparisons of Donald Trump to Hitler. And we, on the right must not dismiss their fear.

For instance, people who are saying, people are going to be scooped up in the middle of the night, blah, blah, blah, blah. You may not believe that. You may say, "That will never happen." But instead of saying, "Oh, stop it. He's not going to ban all Muslims. Stop it." That's a real fear. Remember the fears that you had under Barack Obama. They could tell you a million times it wasn't going to happen, that he wasn't going to suspend the election, but a lot of people still had that fear and wouldn't let go of it.

And every time they said, "Oh, please," that's ridiculous, what happened? Did you feel better?

We have to say: Look, I don't believe he's going to scoop up Muslims. I don't think that's going to happen. He's not going to ban all Muslims.

But let me tell you something, if he does, I'm on your side. I'm on your side. I will stand against anyone who does anything against a man because of their religious beliefs. I'm for the Constitution. Don't worry about it.

And if we cross that bridge, we're going to cross that bridge together. Take that attitude instead of dismissing their fears because many on the left are truly afraid today. They need reassurance from reasonable people on the right.

STU: And that's what Trump tried to do in that speech.

GLENN: Exactly right.

STU: That's what he did.

GLENN: Exactly right.

STU: That was his point in the speech, I think.

GLENN: Yes. So we need to make an effort. It is our job to reach out now to our friends, our friends who didn't vote for Donald Trump. They don't have to be on the left. They could be people who didn't vote for Donald Trump. And they're on the right. And they're constitutionalists.

You need to tell them today, "Don't worry about it. I know we had all kinds of words. I know we had all kinds of words. Let's forget about that. Let's move forward."

Listen, if he would do something like that -- which he's not -- don't dismiss their fears. Please. Learn from my mistakes from 2010.

The other thing, to the left, every time you call him Hitler, believe me, because my job -- I see my job as using history to teach. That's not what you're doing.

When I'm using it, I'm taking a historic piece and saying, "Look at this piece. This piece looks exactly like 1934." But what you're doing is you're saying, "He's Hitler." No, he's not. Only Hitler is Hitler.

But you -- when I said that about Barack Obama --

PAT: I don't believe you ever said Barack Obama is Hitler.

GLENN: No. No, I didn't. Never did. Never did.

But I did say, "These earmarks happened at that time."

PAT: Yeah.

GLENN: And this could be very Hitler-esque.

PAT: Yeah.

GLENN: This is how it started. The seeds are very important to point out. So I will listen to you on the seeds. When you say, "Glenn, look at this," I am going to say to you, "I know. I know. But I'm with you if we continue down that road. I'm not going to dismiss that warning." But don't -- I'm telling the left, do not call people sexists, racists, Hitler.

PAT: Hmm.

GLENN: Don't do it?

PAT: Too late.

GLENN: It's not too late.

PAT: But they were doing it last night. All night long.

GLENN: I know. But today, we have to have a period of forgiveness. They're scared. And we also have to have -- please, I am the guy out of everybody in the country, I'm the guy who knows these things because I've learned them firsthand. You won't get anyone on our side to listen to you if you do what you did to George W. Bush or what we did to Barack Obama. It will only get worse, which will cause the right to push the pendulum even further and dismiss you and say, "You're a bunch of kooks anyway. I'm not listening to you."

Please, please, the left has a --

PAT: And they feel justified because that's what they did to the right in 2008.

GLENN: Correct. And we felt justified. We felt justified.

PAT: Uh-huh.

GLENN: They will feel justified too. We must be better. They -- we have to listen to them. Please. Listen to them.

Anybody who is on the left, don't be angry. Please don't be angry. It won't get you anywhere.

I will fight by your side. I hope I have gained some credibility with people on any side, that I am a constitutionalist. And I will stand next to any man who stands for the Constitution. I will stand by your right for religion, for speech, political, abhorrent speech, I will stand by your side. But I will tell you this: I understand your fear. But as a guy who has learned firsthand, you're going to survive, to the right, don't punish. Please, don't punish.

2020 is going to look very, very different than 2016. If we are lucky, Donald Trump will be the president of all of our dreams. We have a chance to change things. But if we engage in vindictiveness and anger on any side, our children lose.

Let's be better people, please.

Featured Image: US President Barack Obama waves as he arrives on the South Lawn of the White House March 6, 2009 in Washington, DC. Obama was returning after making remarks at the Columbus (Ohio) Police Graduation Exercise earlier in the day. (Photo by Ron Sachs-Pool/Getty Images)

Faith, family, and freedom—The forgotten core of conservatism

Gary Hershorn / Contributor | Getty Images

Conservatism is not about rage or nostalgia. It’s about moral clarity, national renewal, and guarding the principles that built America’s freedom.

Our movement is at a crossroads, and the question before us is simple: What does it mean to be a conservative in America today?

For years, we have been told what we are against — against the left, against wokeism, against decline. But opposition alone does not define a movement, and it certainly does not define a moral vision.

We are not here to cling to the past or wallow in grievance. We are not the movement of rage. We are the movement of reason and hope.

The media, as usual, are eager to supply their own answer. The New York Times recently suggested that Nick Fuentes represents the “future” of conservatism. That’s nonsense — a distortion of both truth and tradition. Fuentes and those like him do not represent American conservatism. They represent its counterfeit.

Real conservatism is not rage. It is reverence. It does not treat the past as a museum, but as a teacher. America’s founders asked us to preserve their principles and improve upon their practice. That means understanding what we are conserving — a living covenant, not a relic.

Conservatism as stewardship

In 2025, conservatism means stewardship — of a nation, a culture, and a moral inheritance too precious to abandon. To conserve is not to freeze history. It is to stand guard over what is essential. We are custodians of an experiment in liberty that rests on the belief that rights come not from kings or Congress, but from the Creator.

That belief built this country. It will be what saves it. The Constitution is a covenant between generations. Conservatism is the duty to keep that covenant alive — to preserve what works, correct what fails, and pass on both wisdom and freedom to those who come next.

Economics, culture, and morality are inseparable. Debt is not only fiscal; it is moral. Spending what belongs to the unborn is theft. Dependence is not compassion; it is weakness parading as virtue. A society that trades responsibility for comfort teaches citizens how to live as slaves.

Freedom without virtue is not freedom; it is chaos. A culture that mocks faith cannot defend liberty, and a nation that rejects truth cannot sustain justice. Conservatism must again become the moral compass of a disoriented people, reminding America that liberty survives only when anchored to virtue.

Rebuilding what is broken

We cannot define ourselves by what we oppose. We must build families, communities, and institutions that endure. Government is broken because education is broken, and education is broken because we abandoned the formation of the mind and the soul. The work ahead is competence, not cynicism.

Conservatives should embrace innovation and technology while rejecting the chaos of Silicon Valley. Progress must not come at the expense of principle. Technology must strengthen people, not replace them. Artificial intelligence should remain a servant, never a master. The true strength of a nation is not measured by data or bureaucracy, but by the quiet webs of family, faith, and service that hold communities together. When Washington falters — and it will — those neighborhoods must stand.

Eric Lee / Stringer | Getty Images

This is the real work of conservatism: to conserve what is good and true and to reform what has decayed. It is not about slogans; it is about stewardship — the patient labor of building a civilization that remembers what it stands for.

A creed for the rising generation

We are not here to cling to the past or wallow in grievance. We are not the movement of rage. We are the movement of reason and hope.

For the rising generation, conservatism cannot be nostalgia. It must be more than a memory of 9/11 or admiration for a Reagan era they never lived through. Many young Americans did not experience those moments — and they should not have to in order to grasp the lessons they taught and the truths they embodied. The next chapter is not about preserving relics but renewing purpose. It must speak to conviction, not cynicism; to moral clarity, not despair.

Young people are searching for meaning in a culture that mocks truth and empties life of purpose. Conservatism should be the moral compass that reminds them freedom is responsibility and that faith, family, and moral courage remain the surest rebellions against hopelessness.

To be a conservative in 2025 is to defend the enduring principles of American liberty while stewarding the culture, the economy, and the spirit of a free people. It is to stand for truth when truth is unfashionable and to guard moral order when the world celebrates chaos.

We are not merely holding the torch. We are relighting it.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Glenn Beck: Here's what's WRONG with conservatism today

Getty Images / Handout | Getty Images

What does it mean to be a conservative in 2025? Glenn offers guidance on what conservatives need to do to ensure the conservative movement doesn't fade into oblivion. We have to get back to PRINCIPLES, not policies.

To be a conservative in 2025 means to STAND

  • for Stewardship, protecting the wisdom of our Founders;
  • for Truth, defending objective reality in an age of illusion;
  • for Accountability, living within our means as individuals and as a nation;
  • for Neighborhood, rebuilding family, faith, and local community;
  • and for Duty, carrying freedom forward to the next generation.

A conservative doesn’t cling to the past — he stands guard over the principles that make the future possible.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: You know, I'm so tired of being against everything. Saying what we're not.

It's time that we start saying what we are. And it's hard, because we're changing. It's different to be a conservative, today, than it was, you know, years ago.

And part of that is just coming from hard knocks. School of hard knocks. We've learned a lot of lessons on things we thought we were for. No, no, no.

But conservatives. To be a conservative, it shouldn't be about policies. It's really about principles. And that's why we've lost our way. Because we've lost our principles. And it's easy. Because the world got easy. And now the world is changing so rapidly. The boundaries between truth and illusion are blurred second by second. Machines now think. Currencies falter. Families fractured. And nations, all over the world, have forgotten who they are.

So what does it mean to be a conservative now, in 2025, '26. For a lot of people, it means opposing the left. That's -- that's a reaction. That's not renewal.

That's a reaction. It can't mean also worshiping the past, as if the past were perfect. The founders never asked for that.

They asked that we would preserve the principles and perfect their practice. They knew it was imperfect. To make a more perfect nation.

Is what we're supposed to be doing.

2025, '26 being a conservative has to mean stewardship.

The stewardship of a nation, of a civilization.

Of a moral inheritance. That is too precious to abandon.

What does it mean to conserve? To conserve something doesn't mean to stand still.

It means to stand guard. It means to defend what the Founders designed. The separation of powers. The rule of law.

The belief that our rights come not from kings or from Congress, but from the creator himself.
This is a system that was not built for ease. It was built for endurance, and it will endure if we only teach it again!

The problem is, we only teach it like it's a museum piece. You know, it's not a museum piece. It's not an old dusty document. It's a living covenant between the dead, the living and the unborn.

So this chapter of -- of conservatism. Must confront reality. Economic reality.

Global reality.

And moral reality.

It's not enough just to be against something. Or chant tax cuts or free markets.

We have to ask -- we have to start with simple questions like freedom, yes. But freedom for what?

Freedom for economic sovereignty. Your right to produce and to innovate. To build without asking Beijing's permission. That's a moral issue now.

Another moral issue: Debt! It's -- it's generational theft. We're spending money from generations we won't even meet.

And dependence. Another moral issue. It's a national weakness.

People cannot stand up for themselves. They can't make it themselves. And we're encouraging them to sit down, shut up, and don't think.

And the conservative who can't connect with fiscal prudence, and connect fiscal prudence to moral duty, you're not a conservative at all.

Being a conservative today, means you have to rebuild an economy that serves liberty, not one that serves -- survives by debt, and then there's the soul of the nation.

We are living through a time period. An age of dislocation. Where our families are fractured.

Our faith is almost gone.

Meaning is evaporating so fast. Nobody knows what meaning of life is. That's why everybody is killing themselves. They have no meaning in life. And why they don't have any meaning, is truth itself is mocked and blurred and replaced by nothing, but lies and noise.

If you want to be a conservative, then you have to be to become the moral compass that reminds a lost people, liberty cannot survive without virtue.

That freedom untethered from moral order is nothing, but chaos!

And that no app, no algorithm, no ideology is ever going to fill the void, where meaning used to live!

To be a conservative, moving forward, we cannot just be about policies.

We have to defend the sacred, the unseen, the moral architecture, that gives people an identity. So how do you do that? Well, we have to rebuild competence. We have to restore institutions that actually work. Just in the last hour, this monologue on what we're facing now, because we can't open the government.

Why can't we open the government?

Because government is broken. Why does nobody care? Because education is broken.

We have to reclaim education, not as propaganda, but as the formation of the mind and the soul. Conservatives have to champion innovation.

Not to imitate Silicon Valley's chaos, but to harness technology in defense of human dignity. Don't be afraid of AI.

Know what it is. Know it's a tool. It's a tool to strengthen people. As long as you always remember it's a tool. Otherwise, you will lose your humanity to it!

That's a conservative principle. To be a conservative, we have to restore local strength. Our families are the basic building blocks, our schools, our churches, and our charities. Not some big, distant NGO that was started by the Tides Foundation, but actual local charities, where you see people working. A web of voluntary institutions that held us together at one point. Because when Washington fails, and it will, it already has, the neighborhood has to stand.

Charlie Kirk was doing one thing that people on our side were not doing. Speaking to the young.

But not in nostalgia.

Not in -- you know, Reagan, Reagan, Reagan.

In purpose. They don't remember. They don't remember who Dick Cheney was.

I was listening to Fox news this morning, talking about Dick Cheney. And there was somebody there that I know was not even born when Dick Cheney. When the World Trade Center came down.

They weren't even born. They were telling me about Dick Cheney.

And I was like, come on. Come on. Come on.

If you don't remember who Dick Cheney was, how are you going to remember 9/11. How will you remember who Reagan was.

That just says, that's an old man's creed. No, it's not.

It's the ultimate timeless rebellion against tyranny in all of its forms. Yes, and even the tyranny of despair, which is eating people alive!

We need to redefine ourselves. Because we have changed, and that's a good thing. The creed for a generation, that will decide the fate of the republic, is what we need to find.

A conservative in 2025, '26.

Is somebody who protects the enduring principles of American liberty and self-government.

While actively stewarding the institutions. The culture. The economy of this nation!

For those who are alive and yet to be unborn.

We have to be a group of people that we're not anchored in the past. Or in rage! But in reason. And morality. Realism. And hope for the future.

We're the stewards! We're the ones that have to relight the torch, not just hold it. We didn't -- we didn't build this Torch. We didn't make this Torch. We're the keepers of the flame, but we are honor-bound to pass that forward, and conservatives are viewed as people who just live in the past. We're not here to merely conserve the past, but to renew it. To sort it. What worked, what didn't work. We're the ones to say to the world, there's still such a thing as truth. There's still such a thing as virtue. You can deny it all you want.

But the pain will only get worse. There's still such a thing as America!

And if now is not the time to renew America. When is that time?

If you're not the person. If we're not the generation to actively stand and redefine and defend, then who is that person?

We are -- we are supposed to preserve what works.

That -- you know, I was writing something this morning.

I was making notes on this. A constitutionalist is for restraint. A progressive, if you will, for lack of a better term, is for more power.

Progressives want the government to have more power.

Conservatives are for more restraint.

But the -- for the American eagle to fly, we must have both wings.

And one can't be stronger than the other.

We as a conservative, are supposed to look and say, no. Don't look at that. The past teaches us this, this, and this. So don't do that.

We can't do that. But there are these things that we were doing in the past, that we have to jettison. And maybe the other side has a good idea on what should replace that. But we're the ones who are supposed to say, no, but remember the framework.

They're -- they can dream all they want.
They can come up with all these utopias and everything else, and we can go, "That's a great idea."

But how do we make it work with this framework? Because that's our job. The point of this is, it takes both. It takes both.

We have to have the customs and the moral order. And the practices that have stood the test of time, in trial.

We -- we're in an amazing, amazing time. Amazing time.

We live at a time now, where anything -- literally anything is possible!

I don't want to be against stuff. I want to be for the future. I want to be for a rich, dynamic future. One where we are part of changing the world for the better!

Where more people are lifted out of poverty, more people are given the freedom to choose, whatever it is that they want to choose, as their own government and everything.

I don't want to force it down anybody's throat.

We -- I am so excited to be a shining city on the hill again.

We have that opportunity, right in front of us!

But not in we get bogged down in hatred, in division.

Not if we get bogged down into being against something.

We must be for something!

I know what I'm for.

Do you?

From Pharaoh to Hamas: The same spirit of evil, new disguise

Anadolu / Contributor | Getty Images

The drone footage out of Gaza isn’t just war propaganda — it’s a glimpse of the same darkness that once convinced men they were righteous for killing innocents.

Evil introduces itself subtly. It doesn’t announce, “Hi, I’m here to destroy you.” It whispers. It flatters. It borrows the language of justice, empathy, and freedom, twisting them until hatred sounds righteous and violence sounds brave.

We are watching that same deception unfold again — in the streets, on college campuses, and in the rhetoric of people who should know better. It’s the oldest story in the world, retold with new slogans.

Evil wins when good people mirror its rage.

A drone video surfaced this week showing Hamas terrorists staging the “discovery” of a hostage’s body. They pushed a corpse out of a window, dragged it into a hole, buried it, and then called in aid workers to “find” what they themselves had planted. It was theater — evil, disguised as victimhood. And it was caught entirely on camera.

That’s how evil operates. It never comes in through the front door. It sneaks in, often through manipulative pity. The same spirit animates the moral rot spreading through our institutions — from the halls of universities to the chambers of government.

Take Zohran Mamdani, a New York assemblyman who has praised jihadists and defended pro-Hamas agitators. His father, a Columbia University professor, wrote that America and al-Qaeda are morally equivalent — that suicide bombings shouldn’t be viewed as barbaric. Imagine thinking that way after watching 3,000 Americans die on 9/11. That’s not intellectualism. That’s indoctrination.

Often, that indoctrination comes from hostile foreign actors, peddled by complicit pawns on our own soil. The pro-Hamas protests that erupted across campuses last year, for example, were funded by Iran — a regime that murders its own citizens for speaking freely.

Ancient evil, new clothes

But the deeper danger isn’t foreign money. It’s the spiritual blindness that lets good people believe resentment is justice and envy is discernment. Scripture talks about the spirit of Amalek — the eternal enemy of God’s people, who attacks the weak from behind while the strong look away. Amalek never dies; it just changes its vocabulary and form with the times.

Today, Amalek tweets. He speaks through professors who defend terrorism as “anti-colonial resistance.” He preaches from pulpits that call violence “solidarity.” And he recruits through algorithms, whispering that the Jews control everything, that America had it coming, that chaos is freedom. Those are ancient lies wearing new clothes.

When nations embrace those lies, it’s not the Jews who perish first. It’s the nations themselves. The soul dies long before the body. The ovens of Auschwitz didn’t start with smoke; they started with silence and slogans.

Andrew Harnik / Staff | Getty Images

A time for choosing

So what do we do? We speak truth — calmly, firmly, without venom. Because hatred can’t kill hatred; it only feeds it. Truth, compassion, and courage starve it to death.

Evil wins when good people mirror its rage. That’s how Amalek survives — by making you fight him with his own weapons. The only victory that lasts is moral clarity without malice, courage without cruelty.

The war we’re fighting isn’t new. It’s the same battle between remembrance and amnesia, covenant and chaos, humility and pride. The same spirit that whispered to Pharaoh, to Hitler, and to every mob that thought hatred could heal the world is whispering again now — on your screens, in your classrooms, in your churches.

Will you join it, or will you stand against it?

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Bill Gates ends climate fear campaign, declares AI the future ruler

Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

The Big Tech billionaire once said humanity must change or perish. Now he claims we’ll survive — just as elites prepare total surveillance.

For decades, Americans have been told that climate change is an imminent apocalypse — the existential threat that justifies every intrusion into our lives, from banning gas stoves to rationing energy to tracking personal “carbon scores.”

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates helped lead that charge. He warned repeatedly that the “climate disaster” would be the greatest crisis humanity would ever face. He invested billions in green technology and demanded the world reach net-zero emissions by 2050 “to avoid catastrophe.”

The global contest is no longer over barrels and pipelines — it is over who gets to flip the digital switch.

Now, suddenly, he wants everyone to relax: Climate change “will not lead to humanity’s demise” after all.

Gates was making less of a scientific statement and more of a strategic pivot. When elites retire a crisis, it’s never because the threat is gone — it’s because a better one has replaced it. And something else has indeed arrived — something the ruling class finds more useful than fear of the weather.The same day Gates downshifted the doomsday rhetoric, Amazon announced it would pay warehouse workers $30 an hour — while laying off 30,000 people because artificial intelligence will soon do their jobs.

Climate panic was the warm-up. AI control is the main event.

The new currency of power

The world once revolved around oil and gas. Today, it revolves around the electricity demanded by server farms, the chips that power machine learning, and the data that can be used to manipulate or silence entire populations. The global contest is no longer over barrels and pipelines — it is over who gets to flip the digital switch. Whoever controls energy now controls information. And whoever controls information controls civilization.

Climate alarmism gave elites a pretext to centralize power over energy. Artificial intelligence gives them a mechanism to centralize power over people. The future battles will not be about carbon — they will be about control.

Two futures — both ending in tyranny

Americans are already being pushed into what look like two opposing movements, but both leave the individual powerless.

The first is the technocratic empire being constructed in the name of innovation. In its vision, human work will be replaced by machines, and digital permissions will subsume personal autonomy.

Government and corporations merge into a single authority. Your identity, finances, medical decisions, and speech rights become access points monitored by biometric scanners and enforced by automated gatekeepers. Every step, purchase, and opinion is tracked under the noble banner of “efficiency.”

The second is the green de-growth utopia being marketed as “compassion.” In this vision, prosperity itself becomes immoral. You will own less because “the planet” requires it. Elites will redesign cities so life cannot extend beyond a 15-minute walking radius, restrict movement to save the Earth, and ration resources to curb “excess.” It promises community and simplicity, but ultimately delivers enforced scarcity. Freedom withers when surviving becomes a collective permission rather than an individual right.

Both futures demand that citizens become manageable — either automated out of society or tightly regulated within it. The ruling class will embrace whichever version gives them the most leverage in any given moment.

Climate panic was losing its grip. AI dependency — and the obedience it creates — is far more potent.

The forgotten way

A third path exists, but it is the one today’s elites fear most: the path laid out in our Constitution. The founders built a system that assumes human beings are not subjects to be monitored or managed, but moral agents equipped by God with rights no government — and no algorithm — can override.

Hesham Elsherif / Stringer | Getty Images

That idea remains the most “disruptive technology” in history. It shattered the belief that people need kings or experts or global committees telling them how to live. No wonder elites want it erased.

Soon, you will be told you must choose: Live in a world run by machines or in a world stripped down for planetary salvation. Digital tyranny or rationed equality. Innovation without liberty or simplicity without dignity.

Both are traps.

The only way

The only future worth choosing is the one grounded in ordered liberty — where prosperity and progress exist alongside moral responsibility and personal freedom and human beings are treated as image-bearers of God — not climate liabilities, not data profiles, not replaceable hardware components.

Bill Gates can change his tune. The media can change the script. But the agenda remains the same.

They no longer want to save the planet. They want to run it, and they expect you to obey.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.