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Glenn's Show Prep

Just Add Bacon? Here Are Some Simple Tricks to Making a Great Thanksgiving Turkey

November 22, 2017
Staff

WRITER

How do you cook a turkey without drying it out? Doc and Chef Patrick swapped turkey-roasting tips in time for Thanksgiving on today’s show.

Something Doc has always wanted to try is making a bacon-wrapped turkey. In theory, wrapping the bird in bacon can help keep it moist if you do it properly. Chef Patrick explained why “tenting” is the trick to cooking your wrapped turkey while not completely drying out the bacon.

Want more Thanksgiving tips from Chef Patrick? Listen here for a simple, delicious stuffing recipe and more.

This article provided courtesy of TheBlaze.

DOC: This is the Glenn Beck Program. I'm Doc Thompson, in for Glenn today. Because Glenn is parts unknown, enjoying the time off on the holiday. We'll be with you on Friday as well. We're off tomorrow. Friday, we'll be with you. And don't forget, we're giving a free commercial with you. If you have a product, service, business you want to promote, you can't promote somebody else's -- not talking about something you found or discovered that's good. It has to be your business. We'll help you. Call up and give you roughly 60 seconds or so to promote it. If you're promoting a website, which, of course, you should have some sort of place you have -- (?) make sure you're prepared for a lot of people to click on it.

We've done this in the past, people have forgotten about that. And then you don't get the benefit. Be prepared Friday morning, during this broadcast. To call us up. 9:00 to noon Eastern, and we will put you on. If you have a Etsy (?) products or services, consider buying for $10 a domain name that is easy to remember. And then just forwarding that to your Facebook or your Etsy account. Because those get complicated to try to -- it's I sell bacon in favor of veterans plus soap on something with till day underscore. (?) it's a little hard to remember all that. Just do kal's website.com or something like that. And it will be easy to promote. Use the #buildingAmerica. You can start using that now on Twitter. And anybody you hear on the air, we'll tweet out a link in realtime, as they're like, okay. Here's my website. Here's what I do. So you can follow along that way.

And then after the fact, if you forget, oh, I want to find out -- what was that gun website they have? You can look it up later. If you don't get through, same thing. (?) people will begin to search through that as well. It's just something we like to do on Black Friday, promote capitalism, entrepreneurship, and hopefully encourage more and more people that in the coming years, you likely will not have one job that sustains you and your family. Glenn talks about this a lot. There will probably be multiple streams of income, making a little bit here and in respect and you'll just be charged with the task of finding a way.

VOICE: It's a gig economy.

DOC: It's a gig economy. It's a new world. Maybe you farm a little bit to take care of your produce news. You do this part-time job. That part-time job. Whatever. You have a side business. This is going to help you.

One of the hardest things today is to get promoted. One of the first -- one of the most significant things when starting a business is marketing. And yet, it's one of the things that people usually don't spend money on. So you have a great product and service, it's out there. It's ready to go. Nobody knows you're there. And if you're waiting for online, everybody else is doing, you know, social media now as well. So you're inundated. You won't break through. At least when you had a brick and martar (?) there's a new pizza place. Bob's TVs, or whatever it is. You're not seeing that now on the internet. Unless you find a way to break out, right?

VOICE: Absolutely. And that's one of the things I talk about to new businesses all the time. You may have an extremely unique product and a really great target audience, that's giant. That really needs your product. But you spend more on marketing, launching a product, than you do on product development and developing the name and everything. The brand. It's really difficult if you don't know what to do. And, again, we've talked about this before. This is a great format to get exposure, (?) to dial the number.

DOC: Oh. Do you know what it would cost, based on the reach of this broadcast? Millions of people. I mean -- I mean, it's worth it. But for the average person, if you don't have that money, while you're starting a business, if you don't have that capital to invest in -- I mean, it's an investment. It works. It's difficult for you, up front, to put that money out there. This is also a part of content. Where everybody wants that information. They're trying to hear products and services. They're happy to hear your business. So Friday morning. It's 888-727-BECK. Tell your friends and family right now. Dinner tomorrow. Say, listen, cousin Pete, you got that whatever business or whatever. (?) tomorrow morning he's going to give them free cherishes. You dial them up there. You can follow me on Twitter. @DocThompsonshow. I'll be promoting that tomorrow and Friday so you don't forget. Follow Glenn. It's at Glenn Beck. Two N's, by the way.

DOC: You'll give me (?) 60 seconds, Doc?

DOC: Yes, I will. I'll give you (?) business consultant. It's Patrick Mosher. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

PATRICK: Yeah, so I've been in the business about 29 years. The restaurant business.

DOC: Okay. Hold it right there. People don't know how to market. It's not 29. It's about 30. (?)

PATRICK: About 30. (?) is that a question?

DOC: So if it's 29. You say -- about when it's round numbers.

PATRICK: Yeah.

DOC: Like Kal is about 300 pounds. About. Right?

KAL: You know, give or take.

DOC: 100 pounds.

KAL: Forty or 60.

DOC: All right.

PATRICK: Yeah. During my career as a chef, I specialized in opening restaurants. I realized I have a real talent for that. And I went the consulting route about five years ago. Well, ten years officially. But five years full-time. And now I lend my expertise (?) looking to expand or improve their operations. And I try to bring a statistic approach to restaurants, that gives (?) that chains and large operators have in looking at their costs on a daily basis and understanding what they need. And (?)

DOC: Consults for nonfood industry businesses as well. Food industry. Go to foodbizpro.com. Foodbizpro.com. I'll tweet out a link.

All right. Let's talk turkey. Literally. These fads pop up from year to year. Some of them, the deep fried turkeys. And different ways to do turkey or whatever. Some of them work. Some of them are good. Some of them, maybe it's the effort is not really good at it. Turkey is pretty simple to cook. Sorry to let the cat out of the bag. (?) turkeys are pretty basic. Pretty simple to cook, right?

PATRICK: They are. Time, right? Twenty to 30 minutes per pound. Fifteen to 20 minutes per pound. And then a way to keep it moist. That's it.

DOC: And the moist would be either roasting pan. Basting.

PATRICK: Roasting bags.

DOC: You don't to have baste.

PATRICK: You may lose a little skin. (?) if you shake the flour in there, like the directions say, it really produces a moist (?)

DOC: You put the slits. That keeps it inflated. If you're worried about the skin. You can put a couple of toothpicks.

PATRICK: It allows some of the steam to escape. You're actually still roasting it in the bag. That picture -- what's that picture you have --

DOC: Okay. Here it is. One of the recent fads, and I have to ask you about this. Is a bacon-wrapped turkey. It's an intricate. (?) imagine you line up a dozen pieces of bacon one way, then a dozen piece the other way. And you weave it into like a basket pattern. You take that layer of bacon. Put it over the outside of the turkey. Wrapping it around. And roasting it like that. Is this a gimmick? Is this worth the effort? It looks awesome. (?)

VOICE: Do I dare suffer the wrath? The bacon wrath of Twitter.

DOC: Pat. (?)

PATRICK: I do love bacon.

DOC: Listen, you're either with us or against us.

PATRICK: I'm with you.

DOC: That's what I'm saying.

PATRICK: What's that website again? Celebrity apology.

VOICE: Generator.com.

DOC: Yeah. You're either with us or you're against us. There's no borderline with bacon.

PATRICK: It's just too much sometimes. After we we had this discussion last week about bacon and turkey, I actually was watching The Chew the other day. The television show. Which I don't watch very often. But I do like some of the recipes they come up with. And I saw them doing this. And, you know,it a good way to add (?) under the skin or inject it. Or season the heck out of the inside or the outside. I can see how this is a natural flavor enhancer. (?) it's rendering the fat from the breakon. It's not just dripping off. It's attached to the turkey. How can that not be a good thing?

DOC: Yeah, and it completely wraps around the turkey. So you have a natural way to keep the juice in. That works. Would the bacon become too crisp? Because I'll bake bacon sometimes. If I'm going to (?) 45 minutes or whatever it is to bake it up crisp like that, you're talking about a turkey that may be in the oven for three hours.

PATRICK: Yeah. What I would do is start out with it covered. Tent it with foil or the lid. (?) crisping the bacon. Maybe the last 30 to 45 minutes, remove that --

DOC: Will that keep it from crisping the bacon?

PATRICK: Yeah. Because it's keeping the steam inside.

DOC: All right. That was the first question I had. Now, part of the turkey would theoretically become a little bacon-flavored. And there's nothing wrong with that. It won't be enough (?) I would probably try a smoked bacon.

PATRICK: Yeah, I wouldn't use anything sweet like the apple wood smoked. Standard cured. (?) and if you don't like cured bacon because you don't like the sufficientlyitis. You can get uncured bacon. (?) it tastes like regular cured.

DOC: Let me pause and say, I've looked for uncured bacon and stuff. That doesn't have the nitrates. And even some without the sugar. And it is as good or better.

PATRICK: It's really good.

DOC: There's a couple of brands. But the one I know is Peter sons. (?)

PATRICK: Path Patterson or peter son.

DOC: You can probably find it out there. They have a really good product. It will be more expensive than bacon. But it is awesome. And it's going to be pretty healthy for you. You don't have to worry about the nitrates in there.

PATRICK: Yeah. And something about the antibacterial (?) it cures the bacon in almost the same manor. Now, is it really good as the an in-house. (?) it's a close second.

DOC: I love it. So if you use the smoked bacon and you wrap the bacon that way, that will work. As long as the (?) you still will be able to slice this off. Or you can have the turkey or bacon together. So that will work. What other potential problems? If you're taking the drippings at the bottom of the pan, you'll have a pretty strong bacon-flavored gravy.

PATRICK: Yeah. You may (?)

DOC: It could work.

PATRICK: It would work.

DOC: Just as long as you're okay with a strong bacon-flavored gravy.

PATRICK: And turkey gives off half a gallon or more of liquid when you're baking it. So there's a lot of liquid. The ratio of fat to -- if you skim the fat off like you spoke about in the morning show, you could skim the fat off. (?) from the actual juices. From the turkey. There's not a lot of liquid that comes out of the -- (?) it's just fat.

DOC: All right. Patrick, I've talked myself in. I've talked myself in. I may do a second (?) to try it, to test it out. I think I'm going to try it.

PATRICK: Grab a chicken.

DOC: Yeah, it would be cool with the turkey.

PATRICK: 12-pounder.

DOC: And we like the (?) do you think I weave it flat on the counter and then lift it up -- (?)

PATRICK: I would just do it on the counter. Drape it over the top. Tuck it under, so it's tight underneath. Then cut a hole where the cavity would be where you can put your onion --

DOC: Do you think (?) I think I'm avoiding the stuffing.

PATRICK: Not with traditional stuffing. Because you're not supposed to do that anyway. Because the internal of the bird. (?) the interior never reaches 165. Which is what kills the salmonella. But I would stuff it with celery. (?)

DOC: I like the idea of the bird cooking much faster. You have to cook it longer. (?) the bacon wouldn't crisp up as much. Let me get a quick break in. Doc Thompson in for Glenn Beck.

DOC: Lots of -- lots of tweets coming in @DocThompsonshow. I've tweeted out a couple of things. I've tweeted out a picture to the bacon-wrapped turkey. You can see that for yourself. It's @DocThompsonshow. And I think Patrick @foodbizpro just tweeted out a link to Petersen's bacon.

PATRICK: Yeah. It's sugar-free. (?)

DOC: Seventy-five dollars for color books! Do you know how much whisky you could buy with that?

VOICE: I know how many of a lot of things I can buy with that. (?)

DOC: Seventy-five dollars for coloring to help you relax, because you just gave me a stroke. (?)

KAL: And hemorrhoids.

DOC: Oh, my gosh. Jim just tweeted something that is either one of the funniest (?) you'll likely get a divorce. He suggested you wrap up those unused color books, give it to her as prevents.

(laughter)

KAL: I don't think that will be a very good idea.

(laughter)

DOC: I think you should do it. And film her opening it up. You to do that.

Let's see here. Just tuned in to at Glenn Beck show. I swear I was listening (?) cooking my turkey, sorry. Yes, but you say that like it's a bad thing. It's not a butterball hotline. We don't just say butterballs. You know. Let's see, Wesley tweeting, turkey in a bag, 220 (?) no carving required.

22 hours. That seems long. 220 degrees. Is that a joke? I don't know.

JEFFY: 200 tent is smoking temperature (?)

DOC: All right. Have yourself a happy Thanksgiving. My best wishes to you and your family. I hope you will take a moment and count your blessings. I think that's the key to the future. And make sure to make your plans now to join us Friday morning on the morning Blaze.

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.

The Crisis of Meaning: Searching for truth and purpose

Mario Tama / Staff | Getty Images

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.

A break in trust: A NEW Watergate is brewing in plain sight

Gary Hershorn / Contributor | Getty Images

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.