Monkey Bread, Crab Cakes: What Thanksgiving Recipe Is Your State Searching For?

What are people in your state searching for as they prepare for Thanksgiving? A survey from General Mills had some surprising results.

The study looked at three popular recipe sites to find the top recipes people were searching for in each state from Nov. 1 to Thanksgiving of last year. Californians were apparently looking for a good mac ‘n’ cheese recipe; Illinois stuck to traditional mashed potatoes; and Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia all wanted to add some heat with buffalo chicken dip.

Iowa, Nebraska and Rhode Island were all searching for the same recipe. Listen to Doc and Chef Patrick’s chat on today’s show (above) to find out what it is and how to make it.

This article provided courtesy of TheBlaze.

DOC: Hi, there. It's Doc Thompson in for Beck. And happy Thanksgiving. Hopefully you'll be getting together with family tomorrow. You'll have some good times. Hopefully you'll count your blessings, truly recognizing how much good there is in the world. We focus on a lot of bad, because it's frustrating. We want the world to be better. And I think most people want better for our fellow citizens, for our fellow man. And most of us are passionate about how to accomplish that. We know things like the Constitution lead to that good. And that's the reason we're so passionate about it.

But somewhere in there, our passion for the right to help people gets twisted just a little bit. Still driven by the same cause. We're willing to be meaner. More combative. And by we, I mean we.

I'm as guilty as anybody. I think if we take a moment and recognize that while we differ on the -- on the method, we still want the same outcome.

I'm not sure our friends on the left give us enough due. I think they really think that somehow we want some sort of society that we really don't want. That we really think oppressing people is good. Really racist, whatever.

But I for one, recognize most people on the left really want good stuff for people. I believe they're misguided. But they want good stuff. About you so on maybe we take a step back as we count our blessings and say, as F we're trying to accomplish (?) good things for the right reasons, let's make sure our methods are still good.

I know how frustrating it is. I've lived this every day. I'm on the air with it. I do the research. I see the social media. I live it every day. And it's really frustrating.

But good is good. Bad is bad. Stay focused on the good. Count your blessings.

Chef Patrick Mosher is with us. Obviously, a big favorite around the holidays. So do you cook on the holidays? Do you cook for your family? Because, you know, a lot of people they don't want to bring their work home. You know, mechanics, they don't work on their own home that often.

PATRICK: No. Cooking for family and friends is really why I do this. I love the restaurant industry and all that goes with that. But it bills down to cooking for the ones you love, absolutely.

DOC: So you still do?

PATRICK: Traditionally, I used to smoke one turkey and roast another one. Because we had such a big crowd. Not so much anymore.

DOC: Not so much anymore.

PATRICK: Yeah.

DOC: It's funny (?) on the holidays, I don't say a word. I'm like a mute. I don't I don't a a word. I get up in the mornings. Okay. Everybody knows that's not true. In fact, it's just the opposite. It's the same stuff here. I'm doing the same stuff at home. Challenging people. Challenging me. Political debate. I actually love good political solid debate. It's family and friends.

PATRICK: It's entertaining.

DOC: Now, when you're out and barbecue, let's say you're at a gathering, (?) cocktail party. And you're introduced to new people. You're mingling. When they find out you're a chef, they ask you, don't they?

PATRICK: Immediately.

DOC: You know, how do you make a --

PATRICK: What's your specialty? And when I say Japanese food, it's interesting. Ah.

DOC: Oh. Because they don't know what to --

PATRICK: White guy. Japanese food. It doesn't compute.

DOC: Plus, most people don't have a go-to Japanese dish.

PATRICK: Other than sushi, they don't know any other Japanese food.

DOC: Or ramen.

PATRICK: Or boxed ramen.

DOC: I can see that. Because doctors (?) they're like, I got this right in the back -- in the shoulder blade. Can you take a --

PATRICK: You know, I have these chest pains. (?) and it's in mean arm. It's in my Czech chest.

DOC: Can you take a look at it?

PATRICK: Yeah. Quick pop (?)

DOC: Look at this. It's down the side of my leg here.

PATRICK: Does this look infected to you?

DOC: Right. You're at dinner, right? That's got to be horrible.

PATRICK: That is -- I do get captured quite often in the food conversation. But --

DOC: It's still probably pretty good. Because you're passionate about it.

PATRICK: Anybody who knows me, knows that I love food. It's been my life for almost 30 years. I love to share knowledge and my passion for the food industry. And teach people that the food -- everybody at some point NBC life, (?), well, it probably would be cool. But it's also expensive.

DOC: Uh-huh.

PATRICK: Exhausting.

DOC: Yeah. If you're worth $450 million and you start a small restaurant and you can lose $100,000 a year, it's probably pretty cool. You get to go in, mingle, you own the restaurant. But when you got to make it balance or profit, that's where it gets tricky, right?

PATRICK: It's a 24/7 business. The average margin I found out (?) the average restaurant makes 4 percent.

DOC: So traditionally, in supermarkets, I'm going way back, the margins was percent, percent and a half. 2 percent?

PATRICK: Yeah. It used to be two. (?) somewhere in the one and a half range.

DOC: At one point in broadcasting, because Telecommunications Act of 1966 said that you could earn more than radio stations that you used to -- I think at one point you could own across the country 17 or 20 or something like that. But you could only own 1:00 a.m. or FM (?) you could own. Per market. Yeah. Ravioli and that's what -- I remember when some of those sold. Some of the stations I worked at. The profit margin was imagine if I told you it was 40 percent, would you think that's pretty good?

SHAWN: Absolutely. Yeah.

DOC: They were 70 percent. (?)

PATRICK: More power to them. I'm obviously in the wrong business.

DOC: The reason why it was 70 percent -- because they didn't pay Doc Thompson. They were like, it's all right. Kid. You can eat ramen, that's fine.

PATRICK: Wait. Where's my paycheck --

DOC: That has all changed somewhat. You just get on. And it works. So we're talking a little bit about Thanksgiving and some of the other things that people search for by state. And some of them seem pretty traditional. Some of them not. Give you some of the other ones. Maybe we'll hit your state here. Indiana, peanut butter cookies. That's kind of a holiday thing. (?)

PATRICK: At least it's a cookie.

DOC: Pin wheels. That's also a cookie. That's in Kansas. Cornbread (?) dressing in Louisiana. That makes sense. Chicken potpie in Maine. Maryland, crab cakes. You know what, I think they search for that all the time in Maryland. That's not a holiday.

PATRICK: That's year around because you can get them cheap.

DOC: Cheesecake in Massachusetts.

PATRICK: And New York. And being from New York, that's pretty common.

DOC: Makes sense. Michigan is chili. Odd choice.

PATRICK: It's really cold up there.

DOC: Minnesota, green bean casserole. Does anybody else have that? That's the only one?

PATRICK: I think so.

DOC: What is chicken spaghetti in Mississippi and also Texas. Chicken spaghetti.

PATRICK: I found a few recipes for that. (?) dish. Which I think you would just substitute turkey for that. But it's made in spaghetti than turkey.

DOC: (?) oven roasted vegetables for Montana. Nevada, peanut butter cookies. New Hampshire, blueberry pie. Thank you, Kal. Blueberry pie. Although, New Hampshire (?) so maybe.

PATRICK: Yeah, it's cold.

DOC: Crab cakes in New Jersey. Pecan pie in New Mexico. Sweet potato pie (?) that's an interesting one. In both Ohio and West Virginia, buffalo chicken dip.

PATRICK: Why not?

DOC: Have you ever had that?

KAL: That stuff is awesome.

DOC: Yeah. And checking account me -- it's shredded chicken with (?)

PATRICK: Mixture of cream cheese, heavy cream, and main ace.

DOC: And it's layered in there?

PATRICK: No, you mix the whole thing (?) served on baguette or toast. Crackers. Whatever you have.

DOC: Oklahoma, pecan pie. I'm sorry. Pecan pie. Whichever. Oregon, bread stuffing. Pennsylvania, also chicken dip. That whole region, Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania. Interesting. You know that he probably just found out about it. (?), yeah, we had that 30 years ago. We're like, have you tried this new thing?

PATRICK: Which is interesting. Because Ohio is typically the test region. I don't understand why. But it's the test region for new foods for the major food companies.

DOC: Yeah. Columbus, in particular. For some reason, demographically, it cuts across all of them. Midwest. But you're also east. You have older (?) just demographically, it's worked for them.

PATRICK: Well, you would think so, but no candidate has won that won the state of Iowa. So I don't understand (?)

DOC: No Ohio. Without winning Ohio. I think that's the history. Anyway --

PATRICK: So maybe you keep Ohio --

DOC: Yeah. (?) pumpkin pie. (?) sausage balls in Tennessee. Just like Alabama.

You've got crescent recipes in Utah. Crescent rolls. Butter nut soup. (?) sugar cookies in Washington. And then shrimp in Wisconsin. And Wyoming pork chops. And then I left out three states.

New Hampshire -- I'm sorry.

KAL: New Hampshire.

DOC: Appreciate you being there, even though I screwed it up. Nebraska, Rhode Island, and Iowa, all search for something that is an odd pick. Kal, have you ever had monkey bread?

KAL: Is that brain?

DOC: No. Monkey bread. Because you're thinking sweetbread.

KAL: Yes. Might as well be bread.

DOC: It's made with only part of the monkey. Not the entire monkey. You're giving me the look. It has nothing to do with monkey.

KAL: Like Rocky Mountain oysters?

PATRICK: Kind of. (?) I was a Boy Scout. Monkey balls instead of monkey bread. But it has nothing to do with monkeys. I don't know where the term came from.

KAL: What is it made of?

DOC: It's cinnamon bread.

PATRICK: Yeah, you are take any kind of a canned biscuit or Doe. You cut it into pieces. (?) and then you make a caramel mixture. So it's sugar and butter in the bottom of like -- like --

DOC: Your roasting pan?

PATRICK: Like an angel food cake pan. A buttoned cake pan. Then you put the (?) you roll them in cinnamon sugar. You put them in there. You bake it. You turn it upside down. I it has this wonderful. (?) it's actually really good.

KAL: That sounds awesome.

DOC: Yeah, it's fantastic or whatever. It seems like an odd pick -- it's not really a breakfast dish. It can be. Not as much as cinnamon rolls.

PATRICK: That you can serve (?) a lot of people with. That doesn't require a lot of preparation.

DOC: This is more, like you said, camping, or late at night, snacky thing. Maybe people are using it for all those. Maybe breakfast or even a desert then it could be used for.

PATRICK: Yeah. I suppose.

DOC: You know what, though, it's probably simple to make for a sweet dessert or whatever you're going to use it for, by comparison. (?)

PATRICK: You don't have to make a Doe.

DOC: You don't have to make the Doe --

PATRICK: It's sugar, butter, (?) those are the ingredients.

DOC: So you're already starting the Doe made. That probably works really well. That's interesting.

PATRICK: It's like the crescent recipes in the other states. Alaska and Utah.

Is the U.N. plotting to control 30% of U.S. land by 2030?

Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

A reliable conservative senator faces cancellation for listening to voters. But the real threat to public lands comes from the last president’s backdoor globalist agenda.

Something ugly is unfolding on social media, and most people aren’t seeing it clearly. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) — one of the most constitutionally grounded conservatives in Washington — is under fire for a housing provision he first proposed in 2022.

You wouldn’t know that from scrolling through X. According to the latest online frenzy, Lee wants to sell off national parks, bulldoze public lands, gut hunting and fishing rights, and hand America’s wilderness to Amazon, BlackRock, and the Chinese Communist Party. None of that is true.

Lee’s bill would have protected against the massive land-grab that’s already under way — courtesy of the Biden administration.

I covered this last month. Since then, the backlash has grown into something like a political witch hunt — not just from the left but from the right. Even Donald Trump Jr., someone I typically agree with, has attacked Lee’s proposal. He’s not alone.

Time to look at the facts the media refuses to cover about Lee’s federal land plan.

What Lee actually proposed

Over the weekend, Lee announced that he would withdraw the federal land sale provision from his housing bill. He said the decision was in response to “a tremendous amount of misinformation — and in some cases, outright lies,” but also acknowledged that many Americans brought forward sincere, thoughtful concerns.

Because of the strict rules surrounding the budget reconciliation process, Lee couldn’t secure legally enforceable protections to ensure that the land would be made available “only to American families — not to China, not to BlackRock, and not to any foreign interests.” Without those safeguards, he chose to walk it back.

That’s not selling out. That’s leadership.

It's what the legislative process is supposed to look like: A senator proposes a bill, the people respond, and the lawmaker listens. That was once known as representative democracy. These days, it gets you labeled a globalist sellout.

The Biden land-grab

To many Americans, “public land” brings to mind open spaces for hunting, fishing, hiking, and recreation. But that’s not what Sen. Mike Lee’s bill targeted.

His proposal would have protected against the real land-grab already under way — the one pushed by the Biden administration.

In 2021, Biden launched a plan to “conserve” 30% of America’s lands and waters by 2030. This effort follows the United Nations-backed “30 by 30” initiative, which seeks to place one-third of all land and water under government control.

Ask yourself: Is the U.N. focused on preserving your right to hunt and fish? Or are radical environmentalists exploiting climate fears to restrict your access to American land?

  Smith Collection/Gado / Contributor | Getty Images

As it stands, the federal government already owns 640 million acres — nearly one-third of the entire country. At this rate, the government will hit that 30% benchmark with ease. But it doesn’t end there. The next phase is already in play: the “50 by 50” agenda.

That brings me to a piece of legislation most Americans haven’t even heard of: the Sustains Act.

Passed in 2023, the law allows the federal government to accept private funding from organizations, such as BlackRock or the Bill Gates Foundation, to support “conservation programs.” In practice, the law enables wealthy elites to buy influence over how American land is used and managed.

Moreover, the government doesn’t even need the landowner’s permission to declare that your property contributes to “pollination,” or “photosynthesis,” or “air quality” — and then regulate it accordingly. You could wake up one morning and find out that the land you own no longer belongs to you in any meaningful sense.

Where was the outrage then? Where were the online crusaders when private capital and federal bureaucrats teamed up to quietly erode private property rights across America?

American families pay the price

The real danger isn’t in Mike Lee’s attempt to offer more housing near population centers — land that would be limited, clarified, and safeguarded in the final bill. The real threat is the creeping partnership between unelected global elites and our own government, a partnership designed to consolidate land, control rural development, and keep Americans penned in so-called “15-minute cities.”

BlackRock buying entire neighborhoods and pricing out regular families isn’t by accident. It’s part of a larger strategy to centralize populations into manageable zones, where cars are unnecessary, rural living is unaffordable, and every facet of life is tracked, regulated, and optimized.

That’s the real agenda. And it’s already happening , and Mike Lee’s bill would have been an effort to ensure that you — not BlackRock, not China — get first dibs.

I live in a town of 451 people. Even here, in the middle of nowhere, housing is unaffordable. The American dream of owning a patch of land is slipping away, not because of one proposal from a constitutional conservative, but because global powers and their political allies are already devouring it.

Divide and conquer

This controversy isn’t really about Mike Lee. It’s about whether we, as a nation, are still capable of having honest debates about public policy — or whether the online mob now controls the narrative. It’s about whether conservatives will focus on facts or fall into the trap of friendly fire and circular firing squads.

More importantly, it’s about whether we’ll recognize the real land-grab happening in our country — and have the courage to fight back before it’s too late.


This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

URGENT: FIVE steps to CONTROL AI before it's too late!

MANAURE QUINTERO / Contributor | Getty Images

By now, many of us are familiar with AI and its potential benefits and threats. However, unless you're a tech tycoon, it can feel like you have little influence over the future of artificial intelligence.

For years, Glenn has warned about the dangers of rapidly developing AI technologies that have taken the world by storm.

He acknowledges their significant benefits but emphasizes the need to establish proper boundaries and ethics now, while we still have control. But since most people aren’t Silicon Valley tech leaders making the decisions, how can they help keep AI in check?

Recently, Glenn interviewed Tristan Harris, a tech ethicist deeply concerned about the potential harm of unchecked AI, to discuss its societal implications. Harris highlighted a concerning new piece of legislation proposed by Texas Senator Ted Cruz. This legislation proposes a state-level moratorium on AI regulation, meaning only the federal government could regulate AI. Harris noted that there’s currently no Federal plan for regulating AI. Until the federal government establishes a plan, tech companies would have nearly free rein with their AI. And we all know how slowly the federal government moves.

  

This is where you come in. Tristan Harris shared with Glenn the top five actions you should urge your representatives to take regarding AI, including opposing the moratorium until a concrete plan is in place. Now is your chance to influence the future of AI. Contact your senator and congressman today and share these five crucial steps they must take to keep AI in check:

Ban engagement-optimized AI companions for kids

Create legislation that will prevent AI from being designed to maximize addiction, sexualization, flattery, and attachment disorders, and to protect young people’s mental health and ability to form real-life friendships.

Establish basic liability laws

Companies need to be held accountable when their products cause real-world harm.

Pass increased whistleblower protections

Protect concerned technologists working inside the AI labs from facing untenable pressures and threats that prevent them from warning the public when the AI rollout is unsafe or crosses dangerous red lines.

Prevent AI from having legal rights

Enact laws so AIs don’t have protected speech or have their own bank accounts, making sure our legal system works for human interests over AI interests.

Oppose the state moratorium on AI 

Call your congressman or Senator Cruz’s office, and demand they oppose the state moratorium on AI without a plan for how we will set guardrails for this technology.

Glenn: Only Trump dared to deliver on decades of empty promises

Tasos Katopodis / Stringer | Getty Images

The Islamic regime has been killing Americans since 1979. Now Trump’s response proves we’re no longer playing defense — we’re finally hitting back.

The United States has taken direct military action against Iran’s nuclear program. Whatever you think of the strike, it’s over. It’s happened. And now, we have to predict what happens next. I want to help you understand the gravity of this situation: what happened, what it means, and what might come next. To that end, we need to begin with a little history.

Since 1979, Iran has been at war with us — even if we refused to call it that.

We are either on the verge of a remarkable strategic victory or a devastating global escalation. Time will tell.

It began with the hostage crisis, when 66 Americans were seized and 52 were held for over a year by the radical Islamic regime. Four years later, 17 more Americans were murdered in the U.S. Embassy bombing in Beirut, followed by 241 Marines in the Beirut barracks bombing.

Then came the Khobar Towers bombing in 1996, which killed 19 more U.S. airmen. Iran had its fingerprints all over it.

In Iraq and Afghanistan, Iranian-backed proxies killed hundreds of American soldiers. From 2001 to 2020 in Afghanistan and 2003 to 2011 in Iraq, Iran supplied IEDs and tactical support.

The Iranians have plotted assassinations and kidnappings on U.S. soil — in 2011, 2021, and again in 2024 — and yet we’ve never really responded.

The precedent for U.S. retaliation has always been present, but no president has chosen to pull the trigger until this past weekend. President Donald Trump struck decisively. And what our military pulled off this weekend was nothing short of extraordinary.

Operation Midnight Hammer

The strike was reportedly called Operation Midnight Hammer. It involved as many as 175 U.S. aircraft, including 12 B-2 stealth bombers — out of just 19 in our entire arsenal. Those bombers are among the most complex machines in the world, and they were kept mission-ready by some of the finest mechanics on the planet.

   USAF / Handout | Getty Images

To throw off Iranian radar and intelligence, some bombers flew west toward Guam — classic misdirection. The rest flew east, toward the real targets.

As the B-2s approached Iranian airspace, U.S. submarines launched dozens of Tomahawk missiles at Iran’s fortified nuclear facilities. Minutes later, the bombers dropped 14 MOPs — massive ordnance penetrators — each designed to drill deep into the earth and destroy underground bunkers. These bombs are the size of an F-16 and cost millions of dollars apiece. They are so accurate, I’ve been told they can hit the top of a soda can from 15,000 feet.

They were built for this mission — and we’ve been rehearsing this run for 15 years.

If the satellite imagery is accurate — and if what my sources tell me is true — the targeted nuclear sites were utterly destroyed. We’ll likely rely on the Israelis to confirm that on the ground.

This was a master class in strategy, execution, and deterrence. And it proved that only the United States could carry out a strike like this. I am very proud of our military, what we are capable of doing, and what we can accomplish.

What comes next

We don’t yet know how Iran will respond, but many of the possibilities are troubling. The Iranians could target U.S. forces across the Middle East. On Monday, Tehran launched 20 missiles at U.S. bases in Qatar, Syria, and Kuwait, to no effect. God forbid, they could also unleash Hezbollah or other terrorist proxies to strike here at home — and they just might.

Iran has also threatened to shut down the Strait of Hormuz — the artery through which nearly a fifth of the world’s oil flows. On Sunday, Iran’s parliament voted to begin the process. If the Supreme Council and the ayatollah give the go-ahead, we could see oil prices spike to $150 or even $200 a barrel.

That would be catastrophic.

The 2008 financial collapse was pushed over the edge when oil hit $130. Western economies — including ours — simply cannot sustain oil above $120 for long. If this conflict escalates and the Strait is closed, the global economy could unravel.

The strike also raises questions about regime stability. Will it spark an uprising, or will the Islamic regime respond with a brutal crackdown on dissidents?

Early signs aren’t hopeful. Reports suggest hundreds of arrests over the weekend and at least one dissident executed on charges of spying for Israel. The regime’s infamous morality police, the Gasht-e Ershad, are back on the streets. Every phone, every vehicle — monitored. The U.S. embassy in Qatar issued a shelter-in-place warning for Americans.

Russia and China both condemned the strike. On Monday, a senior Iranian official flew to Moscow to meet with Vladimir Putin. That meeting should alarm anyone paying attention. Their alliance continues to deepen — and that’s a serious concern.

Now we pray

We are either on the verge of a remarkable strategic victory or a devastating global escalation. Time will tell. But either way, President Trump didn’t start this. He inherited it — and he took decisive action.

The difference is, he did what they all said they would do. He didn’t send pallets of cash in the dead of night. He didn’t sign another failed treaty.

He acted. Now, we pray. For peace, for wisdom, and for the strength to meet whatever comes next.


This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Globalize the Intifada? Why Mamdani’s plan spells DOOM for America

Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

If New Yorkers hand City Hall to Zohran Mamdani, they’re not voting for change. They’re opening the door to an alliance of socialism, Islamism, and chaos.

It only took 25 years for New York City to go from the resilient, flag-waving pride following the 9/11 attacks to a political fever dream. To quote Michael Malice, “I'm old enough to remember when New Yorkers endured 9/11 instead of voting for it.”

Malice is talking about Zohran Mamdani, a Democratic Socialist assemblyman from Queens now eyeing the mayor’s office. Mamdani, a 33-year-old state representative emerging from relative political obscurity, is now receiving substantial funding for his mayoral campaign from the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

CAIR has a long and concerning history, including being born out of the Muslim Brotherhood and named an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror funding case. Why would the group have dropped $100,000 into a PAC backing Mamdani’s campaign?

Mamdani blends political Islam with Marxist economics — two ideologies that have left tens of millions dead in the 20th century alone.

Perhaps CAIR has a vested interest in Mamdani’s call to “globalize the intifada.” That’s not a call for peaceful protest. Intifada refers to historic uprisings of Muslims against what they call the “Israeli occupation of Palestine.” Suicide bombings and street violence are part of the playbook. So when Mamdani says he wants to “globalize” that, who exactly is the enemy in this global scenario? Because it sure sounds like he's saying America is the new Israel, and anyone who supports Western democracy is the new Zionist.

Mamdani tried to clean up his language by citing the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, which once used “intifada” in an Arabic-language article to describe the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. So now he’s comparing Palestinians to Jewish victims of the Nazis? If that doesn’t twist your stomach into knots, you’re not paying attention.

If you’re “globalizing” an intifada, and positioning Israel — and now America — as the Nazis, that’s not a cry for human rights. That’s a call for chaos and violence.

Rising Islamism

But hey, this is New York. Faculty members at Columbia University — where Mamdani’s own father once worked — signed a letter defending students who supported Hamas after October 7. They also contributed to Mamdani’s mayoral campaign. And his father? He blamed Ronald Reagan and the religious right for inspiring Islamic terrorism, as if the roots of 9/11 grew in Washington, not the caves of Tora Bora.

   Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

 

This isn’t about Islam as a faith. We should distinguish between Islam and Islamism. Islam is a religion followed peacefully by millions. Islamism is something entirely different — an ideology that seeks to merge mosque and state, impose Sharia law, and destroy secular liberal democracies from within. Islamism isn’t about prayer and fasting. It’s about power.

Criticizing Islamism is not Islamophobia. It is not an attack on peaceful Muslims. In fact, Muslims are often its first victims.

Islamism is misogynistic, theocratic, violent, and supremacist. It’s hostile to free speech, religious pluralism, gay rights, secularism — even to moderate Muslims. Yet somehow, the progressive left — the same left that claims to fight for feminism, LGBTQ rights, and free expression — finds itself defending candidates like Mamdani. You can’t make this stuff up.

Blending the worst ideologies

And if that weren’t enough, Mamdani also identifies as a Democratic Socialist. He blends political Islam with Marxist economics — two ideologies that have left tens of millions dead in the 20th century alone. But don’t worry, New York. I’m sure this time socialism will totally work. Just like it always didn’t.

If you’re a business owner, a parent, a person who’s saved anything, or just someone who values sanity: Get out. I’m serious. If Mamdani becomes mayor, as seems likely, then New York City will become a case study in what happens when you marry ideological extremism with political power. And it won’t be pretty.

This is about more than one mayoral race. It’s about the future of Western liberalism. It’s about drawing a bright line between faith and fanaticism, between healthy pluralism and authoritarian dogma.

Call out radicalism

We must call out political Islam the same way we call out white nationalism or any other supremacist ideology. When someone chants “globalize the intifada,” that should send a chill down your spine — whether you’re Jewish, Christian, Muslim, atheist, or anything in between.

The left may try to shame you into silence with words like “Islamophobia,” but the record is worn out. The grooves are shallow. The American people see what’s happening. And we’re not buying it.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.