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Glenn's Show Prep

The most powerful gift you can give a soldier

November 30, 2012
Wilson

Writer

Glenn interviewed Rose Tennent of Quinn and Rose fame about her book titled Thanking Our Soldiers, a compilation of letters from her radio listeners of inspirational stories that demonstrate some of the best ways we can thank our men and women who serve in the military.

Transcript of interview below:
GLENN: We have Rose Tennent on here with us. She is from Quinn and Rose mornings here in Pittsburgh and you guys, I just did an interview with you guys a few minutes ago and do a lot of interviews with a lot of radio people, as you can imagine, and you guys are two of the best morning people on the air in the country. You get it like nobody else gets it. You are really great.

TENNENT: What a compliment coming from you because we really have tremendous respect for you and what you're doing.

GLENN: Thank you very much. You wrote the book Thanking Our Soldiers: Random Acts of Gratitude and Generosity Towards Members of the Military and I wanted to talk to you about it because I don't think I've ever seen anything like this. This is just, these are letters sent to you saying this is what I did.

TENNENT: Right. I started a segment on this show and you know how things like that can just snowball, right?

GLENN: Right.

TENNENT: And I was talking, and I never talk about things that I do, if I gave to someone or ‑‑ I like to do that in private.

GLENN: Private.

TENNENT: But there was a particular story that I had to share with the audience because I thought it was humorous but at one time I was at one of my favorite restaurants and I saw two or three service guys being led to the back room and I thought, you know what, I'm going to pay for their lunch. I've done it before. So I told their waitress that. And she kept coming back to my table and asking me, are you sure you want to do this, are you positive. And I didn't understand why she kept asking that question and I assured her, "Yes, just give me the check when they're done." Well, it turns out that those two or three guys were being led back to a group of 15 other servicemen and women that I didn't know about. So it was a pretty hefty tab. So I just, I told the story simply because I thought it was amusing. But once I told that story, I started to receiving e‑mails and letters from our listeners telling me what they've done to thank a soldier and it became a regular part of the show, or segment.

GLENN: Give me the more unusual. What's the most common and what's the most unusual?

TENNENT: The most common is picking up a tab.

GLENN: Right.

TENNENT: And the most unusual, I thought this was very clever. A woman would drive the same route to work every day. And she actually worked in her own community. So at one point she noticed that at the four‑way intersection a home right there at the intersection had a large sign that said, "Welcome back from Afghanistan." And she thought, "You know what? I don't know those people but they're in my community. So she wrote a thank you note to them and she put in a little gift to them. But you don't even need to do that. She said, "Thank you for your service. You don't know me but you are taking ‑‑ you are protecting my freedoms. You are preserving my freedoms. You are making a sacrifice for me and my family. So you need to know about me."

GLENN: You weren't connected with people who are grateful for, as we are, grateful for our military. What has been the reaction here in Pittsburgh with people on Benghazi, that we let four guys die?

TENNENT: It's astounding, isn't it? I mean, this is ‑‑ that's why I love this book because while our government doesn't seem to have the back of those who serve and protect us, we need to make sure we have their back. But I've got to tell you something about Benghazi. I was having my hair done and I asked the girl that was washing my hair, what do you think about Benghazi? She goes, "I don't know who he is."

GLENN: Which reminds me, More‑On Trivia is coming up in about 25 minutes.

TENNENT: That's true.

GLENN: We had the More‑On Trivia, what was it, a couple of weeks ago where we talked about Benghazi?

PAT: Yeah.

GLENN: And that was, somebody said somebody at Wal‑Mart.

PAT: Yeah.

GLENN: That's who Benghazi is, somebody at Wal‑Mart.

TENNENT: Oh, no.

GLENN: And they didn't know, they didn't know who he was as well.

TENNENT: Wow, that's amazing.

GLENN: It's ‑‑ since the election ‑‑ first of all, were you as shocked as we were that the election was going to ‑‑

TENNENT: Absolutely. I did not expect that at all. I didn't think it was going to be a landslide. Some were predicting a landslide.

GLENN: I was.

TENNENT: I never believed that. But I didn't think that Obama was going to win a second term.

GLENN: And were you shocked that less people went out and voted this time on our side?

TENNENT: No.

GLENN: Really?

TENNENT: I wasn't. I talked about that a lot. No, I think that there was ‑‑ I think that people were ‑‑ if you looked around Pittsburgh, the signs were, "Fire Obama." They weren't "Hire Romney." You know, and I think the enthusiasm level was way down. I don't think that we had a strong enough candidate and I don't think he was able to bring us through.

GLENN: Is it because he wasn't liberal enough? He wasn't liberal enough? Is that why? Because that's what the GOP will have us believe now.

TENNENT: They keep telling, keep moving a little more to the left, keep going to the ‑‑ keep moving. We'll tell you when to stop and it's just a bunch of baloney.

GLENN: So what do you think people are actually saying? Do you think people ‑‑ A, do you think people have given up? Because quite honestly I am the ‑‑ I am the, "Let's go, keep go, let's going." I'm that guy.

TENNENT: I know. You're a cheerleader.

GLENN: Even I'm like, "What difference does it make."

TENNENT: I know. It's so hard to fight that, but you know what? We're Americans. That's what we do. We fight for liberty. Even if I go down fighting, I'm going to fight. I don't care what it takes, I'm not going to run away. I'm going to stand firm.

GLENN: But here's what it is. I have every intention. I'm not going to sleep, and I will, with my dying breath.

TENNENT: Yeah.

GLENN: The Constitution now and forever.

TENNENT: Amen.

GLENN: With my dying breath.

TENNENT: Amen.

GLENN: So I got that. But it's like now you're saying, "Hey, let's get all together and let's write our congressmen." Who was it, Rand Paul was on yesterday, right?

PAT: Yep.

GLENN: And he said, "You've got a right, congressman Boehner." And we looked, we got off the air and we looked at each other and we went, are you going to do that, Pat? Nope. Me, either. I was just like, it's not going to make a difference.

TENNENT: Right?

GLENN: These clowns, why do it?

TENNENT: Why?

GLENN: Do you think Boehner's going to change?

TENNENT: No.

GLENN: No.

PAT: He's not. But Rand's, Senator Paul's point was that if a million people did that, then ‑‑ but a million people were saying, "Are you going to do that?" "No."

GLENN: (Laughing.)

PAT: It's unfortunate but especially after ‑‑

GLENN: Because we don't believe in them anymore.

TENNENT: No, we don't.

GLENN: The Republicans are the Whigs.

TENNENT: When you look at the numbers, especially ‑‑ well, I'm thinking back to the midterm elections, that historic election. But there were so many people that felt that congress just did not represent them, that they did not have ‑‑ they said ‑‑ I remember reading the polls, that the TEA Party members had a better grasp on what was important for this country and what was needed for this country to move forward than those serving in congress right now. And they are absolutely, they were right. And it remains true to this day. They really don't ‑‑ they haven't got a clue.

GLENN: What do you think's going to happen ‑‑ go ahead.

TENNENT: Go ahead.

GLENN: What do you think's going to happen with the fiscal cliff?

TENNENT: I keep telling them walk away from the cliff, walk away from the cliff. Really. This is propaganda, this is a big event, this is fabulous for Obama, he's created it. You know, it's a big story. It's the big event. And I just, I want congress to move away from it. I don't want them to give in to this. Because it's been sensationalized. It's overdone. Walk away from the cliff.

GLENN: It's really, and it's amazing to me how the Republicans are always in a lose/lose situation. The left ‑‑

TENNENT: They are.

GLENN: ‑‑ is extraordinarily ‑‑

TENNENT: Smart.

GLENN: ‑‑ brilliant.

TENNENT: Yes. Clever, manipulative.

GLENN: Oh, my gosh. Evil.

TENNENT: Evil.

GLENN: Yeah.

PAT: The problem is they're also about three steps ahead of the Republican Party.

TENNENT: They are.

PAT: All the time. And the Republicans are in a, like you said, Glenn, a lose/lose situation right now. If they do something about it ‑‑

GLENN: They lose.

PAT: ‑‑ they lose. If they don't do something about it ‑‑

GLENN: They lose.

PAT: ‑‑ they lose.

TENNENT: And they've set him up. We've been set up.

GLENN: Yes.

TENNENT: You know, you're absolutely right.

GLENN: Every step of the way.

TENNENT: Look at Marco Rubio. The Democrats and the mainstream media, they recognize our rising stars before we do.

PAT: Oh, yeah.

TENNENT: Marco Rubio is a star.

PAT: Yes.

TENNENT: And they know that. So what do they do? The first thing that GQ asks him is how old do you think the Earth is? What? Are you freaking kidding me, how old is the Earth?

PAT: I know.

TENNENT: And then what does Jeb Bush, Jr. do? He weighed in on it.

GLENN: Wait a minute, wait a minute. She avoided the answer. She wouldn't give the answer: How old is the Earth?

TENNENT: How dare you ask me such a question when we're talking about some serious matters. You know, I'm one of those Christians and I think that, you know ‑‑

GLENN: I think it's four years old.

TENNENT: Yeah. Uh‑huh. But then Jeb Bush, Jr. weighs in: That was kind of a weird answer to that question. I mean, they're already ‑‑

PAT: Oh, yeah. They're trying to set up Jeb Bush.

TENNENT: He hasn't ‑‑ Obama hasn't even been sworn in yet for a second term.

PAT: Yeah.

TENNENT: And already they're setting it up.

PAT: They're giving us another false choice.

TENNENT: They are. They are.

PAT: Between Biden or Hillary and whoever their nominee is and our farthest left‑leaning candidate. And it would ‑‑

TENNENT: You're right.

PAT: ‑‑ be Jeb Bush. Unacceptable.

TENNENT: Just such a thing.

GLENN: When we were in New York, I sat in very powerful meetings with the media and they ‑‑ the people in the media on the right, they were all for Jeb Bush. And I'm sitting there going, "Are you out of your mind?"

PAT: The worst.

GLENN: Jeb Bush?

PAT: No.

GLENN: Can we stop with the Bush trilogy? Stop.

PAT: Let's hope it doesn't become a trilogy.

GLENN: We've seen the first two. I don't want to buy a ticket for the other one.

PAT: No.

TENNENT: That's enough. You know, can I just tell you about this real quick?

GLENN: Yes. Yes, yes.

TENNENT: I just want to encourage people because even just saying thank you is a very, very strong act of kindness toward our military. One man in particular. Because there was a section also in the book about you how the ‑‑ those on the receiving end feel about receiving those acts of kindness and gratitude. And one man in particular was on a 15‑hour flight from Germany to Chicago coming back from some time that he spent in Bosnia and they had offered him an upgrade and he offered it to a family of six because he thought, when are those four kids ever going to have a chance to sit in first class. So for 15 hours he said he watched that family and the kids giggling and laughing and running around first class. He said that was a blessing to him. He didn't mind that at all. He said but God had another blessing for him. When he got off the plane in Chicago, this little girl, he watched as a little girl jumped off her seat, 5 years old he said, came running towards him and, of course, the mother's running behind her wondering what the heck is going on, ran up to him, curled her finger at him and so he got down on one knee, put his ear to her mouth and she said, "Thank you." Threw her arms around his neck and hugged him.

GLENN: Wow. That happened in Chicago?

TENNENT: That happened in Chicago. He said that that was one of the best days of his life second only to the birth of his child. And then when he talked to the mom, she said that the grandfather who served in Vietnam had told this little girl, whenever you see a soldier, tell them thank you. He said that meant more to him than any other act or any other gift could possible mean.

PAT: What a phenomenal story.

TENNENT: Just those words, two words, "thank you." Unbelievable. So there's a lot in this book. It's very moving. But you know what it does? It gives you ideas and encourages you to give. And this is the season of giving, right? And we can never repay the debt. Never repay it. But we can start to make some payments.

GLENN: The name of the book is Thanking Our Soldiers: Random Acts of Kindness, Random Acts of Gratitude and Generosity Towards Members of the Military. I have told my kids since they were that small as well. Every time you see a soldier, you go up and thank them. And when my kids were smaller, they would. Now they're in that, you know, that awkward ‑‑

TENNENT: There's an awkward stage.

GLENN: That awkward stage where some of them are like, I'm not ‑‑ Dad, that's embarrassing. But it's true, and it makes a difference.

TENNENT: It does.

GLENN: And thank you so much.

TENNENT: Yeah, thank you so much for letting me talk about it.

GLENN: Available on Amazon.

TENNENT: Yes.

GLENN: You can just order it now, Thanking Our Soldiers by Rose Tennent. Thank you very much, Rose.

TENNENT: Thank you.

GLENN: God bless.

        A nation unravels when its shared culture is the first thing to go
    

         Spencer Platt / Staff | Getty Images
    
Texas now hosts Quran-first academies, Sharia-compliant housing schemes, and rapidly multiplying mosques — all part of a movement building a self-contained society apart from the country around it.
It is time to talk honestly about what is happening inside America’s rapidly growing Muslim communities. In city after city, large pockets of newcomers are choosing to build insulated enclaves rather than enter the broader American culture.
That trend is accelerating, and the longer we ignore it, the harder it becomes to address.
As Texas goes, so goes America. And as America goes, so goes the free world.
America has always welcomed people of every faith and people from every corner of the world, but the deal has never changed: You come here and you join the American family. You are free to honor your traditions, keep your faith, but you must embrace the Constitution as the supreme law of the land. You melt into the shared culture that allows all of us to live side by side.
Across the country, this bargain is being rejected by Islamist communities that insist on building a parallel society with its own rules, its own boundaries, and its own vision for how life should be lived.
Texas illustrates the trend. The state now has roughly 330 mosques. At least 48 of them were built in just the last 24 months. The Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex alone has around 200 Islamic centers. Houston has another hundred or so. Many of these communities have no interest in blending into American life.
This is not the same as past waves of immigration. Irish, Italian, Korean, Mexican, and every other group arrived with pride in their heritage. Still, they also raised American flags and wanted their children to be part of the country’s future. They became doctors, small-business owners, teachers, and soldiers. They wanted to be Americans.
What we are watching now is not the melting pot. It is isolation by design.
Parallel societies do not end well
More than 300 fundamentalist Islamic schools now operate full-time across the country. Many use Quran-first curricula that require students to spend hours memorizing religious texts before they ever reach math or science. In Dallas, Brighter Horizons Academy enrolls more than 1,700 students and draws federal support while operating on a social model that keeps children culturally isolated.
Then there is the Epic City project in Collin and Hunt counties — 402 acres originally designated only for Muslim buyers, with Sharia-compliant financing and a mega-mosque at the center. After public outcry and state investigations, the developers renamed it “The Meadows,” but a new sign does not erase the original intent. It is not a neighborhood. It is a parallel society.
Americans should not hesitate to say that parallel societies are dangerous. Europe tried this experiment, and the results could not be clearer. In Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, entire neighborhoods now operate under their own cultural rules, some openly hostile to Western norms. When citizens speak up, they are branded bigots for asserting a basic right: the ability to live safely in their own communities.
A crisis of confidence
While this separation widens, another crisis is unfolding at home. A recent Gallup survey shows that about 40% of American women ages 18 to 39 would leave the country permanently if given the chance. Nearly half of a rising generation — daughters, sisters, soon-to-be mothers — no longer believe this nation is worth building a future in.
And who shapes the worldview of young boys? Their mothers. If a mother no longer believes America is home, why would her child grow up ready to defend it?
As Texas goes, so goes America. And as America goes, so goes the free world. If we lose confidence in our own national identity at the same time that we allow separatist enclaves to spread unchecked, the outcome is predictable. Europe is already showing us what comes next: cultural fracture, political radicalization, and the slow death of national unity.
   Brandon Bell / Staff | Getty Images
 
Stand up and tell the truth
America welcomes Muslims. America defends their right to worship freely. A Muslim who loves the Constitution, respects the rule of law, and wants to raise a family in peace is more than welcome in America.
But an Islamist movement that rejects assimilation, builds enclaves governed by its own religious framework, and treats American law as optional is not simply another participant in our melting pot. It is a direct challenge to it. If we refuse to call this problem out out of fear of being called names, we will bear the consequences.
Europe is already feeling those consequences — rising conflict and a political class too paralyzed to admit the obvious. When people feel their culture, safety, and freedoms slipping away, they will follow anyone who promises to defend them. History has shown that over and over again.
Stand up. Speak plainly. Be unafraid. You can practice any faith in this country, but the supremacy of the Constitution and the Judeo-Christian moral framework that shaped it is non-negotiable. It is what guarantees your freedom in the first place.
If you come here and honor that foundation, welcome. If you come here to undermine it, you do not belong here.
Wake up to what is unfolding before the consequences arrive. Because when a nation refuses to say what is true, the truth eventually forces its way in — and by then, it is always too late.
This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

        Shocking: Chart-topping ‘singer’ has no soul at all
    

         VCG / Contributor | Getty Images
    
A machine can imitate heartbreak well enough to top the charts, but it cannot carry grief, choose courage, or hear the whisper that calls human beings to something higher.
The No. 1 country song in America right now was not written in Nashville or Texas or even L.A. It came from code. “Walk My Walk,” the AI-generated single by the AI artist Breaking Rust, hit the top spot on Billboard’s Country Digital Song Sales chart, and if you listen to it without knowing that fact, you would swear a real singer lived the pain he is describing.
Except there is no “he.” There is no lived experience. There is no soul behind the voice dominating the country music charts.
If a machine can imitate the soul, then what is the soul?
I will admit it: I enjoy some AI music. Some of it is very good. And that leaves us with a question that is no longer science fiction. If a machine can fake being human this well, what does it mean to be human?
A new world of artificial experience
This is not just about one song. We are walking straight into a technological moment that will reshape everyday life.
Elon Musk said recently that we may not even have phones in five years. Instead, we will carry a small device that listens, anticipates, and creates — a personal AI agent that knows what we want to hear before we ask. It will make the music, the news, the podcasts, the stories. We already live in digital bubbles. Soon, those bubbles might become our own private worlds.
If an algorithm can write a hit country song about hardship and perseverance without a shred of actual experience, then the deeper question becomes unavoidable: If a machine can imitate the soul, then what is the soul?
What machines can never do
A machine can produce, and soon it may produce better than we can. It can calculate faster than any human mind. It can rearrange the notes and words of a thousand human songs into something that sounds real enough to fool millions.
But it cannot care. It cannot love. It cannot choose right and wrong. It cannot forgive because it cannot be hurt. It cannot stand between a child and danger. It cannot walk through sorrow.
A machine can imitate the sound of suffering. It cannot suffer.
The difference is the soul. The divine spark. The thing God breathed into man that no code will ever have. Only humans can take pain and let it grow into compassion. Only humans can take fear and turn it into courage. Only humans can rebuild their lives after losing everything. Only humans hear the whisper inside, the divine voice that says, “Live for something greater.”
We are building artificial minds. We are not building artificial life.
Questions that define us
And as these artificial minds grow sharper, as their tools become more convincing, the right response is not panic. It is to ask the oldest and most important questions.
Who am I? Why am I here? What is the meaning of freedom? What is worth defending? What is worth sacrificing for?
That answer is not found in a lab or a server rack. It is found in that mysterious place inside each of us where reason meets faith, where suffering becomes wisdom, where God reminds us we are more than flesh and more than thought. We are not accidents. We are not circuits. We are not replaceable.
   Europa Press News / Contributor | Getty Images
The miracle machines can never copy
Being human is not about what we can produce. Machines will outproduce us. That is not the question. Being human is about what we can choose. We can choose to love even when it costs us something. We can choose to sacrifice when it is not easy. We can choose to tell the truth when the world rewards lies. We can choose to stand when everyone else bows. We can create because something inside us will not rest until we do.
An AI content generator can borrow our melodies, echo our stories, and dress itself up like a human soul, but it cannot carry grief across a lifetime. It cannot forgive an enemy. It cannot experience wonder. It cannot look at a broken world and say, “I am going to build again.”
The age of machines is rising. And if we do not know who we are, we will shrink. But if we use this moment to remember what makes us human, it will help us to become better, because the one thing no algorithm will ever recreate is the miracle that we exist at all — the miracle of the human soul.
This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

        Shocking shift: America’s youth lured by the “Socialism trap”
    

         Jeremy Weine / Stringer | Getty Images
    
A generation that’s lost faith in capitalism is turning to the oldest lie on earth: equality through control.
Something is breaking in America’s young people. You can feel it in every headline, every grocery bill, every young voice quietly asking if the American dream still means anything at all.
For many, the promise of America — work hard, build something that lasts, and give the next generation a better start — feels like it no longer exists. Home ownership and stability have become luxuries for a fortunate few.
Capitalism is not a perfect system. It is flawed because people are flawed, but it remains the only system that rewards creativity and effort rather than punishing them.
In that vacuum of hope, a new promise has begun to rise — one that sounds compassionate, equal, and fair. The promise of socialism.
The appeal of a broken dream
When the American dream becomes a checklist of things few can afford — a home, a car, two children, even a little peace — disappointment quickly turns to resentment. The average first-time homebuyer is now 40 years old. Debt lasts longer than marriages. The cost of living rises faster than opportunity.
For a generation that has never seen the system truly work, capitalism feels like a rigged game built to protect those already at the top.
That is where socialism finds its audience. It presents itself as fairness for the forgotten and justice for the disillusioned. It speaks softly at first, offering equality, compassion, and control disguised as care.
We are seeing that illusion play out now in New York City, where Zohran Mamdani — an open socialist — has won a major political victory. The same ideology that once hid behind euphemisms now campaigns openly throughout America’s once-great cities. And for many who feel left behind, it sounds like salvation.
But what socialism calls fairness is submission dressed as virtue. What it calls order is obedience. Once the system begins to replace personal responsibility with collective dependence, the erosion of liberty is only a matter of time.
The bridge that never ends
Socialism is not a destination; it is a bridge. Karl Marx described it as the necessary transition to communism — the scaffolding that builds the total state. Under socialism, people are taught to obey. Under communism, they forget that any other options exist.
History tells the story clearly. Russia, China, Cambodia, Cuba — each promised equality and delivered misery. One hundred million lives were lost, not because socialism failed, but because it succeeded at what it was designed to do: make the state supreme and the individual expendable.
Today’s advocates insist their version will be different — democratic, modern, and kind. They often cite Sweden as an example, but Sweden’s prosperity was never born of socialism. It grew out of capitalism, self-reliance, and a shared moral culture. Now that system is cracking under the weight of bureaucracy and division.
   ANGELA WEISS / Contributor | Getty Images
 
The real issue is not economic but moral. Socialism begins with a lie about human nature — that people exist for the collective and that the collective knows better than the individual.
This lie is contrary to the truths on which America was founded — that rights come not from government’s authority, but from God’s. Once government replaces that authority, compassion becomes control, and freedom becomes permission.
What young America deserves
Young Americans have many reasons to be frustrated. They were told to study, work hard, and follow the rules — and many did, only to find the goalposts moved again and again. But tearing down the entire house does not make it fairer; it only leaves everyone standing in the rubble.
Capitalism is not a perfect system. It is flawed because people are flawed, but it remains the only system that rewards creativity and effort rather than punishing them. The answer is not revolution but renewal — moral, cultural, and spiritual.
It means restoring honesty to markets, integrity to government, and faith to the heart of our nation. A people who forsake God will always turn to government for salvation, and that road always ends in dependency and decay.
Freedom demands something of us. It requires faith, discipline, and courage. It expects citizens to govern themselves before others govern them. That is the truth this generation deserves to hear again — that liberty is not a gift from the state but a calling from God.
Socialism always begins with promises and ends with permission. It tells you what to drive, what to say, what to believe, all in the name of fairness. But real fairness is not everyone sharing the same chains — it is everyone having the same chance.
The American dream was never about guarantees. It was about the right to try, to fail, and try again. That freedom built the most prosperous nation in history, and it can do so again if we remember that liberty is not a handout but a duty.
Socialism does not offer salvation. It requires subservience.
This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

        Rage isn’t conservatism — THIS is what true patriots stand for
    

         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.