WATCH: Cyprus a global "shark bump"

Updated 3/20:

Hello, America, and welcome to The Glenn Beck Program and to TheBlaze. This is the network that you are building, and dare I say the only network surprisingly bold enough to bring you the stories that are important, so important that the mainstream media has missed or I believe chosen to ignore, and they mean something to you. In the next 30 minutes, you’re going to learn things about the U.N. and their new arms treaty that you’re not going to hear anyplace else on television.

First, let me give you a quick update, the president is on the ground now in Israel. No word if he has found any really expensive golf courses yet, but we’ll keep you up to speed on that. Let me also give you the latest on the global economic meltdown, at least the one that is coming. Maybe this is the beginning of it. Let’s go Cyprus where we were yesterday. They have rejected the Euro Zone’s bailout offer.

This bailout came with a condition. The people of Cyprus were going to lose part of their savings accounts. Anything that you had in the bank, you were going to be taxed anywhere from 6% to 10%. I love that. Hey, everybody, we’re not going to tell you about it. We’re just going to take money from your account. We’re not stealing. Well, I mean, we’re not stealing as much from you as we are the rich guy. Cool, right?

The banks are remaining closed until Thursday over fears that there might be a run on the bank. Gee, you think there might be a run on the bank? No. What will likely happen is that the largest banks will now fail, and the country will go bankrupt. Uh oh, that sounds like an emergency, a crisis. And the people of Cyprus will now be left looking for a strongman, somebody that can fix this problem because there will be no other way out. Yet, there is a solution, and I’ll tell you about in the minute. And I bet you they don’t take it.

Here’s what’s really happening – the politicians in Europe are farther ahead in the decay scale than we are here. We don’t trust our politicians at all; however, we’re not at the point the rest of Europe is at yet. The politicians have so discredited themselves here, but over in Europe, it’s happened for so long that the newly elected President of Cyprus can actually promise one thing and then three weeks later do exactly the opposite when it comes to your bank account and think he can get away with it. Hmm, I don’t think so.

See, this is what this really means – the politicians know they no longer have any clout. They no longer have any possibility that they can change people’s minds. They know that they can’t stand up in front of people and say, Hey we’ve got a do this. They have no chance of turning the tide of public opinion because there is zero credibility left in the tank for the politicians and the banks and everybody else.

This is the beginning of two things, two things globally. One, Totalitarianism. Totalitarianism, when the people are so far away from the politicians or the politicians are so far away from the people, and there is an emergency, and there’s nobody with an answer, it will be handled by a strongman and in that part of the world probably the Nazis. I can’t believe that we were mocked so much for talking about how the Nazis were going to come back and be a part of our lives again, and here they are. They’re going to need a strongman, and it will happen.

The other thing that is happening here is this is a shark bump. It’s a global shark bump. Cyprus is just kind of like the little Petri dish. It’s the first to get it. We’ve talked about shark bumps before on this program. Sometimes sharks will bump a potential meal before attacking, they just kind of rub into it to see if it’s going to fight back. I believe that’s exactly what is happening with the EU. Will the people rise up and fight back? How do we handle this?

Cass Sunstein wrote a book called Nudge. The premise is that individuals are incapable of making any kind of correct choices so they need to be nudged into the right choice. Well, as it turns out, it’s weird, people don’t like to be nudged, so they resist, and eventually a nudge has to turn into a shove. We’ve talked about this many times in the past. Europeans have been nudged enough, and now they’re about to be shoved in a big way.

So why does this matter to you? Who cares if a few skinny-jeans wearing, you know, Europeans get tossed around by big government, right? Because this is a global shark bump because we are all in this one together. We’re just the last in the boat, but we are the biggest fish that will come into the boat.

Let me start here. The radicals in our own government are very interested observers, watching very closely how the people of Europe respond to this Cyprus offer. What are they going to do? What can the politicians do better next time? Cyprus is a teachable moment for all of the people that want to grab control of power, but it is also a teachable moment for us if we will just see it that way. It will explain a ton.

I think I asked you yesterday about guns. Has anybody asked why they’re limiting guns? Has anybody thought of that? Why are we limiting guns? And I told you last night it was Cyprus, but there is another thing. At the same time they’re limiting guns, they’ve got soda, too, that they’re limiting, and those things make sense, right? They’re limiting cigarettes, soda, trans fats, SUVs. That makes sense. These two make sense together, but then this one doesn’t.

At the same time, they want you to be able to smoke pot, all the pot you want, apparently. We showed you Mike Bloomberg yesterday, and he is going after everything except – watch this video – except for pot:

VIDEO

Mayor Bloomberg: Commissioner Kelly and I support Governor Cuomo’s proposal to make possession of small amounts of marijuana a violation rather than a misdemeanor and will work to help him pass it this year. But I’ll tell you, we aren’t going to wait for that to happen. Right now, those arrested for possessing small amounts of marijuana are often held in custody overnight. We’re changing that. Effective next month, anyone presenting an I.D. and clearing a warrant check…

Okay, stop. Do you have this? He’s got to go – today he’s going after cigarettes. He’s got to go in after soda. He’s got to do these things, but he thinks it’s a waste of time to go after pot. Isn’t that a health risk? If you believe that soda is a health risk, how is smoking pot – I don’t care about, let’s say the intoxication – the lungs, what it’s doing. He has to move cigarettes out of the way, but pot isn’t a problem. We’ll maybe it’s because we couldn’t afford it, because that’s kind of what the president said yesterday. The president has said we have bigger fish to fry than going after pot smokers. Watch:

VIDEO

President Obama: As it is, you know, the federal government has a lot to do when it comes to criminal prosecutions. It does not make sense from a prioritization point of view for us to focus on recreational drug users in a state that has already said that under state law that’s legal.

This puts us into a constitutional crisis, and you would think a man who is a constitutional professor would know that. Now think of this, we have – let’s take him at his word – we have to prioritize things. So the man who made a big deal over free condoms at colleges, a man who spent his time lobbying to change the college football playoff system, doesn’t have the time to keep us out of a constitutional crisis. But don’t get lost there.

These two, these three, these two match; these three do not. Why is it these champions of manufacturing only healthy choices are not willing, they’re in favor of legalizing pot? Let me get back to this here in a second, and let me go over here. Why are Progressives trying so hard – I’m sorry, over here – trying to take away your guns, here and internationally? See, this is not about Sandy Hook, because in international terms, Sandy Hook was no big deal.

We know why we’re supposedly going through it is because of the shooter in Sandy Hook, but why is the U.N. arms treaty being pushed right now and going through? They’re working on it right now.

And then, why is the administration pushing so hard behind the scenes to absolutely, totally control your child’s education, the curriculum and every piece of access you as a parent have via Common Core? And in that educational system, they are teaching you about this, through here, they’re teaching you irrational fear of guns, a disdain for the Western way of life, how bad this is, but that one is popular still.

Why is Michael Bloomberg, the Mayor of New York City, injecting himself into a school board issue, as we told you last night, in New Orleans? This man is worried about who is elected to the Board of Education in New Orleans. He spent money on that race, when today we find out that 80% of those who graduate from high school in New York City are incapable of reading or writing or doing enough arithmetic to gain entrance to any level college – 80%. You would think if they don’t have time to bust the drug users, they wouldn’t have time to worry about cigarettes under the counter or education in another state.

The answer again, found in Cyprus. You see, before a strong-arm, a strongman, or totalitarian government can grab power, they have to try to make people really, really want it. You have to train the citizens to think that their best friend is government. To cement that idea in place for all time, you have to teach kids to distrust their parents and instead make government their mom and dad. Remember this:

VIDEO

Al Gore: There are some things about our world that you know that older people don’t know.

Got it? Strip away the authority of mom and dad, and this has been done for years. Give kids the green light to whatever they want. I mean, you can’t have a soda. You can’t have chips. You can’t talk about God, but there are condoms and abortion pills in the vending machine in the hallway, and the health teacher is demonstrating the healthy ways for teenagers to engage in sexual promiscuity. This isn’t making sense, is it?

We also have to cut mom and dad off from viewing the curriculum at all, and then we’re going to call it “Common Core,” meaning the core of who we are that is common. The common core of their world view comes now from school and radicals, not those old people like mom and dad who, I mean, you just know better than they do. And then they have a curriculum that teaches how bad the Western way of life is and the free market is, especially if you’re just a greedy capitalist like Michael Bloomberg or George Soros. This is – if you were just a greedy capitalist, that’s bad in the curriculum, but there is a better way, working for everybody in a communist utopia, and that’s darn near exact from the textbook.

And then at the same time, you have to teach an irrational fear of guns, not a fear of guns, but an irrational fear of guns. You make kids afraid of assault Pop Tarts and pieces of scrap paper shaped like an L, and you call the police on that. Now, here’s the latest example. I want to show you a picture. This was posted. I saw this picture, and New Yorkers would say, Oh, he’s in camouflage with a gun! I saw that picture and I said, Look at the way he’s holding the gun. This kid’s been well trained. It is unnatural for a kid to grab onto a gun, for anybody to grab onto a gun without putting their finger in with the trigger. You have to be trained to hold a gun like that. This kid has been well schooled, most likely from his parents.

Well, according to his dad, merely posting this picture prompted an unannounced visit from the New Jersey Department of Youth, who were accompanied by police officers. The police officers did not have a warrant. They demanded entry into this home and access to the firearms. Dad said, You don’t have a warrant, beat it. I personally don’t think this is the end of this story. I instructed TheBlaze today to make sure they’re on top of it and inform the family that if anything happens in the future to know that they have a friend in TheBlaze. We will bring you up to speed. We will be a watchdog.

But you have to understand, you are no longer mom and dad. The government is now the new mom and dad, but your new mom and dad is dangerous. How? Let me take you back to Cyprus because remember, they’re ahead on this timeline. Since the bailout offer has now been rejected – okay the idea was, Hey, we’re going to prop up the banks that have been screwing all of us. We’re going to prop up the banks by taking 6 to 10% of everybody’s savings, or we’re all going to die. Oh, wow. So they said, No, we’re not going to do that.

Now, there is another offer on the table. Russia has an offer on the table, and they said, Hey look, Cyprus, we’ll pay for your bailout. You just let us explore in your water for oil or gas. But my guess is the dysfunctional mom and dad will not want a capitalist way out of this. They will not want to solve this problem. They need this problem. In fact, they’ve just made it worse. That’s great. You lost 10%, but now your banks are going to fail, so you’re going to feel the immediate pain, and the message of control is more important than a solution to the problem. With this vote, their banks will fail, and the country will be in chaos, but mom and dad will be happy behind closed doors, because mom and dad will tell you, We told you so.

And the chaos will cause the children to, look, mom, dad, come help. It’s what’s happening right now in a small way with our Easter egg hunts and our White House tours. Why do you think he’s cutting the Easter – they had a St. Patty’s day party, but they’re cutting the Easter egg hunt. Why? To irritate you. I mean, if they think that we’re going to rise up over an Easter egg hunt and say, enough, enough. But that’s what’s happening. The Easter egg hunt and the White House tours, that’s this Cyprus scenario, but Cyprus is at DEFCON 1.

That’s why you must educate yourself, and it is why they are not educating but indoctrinating. You have to indoctrinate to be able to control, but then you have to disarm. You have to disarm the adults, because when you come after their life savings, their blood, sweat, and tears, their entire life, you better reduce the odds for a successful civilian uprising. You have to train ’em. You have to train ’em, and you have to take their guns away, limit the guns. I mean, you can’t have a bunch of guns, right?

You limit the success of an uprising, limit it, but you need the uprising because you have the uprising allows a strongman to gain control. Look to Egypt for the prime example of this. By the way, in Cyprus, private citizens – we just looked this up about an hour ago – completely forbidden from owning handguns and rifles in any category, any caliber. They only are allowed to have shotguns, and those require a license. And they’re limited the two rounds. Joe Biden would fit right in.

So let’s go back to drugs, because drugs and soda and guns doesn’t make sense, unless you know history – the Weimar Republic, notorious for having extremely lenient drug laws. They infiltrated, discredited religion, and then they promoted reckless partying and promiscuity and drug use. People would get sauced up. They’d forget their problems in sex, booze, or bong. See, this is what stuck out to me. It’s interesting Progressives will go after a 16-ounce soda but not pot.

I mean, I understand if you’re a Libertarian, you might be for legalizing drugs because you think the drug war doesn’t work, and you think that, you know, there’s no necessarily inherent value in you taking the drug, but you believe you should have the right because they’re not your parent; you are. You control – maximum freedom, maximum liberty. I get that, but Progressives typically don’t believe that, or you’d be allowed to have Ho Hos and a soda.

Why would Soros favor lenient drug laws? Cyprus is the answer. Before government can come for your life savings, you’ve got to limit the guns, but if they’re going to take everything that you’ve worked for in your entire life, I mean, you’ve got to have a getaway car, you know. You have to have an escape car for the Progressives, for the Totalitarians. You have to be able to control the citizens, and you need to have them just a little blurry eyed so you can get away fast. It’s Oceans 11 times 16 trillion.

Here’s what makes, I think, TheBlaze unique. Have you seen anybody put these facts together like this at all on the air, at all? Are you hearing anybody talking about why guns and soda and drugs and education, and what does Cyprus really mean?

The most important move on guns in the history of the world, a move that would guarantee the world would fall into the hands of thieves, technocrats and dictators is afoot right now, and our government knows it, and our press knows it, and it’s happening in New York City right now. And I believe we’re the only network talking about it, and I’ll show it to you and finish this picture when we come back.

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.