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Glenn's Show Prep

Ted Cruz responds to phone tapping scandal

June 06, 2013
Wilson

Writer

Glenn talked about the latest Obama scandal -- federal snooping that even Al Gore found ‘obscene’ -- during an interview with Ted Cruz on radio today.

Full transcript below:

GLENN: Here's Senator Ted Cruz. How are you, Senator?

CRUZ: Glenn, it's always good to be with you.

GLENN: It's good to be with you, sir. It's an honor. I tell you, I've said this several times on the air but I want to say it to your face. We thought you were really good. We supported, as you know. However, quite honestly, we're like, is this guy going to be his dad? Is he going to be as good as his dad would be?

CRUZ: Well, now, that's setting an impossible bar there.

GLENN: No, I know that. No, I know that. And we wondered. We thought, is he really going to do what he says he's going to do. You are a blessing, sir. You ‑‑

PAT: You have lived up to everything we expected and then some.

GLENN: I mean, we will, we will have to have you destroyed if you turn.

PAT: Of course.

GLENN: But it is ‑‑ it is refreshing to see somebody actually go and do what they say they're going to do, stand against all of the heat. And I think you have given a lot of people a lot of hope.

CRUZ: Well, that's a thank you, Glenn. I appreciate it. I appreciate the tremendous work you do every day, standing up and speaking the truth to power.

GLENN: Well, I have ‑‑

CRUZ: When they don't like to hear it.

GLENN: Yeah.

CRUZ: And so, you know, from my end, I just feel fortunate to have the chance to try to serve and try and stand up and do the right thing. I find it curious why there are not 99 others doing exactly the same thing.

GLENN: Oh, I can't ‑‑ with everything that's going on, I mean, the latest now is the NSA. The NSA just taking, you know, being ‑‑ going to Verizon and saying, "We want the records of people." These aren't even ‑‑ they're not even terrorists. You don't even have to be apparently on a terrorist list anymore.

CRUZ: Right.

GLENN: That they're just taking your phone records and everything else. And that's only one. That's only Verizon. Millions of people, Americans, are being spied on right now by the government, and what do you think's going to happen here?

CRUZ: Well, there's a pattern unfortunately of this administration not respecting the Bill of Rights and not respecting the Constitution. And we've seen over and over again their willingness to, I think they view the Constitution as essentially a pesky obstruction to carrying out their agenda. So whether it is the First Amendment, going after journalists and media and seizing their phone records and e‑mails; or trying to take away the right of servicemen and women to share their faith; or whether it's the Second Amendment, stripping away our right to keep and bear arms; or whether it's the Fourth and Fifth Amendment, either with drone policy targeting Americans or with the NSA not respecting our rights of privacy and conducting unreasonable searches and seizures, or with the IRS targeting those they perceive to be their political enemies. It is a very troubling pattern and it is one that I think every American, conservative or liberal, should be concerned when the federal government arrogates to itself so much power that it admits no limits under the Bill of Rights and Constitution.

GLENN: So we were just having this conversation because the IRS is in contempt. I mean, they have missed now two deadlines. I don't know why we don't padlock their doors, quite honestly, and do to them everything that they do to the American people. But they're not in compliance now with congress. They are arrogant, everybody just keeps getting more promotions, nobody ‑‑ nobody seems to be afraid of anything in Washington anymore. And Pat and I were talking and said will the American people, with the NSA and the IRS and everything else, will they finally say enough is enough. And he brought up a really good point, and I want to ask you this question. He said, how does anybody say enough anymore? We had our opportunity at the election and how are you going to say enough? What is it that ‑‑ what is it that the American people can do now? Isn't it too late?

CRUZ: Well, you know, there's quite a bit we can do. I mean, I understand the frustration, and there are certainly consequences to elections. And one of the consequences is that we are going to have to deal with people in office who are abusing their power. But the American people can nonetheless stand up. You know, if you look at the last six months, I found it very encouraging. We have seen in the U.S. Senate a small band of committed conservatives beginning to stand up, to stand and fight. And what has happened is that grassroots conservatives all over the country have rallied to stand for principle and that has been able to move the Senate and to win the fights.

You know, if you think back to the fight over drones, when I was proud to be standing shoulder to shoulder with Rand Paul filibustering for 13 hours, that was viewed as a fringe issue, as a quixotic issue, and yet millions of Americans engaged, spoke up, got online. And in those 13 hours, the Obama administration was forced to what it had refused to do for three straight weeks, which is admit that the Constitution limits their power to target Americans.

Just so on guns. You know, when the tragic murder occurred up in Newtown and this administration shamelessly began trying to exploit that horrific crime, not to target criminals, not to go after bad guys but to restrict the constitutional liberties, the right to keep and bear arms of law‑abiding citizens.

I've got to tell you in Washington the sense was that was unstoppable. This was a freight train that could not be stopped, and what happened was incredible. Again, a small band of conservatives initially stood up, and grassroots activists all over the country rose up, called their senators, called their representatives. And when it came to the floor of the Senate, every single proposal that would have undermined the Second Amendment was voted down, and it was voted down because the American people spoke up and spoke up loudly.

GLENN: Okay. The IRS. The IRS is completely out of control, and I said on the air yesterday ‑‑ and by the way, I mean, between you and Rand Paul, I feel like I'm cheating on one when I'm speaking to the other because I just, I would ‑‑ I mean, the throw‑down could happen at any moment with the two of you. I'm in so much love with you. But with the IRS ‑‑

CRUZ: You know what? We are all fighting for the same mistress.

GLENN: I know, I know. Now here's the thing. With the IRS, when you came out and I saw this ad on our network and it was abolish the IRS, I think it was abolishtheIRS.com or something like that. And I saw that and I said, the best thing that has ever happened in my life. Wife, children, whatever: Ted Cruz being elected. How ‑‑ as I said on the air yesterday, this is the opportunity to abolish the IRS.

PAT: Yeah.

GLENN: It really is. How do we do it?

CRUZ: Well, Glenn, let me first step up and try and protect you and say for the record that you didn't mean that.

GLENN: (Laughing.)

CRUZ: I'm really trying to protect the (inaudible).

Look. This is an opportunity for the American people to understand that too much power in Washington is fundamentally a threat to our liberty, and the best solution ‑‑ look, the IRS, we discovered it believed it had the power to demand from ordinary citizens, number one, what books are you reading? Prepare book reports on the specific books you're reading. We learned from other citizens it demanded to know, tell us the content of your prayers. What are you praying for? You know, you can't make this stuff up. And you and I both know the federal government has no business and no constitutional authority at all to inquire of any American the content of our prayers. And fundamentally this is about too much power in Washington. The best solution is padlock the whole place. Shut it down and move to a simple flat tax. Every American I think should be able to fill out their taxes on a postcard. And in addition to limiting that out‑of‑control power in Washington, it would also have enormous positive effects on the economy.

You know, every year we spend $500 billion on tax compliance that is totally wasted. Far better to have that going to economic growth and new jobs.

GLENN: So again, how do we do ‑‑ what would help you get that done? Do you need people with flat tax signs surrounding the capitol? What is it that would get that moving?

CRUZ: What I would encourage people to do is to sign up, speak out, and join the effort to spread the momentum. So I would urge folks, come to my website, which is TedCruz.org. Sign up online there. We've got a petition to abolish the IRS right on the front page of TedCruz.org. I would urge everyone listening, sign that petition. Number two ‑‑

GLENN: I am signing right now.

CRUZ: ‑‑ spread it to your friends. You know, there are links right on there to share it on Facebook, to share it on Twitter, to send e‑mails about it. Build the momentum and spread the word. The more people that come together and speak out, the more momentum we have to get people's attention.

PAT: Senator, do you really think it's ‑‑ I mean, is it possible? Because it's always seemed like ‑‑ I mean, the fair tax people talk about abolishing the IRS all the time and you say, blah, blah‑blah, it's not going to happen. Is it ‑‑ do we actually have a real opportunity here if we move forward on this?

CRUZ: It depends. I mean, if you're asking do we have the votes today on the floor of the Senate to abolish the IRS? The answer's no.

PAT: Yeah. No.

CRUZ: We don't have the votes today.

GLENN: But wait a minute. This is the beginning. We've been talking about this.

CRUZ: Right.

GLENN: This is the beginning of Watergate. I mean ‑‑

PAT: It will take time.

GLENN: It will take time but in two years ‑‑

PAT: It could spread fast.

GLENN: It could spread really fast. You couple the NSA, healthcare, and the IRS, Americans will say ‑‑

CRUZ: Yep.

GLENN: ‑‑ "You're not collecting anything from me. I don't want anything. I don't want to give you any information. I'll tell you this is what I made, subtract 15%, there it is, get out of my face.

CRUZ: Yeah. And as you know, the person who was in charge of persecuting conservative groups is now put in charge of ObamaCare.

GLENN: I know.

CRUZ: Is now the lead enforcer for our healthcare system. They are developing the largest database the government has ever assembled on the American citizenry. And that ‑‑ you know, so the question is can this be done? As I said, we don't have the votes today, but if enough people sign up on the petition, if enough people speak out, if we start to get hundreds of thousands and then millions of people speaking out, writing op‑ed columns, writing Facebook columns and then focused on calling their senators and their members of congress, I've got to tell you, elected officials pay attention when the citizens speak up. It gets their attention. How did we win the gunfight? The number one way we won the gunfight is hundreds of thousands of people began lighting up the phone of senators, and those senators who were wobbling, who were on the edge suddenly started saying, I got how many calls? And it was amazing how when the people speak up, spinal fortitude can be increased.

GLENN: Okay. So let me switch to another topic here, another extraordinarily dangerous person, Samantha Powers. Most people in congress and in the Senate have absolutely no idea who Cass Sunstein even is or that Cass Sunstein ‑‑ what you're seeing in the IRS I am absolutely convinced is Cass Sunstein's work. It is the way he operates. He knows ‑‑ he knows what the law is and the regulations, and he floods you with paperwork. He floods ‑‑ all that was happening with the IRS was a targeting and a nudge. Nudge them, keep nudging and then a little, maybe a little bit ‑‑ put a little shoulder into that. Kind of shove them a little bit. But that's all that is. That's Cass Sunstein. His wife is wildly, wildly anti‑Israel, and she's now been named, Samantha Powers, she's now been named as the nominee for the ambassador at the UN. She's a dangerous woman. She's the one who was the architect behind Libya.

CRUZ: Glenn, I think you're exactly right. I think the nomination of Samantha Power is deeply, deeply troubling. It follows a pattern of this administration, particularly in the second term. They seem to be seeking out in the foreign policy arena people who have been radicals, people who have been extreme, who have been far outside the mainstream. You know, she has publicly written, for example ‑‑ you and I both were quite vocal criticizing the president the for beginning his first term by going on a worldwide apology tour, by going to tyrants and despots and apologizing for the United States.

What's amazing is Samantha Power has tubally not only embraced her view that America needs to keep apologizing, she has gone so far as to explicitly urge, quote, instituting a doctrine of the mea culpa, which as you know is Latin for basically groveling and saying "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry." You know, Glenn, no nation in the history of the world has spilled more blood, has sacrificed more for the freedom of others than the United States of America, and I don't understand what it is with these leftwing academics where they are compelled to constantly grovel, you know, before tyrants like Castro and Cuba and North Korea about apparently their embarrassment about the United States. She has been strongly critical of our support of Israel.

GLENN: Oh, yeah.

CRUZ: Like many academics.

GLENN: No, she ‑‑

CRUZ: She is a hardcore interventionist and, in fact, she believes we should send our men and women into harm's way for whatever causes she deems humanitarian. Mind you not or our national security interest but ‑‑

PAT: Including protecting Palestine against Israel.

GLENN: Right. She wants a ‑‑

PAT: Amazing.

GLENN: ‑‑ force to stand there and protect the Palestinians against Israel.

PAT: Amazing.

CRUZ: That is exactly right. And let me just read a quote from her which I wish this were on video and not radio because it would be fun to see your head explode. Here's the quote. Quote: We have to believe in international law and binding ourself to international standards in the interest of getting others bound to those standards.

PAT: Wow.

GLENN: Yeah. No, I don't think so.

PAT: Wow.

GLENN: There goes my head. Ted, I've got to ‑‑ I've got a network break I have to take, but I would love to have you on again. You are doing God's work and I thank you so much. Please, please remain humble and please, I beg of you, say your prayers on your knees every night. Please remain humble and know who you're in the service of and it's ‑‑

CRUZ: Well, thank you, Glenn. All of us have much cause to seek God in prayer and we're all standing up trying to save our country, and I'm certainly honored to have the chance to serve with so many millions of Americans who are praying and standing for this nation.

GLENN: We'll talk to you again. Thanks, senator.

CRUZ: Thank you, Glenn.

GLENN: Senator Ted Cruz, one of the absolute heroes of our day, I believe. Pray protection on him that he doesn't lose his soul.

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: AI-written country song tops charts, sparks soul debate

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.

Is Socialism seducing a lost generation?

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.