Blog
LatestArticlesVideos
Radio
LivePodcastSerialsStations
TV
Podcasts
The Glenn Beck ProgramThe Glenn Beck PodcastThe Beck Story
Fine Art
Real Estate
Shop
More
AboutCharityBooksSponsorsContact
SEARCH
Live Radio

©2024 MERCURY RADIO ARTS.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

TERMS OF USE | PRIVACY POLICY

Live

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.

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.

Faith, family, and freedom—The forgotten core of conservatism

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.

Glenn Beck: Here's what's WRONG with conservatism today

Getty Images / Handout | Getty Images

What does it mean to be a conservative in 2025? Glenn offers guidance on what conservatives need to do to ensure the conservative movement doesn't fade into oblivion. We have to get back to PRINCIPLES, not policies.

To be a conservative in 2025 means to STAND

  • for Stewardship, protecting the wisdom of our Founders;
  • for Truth, defending objective reality in an age of illusion;
  • for Accountability, living within our means as individuals and as a nation;
  • for Neighborhood, rebuilding family, faith, and local community;
  • and for Duty, carrying freedom forward to the next generation.

A conservative doesn’t cling to the past — he stands guard over the principles that make the future possible.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: You know, I'm so tired of being against everything. Saying what we're not.

It's time that we start saying what we are. And it's hard, because we're changing. It's different to be a conservative, today, than it was, you know, years ago.

And part of that is just coming from hard knocks. School of hard knocks. We've learned a lot of lessons on things we thought we were for. No, no, no.

But conservatives. To be a conservative, it shouldn't be about policies. It's really about principles. And that's why we've lost our way. Because we've lost our principles. And it's easy. Because the world got easy. And now the world is changing so rapidly. The boundaries between truth and illusion are blurred second by second. Machines now think. Currencies falter. Families fractured. And nations, all over the world, have forgotten who they are.

So what does it mean to be a conservative now, in 2025, '26. For a lot of people, it means opposing the left. That's -- that's a reaction. That's not renewal.

That's a reaction. It can't mean also worshiping the past, as if the past were perfect. The founders never asked for that.

They asked that we would preserve the principles and perfect their practice. They knew it was imperfect. To make a more perfect nation.

Is what we're supposed to be doing.

2025, '26 being a conservative has to mean stewardship.

The stewardship of a nation, of a civilization.

Of a moral inheritance. That is too precious to abandon.

What does it mean to conserve? To conserve something doesn't mean to stand still.

It means to stand guard. It means to defend what the Founders designed. The separation of powers. The rule of law.

The belief that our rights come not from kings or from Congress, but from the creator himself.
This is a system that was not built for ease. It was built for endurance, and it will endure if we only teach it again!

The problem is, we only teach it like it's a museum piece. You know, it's not a museum piece. It's not an old dusty document. It's a living covenant between the dead, the living and the unborn.

So this chapter of -- of conservatism. Must confront reality. Economic reality.

Global reality.

And moral reality.

It's not enough just to be against something. Or chant tax cuts or free markets.

We have to ask -- we have to start with simple questions like freedom, yes. But freedom for what?

Freedom for economic sovereignty. Your right to produce and to innovate. To build without asking Beijing's permission. That's a moral issue now.

Another moral issue: Debt! It's -- it's generational theft. We're spending money from generations we won't even meet.

And dependence. Another moral issue. It's a national weakness.

People cannot stand up for themselves. They can't make it themselves. And we're encouraging them to sit down, shut up, and don't think.

And the conservative who can't connect with fiscal prudence, and connect fiscal prudence to moral duty, you're not a conservative at all.

Being a conservative today, means you have to rebuild an economy that serves liberty, not one that serves -- survives by debt, and then there's the soul of the nation.

We are living through a time period. An age of dislocation. Where our families are fractured.

Our faith is almost gone.

Meaning is evaporating so fast. Nobody knows what meaning of life is. That's why everybody is killing themselves. They have no meaning in life. And why they don't have any meaning, is truth itself is mocked and blurred and replaced by nothing, but lies and noise.

If you want to be a conservative, then you have to be to become the moral compass that reminds a lost people, liberty cannot survive without virtue.

That freedom untethered from moral order is nothing, but chaos!

And that no app, no algorithm, no ideology is ever going to fill the void, where meaning used to live!

To be a conservative, moving forward, we cannot just be about policies.

We have to defend the sacred, the unseen, the moral architecture, that gives people an identity. So how do you do that? Well, we have to rebuild competence. We have to restore institutions that actually work. Just in the last hour, this monologue on what we're facing now, because we can't open the government.

Why can't we open the government?

Because government is broken. Why does nobody care? Because education is broken.

We have to reclaim education, not as propaganda, but as the formation of the mind and the soul. Conservatives have to champion innovation.

Not to imitate Silicon Valley's chaos, but to harness technology in defense of human dignity. Don't be afraid of AI.

Know what it is. Know it's a tool. It's a tool to strengthen people. As long as you always remember it's a tool. Otherwise, you will lose your humanity to it!

That's a conservative principle. To be a conservative, we have to restore local strength. Our families are the basic building blocks, our schools, our churches, and our charities. Not some big, distant NGO that was started by the Tides Foundation, but actual local charities, where you see people working. A web of voluntary institutions that held us together at one point. Because when Washington fails, and it will, it already has, the neighborhood has to stand.

Charlie Kirk was doing one thing that people on our side were not doing. Speaking to the young.

But not in nostalgia.

Not in -- you know, Reagan, Reagan, Reagan.

In purpose. They don't remember. They don't remember who Dick Cheney was.

I was listening to Fox news this morning, talking about Dick Cheney. And there was somebody there that I know was not even born when Dick Cheney. When the World Trade Center came down.

They weren't even born. They were telling me about Dick Cheney.

And I was like, come on. Come on. Come on.

If you don't remember who Dick Cheney was, how are you going to remember 9/11. How will you remember who Reagan was.

That just says, that's an old man's creed. No, it's not.

It's the ultimate timeless rebellion against tyranny in all of its forms. Yes, and even the tyranny of despair, which is eating people alive!

We need to redefine ourselves. Because we have changed, and that's a good thing. The creed for a generation, that will decide the fate of the republic, is what we need to find.

A conservative in 2025, '26.

Is somebody who protects the enduring principles of American liberty and self-government.

While actively stewarding the institutions. The culture. The economy of this nation!

For those who are alive and yet to be unborn.

We have to be a group of people that we're not anchored in the past. Or in rage! But in reason. And morality. Realism. And hope for the future.

We're the stewards! We're the ones that have to relight the torch, not just hold it. We didn't -- we didn't build this Torch. We didn't make this Torch. We're the keepers of the flame, but we are honor-bound to pass that forward, and conservatives are viewed as people who just live in the past. We're not here to merely conserve the past, but to renew it. To sort it. What worked, what didn't work. We're the ones to say to the world, there's still such a thing as truth. There's still such a thing as virtue. You can deny it all you want.

But the pain will only get worse. There's still such a thing as America!

And if now is not the time to renew America. When is that time?

If you're not the person. If we're not the generation to actively stand and redefine and defend, then who is that person?

We are -- we are supposed to preserve what works.

That -- you know, I was writing something this morning.

I was making notes on this. A constitutionalist is for restraint. A progressive, if you will, for lack of a better term, is for more power.

Progressives want the government to have more power.

Conservatives are for more restraint.

But the -- for the American eagle to fly, we must have both wings.

And one can't be stronger than the other.

We as a conservative, are supposed to look and say, no. Don't look at that. The past teaches us this, this, and this. So don't do that.

We can't do that. But there are these things that we were doing in the past, that we have to jettison. And maybe the other side has a good idea on what should replace that. But we're the ones who are supposed to say, no, but remember the framework.

They're -- they can dream all they want.
They can come up with all these utopias and everything else, and we can go, "That's a great idea."

But how do we make it work with this framework? Because that's our job. The point of this is, it takes both. It takes both.

We have to have the customs and the moral order. And the practices that have stood the test of time, in trial.

We -- we're in an amazing, amazing time. Amazing time.

We live at a time now, where anything -- literally anything is possible!

I don't want to be against stuff. I want to be for the future. I want to be for a rich, dynamic future. One where we are part of changing the world for the better!

Where more people are lifted out of poverty, more people are given the freedom to choose, whatever it is that they want to choose, as their own government and everything.

I don't want to force it down anybody's throat.

We -- I am so excited to be a shining city on the hill again.

We have that opportunity, right in front of us!

But not in we get bogged down in hatred, in division.

Not if we get bogged down into being against something.

We must be for something!

I know what I'm for.

Do you?