Do any of the presidential nominees stand a chance of leading America through the storms ahead?

Last night, Glenn sat down with economist, columnist, and TV personality Larry Kudlow. The interview covered a wide range of topics: the economy, foreign policy, and Kudlow’s personal demons. With all of the trouble facing the country, Glenn wanted to know if any of America’s leaders could step up and guide the country through the turmoil ahead, much like Winston Churchill in World War 2.

Scroll down for a transript of the interview:

 

Glenn:What we were just talking about before, you’re a classic liberal. I’m a classic liberal.

Larry: I’m a hierarchian, free market classic liberal. I would have been a Gladstonian liberal had I lived in the 19th century.

Glenn: Tell me what classic liberal means, because most people I don’t think understand. I think it’s important to put that chair back at the table.

Larry: Right. Well, classic liberals would never rely on government. They believe very strongly in individual rights, in free markets, in free trade, and freedom just in general. They were the freedom people, and it was sort of Gladstone versus Disraeli. Disraeli was the Tory who was sort of the Nixonian guy who used government and would concoct all these foreign policy things that got Britain into trouble.

Gladstonians, the classical liberals certainly didn’t believe in any imperialism, and in fact were defending Irish rights way before it was fashionable to do so, but you know, in economic terms, it’s free markets. It’s free markets and free trade and freedom…freedom, freedom, freedom. That’s what they stood for.

Glenn: Let me go to the measles. A classic liberal would say you have the right to not take the measles shots. I heard Rand Paul talk about this, and on CNBC, one of the anchors went crazy on him. Explain why a classic liberal believes you should have the right.

Larry: You believe in free choice. You believe in free choice.

Glenn: But what about all the poor people that you’re going to affect?

Larry: Well, you know, I’m not an expert on this, measles, autism, and so forth, but it seems to me there is a health role for either the government or at least experts to tell you, all right, here are the odds, here’s this, here’s that, but at the end of the day, you have to make your own choice, and it is your own kids. Both Rand Paul and Chris Christie, I know they’re all bobbing and weaving now about this issue, and my view is I’m not for mandates. I don’t see how the state can mandate anything regarding your kids or your family or should. All I can do is tell you what, you know, what the chances are and what your risks are, and it’s up to you. It’s real simple.

Glenn: Do you see anybody on the horizon that, you know, you talk Chris Christie and Rand Paul and Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush…do you see anybody in the field that has a chance of being Churchill?

Larry: Ooh, Churchill, no, frankly, not yet. Now, it’s early. We don’t know enough about their foreign policy opinions, and that’s going to be a bigger issue in this election than it has been in any recent elections, I think.

We were talking, and it’s worth repeating for the viewers and listeners, there’s a book out by a chap named Boris Johnson, who is the Mayor of London. He’s a Tory, but he’s a very free market Tory, and he wrote something called The Churchill Factor, and he basically argues two things very simple. One is the hinge of history is determined by great people, great people, not historical forces and so forth. Great individuals change history—for example, a Reagan, for example, a Thatcher.

In this case, he talks about Churchill and argues quite plainly and clearly that had Churchill not been there and had Churchill not been Churchill, he was a very courageous man who had actually fought in wars, unlike most leaders, totalitarianism would have won in Europe and quite possibly in America as well. Whether it was the Communists or the Nazis, it could have been either one. That one could have gone either way.

Glenn: And there was support in the United States for both of them.

Larry: Indeed, and in fact, yes, in England, even worse, here’s Churchill comes in, his forecast about the Nazis come true, so they finally elect him or push him into Prime Minister. So, he was an aristocrat, but the nobility, half the nobility in England were pro-Nazi, and they had this bizarre sense that Hitler would come in and bless them, pat their heads, and say you all, go ahead and go own your own your land. You can do whatever you want. I’m just going to have my guy here to look over you.

Churchill is trying to explain to them, you know, wrong, they’re going to come in and take everything away. It’s a State Socialism. You’re going to lose everything you have, and he will treat you just the way he’s treating them in Sudetenland and Poland and elsewhere. So, every other Tory in Churchill’s party was an appeaser, was a wuss basically, and here’s Churchill trying to say wait a minute. It’s 1940. It’s 1941. The USA wasn’t there. FDR couldn’t do it yet. Whatever he was thinking, it was way too early, and so Boris Johnson says this guy, Churchill, stopped totalitarianism.

So, for me, I’m no foreign policy expert, Glenn, but for me, when I look at radical Islam, all right, I see totalitarianism. I see Communism. I see Nazi-ism. I think people have to wake up. They have to understand the gravity of this, and we need a game plan. The only person I know in public life—you were asking about the candidates—the only person I’ve heard, and I’ve interviewed him several times is retired four-star general Keane, Jack Keane, who I think is a brilliant man.

He says this straight up. In fact, I had him on the radio show, I don’t know, two Saturdays ago, and he said this is like fighting Communism, and we’d better understand this. I don’t think we do. In terms of the crop of Republican candidates, I haven’t heard them yet on this subject.

Glenn: Have you seen anybody, anybody, not just running for president, do you see anybody out there that you think boy, they get it, they’re doing a good job?

Larry: Besides Keane? Besides Keane?

Glenn: Yeah.

Larry: And I interview everybody, Glenn, either on the TV show or the radio. I try to read. I’m like you, I try to keep up with everything. I don’t hear anybody stating it with that kind of clarity. I don’t hear anything coming out of the joint chiefs, which is so important. I don’t hear it from the civilian side of the Pentagon, and look, Obama, I mean, we could talk about Obama forever. It ain’t hardly worth the air time, but this guy won’t even acknowledge that it’s an Islamic problem. Actually, oddly enough, I don’t want to go too deep, but there is a wonderful speech by my friend Jindal, Bobby Jindal, Louisiana.

Glenn: The recent one he gave?

Larry: Yes, and I wrote a column about the speech because I hadn’t seen anyone, and he got it. Okay, so let me backtrack. He got it. That speech was heavily criticized in some quarters. My attitude is tough darts. I had him on the radio, but I wrote a column, got a million hits on it, and he seems to understand this.

Anyway, it was interesting to me, a week or two before Jindal spoke in London, el-Sisi in Egypt, all right, gives a speech—Egypt is the fourth or fifth largest Muslim country—to a bunch of imams somewheres in Egypt, and basically says you are to blame to the imams, he said, because if you don’t stop the radical jihadists, then they’re going to destroy this sacred holy religion and a lot more and just laid it right out to them.

[break]

Glenn: You’ve seen the rise of Fascism, Le Pen, PEGIDA, Golden Dawn. It’s on the rise in Russia with Putin’s people. It’s on the rise in Italy, in Spain. This is 1933 playing itself all out all over again. What frightens me is we haven’t really, except for Greece, we haven’t really hit the economic disturbance that’s coming.

We haven’t paid the piper at all, and when that happens, somehow or another because I think that both parties have lured us into this poppy field and said sleep, sleep, everything’s going to be okay. When we wake up to our horrible situation all around the world, I think people are going to be screaming for blood and screaming for a strong man to fix it as they are now in Greece.

Larry: In America?

Glenn: I hope not. I hope not. How bad are things going to get in America?

Larry: I’m a lot more optimistic about the economy, assuming we’re still a free country.

Glenn: But are we?

Larry: Well, yes, more than less, absolutely.

Glenn: We’re 14th now on economic freedom.

Larry: Well, I understand that, and we’ve made a lot of terrible mistakes in the last bunch of years, so I agree with that index. I mean, I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again, you and I and like-minded people who believe in freedom, I can sit down with you and fix the economy. Give me a half hour. I can. I’ll list the…I mean, I’ve been doing it for close to 40 years. The principles don’t change.

Glenn: You know, you can fix the economy on paper, but what concerns me is the culture has changed, our desire to work, our desire to say I did build that, and he built that, and back off, that’s his, you know? Give it to me. I want it. I’m owed it. I mean, we were here in the 1960s, but in 1968, we were rolling in the mud, and we were looking to the moon. There was a split in the country. Where’s the moonshot? Where are the group of people that are saying we’re going to do something great? Is it Silicon Valley? Who is it? Where is it?

Larry: The culture of entrepreneurship, I think, is alive and well, Glenn, okay? Not in the White House but out in Main Street, and I think Americans are great, freedom-loving, business-oriented people who understand frankly that if you want to make a buck and take care of your family, you’ve got to work hard. I think people still believe that in their bones. I know I believe that, and maybe I’m being too optimistic, but that’s my nature. The trouble is our government down through the years under both Republicans and Democrats have created a whole series of incentives not to work. This is what I find very troubling. They’re going to pay you not to work.

Unemployment insurance is a perfect example. There was a very good Wall Street Journal editorial on this the other day. The Republicans finally did after 11 or something extensions of long-term unemployment insurance, with all these Keynesian economists in the White House and the Congressional Budget Office saying no, we must have it; otherwise, the economy is going down—wrong, as soon as we stopped it, people started going back to work. How about that, started going back to work? When you talk about food stamps and disability insurance, people are paying them not to work. When you talk about ObamaCare, ObamaCare is essentially premised on the fact that if you get a job and succeed, and your income goes up, they will take away the ObamaCare subsidies and tax credits. They’re basically paying you not to work. That’s got to stop.

Glenn: Okay, last question, you and I are both alcoholics.

Larry: Yes, Sir.

Glenn: I think alcoholics might save the country because it’s going to take that attitude of picking yourself back up and admitting that you have a problem and saying I’m powerless with this problem, but I’m going to pick myself up and help each other and get through it.

Larry: And trust God.

Glenn: Trust God.

Larry: And trust God. I didn’t, so I acted on myself on my own, and it got me into a heap of trouble. The bottom was a lot worse than I ever thought.

Glenn: What was the bottom for you?

Larry: Well, I lost some awfully good jobs along the way in the late 80s and early 90s. I lost a Wall Street career. I had a career in journalism. I lost that. I had been doing a lot of broadcasting. I lost that. It’s very hard to hold a job, Glenn, if you don’t ever show up for it. That’s one of the lessons I learned. In fact, showing up is part of my New World mantra. I’m with God’s grace coming up to 20 years, and I show up…everything, everything. Unless I’m really three-quarters dead, I’m just going to show up. I don’t care how bad I am, I’ll still show up.

So, I agree with you, there are a lot of lessons to be learned there, and I’m a devotee of Alcoholics Anonymous. I’m not breaking anonymity because I never had any anonymity, so I can talk about it. The local press here in New York took an unusual interest in my issues, shall we say, but that’s okay.

Glenn: Oh, I bet.

Larry: That’s okay. I never have blamed anybody. The good news is I learned how to change, and I won’t even say I regained my faith. I will say I gained faith in God. I’m not sure I ever had it when I was a kid. I wasn’t really brought up in that tradition. I became a Catholic convert. That came later. I had to get sober first. The crowd at Hazelden where I was for about six months told me a couple things. They said (a) don’t go back to New York, and I didn’t. I actually did what they told me. I had one job offer. I may have told this before.

I was a pretty successful guy, but I had one job offer when I left treatment, and that was from Art Laffer in San Diego. He and Tracy took me and Judy into their home in the office, and I had a job. I learned a lot from that, and I went to all my meetings and did what my sponsors told me to do and got better. That was 20 years ago, and I’m still doing it. I was at a meeting last night and loved it, loved it. As I told you before, my dad just passed away, World War II vet, good guy. I buried him…a little down over that, so I went to a safe place, a meeting, and talked to a whole bunch of friends about it. You know, they said hey, it’s natural for you to have your down moments. You’re okay. That’s right. They are right.

So, I learned a whole lot, and I’m not a proselytizer. I’m not John the Baptist. I’m Larry Kudlow. I’m grateful to be sober. I’m grateful to have work, you know, interviews. Every night for 12 years, I’m grateful for a TV show on CNBC that I just love. When I couldn’t do it anymore, they rewrote the contract and kept me on as a commentator. I have a radio show that’s high ranked. I’m just grateful for my whole life and my wife, who I tell you, a footnote to the story, at the end, the end of the end, the end, had signed me up for the long-term care program at Hazelden. It was a real lock-and-key operation, which is what I needed, and I’ve told this story many times.

You know, she gave me a one-way plane ticket to the St. Paul-Minneapolis airport, and she said, “If you go, they’ll pick you up. You’ll be there for six months.” She said, “Here’s 20 bucks for the cab.” I had no money. And she said, “If you don’t go, that’s up to you. I’m out of here.” So, somebody, some power greater than myself, pushed me in the right direction, and as I say, Judy and I are married 27 years. I love her to death. Literally, I would, you know, stop a bullet for her, and the Lord has been very good to me, very good to me.

Glenn: Thank you.

Larry: Thank you.

Glenn: Thank you…really great.

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

Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

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

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

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

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

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

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

What Lee actually proposed

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

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

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

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

The Biden land-grab

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

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

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

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

  Smith Collection/Gado / Contributor | Getty Images

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

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

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

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

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

American families pay the price

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

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

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

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

Divide and conquer

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

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


This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

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

MANAURE QUINTERO / Contributor | Getty Images

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

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

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

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

  

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

Ban engagement-optimized AI companions for kids

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

Establish basic liability laws

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

Pass increased whistleblower protections

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

Prevent AI from having legal rights

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

Oppose the state moratorium on AI 

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

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

Tasos Katopodis / Stringer | Getty Images

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Operation Midnight Hammer

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

   USAF / Handout | Getty Images

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

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

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

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

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

What comes next

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

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

That would be catastrophic.

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

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

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

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

Now we pray

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

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

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


This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rising Islamism

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

   Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

 

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

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

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

Blending the worst ideologies

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

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

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

Call out radicalism

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

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

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.