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Politicians need to stop treating Washington like 'Game of Thrones'

April 08, 2015
Wilson

Writer

Bush. Clinton. Bush. Clinton? Bush? The presidency has pretty much become a crown to be passed and forth between these two political families. Political dynasties have been created, and the establishment is fresh out of new ideas. Thankfully, there are still candidates who stand for something. People like Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, who have already announced their candidacies. Heck, even Elizabeth Warren stands for something - even if it's scary, scary big government. It's time to stop looking for an establishment candidate to keep doing the same old thing in D.C. and start looking to the candidates who stand for something real.

The second Republican now to throw their hat into the ring for 2016 is not really a Republican. One that I can support, it’s Sen. Rand Paul from Kentucky.

He announced at the Galt House in Louisville. In a not-so-subtle hint at what the campaign is going to be all about, he laid down the gauntlet. The man understands liberty. Set on the backdrop of a government bent on squeezing every last drop of liberty out of you, the American people, Sen. Paul hammered away at the excessive government and presented the path to real freedom in a clear and I think accessible way.

This is a very different politician, one that I think will speak to the young people in America. The rise of this type of candidate is long overdue. We’ve lived the Game of Thrones long enough. Honestly, if the establishment had their way, it will be a Jeb Bush versus Hillary Clinton election. I’ve talked to so many people who have said—in fact, I talked to a congressman today who said I will for the first time in my life skip the voting booth if that is the choice.

If you’re under 40, this choice would basically mean you don’t know what life without a Bush or a Clinton in office is today, and if either Jeb or Hillary actually win in 2016 and complete two terms, the US would have had a Bush or a Clinton in the White House for 36 of the previous 44 years, and that’s not counting Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State.

Think of that. You’ll be 44. You’ll have no memory of a Bush or Clinton not being in the White House. That is a track record that Robert Mugabe would be jealous of, and it would continue for many more years to come because there is always the ever-so-yummy possibility of Chelsea running for office or one of the other Bushes. After all, Jeb’s son, George P. Bush, is one that everybody in the establishment is so excited about. He just won an election for land commissioner in Texas.

Without fail, the establishment plays the electability card against the Game of Thrones. They tell you your guy can’t win. They tell you ignore your values and vote for their guy because if you vote for their guy, whether it’s Jeb Bush or Hillary Clinton, it’s the only way you’re going to win. You can’t afford to have that other candidate in office, you know?

Both the Republicans and the Democrats fall for it every single time. How’s that working out for us? How is it having a progressive light Republican? But Glenn, we have to appeal to more people. Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, they’re too extreme. Really?

Is it just me that has noticed the Democrats have elected the most liberal senator in the history of Congress? Why is it we have to compromise on what we believe? A real question, if not now, when? And why not now? Why not now?

We have the winning message—freedom, liberty, charting your own course, keeping what you earn, unleashing the American dream, attacking the government waste and the Game of Thrones political machine that has been created. This is what Rand Paul was talking about today. Stand on those, and I’m telling you right now you’ll be standing in victory.

The establishment, the media, they want you to believe people like Sen. Paul cannot win. We saw the reaction when Ted Cruz announced. Look at the reaction today with Rand Paul. First headline, “Why Rand Paul Probably Can’t Win Republican Nomination.” “Can Libertarian-Leaning Rand Paul Really Win the GOP Nomination?” “Rand Paul is Losing His Father’s Base.” Really?

I don’t know if he can win or not. I really don’t know, but are we not going to try to elect somebody who believes in the Constitution and liberty and is not part of the establishment? It is hard to imagine the message of the Tea Party, the message of freedom, not resonating with people of all ages if you have the right banner carrier. I don’t know who the right banner carrier is. I have my personal preferences, but I’ll take any of these liberty candidates, any of them.

He has challenged every aspect of entrenched Washington politics. Watch a little bit from the speech today.

VIDEO

Sen. Paul: Congress will never balance the budget unless you force them to do so. Congress has an abysmal record with balancing anything. Our only recourse is to force Congress to balance the budget with a constitutional amendment. I ran for office because we have too many career politicians. I believe it now more than ever. We limit the president to two terms. It’s about time we limit the terms of Congress.

You know, it’s amazing. What’s really amazing to me, as I am watching this on our monitor down here, I have all of the other networks on monitors that I can view in case there’s breaking news or anything. As I’m hearing Rand Paul talk about this, what is the lead story on FOX News this hour? The lead story with FOX News this hour was John McCain is going to run again for Senate in 2016.

Which one is the message that America needs? Yes, America was never meant to have career politicians. Rand Paul is a doctor. He spoke about it, and I love this. I stand with him. I absolutely believe this is one way to attack the entrenched politicians, stopping the leeches who suck the life out of every newbie that enters office in DC.

He also proposed a read-the-bill law. How this hasn’t passed already is beyond me. Every day Congress has to read, should read, supposed to read, but never does, the 1,000-page bills they propose. To revive the economy and struggling sectors like manufacturing, he said today he would dramatically lower the tax on American companies that keep profits here and not overseas. And here’s why I believe we have an opportunity to crush the failed progressive ideas. Look how he attacked education.

VIDEO

Sen. Paul: Those of us who have enjoyed the American dream must break down the wall that separates us from the other America. I want all our children to have the same opportunities that I had. We need to stop limiting kids in poor neighborhoods to failing public schools and offer them school choice. It won’t happen though unless we realize that we can’t borrow our way to prosperity. Currently, some $3 trillion comes into the US Treasury. Couldn’t the country just survive on $3 trillion? I propose we do something extraordinary—let’s just spend what comes in.

That is the way to frame both of those issues. In truth, poor kids are stuck in the worst failing schools. I lived in New York City. Democrats in New York City are clamoring for someone to give them choice. How about we give them an escape hatch? And what a great simple message, what do you say we just spend what we have and not a dime more? It’s pretty impossible to argue with that. Believe me, the Jeb Bushes of the world will.

He tackled the unconstitutional spying program.

VIDEO

Sen. Paul: Warrantless searches of America’s phones and computer records are un-American and a threat to our civil liberties. I say that your phone records are yours. I say the phone records of law-abiding citizens are none of their damn business. Is this where we light up the phones?

The president created this vast dragnet by Executive Order, and as president, on day one, I will immediately end this unconstitutional surveillance.

I will tell you that you know I’m a fan of Ted Cruz, but this is a speech that made me get up off the couch. I was cheering for this speech. I think this is one of the better speeches I’ve heard any politician give in a very long time.

Even what people say is Rand Paul’s weakest area, foreign policy, he took it straight on and tackled it. Watch.

VIDEO

Sen. Paul: The enemy is radical Islam. You can’t get around it. And not only will I name the enemy, I will do whatever it takes to defend America from these haters of mankind. We must realize though that we do not project strength by borrowing money from China to send it to Pakistan. Let’s quit building bridges in foreign countries and use that money to build some bridges here at home.

It angers me to see mobs burning our flag and chanting “death to America” in countries that receive millions of dollars in our foreign aid. I say it must end. I say not one penny more to these haters of America.

How do you argue with that? I don’t know. What is the left going to do with what is essentially an antiwar candidate? They’re going to say that he’s an isolationist, etc., etc. I’ve got questions on how he would fight ISIS and how he would fight the war, but I agree with all that. I don’t think he’s an isolationist. I hope he’s not.

I said it was a really good day when Ted Cruz announced he was running for president, and I say again today is a really good day as well. I have questions for Sen. Rand Paul just like I do for Ted Cruz, Scott Walker, and Marco Rubio. Here is who I don’t have any questions for: Jeb Bush. I know exactly who he is. I know who the establishment is, where they have taken us, and where they would continue to take us. No, thank you.

What do you say we don’t eat the liberty-minded politicians, we stand by and behind those for the Constitution, and we eat the progressive establishment candidates instead? Enough of Lindsey Graham. Enough of the Bushes. Enough is enough. I for one am looking forward to this Game of Thrones and replacing the establishment GOP.

And one other thing, I had a meeting today with all of the writers on TheBlaze to start outlaying our strategy for what our election coverage is going to be here at TheBlaze. I said we have to be the people that ask, “Why not? Why not?” I don’t really care if we’re not on the plane with Jeb Bush. I don’t really care. If he’s the establishment, if he’s the guy, go get your new someplace else because we’re going to be talking about something else, because I know exactly what will happen if that guy is elected. I’m not interested.

I do want to be on the plane with Ted Cruz. I do want to be on the plane with Rand Paul. I do want to be on the plane with Marco Rubio. I do want to be on the plane with Scott Walker, although I will tell you something is not right with Scott Walker. This again is just me, but something is not right with Scott Walker.

Either he is avoiding me, he’s avoiding this audience because he doesn’t want to be seen with you, or his staff is out-of-control incompetent. We have been trying to get an interview with him for what, almost two months. For some reason, we can’t get a single interview with him. That is highly unusual for somebody who is offering 15 minutes or an hour of time for a media empire that has a footprint of 50 million people.

Something is not right with Scott Walker. I don’t know what it is. We’ll follow the story. In the meantime, let’s all stand together with those who will stand by the Constitution. Let’s stand arm in arm. I’ll take anybody who will defend the Constitution over yet another Bush or Chris Christie in office.

Featured image courtesy of the AP

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.

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?

How America’s elites fell for the same lie that fueled Auschwitz

Anadolu / Contributor | Getty Images

The drone footage out of Gaza isn’t just war propaganda — it’s a glimpse of the same darkness that once convinced men they were righteous for killing innocents.

Evil introduces itself subtly. It doesn’t announce, “Hi, I’m here to destroy you.” It whispers. It flatters. It borrows the language of justice, empathy, and freedom, twisting them until hatred sounds righteous and violence sounds brave.

We are watching that same deception unfold again — in the streets, on college campuses, and in the rhetoric of people who should know better. It’s the oldest story in the world, retold with new slogans.

Evil wins when good people mirror its rage.

A drone video surfaced this week showing Hamas terrorists staging the “discovery” of a hostage’s body. They pushed a corpse out of a window, dragged it into a hole, buried it, and then called in aid workers to “find” what they themselves had planted. It was theater — evil, disguised as victimhood. And it was caught entirely on camera.

That’s how evil operates. It never comes in through the front door. It sneaks in, often through manipulative pity. The same spirit animates the moral rot spreading through our institutions — from the halls of universities to the chambers of government.

Take Zohran Mamdani, a New York assemblyman who has praised jihadists and defended pro-Hamas agitators. His father, a Columbia University professor, wrote that America and al-Qaeda are morally equivalent — that suicide bombings shouldn’t be viewed as barbaric. Imagine thinking that way after watching 3,000 Americans die on 9/11. That’s not intellectualism. That’s indoctrination.

Often, that indoctrination comes from hostile foreign actors, peddled by complicit pawns on our own soil. The pro-Hamas protests that erupted across campuses last year, for example, were funded by Iran — a regime that murders its own citizens for speaking freely.

Ancient evil, new clothes

But the deeper danger isn’t foreign money. It’s the spiritual blindness that lets good people believe resentment is justice and envy is discernment. Scripture talks about the spirit of Amalek — the eternal enemy of God’s people, who attacks the weak from behind while the strong look away. Amalek never dies; it just changes its vocabulary and form with the times.

Today, Amalek tweets. He speaks through professors who defend terrorism as “anti-colonial resistance.” He preaches from pulpits that call violence “solidarity.” And he recruits through algorithms, whispering that the Jews control everything, that America had it coming, that chaos is freedom. Those are ancient lies wearing new clothes.

When nations embrace those lies, it’s not the Jews who perish first. It’s the nations themselves. The soul dies long before the body. The ovens of Auschwitz didn’t start with smoke; they started with silence and slogans.

Andrew Harnik / Staff | Getty Images

A time for choosing

So what do we do? We speak truth — calmly, firmly, without venom. Because hatred can’t kill hatred; it only feeds it. Truth, compassion, and courage starve it to death.

Evil wins when good people mirror its rage. That’s how Amalek survives — by making you fight him with his own weapons. The only victory that lasts is moral clarity without malice, courage without cruelty.

The war we’re fighting isn’t new. It’s the same battle between remembrance and amnesia, covenant and chaos, humility and pride. The same spirit that whispered to Pharaoh, to Hitler, and to every mob that thought hatred could heal the world is whispering again now — on your screens, in your classrooms, in your churches.

Will you join it, or will you stand against it?

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Bill Gates ends climate fear campaign, declares AI the future ruler

Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

The Big Tech billionaire once said humanity must change or perish. Now he claims we’ll survive — just as elites prepare total surveillance.

For decades, Americans have been told that climate change is an imminent apocalypse — the existential threat that justifies every intrusion into our lives, from banning gas stoves to rationing energy to tracking personal “carbon scores.”

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates helped lead that charge. He warned repeatedly that the “climate disaster” would be the greatest crisis humanity would ever face. He invested billions in green technology and demanded the world reach net-zero emissions by 2050 “to avoid catastrophe.”

The global contest is no longer over barrels and pipelines — it is over who gets to flip the digital switch.

Now, suddenly, he wants everyone to relax: Climate change “will not lead to humanity’s demise” after all.

Gates was making less of a scientific statement and more of a strategic pivot. When elites retire a crisis, it’s never because the threat is gone — it’s because a better one has replaced it. And something else has indeed arrived — something the ruling class finds more useful than fear of the weather.The same day Gates downshifted the doomsday rhetoric, Amazon announced it would pay warehouse workers $30 an hour — while laying off 30,000 people because artificial intelligence will soon do their jobs.

Climate panic was the warm-up. AI control is the main event.

The new currency of power

The world once revolved around oil and gas. Today, it revolves around the electricity demanded by server farms, the chips that power machine learning, and the data that can be used to manipulate or silence entire populations. The global contest is no longer over barrels and pipelines — it is over who gets to flip the digital switch. Whoever controls energy now controls information. And whoever controls information controls civilization.

Climate alarmism gave elites a pretext to centralize power over energy. Artificial intelligence gives them a mechanism to centralize power over people. The future battles will not be about carbon — they will be about control.

Two futures — both ending in tyranny

Americans are already being pushed into what look like two opposing movements, but both leave the individual powerless.

The first is the technocratic empire being constructed in the name of innovation. In its vision, human work will be replaced by machines, and digital permissions will subsume personal autonomy.

Government and corporations merge into a single authority. Your identity, finances, medical decisions, and speech rights become access points monitored by biometric scanners and enforced by automated gatekeepers. Every step, purchase, and opinion is tracked under the noble banner of “efficiency.”

The second is the green de-growth utopia being marketed as “compassion.” In this vision, prosperity itself becomes immoral. You will own less because “the planet” requires it. Elites will redesign cities so life cannot extend beyond a 15-minute walking radius, restrict movement to save the Earth, and ration resources to curb “excess.” It promises community and simplicity, but ultimately delivers enforced scarcity. Freedom withers when surviving becomes a collective permission rather than an individual right.

Both futures demand that citizens become manageable — either automated out of society or tightly regulated within it. The ruling class will embrace whichever version gives them the most leverage in any given moment.

Climate panic was losing its grip. AI dependency — and the obedience it creates — is far more potent.

The forgotten way

A third path exists, but it is the one today’s elites fear most: the path laid out in our Constitution. The founders built a system that assumes human beings are not subjects to be monitored or managed, but moral agents equipped by God with rights no government — and no algorithm — can override.

Hesham Elsherif / Stringer | Getty Images

That idea remains the most “disruptive technology” in history. It shattered the belief that people need kings or experts or global committees telling them how to live. No wonder elites want it erased.

Soon, you will be told you must choose: Live in a world run by machines or in a world stripped down for planetary salvation. Digital tyranny or rationed equality. Innovation without liberty or simplicity without dignity.

Both are traps.

The only way

The only future worth choosing is the one grounded in ordered liberty — where prosperity and progress exist alongside moral responsibility and personal freedom and human beings are treated as image-bearers of God — not climate liabilities, not data profiles, not replaceable hardware components.

Bill Gates can change his tune. The media can change the script. But the agenda remains the same.

They no longer want to save the planet. They want to run it, and they expect you to obey.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.