Gov. Bobby Jindal shares thoughts on Christianity in America

Republican Presidential hopeful and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal spent a full hour with Glenn on radio Tuesday, discussing many topics to help listeners get to know him a little more.

As a Catholic who has made strong statements in the past about the preservation of religious freedom, Jindal dedicated a good portion of his interview with Glenn to the topic of religious oppression, particularly toward Christians in recent years.

Listen.

Below is a rush transcript of this segment, it might contain errors.

GLENN: Bobby Jindal joins us now. And I want to start with some faith things. Let me play a clip from the debates last week where Bobby Jindal listed the jobs that Christians can't have. Listen to this.

BOBBY: I'd like the left to give us a list of jobs that Christians aren't allowed to have. If we're not allowed to be clerks, bakers, musicians, caterers, are we allowed to be pastors anymore? We're not allowed to be elected officials. I just want to make this important point. The First Amendment right -- the right to religious freedom is the First Amendment of the Constitution. It isn't breaking the law to exercise our constitutional rights. America did not create religious liberty. Religious liberty created the United States of America. It is the reason we're here today.

GLENN: So a lot of people believe that. A lot of people -- I mean, religion is under attack. And that's saying something now that the pope has arrived here in the United States, and Bobby Jindal, who is a Catholic joins us now. Hi, Bobby, how are you?

BOBBY: Glenn, it's great to be on the air with you. I'm glad that we're still allowed to be radio hosts, and we're still allowed to run for president in our country. I'm glad that they haven't disqualified us from doing that.

GLENN: You just add one word to that: Yet. And I'm comfortable with it.

BOBBY: Don't give them any ideas.

GLENN: Bobby, you're a dear friend. And we don't want to say too much nice about you because we've discovered that anytime we like a candidate, it's the kiss of death. So, just for the record, we hate your guts and we hope you never become president of the United States. Hopefully, that will work in reverse psychology, and you will become the president.

Bobby, you are really, truly one of the real, true conservatives that are getting the job done. In Louisiana, you have stood fast on Common Core. You are -- you're a guy who has a tremendous story of American exceptionalism, but you see the trouble just as much as I do and the next guy. Let's start with religious liberty. And the pope is coming to the United States. And as a non-Catholic, I love this guy. At the same time, I'm really concerned because he doesn't like capitalism all that much. He is a guy --

BOBBY: Sure.

GLENN: He is the guy that is the polar opposite on Pope John Paul and his stance on capitalism and communism. What do you think about this, as a Catholic?

BOBBY: Well, a couple of things. First of all, thank you for those wonderful comments. Look, I'd much rather be praised from Glenn Beck than praised from the New York Times or the Washington Post. I worry -- I love when you say good things about me. I worry if they -- they don't, but if they ever were to write something good about me, then I would be worried.

GLENN: No, don't lose any sleep. They'll never write anything nice about you.

BOBBY: That's right. There's no danger of that happening.

GLENN: Yeah.

BOBBY: Two things about the pope. And, one, you know, the liberal media loves when he does say things that they view as being less than conservative, whether it's about capitalism or global warming or immigration. And they ignore when he says more traditional things on marriage, on being pro-life, and on the sanctity of life, and on religious liberty. And I'd be curious to see how the mainstream media, whether they'll mention those things that he talks about.

But, secondly, I will say this as a Catholic, I respect him. I admire him. I encourage every religious leader to weigh in on important political and social issues. I don't think their voices should be excluded. I don't always agree with them. And the reality is I'm not always required to agree with them. And certainly when the church teaches on faith and morals, like things about being pro-life or the sanctity of marriage, between a man and a woman -- those things, we are required, you know, as Christians, as Catholics, to hold to those truths. When he gives his opinion on capitalism, when he gives his opinion on the relationship between --

GLENN: Air-conditioning.

BOBBY: -- America and Cuba, I'm not obligated -- I don't agree with that. And I don't think that -- for example, he played a critical role in the negotiations between the Castros and this president. I think that was a mistake for America, and I think that was a mistake for people who are fighting for human rights in Cuba. So, look, I'm glad he's coming. I'm glad he's going to challenge folks. I really hope his folks hear him challenging us on matters of faith, especially on Jesus Christ, on the gospel. I just hope people really hear his gospel message. But you're exactly right, the mainstream media loves to take his visit and turn it into an excuse to try to get Republicans and conservatives.

GLENN: And, quite honestly, Bobby, this is why I'm a little torn on him. I'm not a little torn. I'm very torn on him. Because I really, truly believe he's one of the more -- I mean, I love Pope John Paul himself. But one of the more truly Christ-like figures we have seen in my lifetime. He really does move like Christ when it comes to compassion and to care for one another. Just truly love one another. He's remarkable. But when he comes out and says things like global warming -- I know he just came out recently and said that air-conditioning is an evil. I don't even begin to understand that. And then we know that next week -- and let's kind of move from the pope to kind of the UN. Next week, he's talking about a Palestinian state. They're going to raise the Palestinian flag at the United Nations. We're abandoning our Jewish and Israeli allies, the strongest friend we have in the Middle East. And the only ones in the Middle East we should really be standing with, besides maybe the Kurds. And we're abandoning them. Where do we go from here?

BOBBY: Look, you're right when you describe the Jewish people, you describe the state of Israel. You think about how this president has treated them. As to the question of a Palestinian state, I think it's clear that we will only begin to start to talk about a two-state solution and encourage Israel and the Palestinians to negotiate once the Palestinians reject violence and terrorism and explicitly recognize the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state.

Until they do that, how can any American president encourage them -- how can we encourage our allies, the Israelis, to negotiate with a group that says explicitly -- look, Hamas, they're not timid about this, Glenn. They have explicitly said, I want to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. How do you negotiate with people that will blow up -- that will send out suicide bombers to blow up your civilians? You can't negotiate with terrorists. So I think it has to be a requirement before we push for any negotiations. But, you know, our foreign policy is so backwards. You take important allies like Israel, President Obama treats our friends like dirt. And he let's our enemy, like Iran, walk all over him. He's completely backwards. We need to get back to the days where our friends trust us, our enemies fear and respect us. You talk about Pope John Paul II. You just think about how amazing it was to have him, to have Maggie, to have President Ronald Reagan. You and I were blessed. Growing up with those kinds of world leaders, what an amazing -- maybe we took them for granted, not realizing how exceptional they were.

GLENN: Do we -- I -- I wonder as you look at Europe and you see what's happening in Europe and you see how far gone they are. And now with the refugee problem. I mean, the Saudis need to take the refugees. The Muslim countries of the world need to take the refugees until this war is over. But we have a -- we have a responsibility -- the world said, "Never again is right now." It's happening again. There's a genocide with Christians. And I have -- I've seen many Christians open their hearts. Many Americans open their hearts. But a lot of people, rightfully so, Bobby, are seeing what's happening in Europe and are thinking, it's over in Europe. And it could very easily be over here in America. We'll have a piece of audio that we'll play later from a school board meeting in New Jersey where the Muslims are demanding that in ten days, the school dismiss for the -- for the ten days of, what is it, Eid?

PAT: Eid.

GLENN: Eid for ten days. And they do it right now. And the school is like, "We can't do that." And they're getting upset and saying, "You know, soon we'll outnumber you, and we're just going to do it." What's happening to us, Bobby? Can we go back to a place where America was what we thought it was?

BOBBY: Well, Glenn, I'm going to say something politically incorrect. I know you'd be shocked, and I know you've never said anything politically incorrect on your show. But I want to say something politically incorrect, and I know it's incorrect because Hillary Clinton doesn't like it. So I'm going to say it again anyway.

Look, immigration without assimilation is not immigration. It's an invasion. What you're seeing in Europe, second, third generation folks there that don't consider themselves parts of those societies, we must not let that happen here. I don't think America can be beat by any external enemy, but I think we can lose our freedoms internally if we give them away. It is foolish. I know this is politically incorrect, but it is foolish for us to let people come into our country unless they come legally, they learn English, they adopt our values, they're ready to roll up their sleeves and get to work. And unfortunately, the left is trying to preach to us. We're not a melting pot. We're somehow supposed to be a salad bowl. That's nonsense. And they will tell you that you and I are culturally arrogant. We're xenophobic. We're anti-Muslim. That's all nonsense.

What we are is saying that America is a unique -- we have a unique Judeo-Christian foundation and heritage. And there's nothing wrong with saying we want to continue American exceptionalism and folks should only come here if they want to be Americans. And if you don't want to be an American, no one is making you come here. But you're right, we watch what's happening in Europe. We must not let that happen here. The other thing, while we're talking about the refugee issue, let's not forget the reason this is happening is because the president's failed policies. He said there would be a red line, and he did not enforce it. He said if Assad crossed that red line, there would be consequences. That void allowed ISIS to grow. It's allowing Russia now to come into Syria. And he still refuses to arm and train the Kurds, which is amazing to me. He continues to believe that leading from behind is leadership. Weakness creates a void. It's provocative to evil. And that's what we're seeing in the world today. American weakness is provocative to evil and our enemies all over the globe.

GLENN: So, Bobby, I'm not going to play the game that the media wants to play on whether the president is a Muslim or not. I just want you to tell me what -- how can a guy have this bad of a record. He runs to support the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. He fails to support at all the uprising in Iran. He runs to arm the -- the al-Qaeda people -- the people who are fighting al-Qaeda who end up being Syrians. I'm sorry. Who end up being ISIS. Now we're running to arm ISIS. It takes him a year to decide whether or not we're going to kill Osama bin Laden.

Here's the latest on the story in the school in Irving, Texas, that kid who did the, quote, science project, which wasn't a science project, wasn't an assignment at all. Was told by the science teacher, "Put this away in your locker. Don't take it out, and don't ever bring this to school again." The latest is, his father, who we now know is an Islamic activist, has pulled him and his two siblings out of the school. Then he's taking his son to the UN to meet with the dignitaries on the Palestinian state. From there, they're going on a pilgrimage to Mecca to Saudi Arabia. And then they're getting on a plane from Mecca and flying right directly to Washington to meet with the president of the United States.

BOBBY: You know, Glenn, you asked about this president. And look, I've long wondered, is he just extremely incompetent with radical liberal ideology. He's told us, he's the first president that doesn't believe in American exceptionalism. Now, take a step back and understand what that really means. He does not believe in American exceptionalism. You and I believe America is the greatest country in the history of the world. We have a president who when asked directly about that, didn't just quickly and affirmatively say, "Yes, obviously."

Instead, we have a president who truly believes that -- America -- I think if you look at his policies, he truly seems to believe that America causes all these problems. If we retreat from the world, if we have less influence, less power, things will turn out better. Well, in that void, we've seen Russia go into the Ukraine. We've seen ISIS grow in Iraq and Syria. We've seen China ascend in Asia. And we've seen our allies. They're so confused thinking -- you know, they want America to lead. And they want a stronger America. And they can't have that, they will hedge their bets and go elsewhere.

We see the idea of America slipping away in front of us. Glenn, the last seven years, we've seen things I never thought we'd see. We've talked about foreign policy. You're seeing Planned Parenthood selling baby's organs across the country. We've seen $18 trillion of debt. We've seen them create a new government mandate and entitlement when we can't afford the government we got. We've seen this president, he won't even say the words "radical Islamic terrorism." Fort Hood is still a workplace issue. We've seen this president more than happy to criticize crusaders and medieval Christians and criticize and apologize for America, and yet, he won't -- we won't go out there and stand with Israel. He's declared war on transfats, truce with Iran. We've seen things we never thought we'd see in seven years. It's not too late. The hour is getting late. We had better save the idea of America --

GLENN: Okay. So --

BOBBY: -- because it has created more wealth than any other civilization in the history of the world. It's done more to fight for freedom than any other civilization in the history of the world.

GLENN: Okay. So I want to talk to you -- we want to take a quick break. I want to come back and talk to you about something that I think is more disturbing than everything you just talked about. And that is, either the apathetic nature of the average American, where baby parts don't seem to offend them anymore. Or on top of that, if it's not the apathetic nature, it is the nature of maybe 10 percent of the people who say they would agree with me and Tea Party values that are running to people like Donald Trump because they say, "Well, he'll fix it. I'm tired of it. I want somebody who is a little bully on our side who will fix it." Kind of frightening stuff. We'll talk about that here in just a second and find out what your view is on what's happening to the American people themselves.

Featured Image: Republican Presidential hopeful and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal speaks at the Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition 15th Annual Family Banquet and Presidential Forum held at the Iowa State fairgrounds on September 19, 2015 in Des Moines, Iowa. Eight of the Republican candidates including Donald Trump are expected to attend the event. (Photo by Steve Pope/Getty Images)

The melting pot fails when we stop agreeing to melt

Spencer Platt / Staff | Getty Images

Texas now hosts Quran-first academies, Sharia-compliant housing schemes, and rapidly multiplying mosques — all part of a movement building a self-contained society apart from the country around it.

It is time to talk honestly about what is happening inside America’s rapidly growing Muslim communities. In city after city, large pockets of newcomers are choosing to build insulated enclaves rather than enter the broader American culture.

That trend is accelerating, and the longer we ignore it, the harder it becomes to address.

As Texas goes, so goes America. And as America goes, so goes the free world.

America has always welcomed people of every faith and people from every corner of the world, but the deal has never changed: You come here and you join the American family. You are free to honor your traditions, keep your faith, but you must embrace the Constitution as the supreme law of the land. You melt into the shared culture that allows all of us to live side by side.

Across the country, this bargain is being rejected by Islamist communities that insist on building a parallel society with its own rules, its own boundaries, and its own vision for how life should be lived.

Texas illustrates the trend. The state now has roughly 330 mosques. At least 48 of them were built in just the last 24 months. The Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex alone has around 200 Islamic centers. Houston has another hundred or so. Many of these communities have no interest in blending into American life.

This is not the same as past waves of immigration. Irish, Italian, Korean, Mexican, and every other group arrived with pride in their heritage. Still, they also raised American flags and wanted their children to be part of the country’s future. They became doctors, small-business owners, teachers, and soldiers. They wanted to be Americans.

What we are watching now is not the melting pot. It is isolation by design.

Parallel societies do not end well

More than 300 fundamentalist Islamic schools now operate full-time across the country. Many use Quran-first curricula that require students to spend hours memorizing religious texts before they ever reach math or science. In Dallas, Brighter Horizons Academy enrolls more than 1,700 students and draws federal support while operating on a social model that keeps children culturally isolated.

Then there is the Epic City project in Collin and Hunt counties — 402 acres originally designated only for Muslim buyers, with Sharia-compliant financing and a mega-mosque at the center. After public outcry and state investigations, the developers renamed it “The Meadows,” but a new sign does not erase the original intent. It is not a neighborhood. It is a parallel society.

Americans should not hesitate to say that parallel societies are dangerous. Europe tried this experiment, and the results could not be clearer. In Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, entire neighborhoods now operate under their own cultural rules, some openly hostile to Western norms. When citizens speak up, they are branded bigots for asserting a basic right: the ability to live safely in their own communities.

A crisis of confidence

While this separation widens, another crisis is unfolding at home. A recent Gallup survey shows that about 40% of American women ages 18 to 39 would leave the country permanently if given the chance. Nearly half of a rising generation — daughters, sisters, soon-to-be mothers — no longer believe this nation is worth building a future in.

And who shapes the worldview of young boys? Their mothers. If a mother no longer believes America is home, why would her child grow up ready to defend it?

As Texas goes, so goes America. And as America goes, so goes the free world. If we lose confidence in our own national identity at the same time that we allow separatist enclaves to spread unchecked, the outcome is predictable. Europe is already showing us what comes next: cultural fracture, political radicalization, and the slow death of national unity.

Brandon Bell / Staff | Getty Images

Stand up and tell the truth

America welcomes Muslims. America defends their right to worship freely. A Muslim who loves the Constitution, respects the rule of law, and wants to raise a family in peace is more than welcome in America.

But an Islamist movement that rejects assimilation, builds enclaves governed by its own religious framework, and treats American law as optional is not simply another participant in our melting pot. It is a direct challenge to it. If we refuse to call this problem out out of fear of being called names, we will bear the consequences.

Europe is already feeling those consequences — rising conflict and a political class too paralyzed to admit the obvious. When people feel their culture, safety, and freedoms slipping away, they will follow anyone who promises to defend them. History has shown that over and over again.

Stand up. Speak plainly. Be unafraid. You can practice any faith in this country, but the supremacy of the Constitution and the Judeo-Christian moral framework that shaped it is non-negotiable. It is what guarantees your freedom in the first place.

If you come here and honor that foundation, welcome. If you come here to undermine it, you do not belong here.

Wake up to what is unfolding before the consequences arrive. Because when a nation refuses to say what is true, the truth eventually forces its way in — and by then, it is always too late.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Shocking: Chart-topping ‘singer’ has no soul at all

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A machine can imitate heartbreak well enough to top the charts, but it cannot carry grief, choose courage, or hear the whisper that calls human beings to something higher.

The No. 1 country song in America right now was not written in Nashville or Texas or even L.A. It came from code. “Walk My Walk,” the AI-generated single by the AI artist Breaking Rust, hit the top spot on Billboard’s Country Digital Song Sales chart, and if you listen to it without knowing that fact, you would swear a real singer lived the pain he is describing.

Except there is no “he.” There is no lived experience. There is no soul behind the voice dominating the country music charts.

If a machine can imitate the soul, then what is the soul?

I will admit it: I enjoy some AI music. Some of it is very good. And that leaves us with a question that is no longer science fiction. If a machine can fake being human this well, what does it mean to be human?

A new world of artificial experience

This is not just about one song. We are walking straight into a technological moment that will reshape everyday life.

Elon Musk said recently that we may not even have phones in five years. Instead, we will carry a small device that listens, anticipates, and creates — a personal AI agent that knows what we want to hear before we ask. It will make the music, the news, the podcasts, the stories. We already live in digital bubbles. Soon, those bubbles might become our own private worlds.

If an algorithm can write a hit country song about hardship and perseverance without a shred of actual experience, then the deeper question becomes unavoidable: If a machine can imitate the soul, then what is the soul?

What machines can never do

A machine can produce, and soon it may produce better than we can. It can calculate faster than any human mind. It can rearrange the notes and words of a thousand human songs into something that sounds real enough to fool millions.

But it cannot care. It cannot love. It cannot choose right and wrong. It cannot forgive because it cannot be hurt. It cannot stand between a child and danger. It cannot walk through sorrow.

A machine can imitate the sound of suffering. It cannot suffer.

The difference is the soul. The divine spark. The thing God breathed into man that no code will ever have. Only humans can take pain and let it grow into compassion. Only humans can take fear and turn it into courage. Only humans can rebuild their lives after losing everything. Only humans hear the whisper inside, the divine voice that says, “Live for something greater.”

We are building artificial minds. We are not building artificial life.

Questions that define us

And as these artificial minds grow sharper, as their tools become more convincing, the right response is not panic. It is to ask the oldest and most important questions.

Who am I? Why am I here? What is the meaning of freedom? What is worth defending? What is worth sacrificing for?

That answer is not found in a lab or a server rack. It is found in that mysterious place inside each of us where reason meets faith, where suffering becomes wisdom, where God reminds us we are more than flesh and more than thought. We are not accidents. We are not circuits. We are not replaceable.

Europa Press News / Contributor | Getty Images

The miracle machines can never copy

Being human is not about what we can produce. Machines will outproduce us. That is not the question. Being human is about what we can choose. We can choose to love even when it costs us something. We can choose to sacrifice when it is not easy. We can choose to tell the truth when the world rewards lies. We can choose to stand when everyone else bows. We can create because something inside us will not rest until we do.

An AI content generator can borrow our melodies, echo our stories, and dress itself up like a human soul, but it cannot carry grief across a lifetime. It cannot forgive an enemy. It cannot experience wonder. It cannot look at a broken world and say, “I am going to build again.”

The age of machines is rising. And if we do not know who we are, we will shrink. But if we use this moment to remember what makes us human, it will help us to become better, because the one thing no algorithm will ever recreate is the miracle that we exist at all — the miracle of the human soul.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Shocking shift: America’s youth lured by the “Socialism trap”

Jeremy Weine / Stringer | Getty Images

A generation that’s lost faith in capitalism is turning to the oldest lie on earth: equality through control.

Something is breaking in America’s young people. You can feel it in every headline, every grocery bill, every young voice quietly asking if the American dream still means anything at all.

For many, the promise of America — work hard, build something that lasts, and give the next generation a better start — feels like it no longer exists. Home ownership and stability have become luxuries for a fortunate few.

Capitalism is not a perfect system. It is flawed because people are flawed, but it remains the only system that rewards creativity and effort rather than punishing them.

In that vacuum of hope, a new promise has begun to rise — one that sounds compassionate, equal, and fair. The promise of socialism.

The appeal of a broken dream

When the American dream becomes a checklist of things few can afford — a home, a car, two children, even a little peace — disappointment quickly turns to resentment. The average first-time homebuyer is now 40 years old. Debt lasts longer than marriages. The cost of living rises faster than opportunity.

For a generation that has never seen the system truly work, capitalism feels like a rigged game built to protect those already at the top.

That is where socialism finds its audience. It presents itself as fairness for the forgotten and justice for the disillusioned. It speaks softly at first, offering equality, compassion, and control disguised as care.

We are seeing that illusion play out now in New York City, where Zohran Mamdani — an open socialist — has won a major political victory. The same ideology that once hid behind euphemisms now campaigns openly throughout America’s once-great cities. And for many who feel left behind, it sounds like salvation.

But what socialism calls fairness is submission dressed as virtue. What it calls order is obedience. Once the system begins to replace personal responsibility with collective dependence, the erosion of liberty is only a matter of time.

The bridge that never ends

Socialism is not a destination; it is a bridge. Karl Marx described it as the necessary transition to communism — the scaffolding that builds the total state. Under socialism, people are taught to obey. Under communism, they forget that any other options exist.

History tells the story clearly. Russia, China, Cambodia, Cuba — each promised equality and delivered misery. One hundred million lives were lost, not because socialism failed, but because it succeeded at what it was designed to do: make the state supreme and the individual expendable.

Today’s advocates insist their version will be different — democratic, modern, and kind. They often cite Sweden as an example, but Sweden’s prosperity was never born of socialism. It grew out of capitalism, self-reliance, and a shared moral culture. Now that system is cracking under the weight of bureaucracy and division.

ANGELA WEISS / Contributor | Getty Images

The real issue is not economic but moral. Socialism begins with a lie about human nature — that people exist for the collective and that the collective knows better than the individual.

This lie is contrary to the truths on which America was founded — that rights come not from government’s authority, but from God’s. Once government replaces that authority, compassion becomes control, and freedom becomes permission.

What young America deserves

Young Americans have many reasons to be frustrated. They were told to study, work hard, and follow the rules — and many did, only to find the goalposts moved again and again. But tearing down the entire house does not make it fairer; it only leaves everyone standing in the rubble.

Capitalism is not a perfect system. It is flawed because people are flawed, but it remains the only system that rewards creativity and effort rather than punishing them. The answer is not revolution but renewal — moral, cultural, and spiritual.

It means restoring honesty to markets, integrity to government, and faith to the heart of our nation. A people who forsake God will always turn to government for salvation, and that road always ends in dependency and decay.

Freedom demands something of us. It requires faith, discipline, and courage. It expects citizens to govern themselves before others govern them. That is the truth this generation deserves to hear again — that liberty is not a gift from the state but a calling from God.

Socialism always begins with promises and ends with permission. It tells you what to drive, what to say, what to believe, all in the name of fairness. But real fairness is not everyone sharing the same chains — it is everyone having the same chance.

The American dream was never about guarantees. It was about the right to try, to fail, and try again. That freedom built the most prosperous nation in history, and it can do so again if we remember that liberty is not a handout but a duty.

Socialism does not offer salvation. It requires subservience.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Rage isn’t conservatism — THIS is what true patriots stand for

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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.