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Glenn's Show Prep

Doc & Skip: On the Ground Reporting From Iowa

February 02, 2016
Lori Hanes

Writer

Doc & Skip phoned in from Iowa Monday morning to share their experiences on the ground in Iowa. The duo attended both Republican and Democrat caucuses, offering interesting comparisons and discussing quite a range of topics, including the real story in Iowa, Mike Huckabee's plan B and tidbits about several other "lower tier" candidates (hint: Jeb Bush got booed).

Interestingly, the two asked Bernie Sanders supporters to define socialism and communism. When they asked Doc the difference between the two, he had a stellar answer: "About a year and a half."

Listen to the full segment below:

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

GLENN: They'll give -- because I'm totally sincere about that. No, I really mean that. Totally sincere.

All right, let's go to Doc and Skip.

DOC: Glenn, you mentioned Mike Huckabee. What he said about him. About an hour before the Iowa caucus, because we're here in Des Moines, actually HEP Altune, outside of Des Moines, but about an hour before, he was on a local radio station being interviewed, Donald Trump, and, again, he sings the praises of Mike Huckabee. He comes out, "Mike Huckabee, great guy. He came out to the event I had. Great guy."

SKIP: Rick Santorum too. Like you said, all you have to do is kiss the ring.

PAT: Uh-huh.

GLENN: Well, I think he's trying to get Mike Huckabee's -- and Mike is going to endorse Donald Trump.

JEFFY: Well, those two ended up speaking at his opposing rally to the debate, so --

DOC: Here's what we heard from a friend of a friend who knows somebody who saw Ferris HEP pass out at 31 Flavors last night, that Mike Huckabee is now -- and this is not going to be a surprise, but officially has been for the last couple of weeks, jockeying for that VP week from somebody. And then you know Trump is a deal-maker. I don't know if Trump is willing to do it, but that's what Mike is thinking. Mike is looking for a -- he's playing the base on -- Fox is up, you know. Where is he going to go?

GLENN: So are you thinking that somebody is going to want that whopping 2 percent or 4 percent?

DOC: No.

STU: He's a deal-maker, but he's not stupid. He won't sell the VP slot for 4 percent.

GLENN: No, that's ridiculous.

DOC: Maybe he's ambassador to Uruguay or something like that.

STU: Yeah. Have you guys been able to track down and meet any one of Gilcrestmorelandson's 12 votes?

DOC: No, they're very scattered throughout the state, the way we understand. We put out an all HEP points bulletin for them, but we haven't got any one of the 12.

SKIP: Sorry. Go ahead, Glenn.

GLENN: No, please, you.

SKIP: I was going to say, yeah, at this point, we can chalk it up to a statistical anomaly that he even got any points at this points.

STU: He really did -- I'm not joking. He legitimately got 12 votes statewide. Twelve.

PAT: Literally 12?

STU: Literally 12.

GLENN: Come on. That's more than I thought.

PAT: No way. He got 12 votes?

(laughter)

DOC: Do you realize "other" got 116?

(laughter)

PAT: "Other" beat Jim Gilmore?

GLENN: Pat, put two fingers up. Right there, he got that many people in Iowa. That many.

PAT: That many. That's crazy.

SKIP: Essentially, Glenn, you got more votes than he did.

GLENN: That's crazy. That's crazy.

PAT: That's the real story of the night then. Jim Gilmore -- you got to try to only get 12 votes. That's hard to do.

STU: That's very hard.

PAT: Seriously.

GLENN: So Doc and Skip, you're in Iowa. You did one of the campaign rally things last night.

DOC: No, we went to one of the caucuses. Precinct 76. And we actually got to sit in and witness both the Democrats caucusing and the Republicans caucusing. And it's really a fascinating procedure.

The Democrats just get up, and they all start speechifying. Everybody in the room starts yelling to try to convince people to come over to their side and support their candidate.

The Republicans, a little more refined. They sit down. One person stands up. Just anybody there that is representing or wants to speak on behalf of the person they're supporting stand up and speak for three minutes. And then they do a written vote, and that's the end of it.

They go down the list and they're like, "Okay. Anybody for Ted Cruz?" By the way, it was like four to one in our precinct, the group sitting there for Ted Cruz. Guy stands up and speaks. Trump. Everybody goes down the list.

Then they go, okay. There was one person in there for Mike Huckabee. Chris Christie? No. Carly Fiorina? No. Jeb Bush? And the place busts out in laughter. I'm not kidding.

GLENN: Oh, my gosh. Did you get that on tape?

DOC: They laughed.

GLENN: Wow.

DOC: They were like, "Okay. Let us just move on."

GLENN: How many people did Jeb get?

PAT: Well, he only had 3 percent, right? Did he have 3 percent of the vote? Last time I saw he was at 2 or 3 percent. Really bad.

GLENN: This is the real story. The real story on both sides: The establishment, Washington, the Democrats and the Republicans are over. It's just over.

PAT: Uh-huh.

GLENN: You put Hillary Clinton in, there's going to be nothing left of the Democratic Party. You put an establishment guy into the office, there will be nothing left of the Republican Party. Nothing.

DOC: We sat down and talked to a bunch of Democrats. They didn't know who we are. We said, hey, why are you supporting Bernie? Why are you supporting Hillary? They said a lot of things where you could tell they were buying into the talking points. You know, well, we need this. We need that. One old lady said, "Well, it's time for a woman, so a woman can finally make the same as a man." And I was like, "Okay. That's been disproven. Got it."

But then several of us told us about how poor they were. And it wasn't about just getting free stuff. These people were really poor. One lady told us how she lost her daughter last year because she didn't have health care. She couldn't afford it.

And another lady has a brain tumor and says, "I can't afford the medicine. It was $700 a month."

And another old lady said she can't afford her medicine. These people are saying, "I'm here because I don't know what else to do."

And it occurred to me, this is lost on the Republicans. If you don't want to this to be a competition anymore, then you've got to actually put forth a plan to fix the economy. And they're not doing it. I mean, they're in it for the same talking points. You know, we're conservative. And values. And the party of personal freedoms or whatever. But where are the big ideas? Where are the people leading that are saying, we are going to pass a balanced budget amendment? We're going to do true tax reform. We're going to shut down the Department of Education. And put learning online. Where are those ideas?

PAT: Well, Ted Cruz.

GLENN: That's what I've been hearing him say on the campaign trail the whole time. The problem is that nobody covers him.

PAT: Yeah. And they don't talk about his tax plan.

GLENN: No. 10 percent tax plan.

PAT: 10 percent tax plan.

GLENN: And when you want to talk about creating jobs, the thing with creating jobs is his idea of, I'm going to get rid of the EPA. I'm going to get rid of the bureaucracy to be able to create the jobs. I mean, that's the secret here, is Donald Trump says, "I'll make America great because I'm going to manage Washington better."

PAT: Uh-huh.

GLENN: Donald Trump is saying -- I mean, Ted Cruz is saying, "There's no managing Washington better. Get Washington out of the way."

PAT: Right. Right.

GLENN: And that's what will create the jobs. But nobody is talked like that anymore.

DOC: No. But they have to explain it to these people. They have to sit down and say, "Guys, this is the way forward. We have to do it this way."

GLENN: But, you know what, play the cut where CNN asked the socialists, the people who are voting for a socialist, what is the definition of a socialist?

VOICE: Can you define socialism?

VOICE: Socialism?

PAT: No.

VOICE: Can you define socialism?

VOICE: Can I define socialism?

VOICE: Probably not. If I'm being totally honest.

VOICE: Socialism. Oh, boy, I don't think I can.

VOICE: Like Social Security. Roads. Medicaid, depending on the form that it takes. Anything that sort of comes together (?) and is publically funded through our government would be socialism. I might be wrong. So if you make me look like a fool on the news, I'll forgive you for it.

VOICE: Hillary Clinton, no, you can't. (?) you couldn't dream. It's nothing wrong with dreaming. You want to teach our kids to dream. Because you cannot dream. You can't dream. And it's possible for a political revolution.

PAT: Keep at mind, that's at a Bernie Sanders rally. That's at the big Bernie Sanders get together, and none of them know what the hell --

DOC: You guys think they can't dream?

GLENN: And that's not Fox News doing that, that's CNN doing that. They don't have any idea what socialism is. (?)

SKIP: The headlines are going to go viral with that headline. Media Matters is already writing up that post.

GLENN: It's amazing. It's amazing.

STU: We find that out on More-On Trivia.

PAT: No one knows what it is?

STU: It's like a social network when you socialize. (?)

DOC: Debbie Wasserman Schultz doesn't know what it is.

STU: To Chris Matthews' credit, nobody wants to answer. (?)

SKIP: Nobody has been able to answer that.

GLENN: Here's the answer, it is the step between capitalism and communism. That's what the answer is.

DOC: When they say what's the difference? I say, about a year and a half. It's a step in the process. On the way there.

PAT: That's good.

GLENN: Let me show you now Ben Sasse. Ben Sasse was asked to define conservatism. What does it mean to be a conservative? He answered it less than 90 seconds. We'll go to that in just a second.

Featured Image: Screenshot from The Glenn Beck Program

A nation unravels when its shared culture is the first thing to go

Spencer Platt / Staff | Getty Images

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Parallel societies do not end well

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

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

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

A crisis of confidence

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

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

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

Brandon Bell / Staff | Getty Images

Stand up and tell the truth

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

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

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

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

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

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

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

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

VCG / Contributor | Getty Images

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

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

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

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

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

A new world of artificial experience

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

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

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

What machines can never do

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

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

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

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

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

Questions that define us

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

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

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

Europa Press News / Contributor | Getty Images

The miracle machines can never copy

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

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

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

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Is Socialism seducing a lost generation?

Jeremy Weine / Stringer | Getty Images

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

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

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

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

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

The appeal of a broken dream

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

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

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

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

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

The bridge that never ends

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

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

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

ANGELA WEISS / Contributor | Getty Images

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

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

What young America deserves

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

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

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

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

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

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

Socialism does not offer salvation. It requires subservience.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

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

Gary Hershorn / Contributor | Getty Images

Conservatism is not about rage or nostalgia. It’s about moral clarity, national renewal, and guarding the principles that built America’s freedom.

Our movement is at a crossroads, and the question before us is simple: What does it mean to be a conservative in America today?

For years, we have been told what we are against — against the left, against wokeism, against decline. But opposition alone does not define a movement, and it certainly does not define a moral vision.

We are not here to cling to the past or wallow in grievance. We are not the movement of rage. We are the movement of reason and hope.

The media, as usual, are eager to supply their own answer. The New York Times recently suggested that Nick Fuentes represents the “future” of conservatism. That’s nonsense — a distortion of both truth and tradition. Fuentes and those like him do not represent American conservatism. They represent its counterfeit.

Real conservatism is not rage. It is reverence. It does not treat the past as a museum, but as a teacher. America’s founders asked us to preserve their principles and improve upon their practice. That means understanding what we are conserving — a living covenant, not a relic.

Conservatism as stewardship

In 2025, conservatism means stewardship — of a nation, a culture, and a moral inheritance too precious to abandon. To conserve is not to freeze history. It is to stand guard over what is essential. We are custodians of an experiment in liberty that rests on the belief that rights come not from kings or Congress, but from the Creator.

That belief built this country. It will be what saves it. The Constitution is a covenant between generations. Conservatism is the duty to keep that covenant alive — to preserve what works, correct what fails, and pass on both wisdom and freedom to those who come next.

Economics, culture, and morality are inseparable. Debt is not only fiscal; it is moral. Spending what belongs to the unborn is theft. Dependence is not compassion; it is weakness parading as virtue. A society that trades responsibility for comfort teaches citizens how to live as slaves.

Freedom without virtue is not freedom; it is chaos. A culture that mocks faith cannot defend liberty, and a nation that rejects truth cannot sustain justice. Conservatism must again become the moral compass of a disoriented people, reminding America that liberty survives only when anchored to virtue.

Rebuilding what is broken

We cannot define ourselves by what we oppose. We must build families, communities, and institutions that endure. Government is broken because education is broken, and education is broken because we abandoned the formation of the mind and the soul. The work ahead is competence, not cynicism.

Conservatives should embrace innovation and technology while rejecting the chaos of Silicon Valley. Progress must not come at the expense of principle. Technology must strengthen people, not replace them. Artificial intelligence should remain a servant, never a master. The true strength of a nation is not measured by data or bureaucracy, but by the quiet webs of family, faith, and service that hold communities together. When Washington falters — and it will — those neighborhoods must stand.

Eric Lee / Stringer | Getty Images

This is the real work of conservatism: to conserve what is good and true and to reform what has decayed. It is not about slogans; it is about stewardship — the patient labor of building a civilization that remembers what it stands for.

A creed for the rising generation

We are not here to cling to the past or wallow in grievance. We are not the movement of rage. We are the movement of reason and hope.

For the rising generation, conservatism cannot be nostalgia. It must be more than a memory of 9/11 or admiration for a Reagan era they never lived through. Many young Americans did not experience those moments — and they should not have to in order to grasp the lessons they taught and the truths they embodied. The next chapter is not about preserving relics but renewing purpose. It must speak to conviction, not cynicism; to moral clarity, not despair.

Young people are searching for meaning in a culture that mocks truth and empties life of purpose. Conservatism should be the moral compass that reminds them freedom is responsibility and that faith, family, and moral courage remain the surest rebellions against hopelessness.

To be a conservative in 2025 is to defend the enduring principles of American liberty while stewarding the culture, the economy, and the spirit of a free people. It is to stand for truth when truth is unfashionable and to guard moral order when the world celebrates chaos.

We are not merely holding the torch. We are relighting it.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.