Save the NRA: The Solid Case Against Grover Norquist

April 25, 2016

Writer

Message From Glenn:

At the beginning of my speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), I mentioned Dr. Zuhdi Jasser was voted onto the Board of the American Conservative Union (ACU) which runs CPAC. This change will help ensure supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood are removed from the ACU. As you know, there is an effort underway at the National Rifle Association (NRA) to do the same thing. I have tremendous respect for Former Army Green Beret officer and Pastor Stu Weber for being man enough to take this on by submitting the original petition to remove Grover Norquist from the Board of the NRA. To change the world, it starts with one person. It's time to vote Grover Norquist off the board of the NRA. Not because I ask you to, but because you read the information below and decide it is the right thing to do. We must stand to defend our institutions. Support the NRA and support the brave men and women — like Stu Weber — who step forward to change the world.

DOWNLOAD THE BALLOT

Important Ballot in NRA Magazines

Current issues of NRA Magazines include two important ballots: one to elect board members and one to recall an association official. Don’t ignore either, but pay particular attention to the latter. Our long-term national security depends on your voting “YES” on this ballot and delivering it before May 1.

Recall of Association Official Ballot — Due Before May 1

Who is the “official” on this important recall ballot? His name is Grover Norquist, and he’s a 15-year Board Member of the National Rifle Association (NRA). Additionally, Mr. Norquist sits on the Board of the American Conservative Union, the nation’s oldest and largest conservative grassroots organization. Mr. Norquist is the founder and president of Americans for Tax Reform and co-founder of the Islamic Free Market Institute.

Why Recall Grover Norquist?

While Mr. Norquist’s efforts on trying to reduce taxes are admirable, his co-founding of the Islamic Free Market Institute and its connections to highly suspect individuals are puzzling at best, very dangerous at worst.

Mr. Norquist has well-documented associations with radical Islamists, including Abdurahman Alamoudi who is serving a 23-year prison term on terrorism charges. Mr. Norquist’s Islamic Institute received two $10,000 contributions in 1999 drawn from the personal bank account of Alamoudi. But that’s only scratching the surface of Mr. Norquist’s connections to radical Islam.

The Center for Security Policy laid out a 101-page document that explicitly details Mr. Norquist’s history with Islamists directly connected to the Muslim Brotherhood.

This document is signed by ten influential national security practitioners, including:

• Bush ’43 Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey

• Clinton Director of Central Intelligence R. James Woolsey

• Former Congressman Allen West

• Former federal prosecutor Andrew C. McCarthy

• Former Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet Admiral James A. “Ace” Lyons

• Former Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Lieutenant General William G. Boykin

• Former Pentagon Inspector General Joseph E. Schmitz

Additionally, former Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet Admiral James A. “Ace” Lyons wrote an open letter published in March 2016 issues of NRA publications urging NRA members to give serious consideration to recalling Mr. Norquist’s Board position.

VOTE “YES” BEFORE MAY 1 TO RECALL GROVER NORQUIST

The Muslim Brotherhood: The Enemy Within

Why wage a bloody jihad on the greatest Western nation when you can slowly destroy it from within, using the shields of religious freedom and political correctness? It’s called “civilization jihad,” and it’s the secretly stated mission of the Muslim Brotherhood.

This form of warfare includes cultural subversion, the co-opting of senior leaders, influence operations and propaganda, and other means of insinuating Sharia Law into Western societies. Many Brotherhood leaders advocate patience in promoting their goals. Back in 1995, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, told the Toledo, Ohio Muslim Arab Youth Association convention, “We will conquer Europe, we will conquer America! Not through the sword, but through dawah (Islamic renewal and outreach).” The prime practitioners of this stealthy form of jihad are the ostensibly “non-violent” Muslim Brotherhood and their front groups and affiliates.

A strategic plan dated May 22, 1991, entitled “An Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Group [Muslim Brotherhood] in North America,” was discovered by the FBI in 2004. The “Memorandum” describes the role of the Muslim Brotherhood in North America:

The process of settlement is a “Civilization-Jihadist Process” with all the word means. The Ikhwan [the Muslim Brotherhood in Arabic] must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and “sabotaging” its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God's religion is made victorious over all other religions.

Without this level of understanding, we are not up to this challenge and have not prepared ourselves for Jihad yet. It is a Muslim's destiny to perform jihad and work wherever he is and wherever he lands until the final hour comes, and there is no escape from that destiny...

Sounding the Alarm

For years, respected security and military officials within the U.S. have sounded the alarm regarding Grover Norquist's troubling ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. Those warnings, for the most part, have fallen on deaf ears.

Since Paul Revere’s midnight ride, the precedent has been set for American patriots to sound the alarm at threats to our liberty and way of life. After learning of Mr. Norquist’s connections to Islamists and his participation on the NRA board — an organization of which Glenn is a lifetime member — Glenn began speaking out about it.

In March 2015, Glenn announced on air he would resign his membership in the NRA if Mr. Norquist remained a member of the Board, prompting hundreds of listeners to call the NRA. The organization subsequently opened an ethics investigation into Mr. Norquist. Later that same month, Mr. Norquist joined Glenn on air to defend himself against accusations that he is an agent of influence for radical Islamists. In the contentious interview, Glenn hammered Mr. Norquist on his connections to known terrorists.

VOTE “YES” BEFORE MAY 1 TO RECALL GROVER NORQUIST

Hearing No

Mr. Stuart Weber, an NRA member, sponsored the original petition to remove Mr. Norquist from the Board. A Hearing Committee appointed to review the petition ultimately voted against it, citing three reasons for voting “No” to removing Mr. Norquist (see below why these reasons are wholly unacceptable). Interestingly, Mr. Weber was unable to attend the hearing, as he was given very short notice. Based on NRA bylaws, Mr. Weber had no input on the hearing date.

The Solid Case Against Grover Norquist

Reason #1: The Truth Is Ageless

The Hearing Committee based its decision on “old charges” that have gone stale. Since when does the truth have an expiration date? Pursuing truth and exposing nefarious — or at the very least suspect — intentions should be a constant, never-ending effort. The Hearing Committee is not a court of law, and there should not be a statute of limitations. Further, when Mr. Weber filed the petition, the board never declared the ‘staleness’ rule — it was only after the fact.

The charges against Mr. Norquist do not fade away because of other people’s delay in recognizing their seriousness. Moreover, the stated tactic of the Muslim Brotherhood to patiently and slowly wage their “civilization jihad” indicates their willingness to spend years, even decades reaching their goal. Shouldn’t Americans commit an equal amount of time to exposing the truth and protecting liberty?

Reason #2: The Facts Are Overwhelming

The Hearing Committee based its decision on a “lack of factual support.” Nothing could be further from the truth. The Center for Security Policy prepared Agent of Influence, a 101-page document with 87 Statements of Fact signed by 10 influential security experts at the highest levels of government. The Statement of Facts establishes that:

• Islamist enemies of the United States, led by the Muslim Brotherhood, are engaged in a concerted effort to destroy this country and impose their supremacist doctrine of Sharia worldwide.

• Muslim Brotherhood front groups and operatives have targeted, among others, the Republican Party and conservative movement.

• Leaders of organizations identified by the federal government as Muslim Brotherhood fronts—and, in some cases, tied to terrorists—were involved in influence operations targeting the GOP and conservatives during the late 1990s and some or all of the decade that followed. Such leaders included, notably: Abdurahman Alamoudi, Sami al-Arian, Nihad Awad and Khaled Saffuri.

• Over the past fifteen years, Grover Norquist has had personal, professional and/or organizational associations with each of these Muslim Brotherhood operatives.

• Norquist’s connections, organizations and personal efforts have enabled the influence operations of Islamists, including those of Iran.

The Hearing Committee, which had full access to the dossier of information with 87 supporting facts, was unable to define who is right or wrong in its Process Overview. But it seems, based on its decision, the Committee was reviewing for a criminal prosecution which requires evidence beyond reasonable doubt, rather than the much less exacting preponderance of the evidence standard. Regardless of right or wrong, there is overwhelming evidence to call into question Mr. Norquist’s associations and the appropriateness of his position on the Board of the NRA.

Reason #3: Distractions

The Hearing Committee based its decision on the petition not rising to the level of being a “distraction to the NRA.” On the contrary, Mr. Weber’s original petition states the very presence of Mr. Norquist on the NRA board presents a distraction the NRA cannot tolerate, particularly during a heated and contested election season. All available NRA resources in time, staff and money must be invested to advance the candidates who hold similar principles.

Reason #4: Jury of Your Peers

The Hearing Committee was put into an unenviable position: Voting on the outing of a long-term board member, possibly a friend, and frankly, a powerful person within the GOP establishment. While members of the Hearing Committee did their best under the circumstances, those close affiliations — direct or indirect, implicit or explicit — undoubtedly impacted the outcome.

Power to the People

The Hearing Committee’s vote is nothing more than a recommendation. NRA members have the power to rise up and vote “YES” to remove Grover Norquist.

By using the recall ballot in current NRA magazines, NRA lifetime members — or yearly members in good standing for five consecutive years — are eligible to vote on this critical decision. Should eligible members need a copy of the ballot, they are encouraged to contact the NRA.

In the event members have already cast their vote, but feel moved to vote differently based on the information provided here, they can request the NRA void their original vote and issue them a new ballot.

The evidence gathered by The Center for Security Policy is overwhelming and can lead to only one conclusion: Grover Norquist has engaged in conduct on behalf of jihadists and their associates that is incompatible with service in a leadership role with the NRA or any other conservative organization.

VOTE “YES” BEFORE MAY 1 TO RECALL GROVER NORQUIST

Featured Image: Caption:WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 05: Grover Norquist, President, Americans for Tax Reform, visits 'SiriusXM Patriot Forum with Grover Norquist' at SiriusXM Studio on March 5, 2013 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Leigh Vogel/Getty Images)

Warning: Stop letting TikTok activists think for you

Spencer Platt / Staff | Getty Images

Bad-faith attacks on Israel and AIPAC warp every debate. Real answers emerge only when people set aside scripts and ask what serves America’s long-term interests.

The search for truth has always required something very much in short supply these days: honesty. Not performative questions, not scripted outrage, not whatever happens to be trending on TikTok, but real curiosity.

Some issues, often focused on foreign aid, AIPAC, or Israel, have become hotbeds of debate and disagreement. Before we jump into those debates, however, we must return to a simpler, more important issue: honest questioning. Without it, nothing in these debates matters.

Ask questions because you want the truth, not because you want a target.

The phrase “just asking questions” has re-entered the zeitgeist, and that’s fine. We should always question power. But too many of those questions feel preloaded with someone else’s answer. If the goal is truth, then the questions should come from a sincere desire to understand, not from a hunt for a villain.

Honest desire for truth is the only foundation that can support a real conversation about these issues.

Truth-seeking is real work

Right now, plenty of people are not seeking the truth at all. They are repeating something they heard from a politician on cable news or from a stranger on TikTok who has never opened a history book. That is not a search for answers. That is simply outsourcing your own thought.

If you want the truth, you need to work for it. You cannot treat the world like a Marvel movie where the good guy appears in a cape and the villain hisses on command. Real life does not give you a neat script with the moral wrapped up in two hours.

But that is how people are approaching politics now. They want the oppressed and the oppressor, the heroic underdog and the cartoon villain. They embrace this fantastical framing because it is easier than wrestling with reality.

This framing took root in the 1960s when the left rebuilt its worldview around colonizers and the colonized. Overnight, Zionism was recast as imperialism. Suddenly, every conflict had to fit the same script. Today’s young activists are just recycling the same narrative with updated graphics. Everything becomes a morality play. No nuance, no context, just the comforting clarity of heroes and villains.

Bad-faith questions

This same mindset is fueling the sudden obsession with Israel, and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in particular. You hear it from members of Congress and activists alike: AIPAC pulls the strings, AIPAC controls the government, AIPAC should register as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The questions are dramatic, but are they being asked in good faith?

FARA is clear. The standard is whether an individual or group acts under the direction or control of a foreign government. AIPAC simply does not qualify.

Here is a detail conveniently left out of these arguments: Dozens of domestic organizations — Armenian, Cuban, Irish, Turkish — lobby Congress on behalf of other countries. None of them registers under FARA because — like AIPAC — they are independent, domestic organizations.

If someone has a sincere problem with the structure of foreign lobbying, fair enough. Let us have that conversation. But singling out AIPAC alone is not a search for truth. It is bias dressed up as bravery.

Anadolu / Contributor | Getty Images

If someone wants to question foreign aid to Israel, fine. Let’s have that debate. But let’s ask the right questions. The issue is not the size of the package but whether the aid advances our interests. What does the United States gain? Does the investment strengthen our position in the region? How does it compare to what we give other nations? And do we examine those countries with the same intensity?

The real target

These questions reflect good-faith scrutiny. But narrowing the entire argument to one country or one dollar amount misses the larger problem. If someone objects to the way America handles foreign aid, the target is not Israel. The target is the system itself — an entrenched bureaucracy, poor transparency, and decades-old commitments that have never been re-examined. Those problems run through programs around the world.

If you want answers, you need to broaden the lens. You have to be willing to put aside the movie script and confront reality. You have to hold yourself to a simple rule: Ask questions because you want the truth, not because you want a target.

That is the only way this country ever gets clarity on foreign aid, influence, alliances, and our place in the world. Questioning is not just allowed. It is essential. But only if it is honest.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

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: 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.