Breakdown of the Family: The Four-Part Series

The American family is the backbone of society. If you believe in the Bible, you know that after God created Adam and Eve, he commanded them to have children. From the beginning, the ideal family included a biological mother and father to both be in the home, raising their children together. By removing God from our public discourse and breaking down the family unit, progressives have damaged and weakened society.

This series explores how the traditional family unit is statistically superior for people and society --- and the devastating impact of secularism and liberal policies.

Listen to the full series:

Breakdown of the Family Part I: The Children

In 1950, 75 percent of black families were two-parent homes. A strong family unit was the backbone of black America. Three out of four children had both parents at home. Today, 73 percent of black families are not traditional family units. Most black children now grow up without fathers. The result is a world turned upside down as children copy what they see and repeat what they learn.

While the black family has been the hardest hit, by no means is it the only segment to suffer. The American family of every race, every ethnicity, continues to disintegrate as virtually no one steps up to address the problems and propose solutions. Since 1980, the marriage rate has dropped 45 percent and 41 percent of children are born to unmarried mothers (73 percent in the black community). Fatherless or single-parent homes produce children who are two times more likely to be arrested for juvenile crime and twice as likely to be treated for emotional and behavioral problems. They are also 33 percent more likely to drop out of school and three times more likely to end up in jail by age 30.

This isn't to say that single moms can't be fantastic loving parents or single dads are just not capable of raising wonderful, well-adjusted, highly successful kids --- because they can and they do. Grandparents can and do wonderful child-rearing. Same-sex couples certainly love their children. And sometimes the ideal family unit, for whatever reason, just is not possible.

But in general, where possible, traditional family units produce the best results, consistently, over decades of studies.

Could it be that biologically a woman brings certain traits and skills to child-rearing that a man doesn't, and vice-versa? And is it just possible that that combination leads to the most well adjusted, highest functioning human beings?

Breakdown of the Family Part II: The Cause

What caused the destruction of the American family? In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson announced the War On Poverty. Twenty-two trillion dollars later, that battlefield is lined with remnants of broken American families. Huge government welfare and indoctrination programs have contributed to dependency, stripping people of dignity, raising unemployment and enslaving three generations of American citizens.

Also taking a toll on the American family was the feminist movement in the 1960s and 1970s. Progressives told women they couldn't be fulfilled by staying home with their children. The movement also had strong anti-men sentiments. After the women's movement, society and culture changed. With two working parents, children were often left with caregivers or on their own. In 2008, ABC reported that three-quarters of American girls would become pregnant that year.

Even many liberals understood many years ago that the family is the building block of civilization. If it crumbles, so does civilization. Yet far too many Americans have been swallowed up in political correctness. Today, society will tolerate virtually any substitution for the traditional family unit in the name of tolerance. But tolerance is only one side of the coin. The other side is truth. Without both truth and tolerance, everything falls apart.

Breakdown of the Family Part III: The Black Family

At the turn of the last century, black families were thriving. Today, the majority of black children grow up without two parents or a father figure. What caused the disintegration of the black family? According to Burgess Owens, former NFL star and author of the book Liberalism or How to Turn Good Men into Whiners, Weenies and Wimps, liberalism and Democratic policies destroyed the black community:

In order to understand what the impact of liberalism has been, I think it's important to, first of all, recognize where the black race had been the first hundred years after the Civil War. From 1865 to 1965, the black community had 50 percent of all black Americans as part of the black middle class. We had the highest percentage of black men committed to the family and their marriage, the highest percentage of entrepreneurs in our country.

The introduction of Lyndon Johnson's Great Society attacked the very fabric of American black families. Massive government programs had the opposite effect of what we were told they would. For example, incentives were put in place for black women to have babies, stay unemployed and no longer need men in their households. The result was a dependency on government that has been absolutely devastating.

Today, one of the biggest threats facing black families is located, by design, primarily in their own communities: Planned Parenthood, an organization voraciously supported by Democrats. Progressive racist Margaret Sanger founded what would become Planned Parenthood to eliminate the black family, and her efforts have been wildly successful. In New York City alone, more black babies were aborted than born in 2012.  

Can we change course and restore the American black family?

Burgess Owens believes we can:

We were the best example of what the American dream is all about. Someone can come here, in any situation, any background, any kind of baggage, and still make it if you decide to dream big and go forward. So I look forward to my race once again being a great example. I think that it will be a small minority of our race who still believe in our country that will pull out my race back from the abyss of socialism. And in doing so, will also do the same for our great nation, pull ourselves back and be an example of what we can do to revive ourselves, to be the great vision that our forefathers saw us as.

Breakdown of the Family Part IV: The Solution

Since the Progressive Era began, traditional American values have been continually attacked, and the hardest hit has been the family unit.

The first step toward healing our families is wanting to heal them. According to a Focus on the Family study, Americans do want that. When asked what mattered most to them personally, Americans agreed that a loving family is the single most important priority among a list of many high priorities:

• 54 percent = loving family

• 50 percent = health

• 43 percent = financial security

• 33 percent = happiness

According to Marc Mero, president of Family First, we can reverse the damage done to the American family, but it won't happen overnight. It will take a committed effort and positive messaging to reverse the disintegration of the family.

He also summed up the most important things he believes need to happen in order to heal American families:

First, overall, we need to speak truth into the culture. We really do. We need to speak truth into the culture and say, "This is really what's happening in our culture." We need to identify the problem, as we've already discussed, but we need to also talk about the solution.

Secondly, I believe one of the most important things we can do to make the family thrive once again, to bring the family back together, is to get fathers more involved in their kids' lives. We have two problems: We have one that many fathers are physically absent from their kids. There are 24 million children in our country right now who are growing up without their biological fathers. We have many millions more who are growing up with fathers who are in the home, but are emotionally absent from their kids. And so if we can reverse those two trends and really get fathers engaged in their lives, I believe that we can really turn things around and have families that don't die, that don't just survive, but actually thrive in our country once again.

The American family needs an advocacy group like the LGBT community, which overcame overwhelming odds, huge approval deficits to turn public opinion around in an incredibly short period of time. They went from states flat-out refusing to even consider same-sex marriage, to losing referendums in every single state that held a vote, to same-sex marriage being accepted by the majority of the people and the law of the land in under 20 years. If advocates for the traditional family had such focus, organization and commitment, the American family could be saved. And with it, perhaps America itself.

Listen to all serials at glennbeck.com/serials

There is no doubt about it—we are entering dark times.

The November presidential election is only a few months away, and following the chaos of the 2020 election, the American people are bracing for what is likely to be another tumultuous election year. The left's anti-Trump rhetoric is reaching an all-time high with the most recent "Bloodbath" debacle proving how far the media will go to smear the former president. That's not to mention the Democrats' nearly four-year-long authoritarian attempt to jail President Trump or stop his re-election by any means necessary, even if it flies in the face of the Constitution.

Meanwhile, Biden is doing worse than ever. He reportedly threw a tantrum recently after being informed that his polls have reached an all-time low. After Special Counsel Robert Hur's report expressed concerns over Biden's obviously failing mental agility, it's getting harder for the Democrats to defend him. Yet he is still the Democratic nominee for November, promising another 4 years of catastrophic policies, from the border to heavy-handed taxation, should he be reelected.

The rest of the world isn't doing much better. The war in Ukraine has no clear end in sight, drawing NATO and Russia closer and closer to conflict. The war in Gaza is showing no sign of slowing down, and as Glenn revealed recently, its continuation may be a sign that the end times are near.

One thing is clear: we are living in uncertain times. If you and your family haven't prepared for the worst, now is the time. You can start by downloading "Glenn's Ultimate Guide to Getting Prepared." Be sure to print off a copy or two. If the recent cell outage proved anything, it's that technology is unreliable in survival situations. You can check your list of supplies against our "Ultimate Prepper Checklist for Beginners," which you can find below:

Food

  • Canned food/non-perishable foods
  • Food preparation tools
  • Go to the next level: garden/livestock/food production

Water

  • Non-perishable water store
  • Water purification
  • Independent water source

Shelter

  • Fireplace with a wood supply
  • Tent
  • Generator with fuel supply
  • Go to the next level: fallout shelter

Money

  • Emergency cash savings
  • Precious metals

Medicine

  • Extra blankets
  • Basic first aid
  • Extra prescriptions
  • Extra glasses
  • Toiletries store
  • Trauma kit
  • Antibiotics
  • Basic surgery supplies
  • Potassium Iodate tablets

Transportation

  • Bicycle
  • Car
  • Extra fuel

Information

  • Birth certificates
  • Insurance cards
  • Marriage license
  • Immunization records
  • Mortgage paperwork
  • Car title and registration
  • House keys, car keys
  • Passports
  • Family emergency plan
  • Prepping/survival/repair manuals
  • Go to the next level: copy of the Bible, the U.S. Constitution, and other important books/sources

Skills

  • Cooking
  • Gardening
  • Sewing
  • First Aid
  • Basic maintenance skills
  • Go to the next level: farming/ranching
  • Self-defense training

Communication

  • Family contact information and addresses
  • HAM radio

Miscellaneous

  • Flashlights and batteries
  • Lamps and fuel
  • Hardware (tools, nails, lumber, etc)
  • Extra clothes
  • Extreme weather clothes and gear
  • Gas masks and filters
  • Spare parts for any machinery/equipment

Is Trump's prosecution NORMAL?  This COMPLETE list of ALL Western leaders who served jail time proves otherwise.

PhotoQuest / Contributor, The Washington Post / Contributor, Win McNamee / Staff | Getty Images

Mainstream media is on a crusade to normalize Donald Trump's indictments as if it's on par with the electoral course. Glenn asked his team to research every instance of a Western leader who was jailed during their political career over the past 200 years—except extreme political turmoil like the French Revolution, Napoleonic Wars, Irish Revolution, etc.—and what we discovered was quite the opposite.

Imprisoning a leader or major political opponent is not normal, neither in the U.S. nor in the Western world. Within the last 200 years, there are only a handful of examples of leaders in the West serving jail time, and these men were not imprisoned under normal conditions. All of these men were jailed under extreme circumstances during times of great peril such as the Civil War, World War II, and the Cold War.

What does this mean for America? Are Trump's indictments evidence that we are re-entering times of great peril? Below is a list of Western leaders who were imprisoned within the last 200 years. Take a look and decide for yourself:

Late 1800s

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Jefferson Davis: The nearest occurrence to a U.S. President to serve jail time was in the case of Jefferson Davis, the first and only president of the Confederate States of America. Jefferson was captured in Georgia by Northern Soldiers in 1865 and locked up in Fort Monroe, Virginia for two years. He was offered a presidential pardon but refused out of his loyalty to the confederacy.

Early 1900s

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Eugene V. Debs: Debbs, a Midwestern socialist leader, became the first person to run for president in prison. He was locked up at a federal penitentiary in Atlanta having been convicted under the federal Sedition Act for giving an antiwar speech a few months before Armistice Day, the end of World War I. Many of his supporters believed his imprisonment to be unjust. Debs received 897,704 votes and was a distant third-part candidate behind Warren G. Harding, the Republican winner, and James M. Cox, the second-place Democrat. Harding ordered Debs’s release from prison toward the end of 1921.

Nazi sympathizers and collaborators: After the end of World War II in 1945, several European leaders who had "led" their countries during the Nazi occupation faced trial and imprisonment for treason. This list included Chief of the French State Philippe Pétain, French Prime Minister Pierre Laval, and Minister-President of Norway Vidkun Quisling. The latter two were also executed after their imprisonment. President of Finland Risto Ryti and Prime Minister of Finland Johan Wilhelm Rangell were also tried and jailed for collaborating with the Nazis against the Allied Powers.

Late 1900s

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The end of the Cold War: The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 was one of the pivotal moments that brought the Cold War to a close and marked the end of Communist East Germany. With the fall of the wall and the collapse of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), the former leaders were brought to trial to answer for the crimes committed by the GDR. General Secretary Erich Honecker and General Secretary Egon Krenz were both put on trial for abuse of power and the deaths of those who were shot trying to flee into West Germany. Honecker was charged with jail time but was released from custody due to severe illness and lived out the rest of his life as an exile in Chile. Krenz served 4 years in jail before his release in 2001. He is one of the last surviving leaders of the Eastern Bloc.

Lyndon LaRouche: Larouche was a Trotsky evangelist, public antisemite, and founder of a nationwide Marxist political movement, became the second person in U.S. history to run for President in a prison cell. Granted, he ran in every election from 1976 to 2004 as a long-shot third-party candidate. When he tried to gain the Democratic presidential nomination, he received 5 percent of the total nationwide vote. Even though in 2000 he received enough primary votes to qualify for delegates in a few states, the Democratic National Committee refused to seat his delegates and barred LaRouche from attending the Democratic National Convention.

TOP 5 issues that have gotten WORSE since the last State of the Union

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If you saw Biden's State of the Union last week, or Glenn's firey reaction to it, you know that Biden hardly spoke a word that wasn't a flat-out lie.

If you spent the last 12 months in a fallout shelter and Biden's speech was the only media interaction you had since the last State of the Union, you might be tempted to believe that the country has improved in some way over the past year. But the rest of us, who have been living above ground, going to the grocery store, and paying some attention to current events, had only to look around to see that Biden's speech was nothing but hot air.

Here are the TOP 5 issues that have gotten worse since the last State of the Union.

Economy

Biden spent a significant amount of time during the State of the Union boasting about the strength of his economy, but anyone who has checked their bank account lately was left wondering if he was holding his speech upside down. It's not just the cobwebs in your wallet; the numbers show the devastation wrought by "Bidenomics" too. In 2022, American grocery bills increased by 11.4 percent and restaurant bills by 7.7 percent. In 2023 prices only continued to rise, with an additional 1.2 percent increase in food-at-home prices and a 5.1 percent increase in away-from-home prices.

Debt crisis and inflation

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The national debt continues to grow, and Biden managed to add almost 3 trillion dollars in just one year. As of December 2022, the national debt was $31.42 trillion. As of January 2024, the national debt has risen to $34.19 trillion.

Inflation didn't fare much better. While the 2023 annual inflation rate did drop from the horror of 2022, from 6.5 to 3.4 percent, that is still significantly higher than anything we saw before 2021. You also have to remember that it CARRIES year to year, as Glenn explained in his response to Biden's State of the Union: "Yes, it's not as bad as it was, but it's still what it was PLUS what it is now."

Border

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Biden's mismanagement of the southern border has inflamed the border crisis to all-time highs. In 2022 there were a staggering 2.2 million illegal border crossings, but that wasn't enough for Biden apparently, as an additional 2.5 million illegally crossed in 2023. An estimated 10 million illegal immigrants have crossed the southern border since Biden took office, and the effects are being felt. There has been a surge in crime across the country that is impacting millions of Americans, including the tragic murder of Laken Riley.

Fentanyl

The fentanyl crisis has only continued to worsen as more and more synthetic opioids flood our streets. Between the fiscal year 2021 and 2022, there was a shocking 54 percent increase in fentanyl trafficking offenses as more and more of the narcotic is smuggled across the southern border. We also saw an increase in fentanyl overdose deaths. In 2022 there were approximately 73,654 deaths, which is a significant increase from 70,601 in 2021.

Education and mental health

While the pandemic is long over, the lingering effects of the lockdowns are still being felt. Unsurprisingly, missing years of school has a major impact on the educational development of children. Kids across America are STILL struggling from pandemic-related setbacks, reading scores are still falling, and parents are reporting that their kids are struggling in their studies. The mental health crisis, another symptom of the COVID lockdowns, has also continued to worsen. Tragically, suicides increased by 2.6 percent between 2021 and 2022, marking the continued decline of mental health in America.

TOP FIVE takeaways from Super Tuesday

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The 2024 Presidential Election is taking shape.

Yesterday was Super Tuesday, the single biggest day in the presidential primary season. More than one-third of all delegates needed for a candidate to become the Presidential nominee of their party was up for grabs along with a plethora of state and local elections. In short, yesterday's results will shape the rest of the election season. It was a big deal.

Here are the top 5 takeaways from yesterday's elections:

Haley drops out

Nikki Haley drops out of the 2024 Presidential election.

Anna Moneymaker / Staff | Getty Images

After the mass exodus of Republican candidates in January, most commentators agreed that it was only a matter of time before Haley stepped out as well. Haley put up a valiant effort and held out almost two months longer than the other Republican candidates, but after a disappointing turnout on Super Tuesday, she made the call to step back from the race. There was a small victory for Haley fans, however, in that she won Vermont, her first state primary victory following her win in Washington, D.C.

Trump sweeps the board

Trump wins over 1,000 delegates during Super Tuesday.

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While Haley had a disappointing day yesterday, Trump and his team celebrated a huge win. Aside from Vermont, Trump won every state that had a primary. At the time this was written, Trump had picked up a whopping 731 delegates, bringing his total to 1,004, out of the required 1,215 to win the presidential nomination.

Democrats are not committed to Biden

Biden wins big on Super Tuesday, but he is struggling to maintain his Democrat base.

Anna Moneymaker / Staff | Getty Images

On paper, Biden had an excellent Super Tuesday, winning every state primary except American Samoa. However, a closer look reveals cracks in his supporter base. Yesterday, a shocking 19 percent of Minnesota Democrats voted for "uncommitted" instead of Biden. While that wasn't enough to change the outcome of the primary, it shows that Biden is walking on shaky ground, even among Democrats.

This phenomenon wasn't limited to Minnesota either. Eight percent of Colorado and Tennessee Democrats voted "uncommitted," and 10 percent of Massachusetts Democrats and 10 percent of North Carolina Democrats voted "no preference." Is this more evidence of a third-quarter bait-and-switch that Glenn has hypothesized?

The search to replace Feinstein continues

Adam Schiff and Steve Harvey compete for Diane Feinstein's Senate seat.

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California is having two Senate elections to replace the late Senator Dianne Feinstein. There is a special election to fill out the remainder of her term and a regular election to fill her seat for the next six years. The results of the Tuesday primaries put Republican and former Los Angeles Dodgers player Steve Garvey and Democrat Adam Schiff as the front runners, and the two of them will be going head-to-head in November. Surprisingly, even in deep blue California, Garvey won more votes than Schiff in the special primary. Does Garvey have a chance?

Ted Cruz is back up for election in Texas

Ted Cruz is up for re-election in 2024

Anna Moneymaker / Staff | Getty Images

The Texas senate primaries were also on Tuesday, and Ted Cruz is back up for election in November. Cruz comfortably won the Republican Primaries with 88 percent of Texas Republicans backing him. Rep. Colin Allred, a Dallas-area congressman won the Democratic primary with a narrower margin of 58 percent. While it's easy for Texans to take their state's red status for granted, it is vital Texans stay vigilant and cast their vote this November.