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Pat's 70's Music Obsession Finally Pays off With the Best Theory Ever About Trump

September 27, 2016
Lori Hanes

Writer

In what has been an unprecedented election season, Donald Trump has positioned himself as an outsider and bulldozed the competition to become the Republican presidential nominee. How did this anomaly happen? Co-host Pat Gray may have stumbled upon the best theory ever.

"This has all come down to Donald Trump, and what is the model? What is the historic model here, and how does it all end?" Glenn asked Tuesday on his radio program.

Believe it or not, Pat's theory involves radio personality Howard Stern.

"Oh, my gosh, that is the best comparison I have ever heard, and it explains why it's working," Glenn remarked when he heard the theory for the first time.

So what brilliance has Pat possibly discovered that could explain the phenomenon that is Donald Trump?

Read below or listen to the full segment for answers to these historic questions:

• Will Pat ever listen to anything other than the '70s on Seven?

• Why does Glenn describe Donald Trump as the Howard Stern of politics?

• How did Howard Stern crush some of the most successful radio show hosts in the '80s and '90s?

• Is Howard Stern the wind beneath Donald Trump's wings?

• Why did Glenn say, Damn right! in response to something Donald Trump said at the debate?

Listen to this segment from The Glenn Beck Program:

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

GLENN: So everyone says this is an anomaly. Donald Trump is an anomaly. It never happened before.

PAT: Uh-huh.

GLENN: Yada, yada. Yes, it has just not in politics.

PAT: Right.

GLENN: But it has happened in our lifetime in a very, very visual, in your face, everybody watched it, witnessed it, sort of way. Listen to this.

PAT: And we just never thought of it. At least I haven't heard anybody talk about this. It kind of hit me as I was -- there's kind of a strange circuitous way I got to this. But I was just looking at the ratings for Sirius XM, and, you know, trying to find out -- I listen to the '70s on Seven all the time.

GLENN: Just get to the point.

PAT: It's number four. But Howard Stern was number one. So I'm thinking about that as I'm coming into work today and thinking about how Trump had mentioned him last night. And then it hit me.

Howard Stern, when he goes into markets -- he started in New York, and then he goes into Washington, DC, and then he goes into Philadelphia. And every time he does that --

GLENN: Now, this is in a time when radio -- this is before XM Sirius. This is --

PAT: Yeah, this is before massive syndication. There's no syndicated shows at this time.

GLENN: And everyone said, when he was in Washington, DC, it won't work.

PAT: It won't work.

GLENN: It won't work here. It's unique. It's a flash in the pan. He's a one-hit wonder.

PAT: Yeah.

GLENN: And when he moved from Washington, DC, he went to New York, and it worked again. He starts syndication.

PAT: And so he goes to Philadelphia, and the number one show for I think a decade or more was John DeBella.

GLENN: More than that.

PAT: He had been number one in Philadelphia for as long as anybody could remember.

GLENN: And everybody loved -- he was Mr. Philadelphia.

PAT: Loved DeBella. Yeah, everybody listened to him. Everybody loved him.

GLENN: And there was a graveyard of people with millions of dollars in promotion behind them --

PAT: That tried to --

GLENN: Just bodies filled with people who tried to take on John DeBella. Tried everything, and it never worked.

PAT: Howard Stern came in and took on John DeBella, immediately. Focused on him every day. Started talking about him. Started repositioning. Put his wife on the air. His ex-wife. You know, she told secrets about him. He became -- he became this laughingstock after a while.

GLENN: Yeah.

PAT: He completely repositioned John DeBella, and John DeBella wound up I think getting fired later on. Stern went to number one in Philadelphia. He went into Rochester.

GLENN: Wait. Wait. Wait. So bad -- it was so bad in Philadelphia that if I'm not mistaken, John DeBella's ex-wife committed suicide. Committed suicide.

PAT: Eventually committed suicide, yeah.

GLENN: Because -- and you can't ever prove --

PAT: No, you can't blame that that on Stern.

GLENN: Yeah, you can't blame it on Stern.

PAT: But the humiliation factor was there.

GLENN: So strong in -- in this. And he destroyed the -- any semblance of normalcy for John DeBella and his family.

PAT: Yeah.

GLENN: He completely repositioned him. Within a year, it was over.

PAT: And Stern was number one from then on. And DeBella was nowhere to be found. He went into Rochester, New York, where they had Brother Wease. And he had shares in the teens and 20s at one point. The guy was a legend --

GLENN: So you know -- yeah, Brother Wease was -- everyone knew Brother Wease. Everybody loved Brother Wease. Brother Wease was a guy on the rock station, so he was really cool. He was very charitable. He had a child that was very handicapped. He would tell a story. Everybody loved Brother Wease.

PAT: And Stern made fun of all that. Took him into an old guy. He's tired. He's a has-been.

GLENN: Took on his handicapped child.

PAT: Took on his handicapped child and destroyed Brother Wease. He became number one in Rochester.

GLENN: And in both of those -- in both of those scenarios, everybody in the market will get into what their strategy was. But everybody in the market said, "This won't work. You can't take him on like that. You can't do those things."

PAT: Yeah.

GLENN: And then when he would take on the handicapped child and he would take on the wife and the wife would kill herself, everybody would say, "This is going to backfire." And it never did. It only made Howard Stern much stronger.

PAT: Stronger and cooler and hipper.

GLENN: Yep, yep.

JEFFY: Stronger.

PAT: Well, then he went into probably the toughest market of all, he went into Los Angeles in like '94, '95, and nobody thought Howard Stern could possibly work in Los Angeles. Completely different attitude. Completely different mindset. Completely different audience.

It's a -- California is laid-back. It's not like New York. That attitude is not going to work there. Plus, Mark & Brian were by far number one in Los Angeles.

GLENN: And they were the coolest, so funny, so -- just -- I mean, so innovative. They were absolutely brilliant.

PAT: Yeah.

GLENN: And had totally changed the landscape of morning radio. Totally doing something completely different.

PAT: Yeah.

GLENN: And everybody not only liked them, these guys were not old, they were really hip and cool.

PAT: Early to mid-30s, young guys, and they took the old zoo format and completely turned it on its head.

GLENN: Turned it upside down.

PAT: And made morning radio really cool again.

GLENN: Yeah. But on a rock station. So they weren't bubble gum. They were on a rock station.

PAT: Yes.

GLENN: Each time, he went in taking down the number one guy --

PAT: Because he was on a rock station.

GLENN: -- they were on the rock station. So this wasn't Top 40 bubble gum stuff. These were the cool people in the town that he was taking apart.

PAT: And Stern never bothered with anybody else. He only took on the top person. He didn't -- he didn't bother with, "I'm going to get number ten, and then I'm going to work my way -- he always went for the top morning show in any given market.

GLENN: Untouchable.

PAT: So he repositioned Mark & Brian from funny and hip and cool to stupid and lame and sissies. And they were too nice. And so he repositioned nice into wuss cakes.

GLENN: And homosexuals.

PAT: And homosexuals. He made them out to be gay. And he played old clips of their TV show, which didn't work out well. The TV show -- the Adventures of Mark & Brian. You remember that?

GLENN: NBC. It was on NBC.

JEFFY: Oh, right.

PAT: And it was not a good show because they were radio guys and it was just radio stunts on NBC and it just didn't work. But he repositioned them completely. They went from number one in Los Angeles to number 11 in a very -- I think it was like six months. Nobody thought it could happen. Stern went from nowhere to number one. Mark & Brian didn't just go to number two, they went to number 11.

They went from a nine-share to a 3-6 in less than a year. And they were never the same again. They never recovered from that.

GLENN: So now, tie this to the election.

PAT: So Donald Trump is the Howard Stern of politics.

GLENN: Yep.

PAT: Donald Trump takes on every challenger, everybody who comes near him -- his next closest competitor, he repositions. It's lying Ted. It's little Marco.

GLENN: It's crooked Hillary.

PAT: It's crooked Hillary.

GLENN: It is the Howard Stern act.

PAT: And it hit me that here they are good friends, Trump has been on the show multiple times. I mean, the guy was on the show all the time. He's a huge fan.

GLENN: And he lives the lifestyle of Howard Stern.

PAT: Yeah.

GLENN: Which also explains how Joe lunch bucket sitting there on the barstool, he's just saying the same thing -- well, yeah. He's -- he's speaking to the Howard Stern fan. Okay?

PAT: Uh-huh.

GLENN: He's speaking to that same mentality, that that is just the guy who is sitting on the barstool. That's the way -- this -- he is the Howard Stern of politics.

PAT: He learned his lessons, I think, directly from Stern.

GLENN: Yes.

PAT: And he thought, "Wow, that is a winning formula." And it is. And he's used it in politics so effectively. And I --

GLENN: I have been saying -- I have been saying that Roger Ailes is the guy who is going to get Donald Trump elected. But I think Howard Stern is actually going to be responsible for getting him elected. Not that Howard is doing anything behind the scenes or anything like that --

PAT: Or that it was even intentional.

GLENN: Or that it was even intentional. But he is using the Howard Stern model. And everyone who is fighting against him, they don't realize that the old model is over.

PAT: Right.

GLENN: And so every single person -- Wease, what's his name in Chicago -- or, I mean, in Philadelphia.

PAT: Philadelphia. DeBella.

GLENN: Yeah, DeBella, and Mark & Brian, they all did the same thing: Ignore him, ignore him, ignore him. He'll go away.

PAT: Mark & Brian never once mentioned his name. Never mentioned him.

GLENN: Yeah. And as it went along the road, every time that he would do something outrageous -- he's calling Mark & Brian homosexuals. That should not fly in Los Angeles. That should not fly in Los Angeles.

PAT: Not with fans of theirs.

GLENN: Right. And just not with the California mindset. You're going to start calling people gay? Okay. Then you don't take on somebody's handicap child. You don't take on somebody's family. Their wife and get in the middle of a divorce.

PAT: And he mocked a handicap guy during the campaign. And nobody cares.

GLENN: Nobody cares. Nobody cares. In fact, it all makes him stronger.

That's incredible. That's incredible.

So the American people, you're making your own choice. You know, the American people -- what the American people are doing is making their own choice. And they will decide which one is going to be president or not. And it is the parties that are going to lose. It's the parties that are going to lose. They don't realize that Donald Trump last night showed them the noose that is going around all of their necks.

Remember, he is burning everything down. And here's an example of it: Can you imagine a time in American history where someone could say, "Yeah, I'm worth $640 million, and I know that doesn't sound like very much." What?

640 million, that sounds like a lot to me. Ten minutes later, it's $650 million, not 640. Not even ten minutes -- within ten minutes, it was $650 million that he was worth. Okay?

But that's not the point. He then said, "I use bankruptcy as a tool." Not as a last resort. Not as, hey, it's shameful. It's -- you know, a lot of people lost their jobs. It was really hard. It was the most embarrassing. I used that as a tool. You don't like it? Don't make that law.

PAT: Change the laws.

GLENN: I use everything at my disposal. The reason why he's not showing income tax -- his incomes taxes, because it shows he paid no income tax.

STU: Which he seemed to honestly admit last night.

GLENN: Right. So you have -- everybody else ran from that. What did he say? That makes me smart.

What is Joe Lunch Bucket saying? The parties are saying, "Oh, you can't say that." He's saying it. And what is the average person saying, "Damn right, I wish I could get away with that."

JEFFY: Yep.

GLENN: If I could get away with that -- it's the burning of the system. If I can get away with it, I'm going to do it.

I admire him because he's getting away with it. It's the Tony Soprano. Looking at Tony Soprano and saying, ah, Tony Soprano, what a life. Eh, you know, he's not that bad of a guy.

No, no.

PAT: The guy is a killer.

GLENN: The guy is a killer.

But we're looking at now the burning down of the system. And so he did not say the Democrats or the Republicans, the progressives or the conservatives, he put everyone into the same bucket. Which is what America is doing, politicians. Politicians: bad. Us: good.

He's putting the rope around every politician's neck

PAT: Yeah. And the thing I couldn't understand last night was how conservatives are okay with him -- and he's done this every single debate. They're completely okay, apparently, with him declaring bankruptcy four times and making that into a positive thing. They let him get away with that every single time.

JEFFY: Business.

GLENN: Yeah, it's business. Business.

PAT: Business. Business. And I'm just using the system.

GLENN: And what he said on taxes was abhorrent and absolutely right. Abhorrent. "I didn't pay any taxes, that makes me a genius." Come on, man. You know that's not right. But genius. "And even if I did pay it, you'd squander it anyway." I sat in my living room and went, "Damn right."

PAT: That's true. Yeah.

GLENN: Okay? The burning down of the entire system.

PAT: Yeah.

GLENN: The worst leading us to the worst.

Featured Image: oward Stern arrives at the 'America's Got Talent' Season 10 Red Carpet Event at New Jersey Performing Arts Center on March 2, 2015 in Newark, New Jersey. (Photo by Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images)

A Sharia enclave is quietly taking root in America. It's time to wake up.

NOVA SAFO / Staff | Getty Images

Sharia-based projects like the Meadow in Texas show how political Islam grows quietly, counting on Americans to stay silent while an incompatible legal system takes root.

Apolitical system completely incompatible with the Constitution is gaining ground in the United States, and we are pretending it is not happening.

Sharia — the legal and political framework of Islam — is being woven into developments, institutions, and neighborhoods, including a massive project in Texas. And the consequences will be enormous if we continue to look the other way.

This is the contradiction at the heart of political Islam: It claims universal authority while insisting its harshest rules will never be enforced here. That promise does not stand up to scrutiny. It never has.

Before we can have an honest debate, we’d better understand what Sharia represents. Sharia is not simply a set of religious rules about prayer or diet. It is a comprehensive legal and political structure that governs marriage, finance, criminal penalties, and civic life. It is a parallel system that claims supremacy wherever it takes hold.

This is where the distinction matters. Many Muslims in America want nothing to do with Sharia governance. They came here precisely because they lived under it. But political Islam — the movement that seeks to implement Sharia as law — is not the same as personal religious belief.

It is a political ideology with global ambitions, much like communism. Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently warned that Islamist movements do not seek peaceful coexistence with the West. They seek dominance. History backs him up.

How Sharia arrives

Political Islam does not begin with dramatic declarations. It starts quietly, through enclaves that operate by their own rules. That is why the development once called EPIC City — now rebranded as the Meadow — is so concerning. Early plans framed it as a Muslim-only community built around a mega-mosque and governed by Sharia-compliant financing. After state investigations were conducted, the branding changed, but the underlying intent remained the same.

Developers have openly described practices designed to keep non-Muslims out, using fees and ownership structures to create de facto religious exclusivity. This is not assimilation. It is the construction of a parallel society within a constitutional republic.

The warning from those who have lived under it

Years ago, local imams in Texas told me, without hesitation, that certain Sharia punishments “just work.” They spoke about cutting off hands for theft, stoning adulterers, and maintaining separate standards of testimony for men and women. They insisted it was logical and effective while insisting they would never attempt to implement it in Texas.

But when pressed, they could not explain why a system they consider divinely mandated would suddenly stop applying once someone crossed a border.

This is the contradiction at the heart of political Islam: It claims universal authority while insisting its harshest rules will never be enforced here. That promise does not stand up to scrutiny. It never has.

AASHISH KIPHAYET / Contributor | Getty Images

America is vulnerable

Europe is already showing us where this road leads. No-go zones, parallel courts, political intimidation, and clerics preaching supremacy have taken root across major cities.

America’s strength has always come from its melting pot, but assimilation requires boundaries. It requires insisting that the Constitution, not religious law, is the supreme authority on this soil.

Yet we are becoming complacent, even fearful, about saying so. We mistake silence for tolerance. We mistake avoidance for fairness. Meanwhile, political Islam views this hesitation as weakness.

Religious freedom is one of America’s greatest gifts. Muslims may worship freely here, as they should. But political Islam must not be permitted to plant a flag on American soil. The Constitution cannot coexist with a system that denies equal rights, restricts speech, subordinates women, and places clerical authority above civil law.

Wake up before it is too late

Projects like the Meadow are not isolated. They are test runs, footholds, proofs of concept. Political Islam operates with patience. It advances through demographic growth, legal ambiguity, and cultural hesitation — and it counts on Americans being too polite, too distracted, or too afraid to confront it.

We cannot afford that luxury. If we fail to defend the principles that make this country free, we will one day find ourselves asking how a parallel system gained power right in front of us. The answer will be simple: We looked away.

The time to draw boundaries and to speak honestly is now. The time to defend the Constitution as the supreme law of the land is now. Act while there is still time.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

The Crisis of Meaning: Searching for truth and purpose

Mario Tama / Staff | Getty Images

Anxiety, anger, and chronic dissatisfaction signal a country searching for meaning. Without truth and purpose, politics becomes a dangerous substitute for identity.

We have built a world overflowing with noise, convenience, and endless choice, yet something essential has slipped out of reach. You can sense it in the restless mood of the country, the anxiety among young people who cannot explain why they feel empty, in the angry confusion that dominates our politics.

We have more wealth than any nation in history, but the heart of the culture feels strangely malnourished. Before we can debate debt or elections, we must confront the reality that we created a world of things, but not a world of purpose.

You cannot survive a crisis you refuse to name, and you cannot rebuild a world whose foundations you no longer understand.

What we are living through is not just economic or political dysfunction. It is the vacuum that appears when a civilization mistakes abundance for meaning.

Modern life is stuffed with everything except what the human soul actually needs. We built systems to make life faster, easier, and more efficient — and then wondered why those systems cannot teach our children who they are, why they matter, or what is worth living for.

We tell the next generation to chase success, influence, and wealth, turning childhood into branding. We ask kids what they want to do, not who they want to be. We build a world wired for dopamine rather than dignity, and then we wonder why so many people feel unmoored.

When everything is curated, optimized, and delivered at the push of a button, the question “what is my life for?” gets lost in the static.

The crisis beneath the headlines

It is not just the young who feel this crisis. Every part of our society is straining under the weight of meaninglessness.

Look at the debt cycle — the mathematical fate no civilization has ever escaped once it crosses a threshold that we seem to have already blown by. While ordinary families feel the pressure, our leaders respond with distraction, with denial, or by rewriting the very history that could have warned us.

You cannot survive a crisis you refuse to name, and you cannot rebuild a world whose foundations you no longer understand.

We have entered a cultural moment where the noise is so loud that it drowns out the simplest truths. We are living in a country that no longer knows how to hear itself think.

So people go searching. Some drift toward the false promise of socialism, some toward the empty thrill of rebellion. Some simply check out. When a culture forgets what gives life meaning, it becomes vulnerable to every ideology that offers a quick answer.

The quiet return of meaning

And yet, quietly, something else is happening. Beneath the frustration and cynicism, many Americans are recognizing that meaning does not come from what we own, but from what we honor. It does not rise from success, but from virtue. It does not emerge from noise, but from the small, sacred things that modern life has pushed to the margins — the home, the table, the duty you fulfill, the person you help when no one is watching.

The danger is assuming that this rediscovery happens on its own. It does not.

Reorientation requires intention. It requires rebuilding the habits and virtues that once held us together. It requires telling the truth about our history instead of rewriting it to fit today’s narratives. And it requires acknowledging what has been erased: that meaning is inseparable from God’s presence in a nation’s life.

Harold M. Lambert / Contributor | Getty Images

Where renewal begins

We have built a world without stillness, and then we wondered why no one can hear the questions that matter. Those questions remain, whether we acknowledge them or not. They do not disappear just because we drown them in entertainment or noise. They wait for us, and the longer we ignore them, the more disoriented we become.

Meaning is still available. It is found in rebuilding the smallest, most human spaces — the places that cannot be digitized, globalized, or automated. The home. The family. The community.

These are the daily virtues that do not trend on social media, but that hold a civilization upright. If we want to repair this country, we begin there, exactly where every durable civilization has always begun: one virtue at a time, one tradition at a time, one generation at a time.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

The Bubba Effect erupts as America’s power brokers go rogue

Gary Hershorn / Contributor | Getty Images

When institutions betray the public’s trust, the country splits, and the spiral is hard to stop.

Something drastic is happening in American life. Headlines that should leave us stunned barely register anymore. Stories that once would have united the country instead dissolve into silence or shrugs.

It is not apathy exactly. It is something deeper — a growing belief that the people in charge either cannot or will not fix what is broken.

When people feel ignored or betrayed, they will align with anyone who appears willing to fight on their behalf.

I call this response the Bubba effect. It describes what happens when institutions lose so much public trust that “Bubba,” the average American minding his own business, finally throws his hands up and says, “Fine. I will handle it myself.” Not because he wants to, but because the system that was supposed to protect him now feels indifferent, corrupt, or openly hostile.

The Bubba effect is not a political movement. It is a survival instinct.

What triggers the Bubba effect

We are watching the triggers unfold in real time. When members of Congress publicly encourage active duty troops to disregard orders from the commander in chief, that is not a political squabble. When a federal judge quietly rewrites the rules so one branch of government can secretly surveil another, that is not normal. That is how republics fall. Yet these stories glided across the news cycle without urgency, without consequence, without explanation.

When the American people see the leadership class shrug, they conclude — correctly — that no one is steering the ship.

This is how the Bubba effect spreads. It is not just individuals resisting authority. It is sheriffs refusing to enforce new policies, school boards ignoring state mandates, entire communities saying, “We do not believe you anymore.” It becomes institutional, cultural, national.

A country cracking from the inside

This effect can be seen in Dearborn, Michigan. In the rise of fringe voices like Nick Fuentes. In the Epstein scandal, where powerful people could not seem to locate a single accountable adult. These stories are different in content but identical in message: The system protects itself, not you.

When people feel ignored or betrayed, they will align with anyone who appears willing to fight on their behalf. That does not mean they suddenly agree with everything that person says. It means they feel abandoned by the institutions that were supposed to be trustworthy.

The Bubba effect is what fills that vacuum.

The dangers of a faithless system

A republic cannot survive without credibility. Congress cannot oversee intelligence agencies if it refuses to discipline its own members. The military cannot remain apolitical if its chain of command becomes optional. The judiciary cannot defend the Constitution while inventing loopholes that erase the separation of powers.

History shows that once a nation militarizes politics, normalizes constitutional shortcuts, or allows government agencies to operate without scrutiny, it does not return to equilibrium peacefully. Something will give.

The question is what — and when.

The responsibility now belongs to us

In a healthy country, this is where the media steps in. This is where universities, pastors, journalists, and cultural leaders pause the outrage machine and explain what is at stake. But today, too many see themselves not as guardians of the republic, but of ideology. Their first loyalty is to narrative, not truth.

The founders never trusted the press more than the public. They trusted citizens who understood their rights, lived their responsibilities, and demanded accountability. That is the antidote to the Bubba effect — not rage, but citizenship.

How to respond without breaking ourselves

Do not riot. Do not withdraw. Do not cheer on destruction just because you dislike the target. That is how nations lose themselves. Instead, demand transparency. Call your representatives. Insist on consequences. Refuse to normalize constitutional violations simply because “everyone does it.” If you expect nothing, you will get nothing.

Do not hand your voice to the loudest warrior simply because he is swinging a bat at the establishment. You do not beat corruption by joining a different version of it. You beat it by modeling the country you want to preserve: principled, accountable, rooted in truth.

Adam Gray / Stringer | Getty Images

Every republic reaches a moment when historians will later say, “That was the warning.” We are living in ours. But warnings are gifts if they are recognized. Institutions bend. People fail. The Constitution can recover — if enough Americans still know and cherish it.

It does not take a majority. Twenty percent of the country — awake, educated, and courageous — can reset the system. It has happened before. It can happen again.

Wake up. Stand up. Demand integrity — from leaders, from institutions, and from yourself. Because the Bubba effect will not end until Americans reclaim the duty that has always belonged to them: preserving the republic for the next generation.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

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.