Time to Pass the Baton to the Next Hero Generation: The Millennials

October 18, 2016

Writer

It's time to take the plastic off the furniture and turn off the TV set. Millennials are the next hero generation queued up to save the republic. They're depending on older generations to show them the way. They don't care about political parties, they don't care about Ronald Reagan. They care about making a difference. So let's show them how to do it --- the American way.

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

• Do millennials watch television?

• What unrealistic expectations did parents set for millennials?

• Do millennials think older generations are like old grumpy neighbors?

• Why don't more millennials know about Mao Tse-tung?

• Do millennials want your house?

• Does Glenn surf the Kondratiev wave?

Listen to this segment from The Glenn Beck Program:

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

GLENN: So if -- imagine that you are a -- imagine that you're a millennial, and you're 20-something years old, and you're seeing the world as it is today. And you're watching people on television -- on television, which is no longer a part of your world. You go over to your mom and dad's house, and they're sitting on their couch, watching television, which you don't do. You don't do it. You don't sit and watch an hour of commercials in a television program. And so it's already kind of cute and quaint. It's kind of like going over to your grandparents when they had the plastic on the furniture. You're like, "They're just old. Don't -- you know, just go along with it." Okay?

PAT: I don't know if it's quite that bad.

GLENN: It's pretty close. It's pretty close. Millennials do not watch television.

JEFFY: No. No, they do not.

PAT: I mean, they watch it less. But they do watch it.

GLENN: Not cable news. Not cable news.

PAT: Nobody watches cable news anymore.

JEFFY: No cable.

GLENN: Yes, they do.

So the ones who are connected to politics, they're watching cable news. So they come over from their world into yours, and you're watching cable news. And you're seeing usually two old white guys and a young person, a millennial, a girl, a hot girl, who isn't talking at all like any of your millennial friends. Is like old people speak.

PAT: Uh-huh.

GLENN: And you're rolling your eyes at her. Because you're like, "Total sellout." And the other one -- because you're like, "This is so obvious. They're saying the same basic thing. They're arguing over things that -- oh, my gosh, I don't know why my dad does this." Okay?

That's the world they're coming from. Then they go to their world where they're listening to Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and everybody else saying that jobs are good. Hey, we're on the road to recovery. They're massively in debt. They have -- they are -- they've gone to college. All their friends have gone to college. Their friends aren't getting jobs.

JEFFY: If they are, they're underemployed.

GLENN: Yes, they're underemployed. They can't pay for their --

PAT: And let's not forget, they've been told that which drives me out of my mind. That their debt is not their fault, they believe. Which pisses me off.

GLENN: Well, hang on just a second, they have now -- they see this crushing debt that they have --

PAT: That they accrued.

GLENN: Hang on just a second.

PAT: All right.

GLENN: That the old world, as they see it --

PAT: Uh-huh.

GLENN: -- has been encouraged since they were little, "You got to go to college. When are going to go to college? Where are you going to go to college? Got to go to college. Got to go to college. Everybody goes to college. Got to go to college. Got to get into a good college."

Everyone in their life who they're now seeing represented on dad's/grandpa's TV set yelling at each other about a solution that they know won't work, and they think to themselves, "I -- I mean, this doesn't work, and I'm screwed with this debt."

Meanwhile, while everybody has been saying, "Got to go to college, got to go to college, got to go to college," they went to college. And where everybody -- where mom and dad said, "This is the best college. This is a great college." Those people that mom and dad endorsed taught them that you didn't really incur this debt and this whole system doesn't work. And so maybe I do know a little bit more than mom and dad.

Even if they don't go that far, they know this system doesn't work, and they don't want to become like mom and dad, who are now in debt. Dad is still having to work. Maybe their retirement isn't coming through the way it was. They haven't really been happy. Mom or dad have just been kind of tolerating each other for a while, maybe till the kids -- they've drifted apart. Or maybe they're really happy, but they're -- they are under such pressure with debt because of the house and the lifestyle, that the millennial looks at and says, "Why not just buy a smaller house? Why -- we didn't need all this stuff, mom and dad. Why did you do that?"

STU: It would be great if that's the way they were -- that's the way they were thinking about these things. It doesn't seem like that's the way they're thinking about it.

JEFFY: No, it is not.

STU: Good example of your generational thing.

GLENN: Some. Some. I'm telling you --

STU: Of course, some --

GLENN: -- they're being indoctrinated to think the other way.

STU: Right. But let's think about --

PAT: Some believe they're entitled to the house that mom and dad are living in.

JEFFY: Exactly right.

GLENN: I agree with you.

PAT: Move out of that house.

GLENN: I agree with you.

STU: Why would you bring that up? That's a weird thing to bring up.

PAT: I don't have any examples, no.

(laughter)

STU: Okay.

PAT: I just know that exists.

GLENN: You have five examples. You have five examples.

(chuckling)

STU: The generational thing you've talked about many times -- and this is an interesting -- potentially an interesting example of it, the situation -- the old system is faulty. Right? We spend all of this money. We get in lots of debt to get college. And they agree that that's faulty. You know what, I agree also that that's faulty. My, let's call it, generation would look at that issue and say, "Let's execute a cost-benefit analysis. Is it wise for us to enter into this agreement that everyone is telling me I have to do and acquire all this debt? Should I consider being educated in a way that is less expensive? Should I chase a different way of approaching this problem?"

PAT: Should I have gotten a job in high school and earned money?

GLENN: Hang on. Hang on.

STU: Hold on. Let me just finish the point.

They seem to be looking at this as, it's not the idea that college should be required, that's the problem. The issue is, I just shouldn't have to pay for it. I completely accept without questioning --

JEFFY: Yes.

STU: -- the idea that I must go to college and must do all these things, despite the fact that I'm going to spend 80 percent of my time now doing schoolwork, as has been shown in study after study. That, I shouldn't question at all. I should only question the cost I acquire for it. And that's why we continually complain about them -- millennials looking at socialist solutions.

A real -- a real questioning the status quo, really, is to say, do I need this? Do I need to do it in a different way? Do I do it in a way that maybe doesn't --

PAT: Can I go to trade school? Can I go to a community college?

Can I go to a State University where it's going to be cheaper than Harvard?

JEFFY: Not without getting a job though.

PAT: You know. Right.

STU: I stopped talking already. Glenn is giving me that look of how dare you. How dare you.

GLENN: No, no. No, no, no.

I agree with your point -- I agree with your point of view. I absolutely agree with your point of view. Here's where we differ, I think.

STU: Uh-huh.

GLENN: Do you know how hard it is to cut your own way anyway? Everybody likes to think, I'm different. I'm special. I'm cutting my own way.

JEFFY: Right.

GLENN: Well, first of all, that wasn't true for most of us when it was cool to think that you were different, but this generation, it's not cool to necessarily think differently. It's to think collectively because of their generation. Okay? To make things better collectively.

So they're coming to it from a different place than we are. It's why -- it's why grandparents usually understand -- have such a great bond with the grandchild. I've always thought that it's because, "I don't have the responsibility. So it's kind of fun." No, it's because it's an 80-year cycle. Your experiences are closer than the experiences of your children. It skips a generation because it's an 80-year we/me cycle. Okay?

So the grandchildren are looking at things much differently. Our children are looking at things much differently than we are. We were more independent-minded.

Also, at the time -- at our time, there were more people like Ronald Reagan, who were living this and saying, "Be this. Do this." All of society was, "You -- you can do it." All of society now is, "No, you can't do it, nor should you want to do it. No man is an island. You all have to work together for the common good." Everything is teaching them the opposite. And on top of it, who the hell do we have on our side that they can -- that they even relate to?

Because everybody that is on our side looks like me, sounds like me, does talk radio, or a stupid talk show on television, that come at that only their dads are watching. And they think their dad doesn't understand them.

There's nobody positioning themselves on our side that's speaking their language or even doing anything, but, "These crazy kids. Get off my lawn." That's who we're turning into, to them.

(chuckling)

GLENN: Where their professors are all --

PAT: Well, I don't want them on my lawn.

GLENN: All the professors are really super cool and telling them all the super cool things they can do collectively.

JEFFY: That's right.

GLENN: We're not. We're not.

We are never going to make an impact trying to speak the language of Ronald Reagan to a group of people who don't -- nor do they care. And in most cases, have been taught he's a bad guy. Nobody is going to listen to, "We got to be more like Ronald Reagan. We need another Ronald Reagan." They don't even know who the hell that is.

STU: I mean, I think that's the point I was making. In that, that's the generational gap. Right? That's the difference.

PAT: Yeah.

STU: And it's not just even bringing up Ronald Reagan. They don't even know who freaking Ronald Reagan is.

JEFFY: Right.

STU: I mean, you know, we talked about them not knowing who killed more people, Mao or Bush. Forty-two percent of people were unfamiliar with Mao. Almost half of them have never even heard of the guy. So I'm not -- you're right on language, I think. What I was trying to define is more of like what their approach is. And I think you've tried to do this with guest after guest after guest, and Kondratiev wave after Kondratiev wave after pendulum -- all of those things are pointing to the same general conclusion, that these -- that younger voters think completely differently about this stuff. And, you know, I find it to be problematic. I think -- I think you're looking at it as, well, how do we win them over, which I think is appropriate and is necessary. But, I mean, I do think it's problematic.

GLENN: But there's no -- the question I keep asking -- Kondratiev wave after Kondratiev wave after Kondratiev wave -- and I go back and do my history and look -- you do not beat -- it's like standing in front of the ocean expecting to change the tide. You're not.

Now, how can you get into the water and work with that tide and that force and perhaps change the direction? Because that happens every time. It's why we have the French Revolution and the American Revolution. Very different things, all the same piece: We, the people. We, the people.

That's really important to understand, just that one thing. That was a generation that understood -- that looked at things as a collective.

Now, you can push back and say, "Yeah, well, we had the Bill of Rights. That was all about individual liberties."

Yes, because they know that the eternal truth was that no one is over you. But that's why they started it with, "We, the people." Not, I, the individual: We, the people. We'll establish this to protect these things, to protect the individual. We're going to get together as a collective.

Now, unless you have somebody who is teaching, "Hey, as a collective, we have to protect the individual." Because that's all they want to do. "We want to help the downtrodden. We want to help." Great. Well, there's ways to do that. And the two times before this wave was the Founders' wave.

And they said, "We, the people, need to protect the individual and what the individual -- because that is supreme." Where all of the other generational we thinkers at that time went Robespierre and said, "We are the collective, and we'll crush the individual that stands in our way." And that's already happening.

You disagree with global warming, they will crush you. You disagree with Donald Trump, and they will crush you.

We are in that scenario, that always leads to witch hunts and to blacklists, unless somebody on our side is appealing to the youth and knows who they can be. They've just not had anybody on our side actually reaching out to them and saying, "I know who you are. You're not who everybody says who you are. I know who you are. You are the hero generation. And people are going to try to misguide you. We, collectively -- you can change the world and chart the course, away from the death you never learned about."

When somebody teaches you something and you realize that somebody intentionally has kept a very important detail away from you, you don't run into their arms and say, "Hey, thank you for that." You look at them and say, "What the hell were you thinking? You didn't tell me about this part? You didn't tell me about Mao and 100 million people that he killed. You let me believe that George W. Bush was a bigger killer. I can't trust you at all." We have a massive win. But it's slipping through our fingers every time we betray our values by living something differently than what we say is important.

Featured Image: USA's Gil Roberts (L) grabs the baton from USA's Tony McQuay as they compete in the Men's 4x400m Relay Final during the athletics event at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at the Olympic Stadium in Rio de Janeiro on August 20, 2016. / AFP / PEDRO UGARTE (Photo credit should read PEDRO UGARTE/AFP/Getty Images)

Glenn: What I saw on the ground in Asheville gave me hope

Melissa Sue Gerrits / Stringer | Getty Images

The government can’t save us. Washington is too slow and too bureaucratic, and quite frankly, the government doesn’t care.

I’ve seen a lot of destruction in my life. I’ve walked through war zones and cities torn apart by riots, and I've stood at the sites of natural disasters that leave communities devastated. But what I saw in Asheville, North Carolina, after Hurricane Helene was unlike anything I’ve ever witnessed.

Houses were washed down rivers, upside down and crushed. Train tracks, strong enough to support locomotives, were left suspended in midair after the earth beneath them was eroded away. Semi-trucks, rolled by the force of the floodwaters, now lie like children’s toys, tossed and overturned hundreds of feet from the road. Whole towns have been uprooted and scattered — debris from homes miles away, stacking up like dominoes, bridges that stood for decades washed out by water so high that it flowed six feet over their tops.

'You tell everybody you know — even if they don’t care — we’ll take care of our own damn selves if nobody shows up.'

I stood there, looking at this idyllic small town in the Blue Ridge Mountains, and I thought, “This will take years to rebuild. Maybe even decades.” But I didn’t just see destruction. I saw something far more powerful than nature’s wrath: the resilience of the American spirit.

My expectations for the government’s assistance were low before I arrived in Asheville, given its failing track record in previous natural disasters, but its response to Hurricane Helene victims — or lack thereof — was a new category of negligence. But the people in Asheville weren’t waiting on FEMA or the federal government to swoop in. They knew no one was coming.

The bridges were out, roads were destroyed, and the mountains had isolated them from outside help. But instead of despair, I saw hope. Instead of panic, I saw action. People were taking care of each other, and that is the America I remember, like in the days after 9/11 when we came together regardless of political party, race, or background. We didn’t care about who voted for whom. We just saw our neighbors hurting, and we asked, “Are you OK? What can I do to help?”

I saw that again in North Carolina. I saw it in the man who turned his Harley-Davidson dealership into a helicopter landing zone, shoveling mud out of his showroom just so rescue teams could land. I saw it in the volunteers flying missions across treacherous terrain, getting the elderly and the injured out of danger. They weren’t asking for government permission. They were doing what needed to be done.

Adam Smith, a retired Special Forces veteran who is coordinating the landing of helicopters in Asheville, told me that the FAA is trying to shut down the operation because it isn’t federally regulated. He told the feds that they’re going to leave because he has a helicopter landing in a few minutes that will actually help people while they are barking orders from Washington.

One story stood out to me. We landed to help evacuate an elderly woman with a broken hip and a severe infection. She just had surgery, but because her family didn’t have insurance, the hospital pushed her out as fast as it could. Her wound became infected, and her leg was on fire. We helped airlift her to get her desperately needed antibiotics and treatment. There were no government resources to help her to an emergency room.

As we loaded the woman into the helicopter, her grandson turned to me and said, “You tell everybody you know — even if they don’t care — we’ll take care of our own damn selves if nobody shows up.” That hit me hard because it’s the truth. It’s the way America used to be, and it’s the way we need to be again.

As I flew through those mountains in the helicopter, I couldn’t help but think of Billy Graham. I’d visited Asheville about 10 years ago to see him, and I remember thinking how beautiful and peaceful the town was. Today, it’s unrecognizable. The destruction is overwhelming. But the people are stronger than ever.

The government can’t save us. Washington is too slow and too bureaucratic, and quite frankly, the government doesn’t care. I saw it firsthand. We found a FEMA truck parked under a tree, its workers sitting at a card table in the shade. They weren’t doing anything to help.

But we’re Americans. We can take care of ourselves. We don’t need Washington to save us. We need each other. This is the America that Billy Graham spoke to me about — the America that will rise again in times of trouble. And while the government might fail us, we will not fail each other. And that’s exactly what I saw in North Carolina — Americans stepping up, taking care of their neighbors, and rebuilding their communities.

This is what I told the people of Asheville: You are not forgotten. There are millions of Americans who love you, who are praying for you, and who are ready to help. Because that’s what we do. We don’t wait for permission. We roll up our sleeves and take care of our own.

And to the rest of America, I say this: It’s time to remember who we are. It’s time to stop looking to Washington for solutions and start looking at each other. Because when the chips are down, it’s not the government that’s going to save us. It’s you and me, and if we stand together, nothing — no hurricane, no flood, no disaster — can break us.

Editor's Note: This article was originally published on TheBlaze.com.

UPDATE: Will Florida survive Hurricane Milton?

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For the second time in two weeks, Florida is in the path of a major hurricane.

Hurricane Milton is expected to make landfall sometime tonight, Wednesday, October 9th, somewhere near Tampa Bay. This will mark the first time in a hundred years the city has been hit directly by a hurricane, raising concerns about the preparedness of the city's infrastructure. Milton, which was rated a category five hurricane earlier this week, has been reduced to a category four as it approaches land and is expected to make landfall as a powerful category three.

The Sunshine State has already begun to feel the effects of the historic storm, with strong winds and heavy rains battering Tampa Bay this morning. Many are still trying to evacuate or prepare for the storm as conditions worsen. Highways have slowed down, and gas has run short. Residents are preparing for the worst.

The federally recognized "Waffle House Index" is in red, meaning that several Waffle House locations in the Tampa Bay area will be shut down. Waffle House prides itself on being open 24/7, no matter the conditions, so for them to shut down, if only for a brief time, indicates that severe damage to the area is anticipated.

Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

In short, Milton is anticipated to be a disaster, and as we have learned, FEMA is unlikely to be much help. Fortunately, Floridians have Ron DeSantis, who has continued to prove himself a capable governor, and the aid of good-hearted Americans from across the country. If you want to lend a hand to your fellow Americans you can donate at Mercury One and rest assured that your money will be used to step in to help hurricane victims where the government is failing.

'Call her Daddy'? Kamala Harris keeps dodging important questions

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Kamala Harris has been making her rounds on talk shows and podcasts in order to increase her poor recognition amongst voters, but all we're hearing is more of the same.

Just in the past few days, Harris has appeared on "60 Minutes" and the popular podcast "Call Her Daddy" to help Americans get to know her. But instead of bold answers to hard-hitting questions, Harris delivered rambling responses to soft-ball questions and squirmed her way out of the few tough questions thrown at her. Overall, it is unlikely that any voter who tuned in to get a solid grasp on Harris's policies was left with a better understanding after either one of her interviews.

Below is a summary of Harris's most recent interviews:

"Call Her Daddy" podcast

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Despite this podcast's unsavory name, it consistently ranks among the most popular podcasts in the world, right up there with Joe Rogan's show, and is especially popular among women. Shortly after releasing the interview with Harris, Alex Cooper, the host of the podcast, received backlash for her extremely soft treatment of the presidential nominee. After watching the interview, it's not hard to see how that impression might have come across.

The interview consisted of several surface-level, gimme-type, questions on common Democrat talking points. Harris said she was—surprise—pro-choice. Who would have thought? She also expressed her desire to dump taxpayer money into student loan forgiveness along with other government "aid" programs, which is pretty standard amongst the Left. Overall, nothing new was revealed.

The rest of the interview was little more than gossip. Cooper and Harris chatted about a comment made by Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders and the "at ladies" comment made by J.D. Vance. This was not the deep dive on Harris that voters wanted.

60 Minutes

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On Monday, October 8th, Harris sat down with CBS's Bill Whitaker for an interview on 60 Minutes. While Whitaker defiantly upped the ante in comparison to "Call Her Daddy," Harris still managed to dodge several questions. When asked about foreign policy, Harris parroted the same tired schtick we've heard for the past four years, which clearly hasn't worked. Like Biden before her, she called for an end to the Israel-Hamas war, primarily out of concern for the Palestinians, while simultaneously maintaining Israel's right to self-defense.

Harris also deflected Biden's failure at the Southern Border onto the House Republicans, citing a single instance where a border security bill failed to pass. Even Whitaker pointed out the obvious: The Biden-Harris administration has had four years to solve the problem, and the blame does not fall on this single instance. Harris didn't waver, and doubled down on her excuse, again blaming Congress.

Harris went on to repeatedly dodge questions about her three trillion-dollar economic plan and offered little explanation of what might be included in such a plan, or how it will be paid for. These interviews have repeatedly failed to define Harris or her platform in any meaningful way, though they were successful in concealing just how radical of a candidate she actually is. She is still just a vaguely left-wing, Joe Biden replacement in the eyes of many voters, which might be the best she can do.

The Howard Stern Show

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In her recent interview on The Howard Stern Show, Harris once again demonstrated her signature combination of evasiveness and unreliable platitudes. Rather than offering substantive answers to Stern’s pointed questions, Harris deflected with awkward humor and vague talking points, sidestepping any real discussion on critical issues like the border crisis or inflation. Her attempt to portray herself as relatable felt painfully out of touch, especially when she pivoted the conversation to her fondness for music and cooking.

Harris’s inability to confront pressing national concerns only highlights her growing reputation for evading accountability during her term in the Biden administration. Stern, typically known for drawing candid responses from guests, seemed unable to penetrate the wall of superficiality that Harris maintained throughout the conversation.

"The Late Show" with Stephen Colbert

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We saw a similar performance from Harris on Stephen Colbert's "The Late Show." Colbert teed her up for questions about inflation, the southern border crisis, and the administration’s plunging approval ratings, but Harris stuck to her well-worn script of platitudes and vague promises. Instead of addressing the economic pain felt by millions, she laughed nervously through softball questions, leaving viewers with nothing but empty rhetoric about “working together” and “finding solutions,” while the country watches the consequences of ineffective leadership.

Moreover, when Colbert pressed her on issues like the administration's immigration policies or lack of legislative victories, Harris deflected with hollow talking points, refusing to engage in any serious reflection or accountability. Her awkward attempts at humor felt like a shield against real criticism, confirming the impression that she remains detached from the gravity of the crises unfolding under her watch.

PHOTOS: What Glenn saw in North Carolina was INSANE

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Last Thursday, October 3rd, Glenn traveled to North Carolina to join Mercury One as they provided critical aid to those devastated by Hurricane Helene.

What Glenn saw during his brief visit looked like scenes straight out of an apocalypse movie: houses torn from their foundations and tossed to the side, sometimes entire towns away from where they were built, semi-trucks rolled, railroad tracks swept away, bridges washed out. It was a level of destruction Glenn had never before seen.

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But perhaps the most shocking encounter of his whole trip was when Glenn discovered a lone FEMA crew. It was a miracle that Glenn even spotted the FEMA truck, as it was parked away from the main road without any signs or markers to indicate to any passerby in need of its existence. Glenn and Congressman Cory Mills decided to talk to this FEMA crew, the only one they had encountered on their trek, and see what they were up to. As it turns out, not much. The FEMA workers admitted that they had only arrived the day before (nearly a week after the hurricane) and still did not have any sort of supplies. They claimed that people would know where they were located via the local news, despite the fact that most people did not have access to power, cell service, their home, or even their cars. Moreover, there seemed to be confusion about whether they were to go door-to-door in order to render aid to those in need.

.@CoryMillsFL and I spoke with the ONLY FEMA crew we could find in Asheville, North Carolina. It was stationed OFF the main road where NO Hurricane Helene victims could easily see them:

“We got here yesterday.”
A WEEK LATE.

“They could go online, make a phone call, or use our… pic.twitter.com/IU5I6KAL5r
— Glenn Beck (@glennbeck) October 4, 2024

FEMA dropped the ball on this entire affair, and it is only going to get worse. FEMA is claiming they blew their yearly allowance on aiding illegal immigrants. Meanwhile, another hurricane is approaching Florida and is expected to make landfall on Wednesday. It seems unlikely that FEMA will be of any use to Floridians in need, and they will have to rely on the aid of their fellow Americans.

Want to help out your fellow countrymen where our government has failed? You can donate at Mercury One and rest assured that your money will be used to step in to help hurricane victims where the government is failing.

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