Biased Much? VP-elect Pence Lectured by Cast of Hamilton; Hillary Lauded

The so-called inclusive left is making it almost impossible to enjoy any entertainment venue without their very exclusive agenda being shoved to the forefront.

This weekend, Vice President-elect Mike Pence and his family attended the Broadway show Hamilton and were subjected to ridicule, boos and a lecture. Actor Brandon Victor Dixon had this to say from the stage following the show's conclusion:

We sir, we are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our planet, our children, our parents or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights, sir.

This is in direct contrast to Hillary Clinton's experience at the Broadway spectacular. Earlier this year, Clinton hosted a fundraiser at a special performance of the Tony-winning musical. Following the performance, she stood on stage with the show's creator Lin-Manuel Miranda who rewrote lyrics to the show in honor of Clinton.

"All these actors are very pleased to be there, be doing well. But the left can't let it go. Whether it's sporting events --- I was told recently by a friend . . . that he can't watch ESPN anymore because ESPN is now MSNBC with sports. I didn't even know because I don't have cable --- but you can't escape this anywhere. There's nowhere you can go where you will be safe," Buck Sexton said, filling in Monday on The Glenn Beck Program.

This shameful display of self-righteous incivility is exactly why Americans delivered the decision they did on November 8.

Listen to this segment from The Glenn Beck Program:

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

BUCK: Buck Sexton here in for Glenn Beck today on the Glenn Beck Program. Thank you so much for joining. As always, great to have you here.

So I'd like to think I'm in the holiday spirit, considering that we have Thanksgiving in just a few takes, and we have a number of other holidays coming up after that. Even here on the set where there are snowflakes falling gently, it's exciting. It gets me happy. Soon there will be presents, perhaps a bit of overeating. All good things.

You'd think that maybe there could be a bit of a delay in all of the nastiness in our politics. You'd think that perhaps they can just sit back for a moment and say, "Well, we lost that election, but let's all just eat some turkey and maple ham." Whatever else gets you excited. Stuffing -- some people are stuffing people. And they can look forward to that. And time with family and friends, and hopefully some time off from work. And that that would be exciting, and they'd be ready to go.

But if you thought any of that, unfortunately, you would be wrong, it seems. At least based on a bit of the headlines.

You see, over the weekend, our vice president-elect, VP-elect, Mike Pence, went to go see a show, a show in my hometown. I've seen a few shows before. I tend to see them broken down. For those of you who are going to be soon-to-be visitors of New York or have been in the past, usually there's the sort of Lion King-style musical extravaganza. And then there's the more artiste kind of stuff that goes on. There's the more high art, high concept Broadway plays, and they get a lot of attention. And they get a lot of people making noise about them, generally on the left. Because politically speaking, they're always one way.

So I don't go to the theater that much, but I'd like to think if I went to the theater, there would be no reason for me to be concerned that it will turn into a political lecture, that there would be the booing of our VP-elect, that it would turn into an opportunity for people once again to politicize absolutely everything.

They're at Hamilton, Hamilton, a show that I have not yet seen, which I blame, well, one on the fact that from what I have seen of it, I'm deeply unimpressed. And, two, at $700 a ticket, which I think is still about the going rate and the fact that it's sold out many months in in advance, just not in the budget. Haven't seen it. But I have seen some of the numbers because they've performed them. I am unimpressed. Easy to say that now, some would say, because politically speaking, they have annoyed me.

But huge, huge success. A lot of people have gone to see it. I even think Dick Cheney likes it, if memory serves. A lot of people think it's great. Celebration of the Founding Fathers. A predominantly, if not entirely -- predominantly minority cast. And people like it, right? It's like Founding Fathers, history of America with sort of the hip-hop flavor to it. Okay. Great.

Not necessarily my cup of tee. But maybe, I don't know, I haven't seen it. But we would think that anybody should be able to go to this, and you're at something that celebrates America, celebrates diversity, very successful.

All these actors are very pleased to be there, be doing well. But the left can't let it go. Whether it's sporting events -- I was told recently by a friend -- I had never heard this before, that he can't watch ESPN anymore because ESPN is now MSNBC with sports. I didn't even know because I don't have cable. But you can't escape this anywhere. There's nowhere you can go where you will be safe.

The audience at Hamilton booed vice president-elect Mike Pence. They thought, well, why let this guy -- who is there with his family, by the way. He's trying to enjoy a Broadway show. Maybe we could just let it go, guys. Probably a fair amount of New Yorkers there. I'm sure a fair amount of out-of-towners that everybody should know the basic decorum in the theater, everybody is there to relax and have a good time. They want to watch the show.

I'm not complaining about the politics of the show. That, you sign up for. But you don't think you'll get singled out in the audience to be booed, to be heckled, and then on top of that, to be lectured in a very condescending fashion by the cast of the show, after you've been booed. And you are the have not-elect of the United States of America, at a play about the American founding. You think maybe they could just tone it down a little bit, just not notch it down a few bits.

But, no, they didn't do that. In fact, we can play the audio for you because I'm sure some people knew that there was going to be something of a lecture coming. And the lecture came. And here's what it was: Play it.

VOICE: We have a message for you, sir. We hope that you will hear us out.

And I encourage everybody to flaunt your phones and tweet and post because this message needs to be spread far and wide, okay?

Vice president-elect Pence, we welcome you and we truly thank you for joining us here at Hamilton in America musical. We really do.

We, sir, we are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us.

(applauding)

VOICE: Our planet, our children, our parents, or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights.

We truly hope that this show has inspired to uphold our American values and to work on behalf of all of us. All of us.

(applauding)

We truly thank you for attending the show, this wonderful American story told by a diverse group of men and women of different colors, creeds, and origins. Ladies and gentlemen --

(applauding)

VOICE: (inaudible) represent all of us. To that, ladies and gentlemen, we also thank --

BUCK: All right. So you get the idea. To put this in the proper context, by the way, Hillary Clinton, the would-be president-elect, except she lost -- aw, so sad. She attended Hamilton, she was there. She actually had a fundraiser there. So Hamilton was co-opted by the Clinton machine for the purposes of raising even more cash to add to the billion dollars that was spent to make sure that she would not get elected, it seems. And she was hugged by the creator and star of Hamilton, the musical. She was treated as an honored guest.

So clearly Mike Pence was not treated as an honored guest. Now, I suppose we can't expect the left, which just based on the way that comedians thought it was their job after the election, to cry and spout profanity, instead of trying to make us all laugh together. They abandoned their craft in the face of politics now. They just can't keep it all together.

I guess we shouldn't expect all that much for VP-elect Pence at the Hamilton theater. But then when you start to put in the aftermath, the discussions -- because this became quite a thing over the weekend. I was hoping to avoid politics for a day or two, but sure enough, you open the Twitter feed or you open the Facebook, and what do you find? Battles raging over whether this was disrespectful or not.

Now, I know on the -- if you're putting this out on the ledger, on the side of it's not disrespectful. You have Pence himself saying, "Oh, he didn't feel disrespected -- what he's going to say? "Boohoo, I feel so sad on the inside. It gives me the sadness, that people said mean things."

Or, I'm sorry, the booing was mean. Then we get into the verbiage used in the lecture itself. And I even had a couple of exchanges with some of my fellow journalist colleagues over the weekend on this one, on the Twitter, which probably -- it just -- Saturday night Twitter should just be avoided. Just like stay away from the Twitter on Saturday, Buck. It's a much better way to be.

They're saying, "What's disrespectful in what they said? It was a message of unity and hope."

Really? If somebody told me that they were worried that I was going to be -- I mean, I'm unmarried. So let's just go -- we're worried that you're going to be an abusive husband. We're really hoping you can avoid being an abusive husband because a good husband would be great.

I wouldn't take that as some compliment. I wouldn't take that as some moment of unity. I wouldn't think to myself, "Oh, wow. They really have the best interests of humanity at heart here." I'd think, "That's really nasty. I don't deserve that. Why are they saying that?" And that was really the tone.

To say that somebody needs to be reminded or rather that you are -- let me use their exact words because I don't want to be accused of making it sound worse than it is -- alarmed and anxious, they say. That your new administration will not protect us, our planet, our children, our parents, or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights. So they're alarmed that he won't uphold the Constitution. They're alarmed that he will single out their children, their parents. Won't protect them.

Won't protect the planet. I suppose that's some sort of a nod to climate change hysteria. But even Obama didn't stop the rise of the seas. Oh, the rise of the seas is not that big of a deal actually. But don't tell anyone. It's fun for them to freak out about it.

But this is now the America that we live in, given that Hillary Clinton did not win. See, they had eight years of Obama, and they figured that it would just be Democrats from here on out. They became really used to getting their way.

We were living in an America where the prospect of a Republican candidate or Republican winning and then making Supreme Court appointments, a Republican who actually has members -- a majority in the House and in the Senate, at the same time, they are going to have to deal with some pretty disappointing stuff going forward. And they're not ready for it. They're willing to throw our most revered institutions under the bus, so to speak. They're willing to say that the way that our government is construct is not this act of genius.

Speaking of the Founding Fathers and all the great stuff that they did, based on one result of one election, we need a rethink, they say.

The popular vote is what should matter. States' rights have nothing to do with anything that isn't slavery. That still seems to be the meme. That's the thought process out there. At least if you listen to it on social media and you see what they have to say.

Of course, Donald Trump himself decided to weigh in on this, as well as some other journalists. But I just -- before we even get deeper into this because I think there are a couple more layers worth exploring, I just wanted to say, "Not even safe to go with his family to the play. Mike Pence can't just hang out there without people booing him and acting like children and being disrespectful." And the actors piling on at the end, I don't care what anybody says, including Mike Pence, the words used were condescending. The message was unnecessary. But this is a harbinger of things to come. This is now a post-Obama, Trump-as-president America, where there will be only safe spaces, so to speak, for the left.

Nothing is safe. Nothing is sacred. They particularly dislike that word. Nothing is sacred to protect the right, to protect our rights. If it means that they get to throw a tantrum and they get to make a point, they will do it.

[break]

BUCK: Buck Sexton here in for Glenn Beck today on the Glenn Beck Program. Thank you so much for joining and for staying through the break. Any and all of the above.

I just want to have some fun, if I could for a minute with the reactions that you got to this whole Hamilton controversy. People are saying, "Aren't there more things for Donald Trump and the new administration to be worried about than this?" Because Trump tweeted out, quote, the cast and producers of Hamilton, which I hear is highly overrated -- I'm not going to lie, I've heard that too -- should immediately apologize to Mike Pence for their terrible behavior, Trump wrote, in his third tweet on the subject.

(chuckling)

Look, the POTUS Twitter account -- or, the soon-to-be POTUS, I should say, Twitter account, I don't think it's going to be turned off during the presidency. And I think that it's okay. I think if Donald Trump wants to weigh in on these issues -- you'll recall, we had a president who thought it was fine to weigh in on whether a friend and I believe former professor of his was treated brusquely by the police, when he was trying to get back into his home. Remember the Cambridge police acted stupidly, so there's no issue that's too small on its face for the president to weigh in.

And I think -- I think your vice president getting booed and then a stern -- or, I shouldn't say stern -- a condescending lecture from the state at the most famous Broadway play in the country right now, I think Donald Trump is going to weigh in on that.

There are some who already see conspiracy afoot here. We have -- what is this? Someone from Politico, Ben white: Sir, you just settled the $25 million fraud lawsuit, and your cabinet is looking racist -- this is one of the media's favorite things to talk about -- don't worry, I'll distract them all with dumb Hamilton tweets.

So this was -- this is Trump's fault now? Get used to this, by the way, whether you like Trump or not, get used to the dishonesty you're going to see in the media. It's not what people do to the administration. It's not maligning very decent government servants, life-long public servants, people that have served in the military for decades who have been asked to serve in a Trump administration.

The problem is not with all the nastiness and all the lies and the propagandizing of the left against a Trump administration. The problem is with whatever Trump's reaction is to all of that stuff, that's the way they're going to play this.

It's really a corollary. It's a sort of addition to the old any time a Democrat makes a mistake, quote, Republicans pounce. Or the right-wing media pounces.

What are we supposed to do? There's a mistake. Something bad happens. You're going to point it out. If pointing it out and talked about it as pouncing -- yeah, it gets me to pounce a little bit.

I guess we've been known to pounce. But that's the formulation that they come up with so that the focus is never on the wrongdoing or the mistake. The focus is on those who point out the mistake.

And in this case, not only was the big problem -- and I just had -- I was really drinking this in. I have my little brother's birthday over the weekend, having a great time. And so when I wasn't out celebrating for that, I'm looking at -- I need to stop using the article here: The Twitter. Because I guess it's just Twitter. But it's fun to call it "the Twitter." And the Facebook. Or if you're in France, le Facebook.

I'm looking at all this stuff and the arguments going back and forth, and I think to myself, "Well, hold on a second here. Give me a minute. Wait. Why is Trump's speech somehow considered to be unacceptable? Why is it not okay for Trump to respond to speech with speech?"

This is now considering silencing. Ooh, I've got a great one. Robert Reich, who has -- he's a former administration official, I think, under the Clintons. 310,000 followers. So I assume a few people read this. He wrote: I'm with Brandon Dixon -- I think is one of the actors on Hamilton, but I'm not sure. RealDonaldTrump -- this is what the left comes up with -- RealDonaldTrump, must stop using tweets to criticize free speech he disagrees with. That's un-American.

Well, hold on a second, so using speech to criticize speech is now, quote, un-American. This is what -- this is what we've been pushed towards, everybody. You're no longer allowed to even object. Your objection to their transgression is the problem. Anything that you do that shows that you don't agree with them, that you want to push back, that you think they are either disrespectful or just wrong, well, you're going to do something that upsets them, because you see now, the left thinks that America is one giant safe space for them. And with the media completely in their pocket and under eight years of an Obama administration that was far left and as progressive as it could possibly be, they thought that it was all over, that the battles had been won, that nobody would be willing to push back. And if they had the temerity to do so, they would be crushed.

And then the Republicans come along and they win everything. And it's a sad, sad day for the progressive left. The statists are all like, "Whoa, hold on a second, bro, I thought we had finished them off." No. In fact, there are a lot of us still left. And we have a First Amendment right to say that you use your First Amendment right like a bunch of bozos.

Featured Image: U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator of the Broadway musical 'Hamilton' stand onstage after a special performance of the Tony-winning musical at the Richard Rodgers Theatre on July 12, 2016 in New York City. Clinton hosted a fundraiser at the special performance, with supporters paying from $2,700 to up to $100,000 for the chance to attend. (Photo by Yana Paskova/Getty Images)

Why do Americans feel so empty?

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.

A break in trust: A NEW Watergate is brewing in plain sight

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.

Grim warning: Bad-faith Israel critics duck REAL questions

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.

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

Spencer Platt / Staff | Getty Images

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Parallel societies do not end well

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

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

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

A crisis of confidence

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

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

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

Brandon Bell / Staff | Getty Images

Stand up and tell the truth

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

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

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

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

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

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

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.