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)

URGENT: FIVE steps to CONTROL AI before it's too late!

MANAURE QUINTERO / Contributor | Getty Images

By now, many of us are familiar with AI and its potential benefits and threats. However, unless you're a tech tycoon, it can feel like you have little influence over the future of artificial intelligence.

For years, Glenn has warned about the dangers of rapidly developing AI technologies that have taken the world by storm.

He acknowledges their significant benefits but emphasizes the need to establish proper boundaries and ethics now, while we still have control. But since most people aren’t Silicon Valley tech leaders making the decisions, how can they help keep AI in check?

Recently, Glenn interviewed Tristan Harris, a tech ethicist deeply concerned about the potential harm of unchecked AI, to discuss its societal implications. Harris highlighted a concerning new piece of legislation proposed by Texas Senator Ted Cruz. This legislation proposes a state-level moratorium on AI regulation, meaning only the federal government could regulate AI. Harris noted that there’s currently no Federal plan for regulating AI. Until the federal government establishes a plan, tech companies would have nearly free rein with their AI. And we all know how slowly the federal government moves.

This is where you come in. Tristan Harris shared with Glenn the top five actions you should urge your representatives to take regarding AI, including opposing the moratorium until a concrete plan is in place. Now is your chance to influence the future of AI. Contact your senator and congressman today and share these five crucial steps they must take to keep AI in check:

Ban engagement-optimized AI companions for kids

Create legislation that will prevent AI from being designed to maximize addiction, sexualization, flattery, and attachment disorders, and to protect young people’s mental health and ability to form real-life friendships.

Establish basic liability laws

Companies need to be held accountable when their products cause real-world harm.

Pass increased whistleblower protections

Protect concerned technologists working inside the AI labs from facing untenable pressures and threats that prevent them from warning the public when the AI rollout is unsafe or crosses dangerous red lines.

Prevent AI from having legal rights

Enact laws so AIs don’t have protected speech or have their own bank accounts, making sure our legal system works for human interests over AI interests.

Oppose the state moratorium on AI 

Call your congressman or Senator Cruz’s office, and demand they oppose the state moratorium on AI without a plan for how we will set guardrails for this technology.

Glenn: Only Trump dared to deliver on decades of empty promises

Tasos Katopodis / Stringer | Getty Images

The Islamic regime has been killing Americans since 1979. Now Trump’s response proves we’re no longer playing defense — we’re finally hitting back.

The United States has taken direct military action against Iran’s nuclear program. Whatever you think of the strike, it’s over. It’s happened. And now, we have to predict what happens next. I want to help you understand the gravity of this situation: what happened, what it means, and what might come next. To that end, we need to begin with a little history.

Since 1979, Iran has been at war with us — even if we refused to call it that.

We are either on the verge of a remarkable strategic victory or a devastating global escalation. Time will tell.

It began with the hostage crisis, when 66 Americans were seized and 52 were held for over a year by the radical Islamic regime. Four years later, 17 more Americans were murdered in the U.S. Embassy bombing in Beirut, followed by 241 Marines in the Beirut barracks bombing.

Then came the Khobar Towers bombing in 1996, which killed 19 more U.S. airmen. Iran had its fingerprints all over it.

In Iraq and Afghanistan, Iranian-backed proxies killed hundreds of American soldiers. From 2001 to 2020 in Afghanistan and 2003 to 2011 in Iraq, Iran supplied IEDs and tactical support.

The Iranians have plotted assassinations and kidnappings on U.S. soil — in 2011, 2021, and again in 2024 — and yet we’ve never really responded.

The precedent for U.S. retaliation has always been present, but no president has chosen to pull the trigger until this past weekend. President Donald Trump struck decisively. And what our military pulled off this weekend was nothing short of extraordinary.

Operation Midnight Hammer

The strike was reportedly called Operation Midnight Hammer. It involved as many as 175 U.S. aircraft, including 12 B-2 stealth bombers — out of just 19 in our entire arsenal. Those bombers are among the most complex machines in the world, and they were kept mission-ready by some of the finest mechanics on the planet.

USAF / Handout | Getty Images

To throw off Iranian radar and intelligence, some bombers flew west toward Guam — classic misdirection. The rest flew east, toward the real targets.

As the B-2s approached Iranian airspace, U.S. submarines launched dozens of Tomahawk missiles at Iran’s fortified nuclear facilities. Minutes later, the bombers dropped 14 MOPs — massive ordnance penetrators — each designed to drill deep into the earth and destroy underground bunkers. These bombs are the size of an F-16 and cost millions of dollars apiece. They are so accurate, I’ve been told they can hit the top of a soda can from 15,000 feet.

They were built for this mission — and we’ve been rehearsing this run for 15 years.

If the satellite imagery is accurate — and if what my sources tell me is true — the targeted nuclear sites were utterly destroyed. We’ll likely rely on the Israelis to confirm that on the ground.

This was a master class in strategy, execution, and deterrence. And it proved that only the United States could carry out a strike like this. I am very proud of our military, what we are capable of doing, and what we can accomplish.

What comes next

We don’t yet know how Iran will respond, but many of the possibilities are troubling. The Iranians could target U.S. forces across the Middle East. On Monday, Tehran launched 20 missiles at U.S. bases in Qatar, Syria, and Kuwait, to no effect. God forbid, they could also unleash Hezbollah or other terrorist proxies to strike here at home — and they just might.

Iran has also threatened to shut down the Strait of Hormuz — the artery through which nearly a fifth of the world’s oil flows. On Sunday, Iran’s parliament voted to begin the process. If the Supreme Council and the ayatollah give the go-ahead, we could see oil prices spike to $150 or even $200 a barrel.

That would be catastrophic.

The 2008 financial collapse was pushed over the edge when oil hit $130. Western economies — including ours — simply cannot sustain oil above $120 for long. If this conflict escalates and the Strait is closed, the global economy could unravel.

The strike also raises questions about regime stability. Will it spark an uprising, or will the Islamic regime respond with a brutal crackdown on dissidents?

Early signs aren’t hopeful. Reports suggest hundreds of arrests over the weekend and at least one dissident executed on charges of spying for Israel. The regime’s infamous morality police, the Gasht-e Ershad, are back on the streets. Every phone, every vehicle — monitored. The U.S. embassy in Qatar issued a shelter-in-place warning for Americans.

Russia and China both condemned the strike. On Monday, a senior Iranian official flew to Moscow to meet with Vladimir Putin. That meeting should alarm anyone paying attention. Their alliance continues to deepen — and that’s a serious concern.

Now we pray

We are either on the verge of a remarkable strategic victory or a devastating global escalation. Time will tell. But either way, President Trump didn’t start this. He inherited it — and he took decisive action.

The difference is, he did what they all said they would do. He didn’t send pallets of cash in the dead of night. He didn’t sign another failed treaty.

He acted. Now, we pray. For peace, for wisdom, and for the strength to meet whatever comes next.


This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Globalize the Intifada? Why Mamdani’s plan spells DOOM for America

Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

If New Yorkers hand City Hall to Zohran Mamdani, they’re not voting for change. They’re opening the door to an alliance of socialism, Islamism, and chaos.

It only took 25 years for New York City to go from the resilient, flag-waving pride following the 9/11 attacks to a political fever dream. To quote Michael Malice, “I'm old enough to remember when New Yorkers endured 9/11 instead of voting for it.”

Malice is talking about Zohran Mamdani, a Democratic Socialist assemblyman from Queens now eyeing the mayor’s office. Mamdani, a 33-year-old state representative emerging from relative political obscurity, is now receiving substantial funding for his mayoral campaign from the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

CAIR has a long and concerning history, including being born out of the Muslim Brotherhood and named an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror funding case. Why would the group have dropped $100,000 into a PAC backing Mamdani’s campaign?

Mamdani blends political Islam with Marxist economics — two ideologies that have left tens of millions dead in the 20th century alone.

Perhaps CAIR has a vested interest in Mamdani’s call to “globalize the intifada.” That’s not a call for peaceful protest. Intifada refers to historic uprisings of Muslims against what they call the “Israeli occupation of Palestine.” Suicide bombings and street violence are part of the playbook. So when Mamdani says he wants to “globalize” that, who exactly is the enemy in this global scenario? Because it sure sounds like he's saying America is the new Israel, and anyone who supports Western democracy is the new Zionist.

Mamdani tried to clean up his language by citing the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, which once used “intifada” in an Arabic-language article to describe the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. So now he’s comparing Palestinians to Jewish victims of the Nazis? If that doesn’t twist your stomach into knots, you’re not paying attention.

If you’re “globalizing” an intifada, and positioning Israel — and now America — as the Nazis, that’s not a cry for human rights. That’s a call for chaos and violence.

Rising Islamism

But hey, this is New York. Faculty members at Columbia University — where Mamdani’s own father once worked — signed a letter defending students who supported Hamas after October 7. They also contributed to Mamdani’s mayoral campaign. And his father? He blamed Ronald Reagan and the religious right for inspiring Islamic terrorism, as if the roots of 9/11 grew in Washington, not the caves of Tora Bora.

Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

This isn’t about Islam as a faith. We should distinguish between Islam and Islamism. Islam is a religion followed peacefully by millions. Islamism is something entirely different — an ideology that seeks to merge mosque and state, impose Sharia law, and destroy secular liberal democracies from within. Islamism isn’t about prayer and fasting. It’s about power.

Criticizing Islamism is not Islamophobia. It is not an attack on peaceful Muslims. In fact, Muslims are often its first victims.

Islamism is misogynistic, theocratic, violent, and supremacist. It’s hostile to free speech, religious pluralism, gay rights, secularism — even to moderate Muslims. Yet somehow, the progressive left — the same left that claims to fight for feminism, LGBTQ rights, and free expression — finds itself defending candidates like Mamdani. You can’t make this stuff up.

Blending the worst ideologies

And if that weren’t enough, Mamdani also identifies as a Democratic Socialist. He blends political Islam with Marxist economics — two ideologies that have left tens of millions dead in the 20th century alone. But don’t worry, New York. I’m sure this time socialism will totally work. Just like it always didn’t.

If you’re a business owner, a parent, a person who’s saved anything, or just someone who values sanity: Get out. I’m serious. If Mamdani becomes mayor, as seems likely, then New York City will become a case study in what happens when you marry ideological extremism with political power. And it won’t be pretty.

This is about more than one mayoral race. It’s about the future of Western liberalism. It’s about drawing a bright line between faith and fanaticism, between healthy pluralism and authoritarian dogma.

Call out radicalism

We must call out political Islam the same way we call out white nationalism or any other supremacist ideology. When someone chants “globalize the intifada,” that should send a chill down your spine — whether you’re Jewish, Christian, Muslim, atheist, or anything in between.

The left may try to shame you into silence with words like “Islamophobia,” but the record is worn out. The grooves are shallow. The American people see what’s happening. And we’re not buying it.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Could China OWN our National Parks?

Jonathan Newton / Contributor | Getty Images

The left’s idea of stewardship involves bulldozing bison and barring access. Lee’s vision puts conservation back in the hands of the people.

The media wants you to believe that Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) is trying to bulldoze Yellowstone and turn national parks into strip malls — that he’s calling for a reckless fire sale of America’s natural beauty to line developers’ pockets. That narrative is dishonest. It’s fearmongering, and, by the way, it’s wrong.

Here’s what’s really happening.

Private stewardship works. It’s local. It’s accountable. It’s incentivized.

The federal government currently owns 640 million acres of land — nearly 28% of all land in the United States. To put that into perspective, that’s more territory than France, Germany, Poland, and the United Kingdom combined.

Most of this land is west of the Mississippi River. That’s not a coincidence. In the American West, federal ownership isn’t just a bureaucratic technicality — it’s a stranglehold. States are suffocated. Locals are treated as tenants. Opportunities are choked off.

Meanwhile, people living east of the Mississippi — in places like Kentucky, Georgia, or Pennsylvania — might not even realize how little land their own states truly control. But the same policies that are plaguing the West could come for them next.

Lee isn’t proposing to auction off Yellowstone or pave over Yosemite. He’s talking about 3 million acres — that’s less than half of 1% of the federal estate. And this land isn’t your family’s favorite hiking trail. It’s remote, hard to access, and often mismanaged.

Failed management

Why was it mismanaged in the first place? Because the federal government is a terrible landlord.

Consider Yellowstone again. It’s home to the last remaining herd of genetically pure American bison — animals that haven’t been crossbred with cattle. Ranchers, myself included, would love the chance to help restore these majestic creatures on private land. But the federal government won’t allow it.

So what do they do when the herd gets too big?

They kill them. Bulldoze them into mass graves. That’s not conservation. That’s bureaucratic malpractice.

And don’t even get me started on bald eagles — majestic symbols of American freedom and a federally protected endangered species, now regularly slaughtered by wind turbines. I have pictures of piles of dead bald eagles. Where’s the outrage?

Biden’s federal land-grab

Some argue that states can’t afford to manage this land themselves. But if the states can’t afford it, how can Washington? We’re $35 trillion in debt. Entitlements are strained, infrastructure is crumbling, and the Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service, and National Park Service are billions of dollars behind in basic maintenance. Roads, firebreaks, and trails are falling apart.

The Biden administration quietly embraced something called the “30 by 30” initiative, a plan to lock up 30% of all U.S. land and water under federal “conservation” by 2030. The real goal is 50% by 2050.

That entails half of the country being taken away from you, controlled not by the people who live there but by technocrats in D.C.

You think that won’t affect your ability to hunt, fish, graze cattle, or cut timber? Think again. It won’t be conservatives who stop you from building a cabin, raising cattle, or teaching your grandkids how to shoot a rifle. It’ll be the same radical environmentalists who treat land as sacred — unless it’s your truck, your deer stand, or your back yard.

Land as collateral

Moreover, the U.S. Treasury is considering putting federally owned land on the national balance sheet, listing your parks, forests, and hunting grounds as collateral.

What happens if America defaults on its debt?

David McNew / Stringer | Getty Images

Do you think our creditors won’t come calling? Imagine explaining to your kids that the lake you used to fish in is now under foreign ownership, that the forest you hunted in belongs to China.

This is not hypothetical. This is the logical conclusion of treating land like a piggy bank.

The American way

There’s a better way — and it’s the American way.

Let the people who live near the land steward it. Let ranchers, farmers, sportsmen, and local conservationists do what they’ve done for generations.

Did you know that 75% of America’s wetlands are on private land? Or that the most successful wildlife recoveries — whitetail deer, ducks, wild turkeys — didn’t come from Washington but from partnerships between private landowners and groups like Ducks Unlimited?

Private stewardship works. It’s local. It’s accountable. It’s incentivized. When you break it, you fix it. When you profit from the land, you protect it.

This is not about selling out. It’s about buying in — to freedom, to responsibility, to the principle of constitutional self-governance.

So when you hear the pundits cry foul over 3 million acres of federal land, remember: We don’t need Washington to protect our land. We need Washington to get out of the way.

Because this isn’t just about land. It’s about liberty. And once liberty is lost, it doesn’t come back easily.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.