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Glenn's Show Prep

UFC Fighter Tim Kennedy Promises to Match Glenn's $50,000 Offer to the Deadspin Fight Winner

January 26, 2017
Ted Tuttle

Editor

Deadspin's trash-talking editor-in-chief may have just talked himself into getting a serious beating.

After lashing out at Ted Cruz in his magazine, Tim Marchman took to Twitter dumping on the Texas senator's supporters and challenging anyone with enough guts to a fight:

That was a big mistake. It wasn't long before Army Ranger turned UFC fighter Tim Kennedy accepted the challenge:

Marchman has suddenly gone silent. But he won't be able to hide forever. Glenn upped the game by promising $50,000 of his own money to the winner's charity of choice.

Kennedy called in to Glenn's radio program Thursday to share where he would want the donated funds to go, assuming he won the fight. He then added a promise of his own.

"Obviously mine---the nonprofit---is going to go to a military/law enforcement-supporting charity. That's where mine is going to go," he said. "And, you know, I'll match yours, Glenn. That's coming from me, Tim Kennedy, as a person, supporting this cause as well."

Watch the clip or read the full segment transcript below.

GLENN: Oh, I love this. Okay. So you're going to love it as well. Ashley Feinberg, she's a writer for Deadspin. She was owned by Ted Cruz two times this week, when she was making fun of Ted Cruz and his basketball skills. And Ted Cruz tweeted back a picture of him -- or, a guy who kind of looked like a young him, a Duke basketball player, and just didn't say anything. Just let it speak for itself.

STU: He said, "What do I win?" He said, "What do I win?"

GLENN: Yeah, lets it speak for itself.

Then Tim Marchman. Tim Marchman is the editor for Deadspin. He writes, "Amazing that low testosterone Ted Cruz enthusiasts are comfortable haranguing Ashley Feinberg, but not me, Deadspin's actual editor. Ted Cruz is a pathetic, expletive. His social media intern's joke was basic, and complaints should go to Marchman at Deadspin.com. Unsurprising that not one Ted Cruz-supporting kuck Twitter user is willing to face me in the UFC octagon. Hundreds of dudes who can't do pushups are tweeting at me, but literally not one has had the brass to send me an email."

PAT: What? Unbelievable.

GLENN: Well, that's when Ted Kennedy -- or, Tim Kennedy does it. He writes --

STU: Ted Kennedy would have been a real story.

GLENN: That would have been a big story, yeah.

(laughter)

STU: Wow. We should have led the show if Ted Kennedy tweeted this one.

GLENN: All right.

He says: I'm your huckleberry. I also take note that you are a pathetic cyber bully. My email is Tim@RangerUp.com. Uh-oh, RangerUp.com.

STU: Uh-oh. Uh-oh.

GLENN: I'm available at your leisure.

So Tim has said: Any time, anyplace, I will meet you.

So I'm going to -- we have Tim on the phone now. Tim, how are you, sir?

TIM: I am spectacular. Good morning.

GLENN: So, Tim, you are Special Forces, a ranger?

TIM: Yes and yes.

GLENN: Yes. And you are an MMA fighter?

TIM: Yes. I'm also -- I've been a special MMA fighter for the past 20 years. And I think for the past ten I've been ranked in the top ten.

PAT: That is --

GLENN: And you're a Ted Cruz fan?

TIM: Yeah. He's a -- he's a fellow conservative from my home state of Texas.

GLENN: Yeah.

TIM: And while we don't agree on all things, I've actually gone to bat for him a couple of times on social media. So, yeah.

GLENN: So here's what I would like to do -- because you're ready to take what's-his-face up?

JEFFY: Yeah, whatever his face's name is.

GLENN: Whatever goes with that face. The editor of Deadspin. You're willing to take him up and fight him anytime, anywhere.

TIM: Yeah. I mean, first, let's look at how pathetic it is that we got to this point. A journalist -- that's an editor for a marginally successful online vlog sphere goes and has to resort to violence, typical of kind of anybody that doesn't have the aptitude to have real rational, logical argument and discussion or have a sense of humor.

So now here we are talking about actually doing a fist fight. And that was an escalation on his part after, I think, a kind of clever and witty response by Ted Cruz's intern. Such a pathetic state that we're in that the editor of Deadspin is going and saying profanity online and lobbing these unfounded accusations and saying really these ugly things just because he can't do anything else.

GLENN: So here's what I would like to offer, Tim. I would like to offer you and the editor of Deadspin to come on in and have a real conversation. And that's nice. We could have a real conversation, and you can discuss things and see if we can be civil.

PAT: Then beat the hell out of him.

GLENN: And then I'm offering a 50,000-dollar prize to the winner for their charity -- charity of their choice, either TheBlaze -- I haven't asked TheBlaze. But either TheBlaze or GlennBeck.com will do pay-per-view. Every dime will go to charity.

(chuckling)

GLENN: And the charity of whoever the winner is, their choice. So if you wants to give it all to Planned Parenthood, I guess he can because I'm going to put my money on Tim, and Tim will win and be able to take it to whatever charity you would like to give it to.

TIM: Yeah. I, of course, am fine with any of that.

You know, things have changed. I normally fight at 180 pounds middleweight. But right now I'm 225 pounds, working full-time as a Special Forces guy again, so as a Green Beret. So my charity would really love that generous contribution. And I appreciate that, you know, from Tim for making that happen.

Yeah, of course. I would love to, you know, at, again, his convenience.

GLENN: Okay. So what I would like all of the audience to do, and we'll reach out this morning as a company to Deadspin. But I'd like everybody to tweet now that we have put a 50,000-dollar prize for a charity of their choice, and we'll do pay-per-view. That will do at least another 50 grand. And we'll do pay-per-view. So it will probably be about 100,000-dollar prize, goes to the charity of be sure choice. That's a great, great offer. And I'd love to have a conversation first, if we can have a civil conversation between the two of you. And then if not, we'll just settle it --

JEFFY: Step into TheBlaze octagon.

GLENN: Yes.

STU: Civil conversation with a Deadspin editor. Good luck with that one.

GLENN: Yeah, I figure it won't -- but let's see if he can grow up and actually have a conversation.

STU: Yeah.

GLENN: And then they can get into the octagon and Tim can --

TIM: While I'm not hoping for violence, you know, having been in violent things my entire adult life, I think you're kind of being kind, Glenn. I think unnecessarily. What happened was we had a witty kind of comical satire response from Ted Cruz. And then a dude -- a really -- a nobody gets online and says a whole bunch of ugly things, cussing, throwing accusations, you know, insinuating all sorts of nastiness. And then ultimately threatens people with violence.

PAT: Uh-huh.

TIM: And now we're saying, "Okay. Let's go back to a civil conversation. Let this be the embodiment of kind of who the adults are in this conversation."

Okay. We'll give him that out. Okay. Tim, I would love for your rudeness yesterday, to give you what you asked for. But we all know you don't want to do that.

GLENN: No, wait. Wait. Wait. No, I'm not giving him the -- no, the conversation is part of the deal. If he wants to skip right to the beating, he can. But I as a guy who has turned over a new life would love to have the conversation first.

STU: Can we have the conversation later when he's writhing in pain? Where he has to grown in pain?

GLENN: Well, maybe he beats Tim.

STU: Well, sure, that's possible.

GLENN: He's also a fighter, is he not?

TIM: No, I think he's a fighter of pointless causes with unfounded irrational logic. Not an actual fighter.

(chuckling)

GLENN: Well, those sounds like fighting words to me. That sounds like something that he at Deadspin could not just let sit there on the counter and just go unanswered. Don't you think, Stu? Don't you think, Pat? His honor is at stake.

PAT: No, I think his honor is at stake now. He's got to step out now.

GLENN: Yeah. His honor is at stake.

Hey, Tim --

TIM: You know, I'm not a cosmopolitan. I'm not a fellow HEP statistican. You know, I'm obviously not as capable of understanding the complex concepts of, you know, this thing we have of our republic, which apparently he's the only person that understands. And then if anybody agrees with him, he just says whatever he wants with no repercussions. But I would be fine to have a conversation before or after --

(chuckling)

GLENN: The contest. Okay. So we're offering a guaranteed $50,000. TheBlaze cameras will be there, or the Glenn Beck Mercury cameras will be there if TheBlaze doesn't want to do it. But I'm sure they will. We'll cover it. It will make it an event. We'll make it pay-per-view. Every dime will go right to the charity. So who knows how much you could make.

So I want everybody to tweet to Deadspin today. And what's his name again?

PAT: Tim Marchman.

GLENN: Tim Marchman. He says that everything should be going to -- is it just Tim Marchman? Because he said, it should be go to -- what? Yes, it should be going to Twitter.com/TimMarchman, slash, something or other. I want to get it right --

PAT: That will get them right there. Slash, something or other.

STU: It's got to be just --

GLENN: Hang on. It's just got to be Tim Marchman. Just do @TimMarchman.

PAT: It's @TimMarchman.

GLENN: So do TimMarchman and let him know that his charity could be very, very wealthy if he just wants to complete what he started with his mouth, if he would just like to cash the check that his mouth just wrote.

TIM: I will -- you know, obviously mine -- you know, the nonprofit is going to go to a military/law enforcement-supporting charity. That's where mine is going to go. And I'll match yours, Glenn. So that's coming from me. Tim Kennedy as a person, supporting this cause as well.

PAT: Wow. Wow.

GLENN: So wait. Wait. Wait. I'm offering 50,000. You're offering 50,000 as well?

TIM: Yes. Yes, I am.

GLENN: Holy cow.

PAT: Wow.

GLENN: So there's $100,000 --

PAT: And then with the pay-per-view, will be a lot more than that.

GLENN: Yeah, we could make this into a big deal.

PAT: Nice.

GLENN: We could -- there's a possibility of making this into a quarter of a million dollar fight.

PAT: Uh-huh.

GLENN: And I'm sure Planned Parenthood would like some of that money, Mr. Marchman. If you can get into the ring with Tim and beat him, you could make a lot of money. I don't want to write a check to Planned Parenthood. Tim, do you want to write a check to Planned Parenthood.

TIM: While I believe women's issues are important and their reproductive protection and right to contraceptives, not overly thrilled with the prospect of writing the check to Planned Parenthood.

GLENN: Yes, thank you very -- what a -- boy, what a nice way --

STU: Great. Yeah, great effort there.

PAT: That's great.

GLENN: Yes, thank you. A lover, not just a fighter.

Okay. Tim, thank you very much. We'll be in touch. And we'll see what Mr. Marchman says.

TIM: Yeah, I'm not hard to find. Unless you're ISIS, then it's a rough night.

(laughter)

GLENN: Thanks a lot, Tim. I appreciate it. Thanks for your service, by the way.

JEFFY: Man, wow, you guys have won me over. I think I'm going to donate some of my money too today. Fifty cents. Fifty cents.

GLENN: Really? You couldn't even do --

JEFFY: He's going to do 50 --

GLENN: You couldn't even do $50.

JEFFY: I can't do that.

GLENN: Right.

STU: Percentage-wise, that would --

GLENN: He's done 50,000. (?) 100,000.50.

STU: That's a large donation.

GLENN: Are you guys going to step to the plate on this?

STU: Well, sure. Yeah.

JEFFY: You think you can maybe match me?

STU: I will match Jeffy. I will match Jeffy right now.

GLENN: Wow. Wow. Don't go overboard here. Don't go overboard.

PAT: With the -- this is -- with the pay-per-view, this is going to be --

GLENN: You know, we should take calls. If anybody wants to match that -- if anybody wants to come and not match his, but if anybody wants to come in -- anybody wants to come in --

STU: And match 50,000-dollar donations?

GLENN: Or no. $1,000. Let's see how much money we could raise for charity. Because I think with the pay-per-view -- how many people do you think -- if we really promoted this, we could get at least 100,000 people, right?

PAT: Oh.

JEFFY: I hope think so.

GLENN: So if we did 100,000 people and say it was even $10. I mean, you're making a lot of money.

STU: Guaranteed the guy doesn't even show up.

PAT: I know. We should probably get the commitment first from Tim Marchman, shouldn't we?

GLENN: I'm not saying sell the deal. Anybody who wants to make the commitment. Let's get -- the prize money is already up to 100,000.

JEFFY: And a dollar.

GLENN: And a dollar. So $100,000 is not something to laugh at. That's not, I'm going to prove -- that's $100,000 for charity.

STU: I have no idea if Tim Marchman cares about donating to charity. He may. I just don't know.

GLENN: Oh, if this guy has a single noodle in his bowl, this guy is -- wants me to write a check to Planned Parenthood.

STU: Or something maybe --

GLENN: Yeah, The Communists of America. He wants me to write that check. So I can't imagine how he's -- how he's going to turn that down, unless he's afraid.

STU: It's been a rough year for the good old Gawker media group, hasn't it?

GLENN: It really has.

STU: Jeez.

GLENN: It hasn't gone well for loudmouths who -- who want to push people over the edge.

STU: Well, it's funny, the Cruz thing (?) of the duke basketball player, with a funny message. And then they responded with eat S.

GLENN: Yeah. Yeah. Which was very clever.

STU: Which was very clever. However, the last time they did that, they did that to someone else when they complimented one of their stories. (?) that person became president of the United States in November, or just the other day actually.

The melting pot fails when we stop agreeing to melt

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.

Shocking: AI-written country song tops charts, sparks soul debate

VCG / Contributor | Getty Images

A machine can imitate heartbreak well enough to top the charts, but it cannot carry grief, choose courage, or hear the whisper that calls human beings to something higher.

The No. 1 country song in America right now was not written in Nashville or Texas or even L.A. It came from code. “Walk My Walk,” the AI-generated single by the AI artist Breaking Rust, hit the top spot on Billboard’s Country Digital Song Sales chart, and if you listen to it without knowing that fact, you would swear a real singer lived the pain he is describing.

Except there is no “he.” There is no lived experience. There is no soul behind the voice dominating the country music charts.

If a machine can imitate the soul, then what is the soul?

I will admit it: I enjoy some AI music. Some of it is very good. And that leaves us with a question that is no longer science fiction. If a machine can fake being human this well, what does it mean to be human?

A new world of artificial experience

This is not just about one song. We are walking straight into a technological moment that will reshape everyday life.

Elon Musk said recently that we may not even have phones in five years. Instead, we will carry a small device that listens, anticipates, and creates — a personal AI agent that knows what we want to hear before we ask. It will make the music, the news, the podcasts, the stories. We already live in digital bubbles. Soon, those bubbles might become our own private worlds.

If an algorithm can write a hit country song about hardship and perseverance without a shred of actual experience, then the deeper question becomes unavoidable: If a machine can imitate the soul, then what is the soul?

What machines can never do

A machine can produce, and soon it may produce better than we can. It can calculate faster than any human mind. It can rearrange the notes and words of a thousand human songs into something that sounds real enough to fool millions.

But it cannot care. It cannot love. It cannot choose right and wrong. It cannot forgive because it cannot be hurt. It cannot stand between a child and danger. It cannot walk through sorrow.

A machine can imitate the sound of suffering. It cannot suffer.

The difference is the soul. The divine spark. The thing God breathed into man that no code will ever have. Only humans can take pain and let it grow into compassion. Only humans can take fear and turn it into courage. Only humans can rebuild their lives after losing everything. Only humans hear the whisper inside, the divine voice that says, “Live for something greater.”

We are building artificial minds. We are not building artificial life.

Questions that define us

And as these artificial minds grow sharper, as their tools become more convincing, the right response is not panic. It is to ask the oldest and most important questions.

Who am I? Why am I here? What is the meaning of freedom? What is worth defending? What is worth sacrificing for?

That answer is not found in a lab or a server rack. It is found in that mysterious place inside each of us where reason meets faith, where suffering becomes wisdom, where God reminds us we are more than flesh and more than thought. We are not accidents. We are not circuits. We are not replaceable.

Europa Press News / Contributor | Getty Images

The miracle machines can never copy

Being human is not about what we can produce. Machines will outproduce us. That is not the question. Being human is about what we can choose. We can choose to love even when it costs us something. We can choose to sacrifice when it is not easy. We can choose to tell the truth when the world rewards lies. We can choose to stand when everyone else bows. We can create because something inside us will not rest until we do.

An AI content generator can borrow our melodies, echo our stories, and dress itself up like a human soul, but it cannot carry grief across a lifetime. It cannot forgive an enemy. It cannot experience wonder. It cannot look at a broken world and say, “I am going to build again.”

The age of machines is rising. And if we do not know who we are, we will shrink. But if we use this moment to remember what makes us human, it will help us to become better, because the one thing no algorithm will ever recreate is the miracle that we exist at all — the miracle of the human soul.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Is Socialism seducing a lost generation?

Jeremy Weine / Stringer | Getty Images

A generation that’s lost faith in capitalism is turning to the oldest lie on earth: equality through control.

Something is breaking in America’s young people. You can feel it in every headline, every grocery bill, every young voice quietly asking if the American dream still means anything at all.

For many, the promise of America — work hard, build something that lasts, and give the next generation a better start — feels like it no longer exists. Home ownership and stability have become luxuries for a fortunate few.

Capitalism is not a perfect system. It is flawed because people are flawed, but it remains the only system that rewards creativity and effort rather than punishing them.

In that vacuum of hope, a new promise has begun to rise — one that sounds compassionate, equal, and fair. The promise of socialism.

The appeal of a broken dream

When the American dream becomes a checklist of things few can afford — a home, a car, two children, even a little peace — disappointment quickly turns to resentment. The average first-time homebuyer is now 40 years old. Debt lasts longer than marriages. The cost of living rises faster than opportunity.

For a generation that has never seen the system truly work, capitalism feels like a rigged game built to protect those already at the top.

That is where socialism finds its audience. It presents itself as fairness for the forgotten and justice for the disillusioned. It speaks softly at first, offering equality, compassion, and control disguised as care.

We are seeing that illusion play out now in New York City, where Zohran Mamdani — an open socialist — has won a major political victory. The same ideology that once hid behind euphemisms now campaigns openly throughout America’s once-great cities. And for many who feel left behind, it sounds like salvation.

But what socialism calls fairness is submission dressed as virtue. What it calls order is obedience. Once the system begins to replace personal responsibility with collective dependence, the erosion of liberty is only a matter of time.

The bridge that never ends

Socialism is not a destination; it is a bridge. Karl Marx described it as the necessary transition to communism — the scaffolding that builds the total state. Under socialism, people are taught to obey. Under communism, they forget that any other options exist.

History tells the story clearly. Russia, China, Cambodia, Cuba — each promised equality and delivered misery. One hundred million lives were lost, not because socialism failed, but because it succeeded at what it was designed to do: make the state supreme and the individual expendable.

Today’s advocates insist their version will be different — democratic, modern, and kind. They often cite Sweden as an example, but Sweden’s prosperity was never born of socialism. It grew out of capitalism, self-reliance, and a shared moral culture. Now that system is cracking under the weight of bureaucracy and division.

ANGELA WEISS / Contributor | Getty Images

The real issue is not economic but moral. Socialism begins with a lie about human nature — that people exist for the collective and that the collective knows better than the individual.

This lie is contrary to the truths on which America was founded — that rights come not from government’s authority, but from God’s. Once government replaces that authority, compassion becomes control, and freedom becomes permission.

What young America deserves

Young Americans have many reasons to be frustrated. They were told to study, work hard, and follow the rules — and many did, only to find the goalposts moved again and again. But tearing down the entire house does not make it fairer; it only leaves everyone standing in the rubble.

Capitalism is not a perfect system. It is flawed because people are flawed, but it remains the only system that rewards creativity and effort rather than punishing them. The answer is not revolution but renewal — moral, cultural, and spiritual.

It means restoring honesty to markets, integrity to government, and faith to the heart of our nation. A people who forsake God will always turn to government for salvation, and that road always ends in dependency and decay.

Freedom demands something of us. It requires faith, discipline, and courage. It expects citizens to govern themselves before others govern them. That is the truth this generation deserves to hear again — that liberty is not a gift from the state but a calling from God.

Socialism always begins with promises and ends with permission. It tells you what to drive, what to say, what to believe, all in the name of fairness. But real fairness is not everyone sharing the same chains — it is everyone having the same chance.

The American dream was never about guarantees. It was about the right to try, to fail, and try again. That freedom built the most prosperous nation in history, and it can do so again if we remember that liberty is not a handout but a duty.

Socialism does not offer salvation. It requires subservience.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Rage isn’t conservatism — THIS is what true patriots stand for

Gary Hershorn / Contributor | Getty Images

Conservatism is not about rage or nostalgia. It’s about moral clarity, national renewal, and guarding the principles that built America’s freedom.

Our movement is at a crossroads, and the question before us is simple: What does it mean to be a conservative in America today?

For years, we have been told what we are against — against the left, against wokeism, against decline. But opposition alone does not define a movement, and it certainly does not define a moral vision.

We are not here to cling to the past or wallow in grievance. We are not the movement of rage. We are the movement of reason and hope.

The media, as usual, are eager to supply their own answer. The New York Times recently suggested that Nick Fuentes represents the “future” of conservatism. That’s nonsense — a distortion of both truth and tradition. Fuentes and those like him do not represent American conservatism. They represent its counterfeit.

Real conservatism is not rage. It is reverence. It does not treat the past as a museum, but as a teacher. America’s founders asked us to preserve their principles and improve upon their practice. That means understanding what we are conserving — a living covenant, not a relic.

Conservatism as stewardship

In 2025, conservatism means stewardship — of a nation, a culture, and a moral inheritance too precious to abandon. To conserve is not to freeze history. It is to stand guard over what is essential. We are custodians of an experiment in liberty that rests on the belief that rights come not from kings or Congress, but from the Creator.

That belief built this country. It will be what saves it. The Constitution is a covenant between generations. Conservatism is the duty to keep that covenant alive — to preserve what works, correct what fails, and pass on both wisdom and freedom to those who come next.

Economics, culture, and morality are inseparable. Debt is not only fiscal; it is moral. Spending what belongs to the unborn is theft. Dependence is not compassion; it is weakness parading as virtue. A society that trades responsibility for comfort teaches citizens how to live as slaves.

Freedom without virtue is not freedom; it is chaos. A culture that mocks faith cannot defend liberty, and a nation that rejects truth cannot sustain justice. Conservatism must again become the moral compass of a disoriented people, reminding America that liberty survives only when anchored to virtue.

Rebuilding what is broken

We cannot define ourselves by what we oppose. We must build families, communities, and institutions that endure. Government is broken because education is broken, and education is broken because we abandoned the formation of the mind and the soul. The work ahead is competence, not cynicism.

Conservatives should embrace innovation and technology while rejecting the chaos of Silicon Valley. Progress must not come at the expense of principle. Technology must strengthen people, not replace them. Artificial intelligence should remain a servant, never a master. The true strength of a nation is not measured by data or bureaucracy, but by the quiet webs of family, faith, and service that hold communities together. When Washington falters — and it will — those neighborhoods must stand.

Eric Lee / Stringer | Getty Images

This is the real work of conservatism: to conserve what is good and true and to reform what has decayed. It is not about slogans; it is about stewardship — the patient labor of building a civilization that remembers what it stands for.

A creed for the rising generation

We are not here to cling to the past or wallow in grievance. We are not the movement of rage. We are the movement of reason and hope.

For the rising generation, conservatism cannot be nostalgia. It must be more than a memory of 9/11 or admiration for a Reagan era they never lived through. Many young Americans did not experience those moments — and they should not have to in order to grasp the lessons they taught and the truths they embodied. The next chapter is not about preserving relics but renewing purpose. It must speak to conviction, not cynicism; to moral clarity, not despair.

Young people are searching for meaning in a culture that mocks truth and empties life of purpose. Conservatism should be the moral compass that reminds them freedom is responsibility and that faith, family, and moral courage remain the surest rebellions against hopelessness.

To be a conservative in 2025 is to defend the enduring principles of American liberty while stewarding the culture, the economy, and the spirit of a free people. It is to stand for truth when truth is unfashionable and to guard moral order when the world celebrates chaos.

We are not merely holding the torch. We are relighting it.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.