How to Prevent the Collapse of Western Civilization in Times of Terrorism

Dr. Michael Youssef, whose ministry broadcasts the gospel of Jesus Christ to more than 160 million homes in the Middle East, joined Glenn on radio recently to discuss the growing threat Islamists present to the United States. In his new book, The Barbarians Are Here: Preventing the Collapse of Western Civilization in Times of Terrorism, Dr. Youssef offers practical steps to begin a New Reformation that will restore the hope of Western civilization and stop terrorists from establishing a global caliphate. It's not too late, but we haven't a moment to lose.

Listen to this segment from The Glenn Beck Program:

GLENN: Hello, America. And welcome to Dr. Michael Youssef. He is the author of the new book, The Barbarians Are Here.

And, Doctor, I want to talk to you from the perspective of somebody who says they really care, as do I, about the refugees. And getting the right refugees out of a war-torn country.

But that's --

MICHAEL: Sure, Glenn. Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate that.

GLENN: Sure.

MICHAEL: I want you to know -- and I want all your audience to know that I love everybody. And I have no hatred in my heart toward anybody.

Having said that, that is part of the gospel of Jesus Christ. As a matter of fact, we as a ministry, we have a television station, 24/7 going into 160 million homes in the Middle East in the Arab world, preaching the gospel. So we're doing everything we can to reach them with the gospel of Jesus Christ. We've seen a lot of people come to Christ.

Let me first talk about, as an immigrant myself, you see, I am immigrated to this country many years ago, but I had to provide all kinds of information. I had to be examined by the embassy doctor. I had to provide tax information that I don't owe the government tax, that I have good police records.

And I came here, and I love this country. I am grateful. Every single morning, I'm thankful to God that I live in this country. So there's nothing wrong. This country has always loved immigrants.

But when you say we want to take the refugees without any vetting, without any interviews, except by blinded United Nations officials, who are really very bias. They have bias against Christians. We've seen it firsthand on the Jordanian side, on the Lebanese side. And so what we're saying is we're going to let the terrorists come in.

And here's the problem: Islamists always -- somehow got into cohort with the leftists in order to accomplish their purpose. They, in a sense, consider them to be a useful idiot.

And sadly, we've seen recently that the feminist movement that is being -- protesting as recently as yesterday and then the day after the inauguration. Who was leading it? Linda Sarsour. Linda Sarsour is a woman who wants to bring the Sharia law to America. Just think about this. I want to scream and say to these women, do you know what Sharia law says about women? You're half a man. You inherit half of what your brother would inherit. In the court of law, you are considered to be half of a man. You can be beaten by your husband or your father --

GLENN: She'll say she doesn't want any of that.

MICHAEL: Pardon?

GLENN: She'll say, that's not what Sharia law means to her. She doesn't want any of that.

MICHAEL: She can't pick and choose. That's what the Sharia is. You look at Saudi Arabia and you see the way they apply the Sharia, literally. Chopping the hands of somebody, a petty thief. Left hand first, then the right hand. You see people maimed everywhere in Saudi Arabia.

And so -- I mean, she can't really pick and choose. That's what Sharia is. That's what the Koran says. That's what -- all these teachers on the satellite channels, Muslim, Islamist satellite channels, they actually are showing the young men, the lengths of the stick by which they can beat their wives and their daughters. I mean, I have seen it. I actually screamed it to my congregation to just wake them up to the fact that we -- this is -- these people mean business. And their ultimate goal is to dominate the west and take over -- they feel that they failed twice back in the 700s, then the 1400s to take over Europe.

Now this is their final third jihad. And they're going to do it by birthrate. And they're going to do it by financial investments.

GLENN: Now, you say -- in chapter three, you talk about Germany and New Year's Eve.

JEFFY: Yep. Yep.

GLENN: And you say the barbarians are already here. You can see what the -- what the migration of undocumented or at least poorly screened immigrants are doing to Europe.

JEFFY: Right.

GLENN: And yet, still the media over in Europe still is not awake.

MICHAEL: I know. This is a blindness of biblical proportion. I mean, almost you got a blinder -- iconic picture that I saw that really told the whole story. These young bearded men from the Middle East in a German train, coming out of the station, shouting "Allahu Akbar," which means Allah greater, which is a cry of jihad, the cry of war. And these sweet German ladies holding this placards that says, "Welcome refugees." I mean, I said, "This said it all."

We're not really shooting ourselves in the foot, we're shooting ourselves in the head. And we're saying, hey, come on in. Destroy us. Take over. We're so blind as to who you are and what your ideology is. And it doesn't matter.

I often wonder sometimes if these folks really just hate America. I mean, I think if people like Soros and so forth, I just wonder -- you know, I don't want do accuse anybody of anything, but it just makes me wonder. Why would they not allow the government to vet people before they come into this country? Why they don't give them time in order to -- it took me two years to immigrate -- actually more than that. So what? That's fine.

I think every country has the right to determine the criterion by which they accept people to come in.

GLENN: You talk about some solutions and some things that we have to do. But about halfway through the book, you talk about the pattern of Babylon.

MICHAEL: Yes.

GLENN: And that we have been saved over and over again. But you -- if I may quote, again and again, God has defended Western civilization from an attack from barbarian slave merchants, totalitarianism, genocidal racists, segregations. But instead of thanking God for his mercy and protection, we have now taken all the credit for those victories. Instead of giving God glory, we give credit to secularism, materialism, multiculturalism, pluralism, political correctness, feminism, the welfare state, moral relativism, progressivism, environmentalism, atheism, humanism.

MICHAEL: Yeah. That is exactly what -- in fact, I would refer to these Christians who turn their back on the Christian faith or have Christian heritage and turn their back on the Christian faith, they're equally barbarians too. Because it was turning away from the Christian faith first in Europe, now it's happening here, is the very thing that has created that vacuum in society. And the vacuum has got to be filled. And it is filled by the Islamists who are coming in with pure ideology. It's very simple. Allah has spoken. And, therefore, he must be obeyed. And we have to do it. If we kill or impose jizya, which is a form of high taxation on Christians and Jews, in order to make Islam dominant.

You see, that is -- and that happens every time. And you see it in Israel, when they -- the Prophet Jeremiah, who literally pleaded with them and pleaded with them and pleaded with them, turn back to God. Turn back -- stop worshiping Baal. Stop worshiping false gods. They wouldn't do it. Finally, God said, okay. Not -- God is not capricious. He's going to say, okay, I'm going to sock it to you. No, I'm just going to take my hand of protection off and leave you to the consequences of your choices. And so the Babylonians, the terrorists of their day came over and ransacked Jerusalem and took hostages. Seventy years.

It happened again in Rome, when Rome fell. Rome fell because of similar things that are happening for our day. But what happened, the pagans blamed the Christians for it. And so some Augustan sat down, wrote a book, and that's really the book that influenced me the most, the City of God. And I began to see things from that perspective, where he literally maps out biblical history to the point when Rome fell. And I'm seeing that pattern almost repeated. And that's what I talk about in the book.

And the only answer, the only solution, the only hope is for God's people to stop being compromisers and stand up for the truth and stand for their faith and stop watering it down and preaching a false gospel.

GLENN: Give me the pattern. Give me the pattern from City of God.

MICHAEL: Well, the -- what -- what some Augustan did. And, again, I say that in the book, he influenced me greatly. So, you know, it's not all original with me.

GLENN: Right.

MICHAEL: He begins back in the garden of Eden. And he starts from there, and then he shows historically two strain, if you like, of humanities, one who are pursuing what he calls the city of man. That is secular humanism to the core. And the other who are pursuing the city of God.

For example, Abraham. The Bible said Abraham looked forward to that city, which is -- which is built by God, whose architect is God and built by God.

Even back then, he was looking forward to the city of God. So there's a Godly line from Enoch all the way to Abram. And down to even Lot. Even though he lived in such a miserable place, Peter said that he was literally torturing himself by living in that kind of central environment.

But you go all the way down through. And then God remembers his people when they were in slavery in Egypt. And he sends them a delivery. And Moses comes in and he delivers them from the horrors of the whips of the Egyptians. And he takes them out. And then in the book of Deuteronomy, toward the end of it, he says, look, I'm sending it to the Promised Land. I promised that land to your forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And I'm going to send you there. But here's the temptation: You're going to be facing it. You're going to be facing the temptation to turn against me and worship other gods. And if that happens, my judgment is going to be -- is going to follow.

And sure enough, they go into the Promised Land. And what happens? They start worshiping Ashtor and Baal and Ashtoreth and so forth. And God says, okay. I'm going to take my hand.

GLENN: Okay. So I just saw a study from Barna who does research --

MICHAEL: Yes. I know George very well.

GLENN: So you know, if you saw his latest, that we say that America now has a 49 percent biblical worldview. Meaning that 49 percent of the people view truth and right and wrong and how they just view the world through the truths in the Bible. That's only 49 percent. However, he did something new, and he attached morals and principles to it.

MICHAEL: Yes.

GLENN: So he asked, do you believe in Noah. Do you believe in Moses? Do you believe in the Ten Commandments? Instead of just that, the other half was, hey, do you think it's okay to steal.

And he found that actually that number is 15 percent biblical worldview. So how do you save it, if that's true?

MICHAEL: Well, his here's the core of the problem: So many evangelical pastors who started well because and for the sake of popularity, they started kind of watering down the message. One pastor said, well, I believe in the virgin birth, but you don't have to. I believe in Noah, but you don't have to. I believe in Jonah, but you don't have to.

Okay. What you've done, you've just basically disintegrated or you've destroyed the integrity of Jesus. If you believe that he is a triune God, lived -- was there before the foundation of the world and together with the father and the son created the world; and so, therefore, he was there, and then in his earthly life, he talked about Jonah, and he talked about Noah. And, of course, we know about his virgin birth. And has to be, in order for him to be divine. Otherwise, if he was born of the seed of a man, just like all of us, then he cannot be the sin bearer. He cannot take away our sin. So all of that and my appeal to these preachers who have sold out and -- their birthright for a pot of soup, return to God. Return to God now because you are misleading a lot of people. And in misleading them, you have created this -- this 15 percent. And that is one of the saddest things I think that I've seen.

In fact, Barna also said 64 percent of those who call themselves born again evangelicals, that they believe there are many ways to God. Give me a break. The word evangelical comes from the Greek word Evangélio (foreign language), which means the gospel. Namely that Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father, but by me. That is the very core of what they call themselves. And yet they are denying by their very practice what they claim to be entitled.

GLENN: Dr. Michael Youssef, thank you so much for being on the program. The name of the book is The Barbarians Are Here: Preventing the Collapse of Western Civilization in Times of Terrorism.

EXCLUSIVE: Tech Ethicist reveals 5 ways to control AI NOW

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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

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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

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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.

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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?

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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?

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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.