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Does NBC's 'Emerald City' Feature the First Transgender Kid Hero?

April 03, 2017
Staff

WRITER

NBC's Emerald City is based on the L. Frank Baum Oz books, which inspired the movie classic The Wizard Of Oz. The TV new series features different versions of beloved characters like Dorothy and The Scarecrow, as well as Tip, a young boy. Tip is a character from the original books who is ultimately revealed as the long-lost Princess Ozma, heir to the throne.

"This kid has been kept by a witch, locked in this room forever, and escaped. She kept giving him this medicine, otherwise, he would die. She was protecting him because he is not a he. He's a she," Glenn said Monday on radio.

In the last episode, the newly transformed Tip wears a dress and says, "I feel like a boy inside. I don't want to be a girl. You don't know the struggle."

While it's unlikely Baum was writing a book about transgendered people, Ozma works pretty well to promote the agenda --- and apparently the network was happy to oblige.

Listen to this segment from The Glenn Beck Program:

GLENN: Anybody watch the show Emerald City?

PAT: No.

STU: No.

GLENN: So Emerald City, the end of the season --

STU: What is this?

GLENN: NBC show. So at the end of the season, they had Ozma, who is this princess, okay? She's been lost. Well, you find out that Ozma --

PAT: Is this the spoiler alert for people --

GLENN: Yeah, spoiler alert. Well, I mean, we're going to talk about stuff. We're going to talk about life from time to time. It's an NBC show. And it doesn't really wreck anything.

This kid who has been kept by a witch, locked in this room forever, and escaped. And she kept giving him this medicine. Otherwise, he would die.

She was protecting him because he is not a he. He's a she. So in the last two episodes --

PAT: Oh.

GLENN: She's he -- he is wearing a dress, and he's like, "I feel like a boy inside. I don't want to be a girl. You don't know the struggle."

PAT: Oh, boy.

GLENN: I think it's the first kid trans hero of network television. And notice, nobody is really talking about it.

PAT: No. Nobody cares anymore.

[break]

GLENN: You know what's -- you know what's strange to me is how we have gone from a country 15 years ago and you can look at some of this and say, "This is really good." And some of it, not so good.

We are a country that has such tolerance, that while we are at war with Islam, we need -- and we are Islamists. While we're at war with Islamists, we elect a guy named Barack Obama.

PAT: Uh-huh.

GLENN: That it just -- we know the difference.

PAT: Barack Hussein Obama.

GLENN: Yeah, Barack Hussein Obama. We know the difference. It's not like, oh, my gosh. Look at -- they all have slant eyes. Quick, let's put them in internment camps. We're not that people anymore.

PAT: No.

GLENN: We've gone from a country that 15 years ago it was a big deal to have Ellen have a kiss on her show.

JEFFY: Yeah.

GLENN: First lesbian kiss.

Now -- right? Wasn't it, Stu?

STU: Wasn't it Roseanne had the first --

JEFFY: I was just going to say, I think Roseanne did have the first one. But Ellen was --

STU: She was the first openly gay character, I think. That like --

JEFFY: It was a big deal.

GLENN: Was it?

STU: First openly gay character that had her own shoe, I think, was the -- she had some barrier --

GLENN: No, there was some --

JEFFY: She did have the big kiss.

GLENN: I remember -- because I remember there was a show that was important.

JEFFY: That was over the top, yes.

PAT: Yes.

GLENN: And I don't remember what it was.

STU: That was her coming out, wasn't it?

GLENN: I don't remember. But I remember it was a big deal. And even then, I don't think America had a problem with that episode. America had a problem with the agenda, that it just became the agenda, you know what I mean?

PAT: Right.

And what is it, 98 percent of all shows now feature homosexual encounters? I mean, it feels like that. It feels like that.

GLENN: Especially if you watch the BBC, it's almost every show.

JEFFY: Oh, yeah.

GLENN: And I was just telling you about, Oz, I don't know if this is where they're going. But you can't not see the parallels of what we're talking about. Here's something that we are still discussing, transgendered bathrooms.

And, by the way, for anybody who says that, you know, it's not a problem -- did you guys hear the woman from Disneyland. She went to Disneyland.

PAT: Uh-huh.

GLENN: She said I was off to the side waiting with the two boys when I noticed a man walk into the restroom.

My first thought was, oh, crap, he's walked into the wrong restroom by mistake. He took a few more steps. At which point, he would definitely notice all the women lined up, and he kept walking.

My next thought was, maybe he's looking for his wife or his child. They had been in there for a while.

But he didn't call out any names or look around. He just stood there off to the side and leaned against the wall. At this point, I'm like WTF.

(chuckling)

GLENN: There is definitely a very large burly man in a Lakers' jersey who just walked in here. Am I the only one seeing this?

I surveyed the room, and I saw roughly 12 women and children in tow, staring at him with the exact same look on their faces. Everyone was visibly uncomfortable.

We were all trading looks and motioning with our eyes over to him. Like, what's had he doing in here? Every single one of us was silent. This is why I wrote this blog.

PAT: I mean, think of that. You're supposed to be okay with that. Right?

JEFFY: Yeah.

PAT: They're haters now. They're made to feel like you're not supposed to say anything. And that's what she kind of goes through here.

GLENN: She says, if this had been five years ago, you bet your ass every woman in here would have been like, what are you doing in here? But in 2017, the mood has shifted. We've been culturally bullied into silence.

PAT: Yep.

GLENN: Women were mid-changing their baby's diapers on changing tables. I could see them shifting to block his view, but they remained silent. I stayed silent. We all did.

Every woman who exited a stall and immediately zeroed in on him said nothing. And why? Because and I'm sure all others were scared of the, what if. What if I say something and he identifies as a woman? And then I come off as the intolerant one in the happiest place on earth.

STU: And I got news for you, in local news reports and national news reports, that would follow. You would be presented that way.

JEFFY: Yes, you would.

GLENN: Yep. Yep.

PAT: And, again, this guy is not identifying -- he's not saying anything about being a woman. He's just being a guy leering at women in the bathroom.

STU: And knowing he can now get away with it.

PAT: Which is what we said would be the problem the whole time.

STU: Yep.

GLENN: An older lady said to me out loud, what is he doing in here? I'm ashamed to admit I silently shrugged and mouthed, I don't know. She immediately walked out. I saw two other people leave with their children.

This is why -- and this is why pushing for laws to allow anyone to use the bathroom, whatever they identify with is absurd and dangerous. Before 2017, we shared the ladies' room with transgendered people, and we either didn't know, or we never said anything because we knew we weren't in danger. It's something you didn't talk about. You just pee and leave.

But the making of a capital case out of it, literally inviting anyone into a female safe space, the government has put women and children at risk for peeping Toms, rapists, pedophiles, drunks, and vagrants. Predators already capitalize and count on women's reluctance to fight back or speak out. Now it's worse because if you do speak up, you'll be labeled transphobic, and the predators know it. She goes on. This is quite an amazing thing.

She goes on. She was for -- she was for, you know, tolerance and everything else.

PAT: Yeah.

GLENN: She now has experienced for herself. The moral of the story is speak up, ladies. If a man walks into the bathroom, don't stop and think about it. Start yelling, get out, while dialing 911. Take whatever criticism any loon wants to throw at you. Your life and the lives of your children are worth more than public opinion.

JEFFY: Good luck.

PAT: And, again, that happened at Disneyland. Disneyland.

GLENN: So here's what -- and isn't Disneyland the place to go if you're a pedophile? You go by yourself.

STU: I will say, it's not in their advertisements, if that's true. That is not their slogan.

GLENN: No. It's not.

STU: The place to go if you're a pedophile!

GLENN: You know they hang out where there's children.

STU: Well, of course.

GLENN: Just leering at children.

STU: Of course.

GLENN: I mean, it only makes sense.

GLENN: The thing is -- remember when I went over to Auschwitz and I met with the woman, Paulina, she's the -- I know. I'm the only person who can make --

STU: We're joking about a ridiculous Disney slogan. You brought it to Auschwitz in 12 seconds. You're the only person in America who could do this.

GLENN: That's the charm of this show. That's why we are where we are. So, anyway, I brought this -- we met this woman named Paulina. I've told this story a million times. What did she say?

She's a woman who saved the Christians from the Germans.

PAT: She just didn't go off the cliff with the rest of the people.

GLENN: Right. That makes more sense to me now than ever before.

PAT: Yeah. She said, "The righteous didn't suddenly become righteous. We just didn't go off the cliff with the rest of humanity." Meaning, we just stood in place. We just continued to do the things we always would have done. Which is her point.

PAT: And we did something. They hid Jews. We can do something. All you have to do is speak up and say, "Get out of here. Get out. Get out of this bathroom."

JEFFY: Well, the people are speaking up a little bit with their money though because according to Marvel, their sales have been struggling. They've been wanting to sell more comics. And while feminists and progressive activists pushed for more diversity in comics, minority and female heroes, Dan Gabriel, senior vice president of sales, Marvel's core fan base just wasn't interested.

PAT: How about that? How about that?

GLENN: I will tell you this, I talk to Raphe all the time about going to get comic books. And let's get into comic books. Won't do it. Don't know where a local comic bookstore is even in Dallas. But want to go to a comic bookstore and get all the old ones. I don't want the new ones.

Just, I'm not interested. I'm not interested.

JEFFY: Yeah, he said we saw the sales of any character that was diverse, any character that was new, our female characters, anything that was not a core Marvel character --

GLENN: Nothing.

JEFFY: -- no sales.

STU: Not interested. Well, because they don't -- no one minds having a different character, having diversity. It's when it feels forced that people reject it.

GLENN: It's an agenda.

STU: When you're trying to make -- you know what, as a comic book, I'm going there -- if I'm going to read comic books, I'm going there to be entertained, be part of the story. You're not going there to be lectured by people about who you're supposed to accept and not accept.

GLENN: For instance -- for instance, didn't have a problem with Ozma from the Wizard of Oz because I don't know if that's the story or if they were trying to make it a political point.

Now, my radar is up on political point, so I thought -- I just assume, this is a political point. Stop it.

However, it might just be that that's logical, if he was -- if she was transformed by a motion into a girl. However, I just don't think that this is -- I mean, five years ago, ten years ago, that story line wouldn't have stuck out at all. You would be like, oh, wow. Yeah, that would suck. You see yourself -- right? But now, is NBC -- and it's NBC, that's another reason. Is NBC now telling us, oh, yes, the planet is on fire. You have to do something about the planet. And the progressive way of life is absolutely the right way of life. And, oh, look, here's this poor little character who is a kid who sees him -- sees herself as a him.

I mean...

PAT: Uh-huh.

STU: Well, it goes to your point -- we talked about this with Beauty and the Beast. Is that everyone was like, oh, there could be a gay character. The story is about bestiality.

JEFFY: Right.

GLENN: Right.

STU: We're all fine with the bestiality story for decades. But it's like, wait a minute. You're starting to see these things because a lot of times it is about agenda. I think it was NBC that aired it a few weeks ago. And I don't know, it was some mini-series about the struggle of gay Americans and something. And, look, there's been -- there are amazing stories in this world. I'm glad they're told. The one about World War II --

GLENN: Turing.

STU: Yeah, Alan Turing, that just came out. I mean, I'm glad these stories are coming out.

However, they just represent it in such a bizarre way. Like, they had this one conversation between like a son and his dad. And I just happened to flip it on. And the son is like, Dad, I want you to know that I'm gay.

No, you will not be gay! I have raised you in a way and you will not tell anyone that you're gay. And it's like, all right. How preachy do we have to be here?

JEFFY: Right.

STU: Like, I get that there have been these -- I get it. I understand. These networks, however, seem to have this idea that if we can tell these stories in the most overt way possible --

JEFFY: Yeah, they do.

STU: Try to make every person who has ever gone to church an alien, then we've accomplished our duty for the week. I mean, that is -- there's got to be some balance there between these two positions.

JEFFY: Remember when you went to Auschwitz?

(chuckling)

GLENN: Shut up, Jeffy.

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: Chart-topping ‘singer’ has no soul at all

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.