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Both Sides Are Being Played: It's Time to Renounce the Hate Because 'This Is All About 2018 and 2020'

August 16, 2017
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The Glenn Beck Program

I want to start by asking you, if you're somebody that needs blood, if you're somebody that needs to be angry, if you're somebody that needs to rub the nose of whomever in whatever, this is not the show for you.

If you're tired of all of this, if you think we're better than this, if you think we have to solve this problem, then this is the show for you.

But the way we're going, the world has gone before. The way we're going will end with either the communists rounding up and slaughtering those who disagree with them or the Nazis, rounding people up that disagree with them and slaughtering them.

I'm sorry. But I don't have a thing in common with these Nazis and the white supremacists. None of it. None of them.

My gosh, I've gotten in trouble on both the right and the left for talking about the evils of Nazis for the last 15 or 20 years.

I want nothing to do with them. And I also want nothing to do with the radical anarchist communists who show up in black masks with baseball bats and burn our cities down. I want nothing to do with people who are saying, "Our heritage is our white heritage." And I want nothing to do with people who are saying, "Our heritage is our black heritage." It's not!

We are humans. All of us. Each of us.

I can't take the left, and I can't take the right. I can't watch either side of the media anymore. Does anybody really care about our country anymore?

Please don't give me lip service. I about caused a panic in my own church, when I started teaching the 15-year-olds and I started asking them about, you know, "tell me what you know about the Bible and tell me that you know that Jesus is, you know, the savior. And how many people here, you know, firmly believe in the Bible?" And they all dutifully raised their hand. And I said, "Shut up. Put your hands down. No, you don't. How do you know that? How do you know that?"

If you can tell me a story about how you searched and searched and searched and how you prayed -- right now, you know it because somebody else has told you it's true. So how many people care about our country? Everybody is going to raise their hand. Really? So what is the tough thing that you have done? What's the thing that you have stood up against that made you a pariah in your own circle? Because I got news for you, it's not the left's fault and it's not the right's fault. It's all of our faults. All of us. We're all playing the same game. And if you're not man enough or brave enough to admit that, then I invite to you stay with us. But as you say in AA meetings, when somebody comes and they have fallen off the wagon and they're still drinking, "You know what, this is probably a good meeting for you to just listen."

Americans --- and hear me --- Americans, and I believe it's 90 percent, but let's be totally crazy. I'll say it's only 70 percent --- 60 percent. Only 60 percent of Americans. And I think that number is wildly wrong.

Most Americans don't want anything to do with the Nazis or the anarchists and the communists. Nothing. They have nothing in common. They despise them both.

Most Americans --- and, yes, that includes the left. And, left, if you happen to be listening, that includes the right. We want nothing to do with it. They're both crazy, dangerous, and racist, period.

And here's what's happening: The media, because they hate Donald Trump so much, and the right media, because they hate the media so much, are giving America a false choice.

You don't condemn Donald Trump, really. Not even the Nazis. You don't condemn Donald Trump. You are choosing the side of the Nazis. And if you don't defend -- on the right, if you don't defend Donald Trump, then you're a communist anarchist that might as well be burning down Berkeley.

Neither of those are true. That's not our choice. You with the black nationalists or the white nationalists? I'm not with either of them.

The Democrats co-opted a very small sliver of radicals that despise capitalism, that despise America, that despise white people, that despise the cops. They co-opted them, thinking they could control them. They'll bring them in because it will add fuel.

Now, right, if you're shaking your head right now and going, "Yep, that's exactly what they did," you'll shake your head even more when I say, "And they lost that battle. They have lost their soul. Those guys are the heart of the party, not the average Democrat, but the party."

Now, let me speak to the left: And you're going to shake your head. And the Republicans are all going to be pissed. But the Republicans did the same damn thing. First of all, it was the Republicans that started the progressive movement. So they've had progressives in their ranks from the very beginning. But what have they done in the last three years? They've co-opted the alt-right. Because why? Because they're racists? No.

Because every vote counts. And so we'll use them. And what's happening? The same thing that happened to the Democrats.

And why did each side do it? Because it drives money and it drives votes. Hate drives money and drives votes.

And so where does that leave the average person? Well, 80 percent of Americans haven't seen a wage increase. Most Americans have their kids in a school that they know is not preparing their children for anything, other than politically correct living, other than living in a Marxist state. It's not preparing them for anything.

There's no actual education happening. There's a re-education happening in our failing schools. And, you know what, don't tell me that that's a thing on the right because the left knows it. Watch the lefties talk about education at TED talks, where they condemn the failing American education system.

The left knows it too. We both do. None of us can afford college anymore for our kids. Barely any of us can afford health care anymore. That's what's happening with 80 percent of the nation. Maybe more.

Are you seeing those people reflected at all? No.

Instead, both parties are doing their best, just trying to get reelected. This is all about 2018 and 2020. This isn't about anything else. This isn't about you. This isn't about real problems. This is about 2018 or 2020. Period. That's all this is about.

Dividing and spreading lies about 50 percent of the population -- well, I want to make sure you understand: If you're watching the left media, they're lying about 50 percent of the population. And if you're watching the right media, they're lying about the other 50 percent of the population. The truth is, there's probably 10 percent of those freaks on the right and 10 percent of those freaks on the left. And the rest of us want nothing to do with them.

It's why I reject both parties, and I reject the media. Both right and left. I want nothing to do with you.

I will remove myself from the game happily before I lose my soul. Can I just ask -- I don't need to ask you because I know the average American gets this. Can I ask those who are engaged in this insane death game, how does this end? Play it out, how does it end? Does it end in race riots, civil war, global war? Your side winning in 2020, whichever side that is? And then -- and then we really get them? What do you do with the remainder of the people, the 40 percent that just will not go along?

Well, first you have to demonize them. Oh, we've already done that. Then what do we do? You shove and then you shoot.

Now, maybe 20 percent of the United States is effing out of their mind. Maybe the country has gone out of its mind crazy. But I am sorry. I do not believe, because I have too many friends on both sides of the aisle and the issues, that disagree, who are afraid of their own side. They are seeing where this is leading, and they want nothing to do with it. So maybe it's 20 percent that's crazy. But that leaves 80 percent of us who want nothing to do with it.

We all want our children to have health care, food. We all want our children to have a good education. I believe we all want our troops to come home. We want an end to the endless wars.

I want justice for the wronged. I want an end to racism. It's never going to leave us. Because that's a human trait. But we can do better than we are.

I want an end to poverty. It's never going to leave us. But we're the most charitable people that have ever lived. I want freedom for people who are enslaved today. There are more people enslaved today than in the entire history of western slavery, combined.

I want an end of oppression. I want an end to government and banking and corporate corruption.

I want the truth of American history to be known. I don't think there's been anybody on the right, perhaps in the history of the right, that has tried to do more to expose the bad parts of our history. To expose how racist, how dangling, how ugly we have been.

But you can't just tell that part of the story. That makes the glorious parts of our history better. We reached beyond the slime. We reached above ourselves. We saw something better.

I want history taught. I want the bitter. I want the sweet. I want the bad cops to go to jail. I want them to go to jail. But I want the good cops to know, "I can't begin to understand your job. But as long as you're on the right side of the law, as long as you're on the right side of human decency, I got your back." I want compassion on the border. But I also want justice and law and order. I want you to live as who you want to live as, love who you want to love, worship God, don't worship God, and we can live side by side.

How do we not agree on some of these big things? I want you to know, I'm going to say some things today that are going to make both sides uncomfortable. Good. Good.

Then I've done my job. And no more.

A Sharia enclave is quietly taking root in America. It's time to wake up.

NOVA SAFO / Staff | Getty Images

Sharia-based projects like the Meadow in Texas show how political Islam grows quietly, counting on Americans to stay silent while an incompatible legal system takes root.

Apolitical system completely incompatible with the Constitution is gaining ground in the United States, and we are pretending it is not happening.

Sharia — the legal and political framework of Islam — is being woven into developments, institutions, and neighborhoods, including a massive project in Texas. And the consequences will be enormous if we continue to look the other way.

This is the contradiction at the heart of political Islam: It claims universal authority while insisting its harshest rules will never be enforced here. That promise does not stand up to scrutiny. It never has.

Before we can have an honest debate, we’d better understand what Sharia represents. Sharia is not simply a set of religious rules about prayer or diet. It is a comprehensive legal and political structure that governs marriage, finance, criminal penalties, and civic life. It is a parallel system that claims supremacy wherever it takes hold.

This is where the distinction matters. Many Muslims in America want nothing to do with Sharia governance. They came here precisely because they lived under it. But political Islam — the movement that seeks to implement Sharia as law — is not the same as personal religious belief.

It is a political ideology with global ambitions, much like communism. Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently warned that Islamist movements do not seek peaceful coexistence with the West. They seek dominance. History backs him up.

How Sharia arrives

Political Islam does not begin with dramatic declarations. It starts quietly, through enclaves that operate by their own rules. That is why the development once called EPIC City — now rebranded as the Meadow — is so concerning. Early plans framed it as a Muslim-only community built around a mega-mosque and governed by Sharia-compliant financing. After state investigations were conducted, the branding changed, but the underlying intent remained the same.

Developers have openly described practices designed to keep non-Muslims out, using fees and ownership structures to create de facto religious exclusivity. This is not assimilation. It is the construction of a parallel society within a constitutional republic.

The warning from those who have lived under it

Years ago, local imams in Texas told me, without hesitation, that certain Sharia punishments “just work.” They spoke about cutting off hands for theft, stoning adulterers, and maintaining separate standards of testimony for men and women. They insisted it was logical and effective while insisting they would never attempt to implement it in Texas.

But when pressed, they could not explain why a system they consider divinely mandated would suddenly stop applying once someone crossed a border.

This is the contradiction at the heart of political Islam: It claims universal authority while insisting its harshest rules will never be enforced here. That promise does not stand up to scrutiny. It never has.

AASHISH KIPHAYET / Contributor | Getty Images

America is vulnerable

Europe is already showing us where this road leads. No-go zones, parallel courts, political intimidation, and clerics preaching supremacy have taken root across major cities.

America’s strength has always come from its melting pot, but assimilation requires boundaries. It requires insisting that the Constitution, not religious law, is the supreme authority on this soil.

Yet we are becoming complacent, even fearful, about saying so. We mistake silence for tolerance. We mistake avoidance for fairness. Meanwhile, political Islam views this hesitation as weakness.

Religious freedom is one of America’s greatest gifts. Muslims may worship freely here, as they should. But political Islam must not be permitted to plant a flag on American soil. The Constitution cannot coexist with a system that denies equal rights, restricts speech, subordinates women, and places clerical authority above civil law.

Wake up before it is too late

Projects like the Meadow are not isolated. They are test runs, footholds, proofs of concept. Political Islam operates with patience. It advances through demographic growth, legal ambiguity, and cultural hesitation — and it counts on Americans being too polite, too distracted, or too afraid to confront it.

We cannot afford that luxury. If we fail to defend the principles that make this country free, we will one day find ourselves asking how a parallel system gained power right in front of us. The answer will be simple: We looked away.

The time to draw boundaries and to speak honestly is now. The time to defend the Constitution as the supreme law of the land is now. Act while there is still time.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Why do Americans feel so empty?

Mario Tama / Staff | Getty Images

Anxiety, anger, and chronic dissatisfaction signal a country searching for meaning. Without truth and purpose, politics becomes a dangerous substitute for identity.

We have built a world overflowing with noise, convenience, and endless choice, yet something essential has slipped out of reach. You can sense it in the restless mood of the country, the anxiety among young people who cannot explain why they feel empty, in the angry confusion that dominates our politics.

We have more wealth than any nation in history, but the heart of the culture feels strangely malnourished. Before we can debate debt or elections, we must confront the reality that we created a world of things, but not a world of purpose.

You cannot survive a crisis you refuse to name, and you cannot rebuild a world whose foundations you no longer understand.

What we are living through is not just economic or political dysfunction. It is the vacuum that appears when a civilization mistakes abundance for meaning.

Modern life is stuffed with everything except what the human soul actually needs. We built systems to make life faster, easier, and more efficient — and then wondered why those systems cannot teach our children who they are, why they matter, or what is worth living for.

We tell the next generation to chase success, influence, and wealth, turning childhood into branding. We ask kids what they want to do, not who they want to be. We build a world wired for dopamine rather than dignity, and then we wonder why so many people feel unmoored.

When everything is curated, optimized, and delivered at the push of a button, the question “what is my life for?” gets lost in the static.

The crisis beneath the headlines

It is not just the young who feel this crisis. Every part of our society is straining under the weight of meaninglessness.

Look at the debt cycle — the mathematical fate no civilization has ever escaped once it crosses a threshold that we seem to have already blown by. While ordinary families feel the pressure, our leaders respond with distraction, with denial, or by rewriting the very history that could have warned us.

You cannot survive a crisis you refuse to name, and you cannot rebuild a world whose foundations you no longer understand.

We have entered a cultural moment where the noise is so loud that it drowns out the simplest truths. We are living in a country that no longer knows how to hear itself think.

So people go searching. Some drift toward the false promise of socialism, some toward the empty thrill of rebellion. Some simply check out. When a culture forgets what gives life meaning, it becomes vulnerable to every ideology that offers a quick answer.

The quiet return of meaning

And yet, quietly, something else is happening. Beneath the frustration and cynicism, many Americans are recognizing that meaning does not come from what we own, but from what we honor. It does not rise from success, but from virtue. It does not emerge from noise, but from the small, sacred things that modern life has pushed to the margins — the home, the table, the duty you fulfill, the person you help when no one is watching.

The danger is assuming that this rediscovery happens on its own. It does not.

Reorientation requires intention. It requires rebuilding the habits and virtues that once held us together. It requires telling the truth about our history instead of rewriting it to fit today’s narratives. And it requires acknowledging what has been erased: that meaning is inseparable from God’s presence in a nation’s life.

Harold M. Lambert / Contributor | Getty Images

Where renewal begins

We have built a world without stillness, and then we wondered why no one can hear the questions that matter. Those questions remain, whether we acknowledge them or not. They do not disappear just because we drown them in entertainment or noise. They wait for us, and the longer we ignore them, the more disoriented we become.

Meaning is still available. It is found in rebuilding the smallest, most human spaces — the places that cannot be digitized, globalized, or automated. The home. The family. The community.

These are the daily virtues that do not trend on social media, but that hold a civilization upright. If we want to repair this country, we begin there, exactly where every durable civilization has always begun: one virtue at a time, one tradition at a time, one generation at a time.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

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

Gary Hershorn / Contributor | Getty Images

When institutions betray the public’s trust, the country splits, and the spiral is hard to stop.

Something drastic is happening in American life. Headlines that should leave us stunned barely register anymore. Stories that once would have united the country instead dissolve into silence or shrugs.

It is not apathy exactly. It is something deeper — a growing belief that the people in charge either cannot or will not fix what is broken.

When people feel ignored or betrayed, they will align with anyone who appears willing to fight on their behalf.

I call this response the Bubba effect. It describes what happens when institutions lose so much public trust that “Bubba,” the average American minding his own business, finally throws his hands up and says, “Fine. I will handle it myself.” Not because he wants to, but because the system that was supposed to protect him now feels indifferent, corrupt, or openly hostile.

The Bubba effect is not a political movement. It is a survival instinct.

What triggers the Bubba effect

We are watching the triggers unfold in real time. When members of Congress publicly encourage active duty troops to disregard orders from the commander in chief, that is not a political squabble. When a federal judge quietly rewrites the rules so one branch of government can secretly surveil another, that is not normal. That is how republics fall. Yet these stories glided across the news cycle without urgency, without consequence, without explanation.

When the American people see the leadership class shrug, they conclude — correctly — that no one is steering the ship.

This is how the Bubba effect spreads. It is not just individuals resisting authority. It is sheriffs refusing to enforce new policies, school boards ignoring state mandates, entire communities saying, “We do not believe you anymore.” It becomes institutional, cultural, national.

A country cracking from the inside

This effect can be seen in Dearborn, Michigan. In the rise of fringe voices like Nick Fuentes. In the Epstein scandal, where powerful people could not seem to locate a single accountable adult. These stories are different in content but identical in message: The system protects itself, not you.

When people feel ignored or betrayed, they will align with anyone who appears willing to fight on their behalf. That does not mean they suddenly agree with everything that person says. It means they feel abandoned by the institutions that were supposed to be trustworthy.

The Bubba effect is what fills that vacuum.

The dangers of a faithless system

A republic cannot survive without credibility. Congress cannot oversee intelligence agencies if it refuses to discipline its own members. The military cannot remain apolitical if its chain of command becomes optional. The judiciary cannot defend the Constitution while inventing loopholes that erase the separation of powers.

History shows that once a nation militarizes politics, normalizes constitutional shortcuts, or allows government agencies to operate without scrutiny, it does not return to equilibrium peacefully. Something will give.

The question is what — and when.

The responsibility now belongs to us

In a healthy country, this is where the media steps in. This is where universities, pastors, journalists, and cultural leaders pause the outrage machine and explain what is at stake. But today, too many see themselves not as guardians of the republic, but of ideology. Their first loyalty is to narrative, not truth.

The founders never trusted the press more than the public. They trusted citizens who understood their rights, lived their responsibilities, and demanded accountability. That is the antidote to the Bubba effect — not rage, but citizenship.

How to respond without breaking ourselves

Do not riot. Do not withdraw. Do not cheer on destruction just because you dislike the target. That is how nations lose themselves. Instead, demand transparency. Call your representatives. Insist on consequences. Refuse to normalize constitutional violations simply because “everyone does it.” If you expect nothing, you will get nothing.

Do not hand your voice to the loudest warrior simply because he is swinging a bat at the establishment. You do not beat corruption by joining a different version of it. You beat it by modeling the country you want to preserve: principled, accountable, rooted in truth.

Adam Gray / Stringer | Getty Images

Every republic reaches a moment when historians will later say, “That was the warning.” We are living in ours. But warnings are gifts if they are recognized. Institutions bend. People fail. The Constitution can recover — if enough Americans still know and cherish it.

It does not take a majority. Twenty percent of the country — awake, educated, and courageous — can reset the system. It has happened before. It can happen again.

Wake up. Stand up. Demand integrity — from leaders, from institutions, and from yourself. Because the Bubba effect will not end until Americans reclaim the duty that has always belonged to them: preserving the republic for the next generation.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Warning: Stop letting TikTok activists think for you

Spencer Platt / Staff | Getty Images

Bad-faith attacks on Israel and AIPAC warp every debate. Real answers emerge only when people set aside scripts and ask what serves America’s long-term interests.

The search for truth has always required something very much in short supply these days: honesty. Not performative questions, not scripted outrage, not whatever happens to be trending on TikTok, but real curiosity.

Some issues, often focused on foreign aid, AIPAC, or Israel, have become hotbeds of debate and disagreement. Before we jump into those debates, however, we must return to a simpler, more important issue: honest questioning. Without it, nothing in these debates matters.

Ask questions because you want the truth, not because you want a target.

The phrase “just asking questions” has re-entered the zeitgeist, and that’s fine. We should always question power. But too many of those questions feel preloaded with someone else’s answer. If the goal is truth, then the questions should come from a sincere desire to understand, not from a hunt for a villain.

Honest desire for truth is the only foundation that can support a real conversation about these issues.

Truth-seeking is real work

Right now, plenty of people are not seeking the truth at all. They are repeating something they heard from a politician on cable news or from a stranger on TikTok who has never opened a history book. That is not a search for answers. That is simply outsourcing your own thought.

If you want the truth, you need to work for it. You cannot treat the world like a Marvel movie where the good guy appears in a cape and the villain hisses on command. Real life does not give you a neat script with the moral wrapped up in two hours.

But that is how people are approaching politics now. They want the oppressed and the oppressor, the heroic underdog and the cartoon villain. They embrace this fantastical framing because it is easier than wrestling with reality.

This framing took root in the 1960s when the left rebuilt its worldview around colonizers and the colonized. Overnight, Zionism was recast as imperialism. Suddenly, every conflict had to fit the same script. Today’s young activists are just recycling the same narrative with updated graphics. Everything becomes a morality play. No nuance, no context, just the comforting clarity of heroes and villains.

Bad-faith questions

This same mindset is fueling the sudden obsession with Israel, and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in particular. You hear it from members of Congress and activists alike: AIPAC pulls the strings, AIPAC controls the government, AIPAC should register as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The questions are dramatic, but are they being asked in good faith?

FARA is clear. The standard is whether an individual or group acts under the direction or control of a foreign government. AIPAC simply does not qualify.

Here is a detail conveniently left out of these arguments: Dozens of domestic organizations — Armenian, Cuban, Irish, Turkish — lobby Congress on behalf of other countries. None of them registers under FARA because — like AIPAC — they are independent, domestic organizations.

If someone has a sincere problem with the structure of foreign lobbying, fair enough. Let us have that conversation. But singling out AIPAC alone is not a search for truth. It is bias dressed up as bravery.

Anadolu / Contributor | Getty Images

If someone wants to question foreign aid to Israel, fine. Let’s have that debate. But let’s ask the right questions. The issue is not the size of the package but whether the aid advances our interests. What does the United States gain? Does the investment strengthen our position in the region? How does it compare to what we give other nations? And do we examine those countries with the same intensity?

The real target

These questions reflect good-faith scrutiny. But narrowing the entire argument to one country or one dollar amount misses the larger problem. If someone objects to the way America handles foreign aid, the target is not Israel. The target is the system itself — an entrenched bureaucracy, poor transparency, and decades-old commitments that have never been re-examined. Those problems run through programs around the world.

If you want answers, you need to broaden the lens. You have to be willing to put aside the movie script and confront reality. You have to hold yourself to a simple rule: Ask questions because you want the truth, not because you want a target.

That is the only way this country ever gets clarity on foreign aid, influence, alliances, and our place in the world. Questioning is not just allowed. It is essential. But only if it is honest.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.