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Glenn's Show Prep

Glenn's Predictions on Politics for 2018

January 09, 2018
Staff

WRITER

Glenn came up with 40 predictions over the holiday and they were pretty wide-ranging, from medicine, tech, culture, politics, war — you name it. Some seemed pretty optimistic, while others were downright catastrophic. But hey, they wouldn't be true Glenn Beck predictions if that wasn't the case, right?

Below are his predictions that were specifically related to "politics."

Which ones do you think will actually come about in 2018? Let Glenn know by upvoting the ones you agree with him on.

VOTE BELOW:

The Freedom Movement will experience somewhat of a renaissance, both in the US and globally.

In the US, this will mostly manifest at the local level and be primarily pushed by Millennial and Generation Z voters who will be completely disenchanted by the two major political parties. We'll see hundreds of new candidates from new political parties running in state, county and local elections.

Both Democrat and Republican parties will be forced to contend with significant weakness in recruiting and retaining younger voters, ultimately forcing them to change platform stances to accommodate Millennial and post-Millennial/Gen-Z ideas and positions.

A new understanding of a kinder and more ethical capitalism will be "rediscovered" by Millennials over socialism in the coming years. A new strain of "non hippie libertarianism" will be formed. We will see the early signs of this movement in 2018. It will be the alternative to a Bernie Sanders-style socialism.

Churches will continue to lose power and influence.

Those who preach politics over principles and power over people in their own communities will lose more and more influence. The more "hell-fire" preached, the bigger the hit. Although, in times of strife and demagoguery, these will flourish for a short time and then collapse.

Traditional institutions that claim to be infallible or those that discourage honest questioning of doctrine will be the hardest hit. Mega-churches that are all show will lose "sheep" to flocks built on principles of quiet, humble faith and simple, charitable actions.

Hillary Clinton and Huma will be charged with crimes.

Just kidding! Bitcoin at a million is more likely.

The press will continue to be discredited by the Whitehouse and will continue to discredit themselves on both sides.

MSNBC, Breitbart and others that play to the rabid core of right or left will prosper over the short term during the run up to the midterms. It will be this same approach that will precipitate a quick downfall in the early 2020s.

The #MeToo movement will continue to grow, and 2018-19 will be the apex.

In 2018, it will be used to discredit Donald Trump and then spread to the midterms. Sadly, it will become a joke in the end.

It will not be effective against Trump. However, it will destroy what positive brand image, if any, the GOP still has with anyone under 35. It will also hurt the actual cries of victims.

In the US, gun rights advocates will finally get their long-sought Concealed Carry Reciprocity bills through Congress.

Already passed by the House in 2017, a compromise bill will get pushed by pro-liberty senators (Lee, Cruz, etc.) who are safe from midterm elections in 2018. While not perfect (certain waiting periods and state discretion on background checks will remain in place), the bill will effectively remove all state-level restrictions on firearms ownership and possession by enabling US citizens to simply get concealed carry permits in those states that are willing to license citizens from other states (e.g. AZ, TN).

The compromise bill will be voted purely along party lines in the Senate, but will represent a major step forward in securing self-defense rights to all US citizens.

Trump will happily sign the bill into law.

The US Supreme Court will finally strike down pro-labor laws that enable unions to take dues from workers involuntarily.

This will be a major blow to unions in the US because it will dramatically reduce their funding and overall power starting in 2018.

The Trump administration will finally begin construction on a true wall between the US and Mexico.

Discretionary funds will be provided from border protection and law enforcement and new infrastructure spending by the Republican-controlled Congress in early 2018.

While there will be a compromise on The Dreamers as well as an agreement to renew NAFTA as a component of securing the funding for part of the wall, we will actually see major construction begin next year. Construction sites themselves will be the sites of significant protests and even operate under the threat of violence from Antifa and other militant leftwing organizations.

The movement to impeach Trump will persist.

Antifa, coupled with OWS and others, will be funded through Soro's-based organizations to stir up the "Impeach-Trump" movement with marches and sit-ins. The movement will rise and fall in significance and will impact the 2018 midterms and 2020 election.

The Mueller-led investigation into Russia-election-hacking and any connection to the Trump administration will finally be put to rest.

No significant charges will be leveled against anyone and it will end up having basically zero impact on the Trump administration.

While the special counsel will likely issue a report that is strongly anti-Russia and broadly implies there were attempts by Russia/Russian agents to influence the election (in favor of Trump), the report itself will be very light on evidence or specifics. This sad, biased chapter of American politics will finally, mercifully be put to rest.

However, there will be continuing problems on two fronts:

1) The real trouble of Putin's influence in the US and all Western countries will be largely ignored and will cause concern in 2018 and real trouble in 2020.

2) The Trump family's dealings with foreign banks will take the main stage in 2018.

Stay tuned as we'll be rolling out more of Glenn's predictions throughout the week.

GLENN: Today we posted at GlennBeck.com, we've broken my 2018 predictions down into four different categories, and these, I do not put these into the category -- mulch I do -- of like the caliphate. This is me looking for things that I say, okay, so what's trending? What do I think is going to happen? You know. Some of the predictions that I have made in the past, quite honestly, I don't -- I didn't have to think about those. They just -- they just hit me. So I just want to separate -- these are Glenn predictions, if you will, that I sat down and said, okay, so what are the trends doing.

So I put a few predictions down, and I think some of them are right, but we're asking you to vote and for the next couple of days, they will be broken up in chunks. Today, they're all political, and you can find them at GlennBeck.com.

STU: And the idea is to rank them as to what is the most likely to come true.

GLENN: And some of them are going to be hard. There are some of them that have several predictions in each one. You know what I mean? And so, you know, which one is going to come true? Which one do you think --

STU: You're not backing out of this? Is that what's haggle?

GLENN: No. 40 of them and there's going to be 39 that you're going to be able to beat me with a stick on next year.

Okay.

So here's prediction #1. The freedom movement will experience a bit of a renaissance. Both in the US and globally. In the US, this will mostly manifest at the local level of and be primarily pushed by millennial and Generation Z voters, who will be completely disenchanted by the two major political parties. We'll see hundreds of new candidates from new political parties running in state, county, and local elections, both Democrat and Republican parties will be forced to contend with significant weakness in recruiting and retaining younger voters, ultimately forcing them to change their platform stances to accommodate millennial and postmillennial/Generation Z ideas and positions.

Also, a new understanding of a kinder and more ethical capitalism will be rediscovered by millennials over socialism in the coming years. A new strain of, quote, nonhippie Libertarianism will be formed. We'll see the early signs of this movement in 2018. It will be the alternative to a Bernie Sanders-style socialism. What do you think?

[Buzz].

STU: I'm going with disagree on that one.

GLENN: Really?

STU: Yeah, that's not happening.

GLENN: Really?

STU: Yeah. The American people don't care about that stuff anymore. I honestly do think that, like, there is --

GLENN: This is driven by millennials, though. I think they do care.

STU: I don't care --

GLENN: They don't care about the parties and they don't believe in any of that. But they actually --

STU: I disagree! They're super passionate about the parties. If anything has been taught to us over the past couple of years, I think, is that people really freakin' care about that red versus blue battle. It is the most important thing in politics that they care about. It's that. And look, that summarizes a lot of things. A lot of things that are really material. Real policy differences. There's a lot of in there. I just don't think that's the primary concern of people who are -- the average person who's not listening to 15, 30 hours of talk radio every week. The average person cares only about that red versus blue battle. So the idea that they're going to lock into some third party or out of the system thing, I disagree with that.

GLENN: I just think that millennials, generally speaking, are going to -- they're so disgusted by all of it, they don't believe either side. They believe one side or the other more, but they don't -- they're disgusted by it, and it's going to get worse and worse and worse. And they're just a new -- I think there is a new attitude coming with the leaders of millennials.

Remember, it takes 10% to really change things. 18% is the tipping point. I'm not talking about 18% of millennials doing this.

STU: I think 4 of them doing anything would be a --

GLENN: Don't count those guys out.

STU: I'm not counting them out, but I do think that we're seeing now, in my opinion, is more of an association of, yeah, you're right. They're sick of it. They're sick of the way things are going. But what that -- how they crystallize that in their own lives is, attacking the other side. They're sick of that -- those people. Not themselves.

GLENN: So in this, both Republican and Democratic parties will be forced to contend with significant weaknesses in recruiting and retaining younger voters.

What that includes in there is the Democrats are going to move to more socialist ideas. They are going to -- the Bernie Sanders thing, and I don't know if it will be with Bernie Sanders, but the Bernie Sanders thing, socialism is going to become very, very popular. But at the same time, a new understanding of freedom, one that actually -- one that is -- that actually believes in diversity, that actually says, yeah, I don't care if you get married or not. The government shouldn't be involved. I don't care what you -- if you go to church or you don't go to church. The government shouldn't be involved. Are you a decent person? Are you hurting people? Are you, like, stealing money? Are you trying to take people's stuff? Are you trying to kill people? It's going to be boiled down to a much simpler, more Constitutional Bill of Rights kind of freedom on the other side.

STU: I feel like we're both looking outside and seeing really dark clouds, and I'm predicting rain, and you're predicting suntan time. You're predicting laying out by the pool. And it's 40 degrees, and for some reason, you're thinking it's all going to clear and go to 80 later on in the search if we get your bathing suits on.

GLENN: I cannot believe how much we've flipped places.

STU: You are way more optimistic on this. I have no hope on these things.

GLENN: You used to be the guy saying the exact opposite to me.

STU: Yeah, that's true. And I've been proven wrong! Clearly.

(Laughter.)

GLENN: Okay. Next prediction. Churches will continue to lose power and influence through 2018. Those who preach politics over principles and power over people in their own communities will lose more and more influence. The more hell fire that is preached, the bigger the hit. Although in times of strife and demagoguery, these flourish for a short time. But they will collapse.

Traditional institutions that claim to be infallible and that discourage thought and honest questions on their own doctrine will be hardest hit.

At the same time, megachurches that are more show will suffer and shed sheep to flocks who embody through quiet and humble action a simple, happy, and charitable life.

STU: That's interesting. I mean, because you were talking about millennials. What is it, now, a third of millennials think that church does more damage to society than good for society.

I mean, I think you're right. The one place you should be able to chase principle with no pragmatism at all is church. You should never make a church-based decision, when you're talking about faith-based things that's related to pragmatism. I want to go into church and then to tell me the thing that seems most obvious is the thing you shouldn't do, because of this guiding principle from this book that's really old, and we've been talking about for a long time.

GLENN: Right.

STU: And I think a lot of churches have gone -- and we've certainly seen on the left, and I think increasingly on the right, that have looked at the world and have formed their message based on the world and how it's moved, rather than a -- you know, a stone tablet, right? The place where it lives all the time and never changes.

GLENN: Yes, but it's also -- I think there's a difference now coming on -- on action. I do not want to just go sit in a church. I want to -- I want something that changes my life. I want something that goes out and does good. I want to be involved in doing things and helping people, and show it to me. Don't talk to me about it. Let's do it.

STU: And feel it, right?

GLENN: Yeah. I think that's what's coming. I think the pomp and circumstance, the traditional ways that we have connected religiously are falling away, and the churches that figure out that a church is just a place, it's a building. Real church, you should be in all the time. And it's everywhere. It's everywhere you go. And it's how you live your life I think those will prosper. We'll see. More in a second.

STU: GlennBeck.com is the place to go and see all of his predictions on politics. You can also sign up for the newsletter and get them all at once.

GLENN: And vote for them.

STU: And vote to see which one you think is most likely to happen and which one you think has no freakin' chance, you're going to have lots of opportunities on that.

1 in 20 Canadians die by MAID—Is this 'compassion'?

Vaughn Ridley / Stringer | Getty Images

Medical assistance in dying isn’t health care. It’s the moment a Western democracy decided some lives aren’t worth saving, and it’s a warning sign we can’t ignore.

Canada loves to lecture America about compassion. Every time a shooting makes the headlines, Canadian commentators cannot wait to discuss how the United States has a “culture of death” because we refuse to regulate guns the way enlightened nations supposedly do.

But north of our border, a very different crisis is unfolding — one that is harder to moralize because it exposes a deeper cultural failure.

A society that no longer recognizes the value of life will not long defend freedom, dignity, or moral order.

The Canadian government is not only permitting death, but it’s also administering, expanding, and redefining it as “medical care.” Medical assistance in dying is no longer a rare, tragic exception. It has become one of the country’s leading causes of death, offered to people whose problems are treatable, whose conditions are survivable, and whose value should never have been in question.

In Canada, MAID is now responsible for nearly 5% of all deaths — 1 out of every 20 citizens. And this is happening in a country that claims the moral high ground over American gun violence. Canada now records more deaths per capita from doctors administering lethal drugs than America records from firearms. Their number is 37.9 deaths per 100,000 people. Ours is 13.7. Yet we are the country supposedly drowning in a “culture of death.”

No lecture from abroad can paper over this fact: Canada has built a system where eliminating suffering increasingly means eliminating the sufferer.

Choosing death over care

One example of what Canada now calls “compassion” is the case of Jolene Bond, a woman suffering from a painful but treatable thyroid condition that causes dangerously high calcium levels, bone deterioration, soft-tissue damage, nausea, and unrelenting pain. Her condition is severe, but it is not terminal. Surgery could help her. And in a functioning medical system, she would have it.

But Jolene lives under socialized medicine. The specialists she needs are either unavailable, overrun with patients, or blocked behind bureaucratic requirements she cannot meet. She cannot get a referral. She cannot get an appointment. She cannot reach the doctor in another province who is qualified to perform the operation. Every pathway to treatment is jammed by paperwork, shortages, and waitlists that stretch into the horizon and beyond.

Yet the Canadian government had something else ready for her — something immediate.

They offered her MAID.

Not help, not relief, not a doctor willing to drive across a provincial line and simply examine her. Instead, Canada offered Jolene a state-approved death. A lethal injection is easier to obtain than a medical referral. Killing her would be easier than treating her. And the system calls that compassion.

Bureaucracy replaces medicine

Jolene’s story is not an outlier. It is the logical outcome of a system that cannot keep its promises. When the machinery of socialized medicine breaks down, the state simply replaces care with a final, irreversible “solution.” A bureaucratic checkbox becomes the last decision of a person’s life.

Canada insists its process is rigorous, humane, and safeguarded. Yet the bureaucracy now reviewing Jolene’s case is not asking how she can receive treatment; it is asking whether she has enough signatures to qualify for a lethal injection. And the debate among Canadian officials is not how to preserve life, but whether she has met the paperwork threshold to end it.

This is the dark inversion that always emerges when the state claims the power to decide when life is no longer worth living. Bureaucracy replaces conscience. Eligibility criteria replace compassion. A panel of physicians replaces the family gathered at a bedside. And eventually, the “right” to die becomes an expectation — especially for those who are poor, elderly, or alone.

Joe Raedle / Staff | Getty Images

The logical end of a broken system

We ignore this lesson at our own peril. Canada’s health care system is collapsing under demographic pressure, uncontrolled migration, and the unavoidable math of government-run medicine.

When the system breaks, someone must bear the cost. MAID has become the release valve.

The ideology behind this system is already drifting south. In American medical journals and bioethics conferences, you will hear this same rhetoric. The argument is always dressed in compassion. But underneath, it reduces the value of human life to a calculation: Are you useful? Are you affordable? Are you too much of a burden?

The West was built on a conviction that every human life has inherent value. That truth gave us hospitals before it gave us universities. It gave us charity before it gave us science. It is written into the Declaration of Independence.

Canada’s MAID program reveals what happens when a country lets that foundation erode. Life becomes negotiable, and suffering becomes a justification for elimination.

A society that no longer recognizes the value of life will not long defend freedom, dignity, or moral order. If compassion becomes indistinguishable from convenience, and if medicine becomes indistinguishable from euthanasia, the West will have abandoned the very principles that built it. That is the lesson from our northern neighbor — a warning, not a blueprint.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

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.