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TERMS OF USE | PRIVACY POLICY

Live

Glenn's Show Prep

Morning Brief 2025-11-19

November 19, 2025
Chris Brady

No guests slated for today's show. Subject to change.

News...

Exclusive interview: Cracker Barrel CEO answers Glenn Beck’s brutal question — 'Why weren’t you fired?'
Glenn gets “the real answer” behind Cracker Barrel’s decision to fix what clearly wasn’t broke.

Trump administration launches plan to dismantle Education Department
The department will shift responsibility for several of its core functions to other federal agencies. The effort is a key step in fulfilling Trump’s goal of entirely eliminating the agency.

Police walked right past DNC pipe bomb to first look under a bush where bomber sat 17 hours earlier
It raises new questions about why the device was supposedly overlooked.

Muslim group CAIR cutting $1,000 checks for anti-Israel agitators who have been disciplined by colleges
The money was given to students who faced penalties for leading pro-Palestinian protests before and after the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, according to a bombshell report by the Network Contagion Research Institute and the Intelligent Advocacy Network.

Gov. Abbott designates Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR as foreign terrorist organizations
"Today, I designated the Muslim Brotherhood and Council on American-Islamic Relations as foreign terrorist and transnational criminal organizations. This bans them from buying or acquiring land in Texas and authorizes the Attorney General to sue to shut them down."

Florida man accused of murdering suicidal UK woman who traveled to US seeking a violent death: Reports
They met on a fetish website around two years ago. He primed himself as the struggling woman’s “mentor” and claimed he wanted to “help” her, according to police reports.

JD Vance sentenced for threatening JD Vance
A Michigan man with the initials J.D. and the last name Vance was convicted and sentenced for making threats against Vice President JD Vance as well as President Trump and one of Trump's children.

Epstein... 

Report: House Democrat Leader Hakeem Jeffries Solicited Donations from Jeffrey Epstein, Asked Him to Meet with Obama
Hakeem Jeffries invited Epstein to a dinner to solicit money from him in 2013, AFTER Epstein was convicted for procuring a child for prostitution.

James Comer vows to give Clintons Bannon treatment if they defy subpoenas
Comer said the Clintons are two Democrats that his committee has not heard back from regarding subpoenas for their testimony on their ties to Epstein and that continued silence will be met with criminal referrals.

Larry Summers’ cringe emails with Epstein reveal he schemed to get 'horizontal' with Chinese economist
In one exchange, Summers asked Epstein whether it was “meaningful” to talk about the probability of “my getting horizontal w peril.” “U r better at understanding Chinese women than at probability theory,” Summers told Epstein.

Godfather of left-wing crazies salivates over Epstein’s ‘penetrating insights’ in unearthed letter
A newly released letter shows Noam Chomsky gushing over Epstein as a “valued friend” and intellectual muse, keeping close ties with him even years after Epstein’s conviction for exploiting a minor.

Democrat Who Texted Epstein Asking For Trump Dirt Gives Patently Insane Excuse
Plaskett suggested she was merely texting with a "constituent."

Courts...

Judges strike down redrawn Texas congressional map
A federal court sided with advocacy groups, including the League of United Latin American Citizens, challenging the redistricted map of Texas and ordered that the old map be used for the 2026 election.

Horowitz: Utah Republicans just let Democrats steal a seat they could never win
Democrats weaponized ballot initiatives and the courts. Republicans hold supermajorities and do nothing. If the legislature won’t impeach judicial usurpers, the left will own the state.

GOP senators demand suspension of DC judge tied to secret subpoenas
Republicans say James Boasberg abused his power in Jack Smith’s Arctic Frost probe, citing gag orders on lawmakers’ phone records and urging the circuit’s chief judge to sideline him as impeachment moves forward.

Democrat judge blocks Tennessee’s National Guard crime crackdown
A Democrat chancellor halted Gov. Bill Lee’s Memphis deployment despite its success rescuing over 100 missing kids, siding with local officials who argue the state can’t use Guard troops to confront the city’s violent crime crisis.

Long Island couple gets light sentence after admitting to hacking up roommates with meat cleavers, scattering their heads
The judge slashed their sentences under New York’s Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act, relying on a sealed psychiatric report claiming “abuse” by the victims — leaving the public with no evidence of what the alleged mistreatment was.

Politics...

Trump hasn’t lost Hispanic voters yet — but warning lights are flashing
If this is a backlash against Trump’s immigration crackdown, the GOP is in a bind: That issue is integral to the MAGA agenda and nonnegotiable with the party’s base. But it's possible that the most politically active Hispanics — the most likely to vote even in an off-year — are disproportionately Democratic.

Mamdani claims NYC is a 'city of international law' when asked about arresting world leaders targeted by ICC
"So I’ve said time and time again that I believe this is a city of international law. And being a city of international law means looking to uphold international law."

Mamdani Won’t Stop Asking His Supporters To Redistribute Wealth ... To Him
Mamdani posted a video to X on Tuesday stating that he needs to raise at least $4 million so he can pay his employees, vet the 50,000 resumes he has received, and implement his socialist policies.

Democrats fear for the country under Trump: Part ∞
The overdramatic bores posted a 90-second video montage on X featuring six Democrat lawmakers, including Sen. Slotkin and Sen. Mark Kelly, urging U.S. service members and intelligence professionals to refuse illegal orders from the Trump administration, and stressing their oath to the Constitution.

Economy...

How Silicon Valley is preparing for the jobless AI future it’s creating
As AI eliminates white-collar jobs — dozens of tech firms have announced layoffs in the last month — the idea of universal basic income is once again gaining momentum among tech’s biggest names, including Sam Altman, Elon Musk, and Andrew Yang.

Google boss says trillion-dollar AI investment boom has 'elements of irrationality'
Every company would be affected if the AI bubble were to burst, the head of Google's parent firm Alphabet has told the BBC.

Toyota CEO goes full MAGA at NASCAR event as carmaker unveils $912M investment in US manufacturing
Toyota unveiled a massive investment in U.S. manufacturing, days after CEO Akio Toyoda hosted a red, white, and blue NASCAR event in Japan while sporting a Trump-Vance shirt and red MAGA hat.

Fully functional 18-karat gold toilet sells for $12M at Sotheby’s auction
The 223-pound toilet is entirely made up of 18-karat gold and had a starting bid of $10 million, which matched the current pricing for the precious metal.

Nuzzi and friends...

Ryan Lizza: Part 1 — How I Found Out
Olivia had just returned from a reporting trip — at least that’s what she told me it was — and her Herschel backpack, the one with the flap that never quite closed properly, was tossed beside our bed, its contents scattered on the floor. That’s when I noticed the sheets of Kimpton Hotel stationery that would alter the course of our lives.

Olivia Nuzzi’s poorly aged tweets resurface
On Jan. 19, 2015, Nuzzi wrote, “Why does Hollywood think female reporters sleep with their sources?” while sharing a New York Magazine article titled “Why Can’t Hollywood Get Female Journalists Right?”

Alleged ‘Sugar Daddy’ Keith Olbermann Responds After Article Says He Spent $15K On Jewelry For Olivia Nuzzi
"What was I supposed to do? Get her a lot of Gift Certificates from Kmart?"

NY Times: Olivia Nuzzi Did It All for Love
The former political journalist has written a combustive portrait of America, President Trump, and the scandal with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that upended her career.

WaPo: The dueling narratives of Olivia Nuzzi and Ryan Lizza
A year after a scandal, both are out with their side of the story. Hers is coy. His has the plot twist.

Immigration...

Yes, millions of illegal aliens are receiving food stamps
CIS estimates show roughly 4.5 million illegal immigrants benefit from SNAP through household loopholes, with nearly half of all noncitizen households receiving some form of taxpayer-funded food assistance.

Charlotte school district attendance plummets after immigration raid, sparking concerns about illegal alien numbers
Roughly 21% of the student population was absent on Monday, according to data obtained by Blaze News.

WAR news...

NY Times: Trump Said to Authorize CIA Plans for Covert Action in Venezuela
The president has signed off on possible operations inside Venezuela but has also reopened back-channel communications with the government of President Nicolás Maduro.

Middle East...

Trump pulls out all the pomp and circumstance for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to seal $1T investment
The Saudi leader was greeted on the South Lawn by an Army mounted honor guard and black horses bearing American and Saudi flags, with six warplanes conducting a flyover of the White House for a touch of military drama as bin Salman reached Trump’s side.

Trump Officially Designates Saudi Arabia A ‘Major’ Non-Nato Ally Of United States
"We're taking our military cooperation to even greater heights."

Witkoff to meet again with senior Hamas leader for talks on Gaza ceasefire — diplomat
While the terror group has shown no interest in disarming, Trump envoy is likely to raise demand during meeting with Khalil al-Hayya, as U.S. works to maintain truce in the Strip.

Ukraine - Russia...

Zelenskyy to meet Trump envoy in Turkey in bid to 'intensify' peace talks
U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff is set to join talks with Zelenskyy and Turkish President Erdogan on Wednesday, as the Ukrainian president said he wanted to "intensify" peace negotiations. Turkey has maintained ties with both Kyiv and Moscow and has previously hosted talks between the two factions.

WSJ: Inside the Ukrainian Corruption Probe Edging Closer to Zelenskyy
The investigation has reached higher up in Ukraine and closer to the president himself than any other during his tenure.

China...

China has lent $200B to US tech and infrastructure projects, report finds
Chinese lenders backed 2,500 projects in almost every U.S. state, from gas pipelines to airport terminals, even as Washington warned developing nations about Chinese debt traps.

Entertainment...

Dick Van Dyke reveals he ‘almost’ played James Bond — but turned it down
Although he considered becoming the next 007, he decided against it because the role would have been too much of a change from the family-friendly roles he was known for, and fans might not have “accepted it” from him. Van Dyke turns 100 on Dec 13th.

Singer D4vd tied to gruesome LA death investigation
A police source says D4vd is a suspect after a missing 15-year-old’s dismembered remains were found in a Tesla he owned, with investigators alleging he hasn’t cooperated and may have had help hiding the body.

Media...

Trump eviscerates 'fake' news ABC — calls for FCC to consider yanking license
"It’s not the question that I mind; it’s your attitude. It’s the way you ask these questions. You start off with a man who’s highly respected, asking him a horrible, insubordinate, and just a terrible question. You could even ask that same exact question nicely. You’re a terrible person and a terrible reporter."

Panic at CNN over Rumored Sale to Saudis: 'It Scares the Hell Out of Me'
Washington Post journalist and CNN contributor Jason Rezaian raised his concern while responding to Trump's threat to strip ABC's broadcast license

How propagandists at Politico use corruption to hide their ignorance
Politico tried to debunk Trump’s claim about taxpayer-funded transgender procedures, got the facts wrong, ignored a correction when it was handed to them, and then quietly slipped the accurate information into a later piece without acknowledging their original mistake.

Education...

Parents confront crying Virginia school board member who compared Turning Point USA to KKK at raucous meeting
The official tried to backtrack after equating TPUSA students with a hate group, but parents tore into her for the smear as protesters disrupted the meeting and calls for her resignation mounted.

Imam at NYC college interfaith event blames Jewish speaker for Gaza, leads walkout
Muslim leader extols harsh punishments in Sharia law to students, denounces Hillel representative as a "Zionist," and tells followers to leave "out of strength and dignity."

AI...

Anthropic’s latest freak-out story looks more like a sales pitch for regulation than a warning
Anthropic has been pushing a bunch of stories lately about the idea that AI could suddenly go rogue. In this one, one of its AI vending machines drafted an FBI cyber-crime report over a $2 fee. It fits a pattern: The company loudly warns Washington about dangers only it claims to understand, positioning itself as the “responsible” Big Tech player that lawmakers should trust to help write the industry’s regulations.

Related: White House AI czar says Anthropic 'running a sophisticated regulatory capture strategy based on fearmongering'
“It is principally responsible for the state regulatory frenzy that is damaging the startup ecosystem,” Brian Sacks wrote on Oct. 14.

Related: Anthropic CEO insists he’s no wokester in wake of White House AI czar’s broadsides
CEO Dario Amodei is a prominent Democratic donor. The firm’s investors include the Ford Foundation.

Travel...

It’s Past Time To Privatize Disaster-Plagued Air Traffic Control
This is not a radical idea; Canada successfully privatized its air navigation system, NAV CANADA, two decades ago. That nonprofit corporation became a global leader in safety, technology, and efficiency, all without relying on government appropriations.

 Sports...

NBA probe closes in on LeBron’s circle as gambling scandal expands
Feds say insiders leaked injury info for big-money bets, and now top James associates have handed over their phones as investigators trace how a former Laker allegedly sold team secrets to gamblers.

Animals...

Raccoons Are Evolving Into Domesticated Pets, Scientists Confirm
Researchers argue that domestication often starts without human breeding programs: animals bold (and calm) enough to work the buffet of our refuse thrive near people, passing along tamer temperaments — and, over generations, subtle anatomical shifts.

Nov. 19, 2009 - Senate health care bill… End of America?... Do you trust the government to handle your health care?... Frustration with both parties… National debt… Real meaning of the Statue of Liberty… Interview with Sen. Jim DeMint...

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.