This Fourth of July, Glenn Beck reveals the only “forever war” he supports. It’s the war Americans have been fighting since our nation’s founding, and we must continue the fight…
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: Two hundred forty-nine years ago, I think it is tomorrow. Right? Is tomorrow the second, or is it the first?
What day is it today?
So it was 200 -- 249 years ago, tomorrow, that somebody sat alone, in a -- in a one-room hotel room.
And scratched out the words, when in the course of human events. Those are the first six words of a document that is so dangerous!
Still today, so revolutionary.
It was whispered in those candle lit rooms by men who knew. Knew. That if I signed this document, that's a death warrant.
I'm dead!
I'm dead.
But in the course of human events, shh.
Jefferson wrote them!
33 years old. Adams would later say, you do well to revere Jefferson. But he didn't write alone. Basically, I was there too.
And so was Ben Franklin. The ideas were forged in the minds of men like Franklin, who is old enough to know better. And Adams, who was stubborn enough, not to care. And they weren't perfect men. But I love this about the left. They try to make you think.
That you think are perfect. I don't think they were perfect! I mean, Ben Franklin used to walk around naked in his house a lot. That shows, I mean, for as smart as that guy was. It shows, maybe he had a lack of mirrors. But they weren't perfect!
They owned slaves. They argued. They compromised.
How does that make them different than us?
I mean, we should be able to relate to them!
What is it that we tolerate right now?
What is it that we compromise on?
What is it -- what are our failures that future generations are going to go, these people just didn't get it? Perhaps what we should notice is that they, unlike most of us. They were willing to gamble their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.
For something that had never, ever been done before. Something entirely new!
The idea that rights don't come from a government, or from a king, or from a parliament.
They don't come from the majority voting. Everyone has certain rights.
You know, for all these people who are, you know -- going in Macy's, and burning down towns. And then stealing clothing. And they're like, because I've been oppressed!
And you can't -- I've got rights, you know.
Yeah. Yeah.
You know who the first people were, to articulate those rights?
You know the only country that actually has stood for those rights?
And we're imperfect!
That idea came from the Founders, that you say you hate.
But the actual rights come from God, which you dismiss!
Think of this. Just ponder this for a second.
That all men are created equal! That their rights are given to them, by a creator.
It's not a political assertion. It's a genius. That's eternal truth!
That's theological dynamite, lobbed straight in to the thrones of Europe.
All over the world, it's still dynamite.
They knew what they were doing.
And I don't mean like, they knew what they were doing.
They had it. No. They knew that the British crown had the largest military force in the world. And these guys, they were farmers. They were printers. They were lawyers. They were a ragtag collection of intellectual and idealists, facing down an empire, where they said, the sun never set on the British empire. Meaning, the colonialism was everywhere!
You could not escape England. And yet, they declared it. We're leaving, without apology!
And they said that when a government becomes destructive of the ends of liberty, life, and the pursuit of happiness, it's not only the right of the people, it's their duty to throw it off!
Wow. And you know what is amazing? That's not rebellion.
That's -- that's not revolution. That's -- that's responsibility.
That -- that kind of language today, that would have you flagged, shadow banned. Labeled an extremist. In most countries, disappeared!
But that is the foundation of what we call America. The American experiment. And it's that. The American experiment.
And it's just that, an experiment. We didn't know if we could get it right. And we haven't gotten it right. But isn't it worth experimenting?
Isn't it worth trying to get that concept right?
When you fail on that concept, you're like, eh. That's a stupid idea.
That's not a stupid idea. That's the greatest idea of all time.
Why are so many people willing to just quit?
The experiment is self-rule. It's not perfect.
Never has been. Slavery. Jim Crow. Internment camps. Assassinations.
My God! Forgive us, for what we have done.
But at the same time, what nation has done more to correct its own errors?
What people have shed more blood, not for conquest, but for freedom.
Twice in the last century, we crossed oceans. Not to claim territory. But to liberate that territory!
Our sons and daughters fought and bled on foreign soil to push the darkness back, to fight against Naziism and fascism and Communism. And here we are. Here we are today.
After 249 years tomorrow of that experiment, standing at the lip of the very abyss, those men feared.
A godless chaos, rising in the east and a cold atheistic utopia, clawing at the foundations of the Western world. Islamism and Communism, two ideologies that have killed tens of millions of people. Now dressed all in new robes, selling old lies.
And we can't even teach a child where their rights come from. We have replaced Jefferson and Adams with TikTok influencers and bureaucratic groupthink.
We're raising generations to not even know the truth about their own identity.
But to question their identity. And they could be, oh, you're a funny, funny colored unicorn today. What do you want to be tomorrow?
We don't teach them anything about truth, or their inheritance, most importantly. Their inheritance. What good are hot dogs and fireworks, if the soul of the nation is up for auction? What is the meaning in Fourth of July, if we have forgotten the why? If we don't even call it Independence Day anymore. Most people don't even know who we fought against for independence.
They think we fought for its independence! Most people think we fought the South!
And yet, we'll light the sparklers, or blow our fingers off, because we're just that stupid.
This Independence Day weekend, would you do me and yourself and your country a favor, and read the words out loud. Speak the words out loud.
When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands, which have connected them with one another.
And to assume among the powers of earth, the separate, but equal station, to which the laws of nature.
And nature's God entitle them.
A decent respect to the opinions of mankind, requires that they should declare the causes, which impair them to the separation.
What are they saying?
Look, we want to be decent people.
We want to be decent people.
And we have to separate them.
But we believe it's only right that we tell you why we have to separate. And it's not because of all the bad things you've done. We'll get to those later. It's because we're different. And you don't understand. You have been telling us all of these things, we no longer believe in. We hold these truths to be self-evident. That all men are created equal, and they're endowed by their creator with certain inalienable. Unchangeable rights.
And just among these, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
That to secure these rights, government are his instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
My gosh. Read those words. And let your children hear what thinking and courage sounds like.
That to secure these rights, I'm telling you, the king, who thinks that your government was given to you, by God.
And you are the ruler.
And you will tell everybody what to think, what to do. What to buy. What to sell. What to tax. What not to tax. Who gets land. Who doesn't get land.
No, no, no. Government are his instituted among men, deriving their powers, their just powers, from the people. And that government is only there, established by those men to protect the rights that God has given each of those men.
Let them feel the chill, that runs down the spine, when Jefferson writes, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the government, or from the governed. Let them hear the words, of -- of responsibility. What responsibility sounds like, with courage and freedom. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these rights, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it.
And to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to affect their a lot of and happiness.
In other words, you have the right, you have the responsibility to stop tyrants. And if the government has gone bad, to throw that government off.
But reconstitute a government, that will do a better job at protecting those rights. Not to form a communist government.
Not to do anything else. But you want a new government?
Fine! Let's find the way to make men more free. This is not a metaphor. This is a declaration of war on tyranny in all of its forms.
I mean, I said, yesterday, freedom isn't free.
It was paid for by somebody's blood. But you have to remember, they paid for their freedom, not for our freedom, necessarily.
We -- there comes a time, we have to pay for our freedom. And God forbid, that it comes down to blood.
But at least shake off the apathy. We -- we must renew this promise of this experiment of America.
We need to fight for it as well. An out-of-control government that seeks to rope us into forever wars, over and over again. We're all against forever wars. I'm against it.
I hate them.
But there is one forever war, that is required in a free society. A different kind of forever war.
A war against ourselves, a war against human nature in each of us. Because of human nature, we get fat. We get lazy.
We get tolerant of abuses. Let your children hear you speak these words. And when you speak them, ponder them yourself.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate, that governments long established, should not be changed for light and transient causes.
And accordingly, all experience has shown, that mankind is more disposed to suffer while the evils are sufferable than to right themselves, by abolishing the forms in which they're accustomed.
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a sign to reduce them under absolute despotism.
It's their right. It's their duty. To throw off such government. And provide new guards for such future security.
In one paragraph, we make the point twice. And they tell us, look, we've studied people.
We know you're going to get fat and lazy and apathetic. And you won't want to do stuff for transient causes. Because this is really not good.
But when push comes to shove. And everything is moving towards absolute despotism. Absolute tyranny. Then you must stand up.
I ask you to ponder this. This particular part, when a long train of abuses and usurpations. Prudence will indeed dictate that governments long established should not be exchanged for light and transient causes.
And accordingly, all experience has shown, that mankind is more disposed to suffer while the evils suffer, than to right themselves.
Aren't we exactly the same people, that their experience was talking about?
Aren't we the people that are more disposed to suffer, than to right ourselves? Because we're too comfortable. Or we're too afraid, just to stand up and simply say no to lies.
No!
There is a difference between men and women.
No! Communism is to be feared. It's killed over 100 million people, in the last 100 years.
No!
Muslims aren't bad. Islamism is!
It's evil. No!
You can peacefully protest, any time, any place. And I will fight to the death for your right to do that.
But when you start burn cities down to the ground, no!
We're just a few days away. And we have marked our 249th birthday. Maybe. Just maybe, this year, can we stop asking what America was, and start deciding what America will be?
Where it just slips quietly into history. In the dark of apathy and ignorance.
Because the only thing more dangerous than tyranny is the people who have forgotten what it took to break its chains.
