Radical progressives love to say the United States has no culture of its own — only whatever happens to be popular at the moment. If America amounts to little more than a consumer brand, then why do so many anti-American activists talk less about tweaking our politics and more about erasing Western civilization altogether?

America isn’t distilled water. It carries a civilizational inheritance. That fact explains why the people who hate the American project so often hate Western civilization writ large.

A country can’t treat open hostility to its civilizational foundations as harmless expression while expecting those foundations to survive.

A case in point: Mahmoud Khalil, the pro-Palestinian activist and apologist for Islamic jihad who led a coalition at Columbia University called Columbia University Apartheid Divest. The group’s stated goal is the “total eradication of Western civilization.” That goal raises the obvious question: Why the West? Why not simply “America”?

Because, for many activists in this mold, America represents the West at full strength — the most successful expression of the Western tradition.

America as the West’s culmination

In “The Roots of American Order,” Russell Kirk argued that the United States fused traditions from key centers of Western thought and life: Jerusalem gave us a Judeo-Christian moral order and the idea of covenant under God. Athens bequeathed reasoned inquiry and ordered thought. Rome passed down republican government and the rule of law. London developed parliamentary practice and secure property rights under the common law.

In Philadelphia, America’s founders combined those inheritances into a constitutional republic built around Judeo-Christian concepts of contract, incorporation, property, and ordered liberty. Put simply, America did not emerge from nothing. It grew out of a specific civilizational soil.

Why the West wins — and gets blamed

Many non-Western societies struggle under political and economic systems that concentrate power, block opportunity, and punish initiative. When institutions work well in those places, they often resemble Western inheritances: stable law, predictable property rights, accountable governance.

Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson, the authors of “Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty,” summarized the phenomenon in more politically correct terms, arguing:

Nations fail primarily because of extractive political and economic institutions that concentrate power and wealth in the hands of a few elites, stifling innovation, incentives, and broad-based economic growth. Unlike inclusive systems that foster prosperity, extractive regimes discourage investment and education, creating a “vicious cycle” of poverty and political instability.

That reality should invite honesty. Instead, it often produces resentment.

Under the reigning narrative, Western culture becomes “colonization,” “genocide,” and “taking” — a catch-all scapegoat for failures at home. That story also ignores inconvenient facts, including that Western colonialism had a relatively brief modern run and that many Western countries ultimately divested themselves of empires while insisting — at least in principle — on freedom and sovereignty.

So the West gets blamed for the world’s troubles, while the West remains the place millions still want to move to.

RELATED: What will replace the old world order?

Milos Bicanski/Getty Images

Importing anti-Western radicalism

That leaves America with a growing problem: activists and migrants who embrace America’s freedoms while rejecting the civilization that produced them.

The Trump administration sought to remove Khalil, arguing that his presence created “adverse foreign policy consequences.” An activist judge later ordered his release from detention, and the useful idiot New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) publicly celebrated him at Gracie Mansion.

Whatever one thinks of that specific case, the larger principle holds: A country can’t treat open hostility to its civilizational foundations as harmless expression while expecting those foundations to survive.

A nation that loses confidence in its roots will not protect them — and a nation that refuses to protect them will not keep them.

If the United States wants to survive beyond President Trump’s current term, it needs to recover a healthy pride in its Western inheritance and shape immigration policy with that reality in mind. A society that invites people who openly seek its destruction invites its own decline.

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A South Carolina prison inmate handed a judge a “wad” of counterfeit cash to pay his trespassing bond — and then told the judge to “keep the change,” the Chesterfield County Sheriff’s Office said.

Officials on Monday said an inmate at the Chesterfield County Detention Center was charged with forgery after the incident.

With that, instead of a relatively minor charge of trespassing, Alexander soon was charged with counterfeit money/forgery, the sheriff’s office said.

A judge said he had set bond for inmate Patrick Alexander, 33, of Mississippi in the amount of $250 on a trespassing charge, officials said.

After being given his personal property, Alexander reportedly “removed a wad of money, sorted through the bills, and handed the judge” three $100 bills — and then told the judge to “keep the change,” officials said.

As you can imagine, the judge wasn’t impressed by the suspect’s supposed generosity.

Instead, the judge told Alexander he “could not keep the change and, while holding the money, noticed the color of the bills appeared unusual,” the sheriff’s office said.

Upon further inspection, the judge observed Chinese writing on the back of the bills, officials said.

A detention officer then checked the bills using a counterfeit detection pen, and that revealed the bills were counterfeit, the sheriff’s office said.

Alexander then was informed the currency was fake, and the judge instructed the detention officer to hold the money as evidence, officials said.

RELATED: Video shows Texas man shoot up meat market after worker refuses to accept counterfeit $50 bill: ‘Watch what’s gonna happen’

Image source: Chesterfield County (S.C.) Sheriff’s Office

With that, instead of a relatively minor charge of trespassing, Alexander soon was charged with counterfeit money/forgery, the sheriff’s office said.

A warrant was obtained and served on Alexander at the Chesterfield County Detention Center, the sheriff’s office noted.

“Under South Carolina Code § 16-13-10 (Forgery), it is unlawful for a person to falsely make, forge, or counterfeit, or knowingly assist in the making or counterfeiting of any writing or instrument,” officials said.

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A man who formerly worked as a principal at an Oregon high school was convicted on child porn charges after he was placed on paid leave for comments about the death of Charlie Kirk.

Jeremy P. Williams, 50, was on paid leave when he was arrested in Sept. 2025 on numerous charges, according to a letter written by Rainier School District superintendent Chad Holloway.

He was charged with possessing depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit content, as well as distribution of the same.

He resigned as principal in Nov. 2025 and was getting paid $99.5K in his last year.

Police said they were informed by alerts from a social media site about the illicit images connected to an account used by a resident of Longview, Washington.

Investigators obtained warrants to confirm that the account belonged to Williams and then served a search warrant at his home to confiscate computers, phones, and other digital storage devices.

He was charged with possessing depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit content, as well as distribution of the same.

Cowlitz County Superior Court Judge Thad Scudder sentenced Williams to five years and one month in prison after he was convicted in February. He must also serve three years of probation, pay $3K in court fees, and register as a sex offender.

None of the images were of students from the high school, police say.

RELATED: Child sex abuse material found on PE teacher’s phone after he inappropriately touched students, police say

Investigators said more than 30 child sex abuse images were found on his devices. One involved a 6-month-old child.

A reporter for the Daily Chronicle in Longview said Williams previously boasted about winning awards for writing erotic fiction.

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Former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey has been reportedly subpoenaed in the investigation into a “grand conspiracy” against President Donald Trump.

The development was confirmed by two sources with knowledge of the situation who spoke to Axios. It was also reported by NBC News, which cited two sources as well.

‘No one is above the law. … We will follow the facts in this case.’

The “grand conspiracy” investigation is targeting top officials from the former Biden and Obama administrations, according to the sources, and has produced more than 130 subpoenas.

The subpoena against Comey reportedly relates to the infamous Intelligence Community Assessment about Russian election interference that was sent in January 2017.

The investigation into the grand conspiracy is being led by U.S. Attorney Jason Reding Quiñones from the Southern District of Florida.

Comey was indicted in Sept. 2025 by a grand jury for allegedly abusing his office out of political motivation.

“No one is above the law,” U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement following the indictment. “Today’s indictment reflects this Department of Justice’s commitment to holding those who abuse positions of power accountable for misleading the American people. We will follow the facts in this case.”

That was dismissed after a judge found in Nov. 2025 that Trump had improperly appointed Lindsey Halligan, his personal attorney, to serve as interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.

The Justice Dept. has appealed that ruling.

RELATED: Trump rips into Comey over seashell message: ‘He knew exactly what he was doing!’

Comey made headlines in May 2026 when he snapped a photo of shells on a beach that many took to be a threat against Trump. After posting the image on social media, he denied knowing that the message could be taken as a threat.

“He knew exactly what that meant,” Trump said about the incident. “A child knows what that meant. If you’re the FBI director and you don’t know what that meant? That meant assassination.”

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A major political shake-up unfolded in Illinois as progressives whose views align with those of “the Squad” were dealt a decisive blow in recent Democratic primaries.

According to BlazeTV host Stu Burguiere, the losses highlight growing fractures within the Democratic Party, particularly between establishment figures and the party’s far-left flank associated with the likes of Jasmine Crockett, Ilhan Omar, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

“What we saw in Illinois was a situation where you’ve got obviously a bright, bright, bright blue state, right? This is the bluest of the blue basically where, you know, you can kind of do whatever you want if you’re a Democrat,” Stu begins.

“So, you have these factions of the Democratic Party warring with each other. They’re fighting, they’re going back and forth trying to take control. Of course, one of the big groups that is trying to do that is the sort of Squad left,” he continues.

“The Squad left,” Stu explains, is the “AOC left.”

“Someone who’s very, very socialist leaning, very, very anti-Israel, very, you know, pro-abortion and trans, everything as far as you can go,” he says.

“And they had a play here in Illinois. They had a chance to do something. They had a chance to move the needle a little bit, and it did not work,” he says, referencing an article by Axios titled, “The ‘Squad’ left suffers complete wipeout in Illinois.”

“The left suffered a virtually total collapse in the Illinois Democratic congressional primaries on Tuesday night — even in races where the AIPAC-backed candidate lost,” the article reads.

“It’s a bad sign for the dozens of insurgent Democrats running in congressional races across the country, both in open seats and as primary rivals to older or more establishment-oriented incumbents,” it continues.

“AIPAC is like, I don’t know, they’re supposedly the ultimate villains of all the world right now because, you know, a lot of people even on the right, certainly plenty on the left, are blaming them for pushing us into war with Iran and, you know, all sorts of different things,” Stu explains.

Stu notes that AIPAC was “very excited” about Illinois’ results, as “they put a lot of money into these races to try to stop very hardcore anti-Israel candidates from winning those primaries.”

Want more from Stu?

To enjoy more of Stu’s lethal wit, wisdom, and mockery, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

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