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Their likenesses were toppled, yet they still cast long shadows

July 4, 2026

Radicals worked with revolutionary gusto in recent years to erase America’s past. In addition to melting down busts, digging up graves, renaming species, knocking out church windows, hiding artwork, killing off iconic brands, and advancing revisionist narratives, they did what all envy- and resentment-driven demolitionists — from the Jacobins to the Taliban — have done: They toppled and removed statues.

Among the giants whom the radicals fell but could never slay — a long list that includes Spanish missionary Junípero Serra and Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln — are two men in particular whose greatness not only secured for them pedestals and the ire of barbarians but made the nation today possible: George Washington and Christopher Columbus.

‘Washington laid the groundwork for the steady march toward emancipation and liberty.’

Every toppled statue tells three stories: the first, about the people who raised it and the kind of person they thought worthy of public memorialization; the second, about the people who tore it down and what they want forgotten; and the third, about the kind of figure who can cast a shadow over lesser men even after his likeness is shattered.

Over two decades after becoming an American, Italian-born sculptor Pompeo Coppini produced — at the request of Henry Waldo Coe, a pioneer doctor and close friend of President Theodore Roosevelt — a 1,920-pound, roughly eight-foot bronze sculpture of his adopted homeland’s first president, George Washington.

The statue, which the Portland Monuments Project currently lists as being “in storage in need of repair,” depicts the great general who commanded the Continental Army to victory in the American War of Independence standing tall with a walking stick in his right hand and a tricorn hat in his left.

Coe, who would not live long enough to attend the statue’s dedication ceremony on July 4, 1927, gave the monument to Portland, Oregon, to honor the 1926 sesquicentennial of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Portland.gov

The statue was installed outside the German American Society in northeast Portland’s Rose City Park neighborhood and presented by Rev. William Wallace Youngson, the clergyman who established the Rose City Park Methodist Episcopal Church.

One comment shared during the recent city-led conversations about the statue reflects the apparent understanding of those who helped raise the statue a century ago:

The purpose of these statues is not to make a statement that these men are saints, but rather to honor their achievements and place in history. I want to briefly touch on Washington. Besides his leadership in the American Revolution and founding our country, Washington was remarkable in his commitment to republicanism. He refused an offer to be King, in the 18th century, in the age of absolute monarchs. This was the same time as Catherine the Great, Frederick the Great, and the height of the French ancien regime (before its demise during the French Revolution). He and the other founders created one of the first democratic bodies since the Roman Senate. True, our democracy was imperfect in the 1790s (and is today). But, Washington laid the groundwork for the steady march toward emancipation and liberty we have seen through 230 years of American history.

The barbarian horde evidently couldn’t tolerate the sight of this great man.

On the eve of June 19, 2020, iconoclasts lit a fire on the statue’s head, then tore it down. Vandals then spray-painted leftist slogans such as “genocidal colonist,” “you’re on native lands,” “BLM,” “1619,” and “Big Floyd” on the toppled figure.

Rather than restore it to its pedestal, the city sent a tow truck to remove the first president’s likeness and toss it into storage. No arrests were made in connection with this destructive episode.

According to the city of Portland, the statue will be returned to the public “pending relocation, restoration, repair, and the addition of new interpretive signage.”

Regardless of whether this statue — paid for by a pioneer doctor, sculpted by an immigrant, and presented by a clergyman — will ultimately be restored, Washington’s indelible mark can never be honestly denied, certainly not in an American state neighboring his namesake.

Christopher Columbus — the Italian “Admiral of the Ocean Sea” who sailed under the Spanish flag and whose four transatlantic voyages set the stage for American civilization — was one of the 2020 iconoclasts’ most popular targets, with over 30 statues bearing his likeness toppled and/or removed during that leftist spasm of violence.

One of those monuments was a 7.3-foot statue carved in Italian Carrara marble by sculptor Mauro Bigarani, dedicated to the city of Baltimore by its Italian community and the Italian American Organization United of Maryland in commemoration of the discovery of America, and unveiled on Oct. 8, 1984, in Columbus Piazza by then-Mayor William Donald Schaefer and President Ronald Reagan.

The statue’s marble base, itself nearly eight feet tall, stated, “Discoverer of America,” and depicted the three ships of the Columbus fleet: the Santa Maria, the Pinta, and the Nina.

Reagan stated at the unveiling, “Americans of Italian descent have given a great deal to this country. Their contribution began 492 years ago when Christopher Columbus, the son of a Genoa weaver, set forth on a voyage of discovery that changed the world.”

“The ideals, which many successive Italian immigrants brought with them, are at the very heart of America. I’m speaking of hard work, love of family, patriotism, and respect for God,” continued the president. “Columbus challenged the unknown when he sailed westward in 1492. He was a man of vision who saw an opportunity, set down a plan, and then worked diligently to carry it forth.”

Highlighting why Columbus is still remembered and why, in part, he is so hated by the forces of darkness, Reagan noted further, “When Columbus discovered America, he set in force a motion mightier than the world had ever known.”

On July 4, 2020, the barbarian horde marched through Baltimore’s Little Italy neighborhood in search of a target. After harassing restaurant patrons and other residents, they set to work on bringing down Columbus’ likeness.

After finally yanking down the statue, members of the horde jumped on the broken figure and paraded around with marble fragments. An activist yelled over a megaphone, “Get him in the harbor. Get rid of this n****r,” then the horde dragged the remains into the harbor.

The radicals marching across the city at the time of this particular iconoclastic episode reportedly demanded the defunding of police, reparations for blacks, and the removal of all statues “honoring white supremacists, owners of enslaved people, perpetrators of genocide, and colonizers.”

Again, there were no arrests in connection with the incident. In fact, city officials effectively sanctioned the destruction.

A spokesman for then-Mayor Bernard Young said that the statue’s destruction was part of a “re-examination taking place nationally and globally around some of these monuments and statues that may represent different things to different people.”

‘Christopher Columbus was the original American hero.’

Current Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott, then serving as city council president, rushed to remind everyone that he previously advocated for the statue’s removal: “I support Baltimore’s Italian-American community and Baltimore’s indigenous community. I cannot, however, support Columbus.”

Like Washington, Columbus’ memory could not be so easily erased from the minds of the many by a radical few. Nevertheless, President Donald Trump made sure that this particular statue would be raised in the nation’s capital for all to see.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

With pieces of the statue recovered from the harbor by the Knights of Columbus, local artist Tilghman Hemsley and his son Will built a 9.5-foot, 2,000-pound replica with the help of funds raised by Italian-American businessmen and $30,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

After the city of Baltimore refused to install the replica in public, the Italian American Organizations United Inc. gifted it to the White House, which installed it on the north side of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on March 22.

Trump thanked the Italian-American groups for the statue, noting that “Christopher Columbus was the original American hero and one of the most gallant and visionary men to ever walk the face of the Earth.”

“Guided by steadfast prayer and unwavering fortitude and resolve, Columbus’ voyage in 1492 carried thousands of years of wisdom, philosophy, reason, and culture across the Atlantic into the Americas — paving the way for the ultimate triumph of Western civilization less than three centuries later on July 4, 1776,” added Trump.

The toppled Washington and Columbus statues each tell three stories, but in both cases, only the stories of the great and the grateful really matter. America is, after all, not the product of bitter demolitionists but of discoverers, pioneers, builders, and protectors — and those who carry on their legacy.

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Christopher columbus, George washington, America 250, Declaration of independence, Iconoclasm, Politics

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George Washington was no deist: Exposing the modern myth about America’s founding

July 4, 2026

BlazeTV Staff

Bestselling author and cultural commentator Eric Metaxas set out with the intention to tell the true story of the American Revolution.

“I said, ‘I just want to write a very compelling, very readable, fun, gallop-through-our-history [book],’” he tells Glenn Beck.

But as Metaxas researched, he kept coming across details from our history that “astonished” him.

One of those details had to do with none other than America’s first president. Many modern historians have labeled Washington a deist — that is, one who believes in a distant God who created the world but does not intervene in human affairs. These are generally the same people who argue that America was not founded as a Christian nation.

Metaxas calls the claim that Washington was a deist “baloney.”

“Washington was no deist. What a joke. What a lie,” he exclaims.

“These were men of profound Christian faith who set about doing something that had never been done since the Israelites were in the Sinai wilderness, where they left Pharaoh and left Egypt and looked directly to God without an earthly king. … This is what the founders were trying to do,” he explains.

All of the founders, he argues, understood that the goal was to “bring the Bible into government.”

“I was so overwhelmed by the explicitly Christian nature of what was going on. … Everywhere you look, this narrative comes out. It is inescapable,” Metaxas tells Glenn, noting that his book is not “a Christian book” but “a book of American history.”

For years, Glenn has been trying to debunk the same misleading narrative.

“In this one letter [George Washington wrote], I think it’s 24 different scriptures are quoted without him quoting it. It’s just part of his language,” he says.

Glenn notes that there are numerous accounts of the founders, including Washington, speaking about miracles.

“A deist cannot believe in miracles,” he remarks.

Agreeing, Metaxas says, “It is our duty to know this.”

But he could never find a book that told the full truth about America’s birth.

This gap is what inspired him to write “Revolution: The Birth of the Greatest Nation in the History of the World,” which just released last month.

“This is our 250th,” he says. “This is our last exit before the toll. We the people need to understand how our government works, … that all of our founders understood our liberties come from God.”

To hear more about Metaxas’ new book, watch the video above.

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What happened to British Gen. Cornwallis after his Yorktown surrender — the final battle of the Revolutionary War?

July 4, 2026

Dave Urbanski

It’s common knowledge that Cornwallis’ surrender at Yorktown, Virginia, effectively ended the Revolutionary War — but what happened to the British general after that humiliating defeat?

According to the Library of Virginia, the Siege of Yorktown — which turned out to be the final major military engagement of the Revolutionary War — took place in the autumn of 1781.

‘He refused, however, to surrender in person and delegated the humiliating duty to his second in command.’

The British Army and its commanding general, Charles Cornwallis, were headquartered in the coastal Virginia town.

However, a French fleet under the command of Admiral François-Joseph-Paul de Grasse drove a British fleet from the Capes of Virginia, which made it impossible for Cornwallis to receive supplies and reinforcements, the Library of Virginia said.

American Gen. George Washington led his army from New York to Virginia, and — along with a large French and American army under Comte de Rochambeau — Washington laid siege to the British at Yorktown, the Library of Virginia said, adding that those forces joined the Marquis de Lafayette, who was commanding an American army that had been fighting the British in Virginia for six months.

What are the odds? America’s birthday is full of incredible coincidences

July 4, 2026

Cooper Williamson

The Fourth of July holds a special place in every American’s heart. In fact, as every patriot knows, the day has come to represent liberty and American greatness ever since the Declaration of Independence in 1776.

Since then, the day has seen a series of significant events, a number of notable births and deaths, and a couple of coincidences so perfect they almost don’t seem real over the course of the building of the greatest nation on earth.

‘I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival.’

Here are some snapshots of historical milestones on Independence Day that have led to the country we know and love today.

Official facsimile of the Declaration of Independence. Boston, Massachusetts. C. 1903/Library of Congress

1776 – The United States Declaration of Independence is adopted by the Second Continental Congress. John Adams, in a July 3 letter to his wife, Abigail, wrote that July 2 (the day Congress voted to approve the Lee Resolution) would be a day of celebration for Americans. Our celebrations today, though marking the official public announcement two days later, closely resemble his words:

The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by Solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be Solemnized with Pomp and Parade with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires, and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.

1802 – The United States Military Academy at West Point officially opens.

1803 – The Louisiana Purchase is announced to the American people.

John Adams II, son of President John Quincy Adams and the grandson of President John Adams, is born.

1804 – Nathaniel Hawthorne, author of “The Scarlet Letter” (1850) and “The House of the Seven Gables” (1851), is born.

1817 – Construction of the Erie Canal begins in Rome, New York.

1826 – Former Presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both die on the same day — the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. It’s enough to send a shiver down any patriot’s spine!

Thomas Jefferson, a philosopher, a patriot, and a friend. Michał Sokolnicki, 1760-1816, etcher/Tadeusz Kościuszko, 1746-1817, artist/Library of Congress

1826 – Prolific American composer Stephen Foster is born. Foster is known for songs like “Oh! Susanna” and “Camptown Races.”

1827 – Slavery is abolished in New York state.

1831 – James Monroe, the fifth U.S. president, dies in New York City. Monroe famously coined his eponymous doctrine warning European nations not to meddle in the affairs of the Western Hemisphere. Monroe’s presidency (1817-1825) has been called the “Era of Good Feelings.”

1838 – The Iowa Territory, which was first part of the Louisiana Purchase, is officially recognized. President Martin Van Buren appoints Ohio’s Robert Lucas as Iowa’s first territorial governor.

1847 – James Anthony Bailey is born in Detroit, Michigan. Bailey is best known for running the successful Barnum & Bailey Circus.

1855 – Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass” is self-published in Brooklyn, New York. Whitman spent the next decades of his life editing and adding to this collection, resulting in several editions in circulation during his lifetime. These later editions, for example, “absorbed” an elegy he wrote for the assassinated Abraham Lincoln, “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d.”

Walt Whitman, half-length portrait, seated, facing left, wearing hat and sweater, holding butterfly. Phillips & Taylor, photographer/Library of Congress

1863 – The Siege of Vicksburg, which began on May 18, ends. The Battle of Gettysburg ended just the day prior, lasting from July 1 to 3.

1872 – Calvin Coolidge, the 30th president of the United States, is born. Coolidge’s 1923 State of the Union address was the first presidential speech to be broadcast live on radio.

1876 – Centennial year since the founding of the United States. Celebrations centered on the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia.

The flag that has waved 100 years. A scene on the morning of the Fourth of July 1876. Print shows African American man and others looking up as they raise the American flag with the U.S. Capitol in the background.. Dominique C. Fabronius; E.P. & L. Restein’s oilchromo, Phila.; National Chromo Co. pub., Phila./Library of Congress

1881 – Ulysses S. Grant III, grandson of general of the armies and U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant, is born. Grant III had a distinguished career in the United States Army, rising to the rank of major general. He graduated from the same West Point class as General Douglas MacArthur in 1903.

1884 – The Statue of Liberty is presented to U.S. Minister to France Levi Morton in a ceremony in Paris. The colossal statue was then disassembled and shipped to the United States. President Grover Cleveland dedicated the completed statue on October 28, 1886.

Statue of Liberty, Liberty Island, Manhattan, New York County, NY. Survey HAER NY-138/Library of Congress

1891 – Hannibal Hamlin, 15th vice president of the United States under President Abraham Lincoln, dies.

H.C. Howard/Library of Congress

1894 – The brief Republic of Hawaii is proclaimed before being annexed as a territory of the United States just four years later in 1898.

1910 – The Johnson-Jeffries race riots erupt throughout the country after Jack Johnson, a black man, beat James J. Jeffries, a white man who came out of retirement, in what was called the “Fight of the Century.” An article at the time said: “When news that Johnson had defeated Jeffries flashed over the wires last night, riots between whites and blacks followed in a dozen cities of the country, and reports this morning increase the number and add to the list of injured.”

1913 – President Woodrow Wilson addresses Union and Confederate Civil War veterans at the Great Reunion of 1913 on the grounds of Gettysburg. Wilson’s speech commemorated the 50th anniversary of the battle. Reflecting on the 50 years that had elapsed since that famous battle, Wilson said:

They have meant peace and union and vigor, and the maturity and might of a great nation. How wholesome and healing the peace has been! We have found one another again as brothers and comrades in arms, enemies no longer, generous friends rather, our battles long past, the quarrel forgotten — except that we shall not forget the splendid valor, the manly devotion of the men then arrayed against one another, now grasping hands and smiling into each other’s eyes. How complete the union has become and how dear to all of us, how unquestioned, how benign and majestic, as state after state has been added to this our great family of free men!

Poster showing Uncle Sam running with a bayonet, amid bursting shells. 1918. Library of Congress

1939 – Baseball legend Lou Gehrig delivers his famous speech at Yankee Stadium after his ALS diagnosis. Focusing on his blessings in life rather than the “bad break” of the deadly disease, Lou Gehrig famously said, “Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.”

1959 – The 49-star United States flag officially flies for the first time, following the addition of Alaska to the United States. The 49-star flag flew for exactly one year.

1960 – The 50-star United States flag officially flies for the first time, following the addition of Hawaii to the United States.

1976 – America’s bicentennial celebrates America’s 200th anniversary since the Declaration of Independence. The celebration consisted of around 66,000 recognized events.

1995 – American painter Bob Ross dies.

1997 – NASA’s Mars Pathfinder space probe successfully lands on Mars.

2004 – The cornerstone of the Freedom Tower is laid at Ground Zero in New York City. CBS News reported Gov. George E. Pataki (R) said, “Let this great freedom tower show the world that what our enemies sought to destroy — our democracy, our freedom, our way of life — stands taller than ever before.” The granite cornerstone is inscribed: “To honor and remember those who lost their lives on September 11, 2001, and as a tribute to the enduring spirit of freedom. — July Fourth, 2004.”

2009 – The Statue of Liberty’s crown is reopened to the public for the first time since the September 11, 2001, attacks.

Fireworks outlet near Decatur, Alabama. 2010. Carol M. Highsmith/Library of Congress

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Steve Deace releases new children’s book on the meaning of Independence Day

July 4, 2026

BlazeTV Staff

BlazeTV host Steve Deace released his latest book in May titled “Why Independence Day? America Is Great Because God Is Good.”

The Christian children’s book presents a faith-based retelling of American history, focused on the spiritual and historical roots of July 4th. It frames Independence Day as a celebration rooted in obedience to God over earthly kings and highlights America’s founding as a nation blessed by God with a role in spreading Christianity and freedom.

The book begins with God’s covenant with the Israelites, the coming of Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and the early spread of Christianity. It then covers how early Christians and Puritans sought freedom to worship without a king acting as a god. The story continues through the American colonists’ grievances against the British crown, the Boston Tea Party, and the founding fathers’ meeting in Philadelphia.

On July 4, 1776, the founding fathers signed the Declaration of Independence, an event the book presents as a declaration that Americans must obey God first. It goes on to recount the Revolutionary War, instances of divine providence, the victory at Yorktown, and the writing of the Constitution. The book concludes by noting that America became a “shining city on a hill” and references John Adams’ suggestion to celebrate Independence Day with prayer and “illuminations.”

The book achieved strong early sales, reaching No. 1 new release in the Christian children’s category on Amazon and landing in the top 15 new releases among all children’s books, regardless of genre.

In a recent episode of the “Steve Deace Show,” Deace performed a full live reading of the entire book. He explained that the reading gives listeners a chance to “sample exactly what’s inside” to determine if it’s a good fit for their kids and grandkids.

You can watch the full episode and hear Deace’s complete reading of “Why Independence Day? America Is Great Because God Is Good” here:

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Big challenges facing the Declaration of Independence 250 years later

July 4, 2026

Peter Berkowitz

With the signing of the Declaration of Independence 250 years ago, America’s founders accomplished something new under the sun: They brought into existence a nation rooted in the belief that individuals are by nature free and equal.

This year marks another achievement for the Declaration: Never before has a nation dedicated to securing its citizens’ unalienable rights — the rights inherent in all human beings — persevered for 250 years. Notwithstanding the social and political turmoil currently roiling the nation, America has done much more than persevere.

The American journey from 1776 to 2026 has been marked by the struggle to honor more fully the Declaration’s promise of equality in fundamental rights.

No multireligious, multiracial, and multiethnic nation-state in history has more successfully established freedom and equality under law, promoted economic prosperity, and developed the capabilities to defend itself by projecting military power around the world.

America’s perseverance and flourishing — as presidents including Abraham Lincoln, Calvin Coolidge, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt have affirmed and as venerable reformers such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Frederick Douglass, and Martin Luther King Jr. have demonstrated — owe much to the nation’s founding on universal principles and to its enduring dedication to them.

Unchanging principles

The self-evident truths proclaimed by the Declaration of Independence start with the conviction that human beings are by nature free and equally endowed with unalienable rights. They include the belief that government’s first purpose is to secure citizens’ unalienable rights, that just power stems from the consent of the governed, and that citizens by right may replace a government that destroys the conditions for securing their unalienable rights.

These universal principles inform the 27 grievances — abuses of executive power, lawless legislation, and acts of war — that the Declaration spells out against King George III and the British Parliament. Some argue that the Declaration’s primary significance lies in these grievances and downplay the historic document’s opening paragraphs about universal principles as Enlightenment commonplaces. But it was revolutionary for a people to claim the authority of unalienable rights to throw off one form of government and institute another.

Indeed, according to the Declaration’s logic, American colonists’ specific grievances justified their break with Britain and the establishment of free and independent states because taken together the grievances violated rights that the colonists shared equally with all persons.

In recent years, critics on both left and right have subjected the truths that the Declaration holds to be self-evident to harsh criticism. Eminent figures associated with the postmodern-progressive left accuse these principles of obscuring if not empowering the evil institution of slavery. Prominent members of the postliberal right charge that the Declaration’s self-evident truths are neither true nor beneficial but rather constitute the chief source of the multifarious maladies afflicting the nation.

Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call Inc./Getty Images

Whereas postmodern progressives blame those principles for the perpetuation of systemic racism, postliberals condemn them for the systemic degradation of men and women of all religions, races, and ethnicities.

Both find in the Declaration’s affirmation of universal rights a baleful pretext for colonizing foreign countries and imposing America’s ways and rules on other peoples and nations. And both indulge extravagant speculations about establishing new forms of government in the United States untainted by the basic rights and fundamental freedoms promised by the Declaration.

The American journey from 1776 to 2026 has been marked by the struggle to honor more fully the Declaration’s promise of equality in fundamental rights. America has benefited from a common language; abundant natural resources; vast, protective oceans to the east and west; peaceful and stable borders to the north and south for much of its history; and a moral and political heritage entwining biblical faith, classical thought, and the modern tradition of freedom.

At the same time, America has been compelled to grapple with the legal institutionalization of slavery and, after the Union’s victory in the Civil War and the subsequent ratification of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, slavery’s poisonous legacy; to wage war abroad repeatedly; and to reckon with the constant churn and turbulence generated by free peoples and free markets.

The decline of patriotism

American citizens’ appreciation of this complex, rocky, and inspiring journey is waning. The nation’s educational system bears heavy responsibility for the diminished understanding of the American experiment in ordered liberty and for the popularity of extreme criticism emerging from both sides of the political spectrum. All levels of the American educational system have been derelict in their duties. But higher education is especially to blame because it also trains K-12 teachers.

American colleges and universities advance the public interest in a variety of ways. They furnish pre-professional and professional education. They provide a credentialing service for employers. They train scholars. They conduct vital scientific research. And, not least, they offer liberal education.

Liberal education is the least successful part of higher education. In recent years, reformers have justly focused on colleges’ and universities’ impairment of free speech and imposition of ideological monocultures. The corruption of the curriculum also deserves scrutiny.

In most cases, colleges and universities believe themselves to comply with the imperatives of liberal education by requiring students to fulfill distribution requirements. Rarely do the nation’s leading institutions of higher education mandate courses that all students must complete or identify substantive bodies of knowledge that all students must master.

The application of a method designed to account for matter in motion has been decidedly less successful in illuminating the moral and political world.

Instead, students meet their obligations by taking a few courses in the humanities, the social sciences, and the sciences, often picking and choosing among dozens of offerings if not more in each of the three main divisions. Two students can fulfill their distribution requirements without reading a single book in common. This, from our colleges’ and universities’ point of view, is not a problem but rather a source of pride.

They believe that they demonstrate concern for students’ individuality by allowing them to choose their own courses and design their own curricula. At the same time, by exposing students to a variety of disciplines and approaches to knowledge, institutions of higher education claim to produce open-minded and well-rounded graduates expertly trained to lead in changing the world.

The traditional aim of liberal education is to cultivate students capable of thoughtfully exercising the rights and discharging the responsibilities of freedom. However, far from exemplifying liberal education at its finest, colleges and universities typically betray it by failing to structure the curriculum coherently, to give it suitable content, and to ensure that students master contending arguments.

Few students these days receive an organized, historically informed introduction to American ideas and institutions: the nation’s religious and political inheritance, founding principles, constitutional traditions, cultural crosscurrents, economic arrangements, and diplomatic and national-security requirements. Few students examine the great books and seminal events of the larger Western tradition out of which the United States emerged and to which it has made a decisive contribution.

Few students undertake the serious study of other peoples and nations, which is essential to a proper assessment of America’s achievements and failings. And few students have impressed upon them the importance in studying morality and politics of appreciating the strong points of the arguments with which they disagree.

The problem of higher education

America’s colleges and universities have debased liberal education under the compulsion of three ideals. One is political. A second is methodological. A third is professional. When suitably refined, each is worthy. However, contemporary academic life has radicalized all three to the great detriment of liberal education.

First, contrary to liberal education’s imperatives, many faculty members believe that their job is to instill correct views about the pursuit of social justice and enlist students in the cause of progressive political transformation.

Liberal education in America should not be neutral toward fundamental political principles: It assumes the goodness of individual freedom and human equality. But to prepare students for freedom and democratic self-government, liberal education must both refrain from treating partisan political views as academic orthodoxies and foster appreciation of contending opinions and competing ideas.

Yet many of today’s classroom crusaders recognize no pedagogical duty to present fairly the other side of the argument. Some believe themselves obliged to ignore, dismiss, or deride views — often despite little conscientious exploration of them and regardless of their historical significance and relevance to contemporary politics — that they deem distasteful, demeaning, or destructive.

They are unaware of or unmoved by John Stuart Mill’s indispensable observation in “On Liberty” that a person “who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that.”

Jacek Boczarski/Anadolu/Getty Images

Second, contrary to liberal education’s imperatives, many faculty members in the social sciences believe that the scientific method represents the one true approach to understanding. While the application of the scientific method to the natural world since the 17th century has produced astounding increases in knowledge and know-how, the application of a method designed to account for matter in motion has been decidedly less successful in illuminating the moral and political world inhabited by self-interpreting human beings.

The conduct of moral and political animals, whose beliefs are shaped by custom, experience, reason, interests, and passions and whose actions are informed by fallible judgments about right and wrong, cannot be fully captured by methods designed to describe matter in motion.

Nevertheless, setbacks in illuminating morality and politics have only driven many social scientists to double down on the study of method. Mesmerized by techniques for counting, measuring, and weighing and transfixed by elegant theories for describing rational conduct, they churn out mounds of research that shroud the substance and texture of human affairs.

Political scientists’ bewitchment by method produces disciplines that have less and less to say to citizens about self-government and justice as they elaborate more and more mathematically sophisticated approaches to the study of moral and political life.

And third, contrary to the imperatives of liberal education, many professors operate on the assumption that the purpose of educating undergraduates is to train the next generation of scholars.

Instead of transmitting to students the knowledge about America, the West, and the world needed for good citizenship, professors commonly provide intellectual tools and socialization into the sensibility required to succeed in the professoriate, though the vast majority of students have no intention of pursuing the scholarly life.

Curricula that honored the imperatives of liberal education would put the Declaration of Independence at the core. They would expose students to serious study of the constitutional system that institutionalized the Declaration’s fundamental principles and of the nation-defining political struggles to realize them. They would explore the seminal ideas and major events of Western civilization of which the American experiment in ordered liberty forms a crucial chapter. And they would examine the culture, economic system, language, politics, and religious beliefs of other civilizations, without which a well-rounded assessment of the United States is impossible.

Not least among the costs of colleges’ and universities’ betrayal of liberal education is that it produces graduates ignorant of the Declaration of Independence’s enduring principles and inspiring legacy and oblivious to the costs of that ignorance to themselves and the nation.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published by RealClearPolitics and made available via RealClearWire.

American founders, Declaration of independence, Unalienable rights, Higher education, Founding fathers, Postliberals, Progressives, Socialists, K-12 education, Teachers, Opinion & analysis

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The ‘tradition’ behind Nathan’s hot-dog eating contest is a fake news PR stunt

July 4, 2026

Zoe Jung

Every July Fourth, announcers retell the same origin story before Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest: In 1916, four immigrants on Coney Island settled an argument over who was the most patriotic American by seeing who could eat the most hot dogs in 12 minutes. James Mullen, an Irish immigrant, won with 13.

It never happened.

‘A hot dog is like a pop idol. Hot dogs are cute.’

The story was invented in the early 1970s by two Nathan’s press agents, Max Rosey and Mortimer Matz, who needed a brand-new publicity stunt to make the contest look like a decades-old American tradition.

In 2010, Matz admitted to the New York Times: “In Coney Island pitchman style, we made it up.” A Nathan’s spokesman later confirmed the company “had no evidence of the contest” before Matz and Rosey got involved.

The fabrication came well embellished. The dates weren’t even fixed yet — early contests popped up near Memorial Day, Labor Day, and once in April. Some versions of the legend cast entertainer Jimmy Durante as a competitor, judged by Eddie Cantor and Sophie Tucker.

According to a former president of Nathan’s, the real first contest happened in 1972. “We’d honestly wait for a couple of fat guys to walk by and ask them if they wanted to be in a hot dog contest,” said Wayne Norbitz, who served as president for 26 years.

Bobby Bank/Getty Images

Nathan’s still markets the event as an unbroken tradition dating back to 1916. It’s a strange irony for a holiday built around an honest declaration.

Six-time champion Takeru Kobayashi, known as “The Tsunami,” was once asked point-blank whether a hot dog counts as a sandwich.

“No! No. You have to have a lot of respect for hot dogs. It’s completely different. First of all, the hot dog is American. Sandwiches are not American. They’re different. Second of all, a hot dog is like a pop idol. Hot dogs are cute. It’s a pop image — everyone knows what a hot dog is.”

Anthony Bourdain called the bun “a ballistic delivery system” and warned that ordering a “hot dog sandwich” at any respectable stand would get you reported to the FBI. The National Hot Dog and Sausage Council agrees, officially classifying the hot dog as its own category rather than a subtype of sandwich.

Maybe the only thing more mythical than Nathan’s 1916 origin story is the idea that anyone has actually settled what a hot dog is.

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Coney island, Immigrants, July 4th, Labor day, Long island, Politics

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The reason ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ is so hard to sing

July 4, 2026

Zoe Jung

Most Americans know the words to “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Few know the tune wasn’t written for America at all.

The melody Francis Scott Key used was the popular English tune “To Anacreon in Heaven,” originally the constitutional song of the Anacreontic Society, a gentlemen’s music club in London.

The next time you bail on the high note at a ball game or a July 4 cookout, don’t blame your lungs.

The club met regularly for a formal concert, dinner, and social time during which members entertained each other with songs. Its 1780 membership included peers, commoners, aldermen, gentlemen, actors, and tradesmen.

Although it is often described as a “drinking song,” the song was not a barroom ballad — it was convivial, but in a special and stately way. The verses were sung by a solo singer, with the entire society joining in only on the refrain.

When Key wrote his lyrics on September 14, 1814, after watching the British attack Fort McHenry during the War of 1812, he wasn’t composing original music — he was setting new words to a tune Americans would have instantly recognized.

Nik Pennington/MLB Photos/Getty Images

He wasn’t the first American to do it. By 1798, many new songs had already been set to the melody, including “Adams and Liberty,” a patriotic song in praise of the nation’s second president. By 1820, 84 sets of lyrics had been written to it in the United States alone.

The tune’s origins also explain a common modern complaint: The anthem is famously difficult to sing. It was intended for solo performance by an experienced vocalist — never designed for mass singing.

The composer’s identity was itself a mystery for generations. John Stafford Smith was identified as the writer of the original tune only in the 1970s, when a librarian in the music division of the Library of Congress tracked him down.

So the next time you bail on the high note at a ball game or a July 4 cookout, don’t blame your lungs. Blame an 18th-century London music club that never expected anyone outside its dining room to try.

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Blaze news, Censors, Fourth of july, Francis scott key, Library of congress, Politics, Star-spangled banner

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The Declaration is not a relic. It is a warning.

July 4, 2026

Calvin Coolidge

A century ago in Philadelphia, July 5, 1926, Calvin Coolidge gave America the speech it needed on its 150th birthday. He did not flatter the country. He did not scold it. He reminded Americans that the Declaration was not a museum piece or a political slogan, but a spiritual document rooted in permanent truths. On our 250th birthday, his warning looks less like history than prophecy. Read this excerpt slowly. Then ask whether we still believe it. Editor’s note: This excerpt has been edited and condensed.

We meet to celebrate the birthday of America. The coming of a new life always excites our interest. Although we know in the case of the individual that it has been an infinite repetition reaching back beyond our vision, that only makes it the more wonderful. But how our interest and wonder increase when we behold the miracle of the birth of a new nation. It is to pay our tribute of reverence and respect to those who participated in such a mighty event that we annually observe the 4th day of July.

Whatever may have been the impression created by the news which went out from this city on that summer day in 1776, there can be no doubt as to the estimate which is now placed upon it. At the end of 150 years, the four corners of the earth unite in coming to Philadelphia as to a holy shrine in grateful acknowledgment of a service so great, which a few inspired men here rendered to humanity, that it is still the preeminent support of free government throughout the world.

No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions.

It is not so much, then, for the purpose of undertaking to proclaim new theories and principles that this annual celebration is maintained, but rather to reaffirm and reestablish those old theories and principles which time and the unerring logic of events have demonstrated to be sound.

Amid all the clash of conflicting interests, amid all the welter of partisan politics, every American can turn for solace and consolation to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States with the assurance and confidence that those two great charters of freedom and justice remain firm and unshaken. Whatever perils appear, whatever dangers threaten, the Nation remains secure in the knowledge that the ultimate application of the law of the land will provide an adequate defense and protection.

It was not because it was proposed to establish a new nation, but because it was proposed to establish a nation on new principles, that July 4, 1776, has come to be regarded as one of the greatest days in history.

Great ideas do not burst upon the world unannounced. They are reached by a gradual development over a length of time usually proportionate to their importance. This is especially true of the principles laid down in the Declaration of Independence. Three very definite propositions were set out in its preamble regarding the nature of mankind and therefore of government. These were the doctrine that all men are created equal, that they are endowed with certain inalienable rights, and that therefore the source of the just powers of government must be derived from the consent of the governed.

If this apprehension of the facts be correct, and the documentary evidence would appear to verify it, then certain conclusions are bound to follow. A spring will cease to flow if its source be dried up; a tree will wither if it roots be destroyed. In its main features the Declaration of Independence is a great spiritual document. It is a declaration not of material but of spiritual conceptions.

Equality, liberty, popular sovereignty, the rights of man — these are not elements which we can see and touch. They are ideals. They have their source and their roots in the religious convictions. They belong to the unseen world. Unless the faith of the American people in these religious convictions is to endure, the principles of our Declaration will perish. We can not continue to enjoy the result if we neglect and abandon the cause.

We are too prone to overlook another conclusion. Governments do not make ideals, but ideals make governments. This is both historically and logically true. Of course the government can help to sustain ideals and can create institutions through which they can be the better observed, but their source by their very nature is in the people. The people have to bear their own responsibilities. There is no method by which that burden can be shifted to the government. It is not the enactment, but the observance of laws that creates the character of a nation.

Bettmann/Getty Images

About the Declaration there is a finality that is exceedingly restful. It is often asserted that the world has made a great deal of progress since 1776, that we have had new thoughts and new experiences which have given us a great advance over the people of that day, and that we may therefore very well discard their conclusions for something more modern.

But that reasoning cannot be applied to this great charter. If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people.

Those who wish to proceed in that direction cannot lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient, than those of the Revolutionary fathers.

No other theory is adequate to explain or comprehend the Declaration of Independence. It is the product of the spiritual insight of the people. We live in an age of science and of abounding accumulation of material things. These did not create our Declaration. Our Declaration created them. The things of the spirit come first. Unless we cling to that, all our material prosperity, overwhelming though it may appear, will turn to a barren scepter in our grasp.

If we are to maintain the great heritage which has been bequeathed to us, we must be like-minded as the fathers who created it. We must not sink into a pagan materialism. We must cultivate the reverence which they had for the things that are holy. We must follow the spiritual and moral leadership which they showed. We must keep replenished, that they may glow with a more compelling flame, the altar fires before which they worshipped.

Calvin coolidge, Declaration of independence, Opinion & analysis, Philadelphia, America 250, Equality, Freedom, Tyranny, Religion, Inalienable rights

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The broken chain at Lady Liberty’s feet: What it really means to be a patriot

July 4, 2026

BlazeTV Staff

When most think of the Statue of Liberty, they picture her halo-like crown — the seven rays symbolizing a beacon of hope to the rest of the world. Or they think of the torch held aloft in her right hand, a representation of enlightenment and liberty lighting the way to freedom and progress.

But as our nation nears its 250th birthday this Independence Day, many Americans still overlook one of her most powerful symbols: the broken chain and shackle partially hidden under the hem of her flowing robes.

This chain and shackle, says Glenn Beck, represent a crucial piece of the American identity.

In this powerful monologue, Glenn takes us beyond the usual symbols to reveal the profound story hidden at the Statue of Liberty’s feet — and what it truly means to be an American patriot.

“France didn’t give [the Statue of Liberty] to us because they liked us. They were fighting Marxism in their own country, and they were trying to show America has the best idea,” Glenn recounts.

The reason for the broken chain and shackle around her foot, he explains, is to show that America “broke the chain of slavery.”

“And how did we do it?” Glenn asks. “Here’s a tip: With what’s in her [left] hand.”

In Lady Liberty’s left hand sits a rectangular tablet inscribed with “JULY IV MDCCLXXVI” — July 4, 1776, in Roman numerals. It represents the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence and emphasizes that liberty rests on principles of law and order.

The idea of “independence” and that “all men are created equal” is what “breaks the chain of slavery,” Glenn exclaims.

“And what makes man man? The ability to invent, the ability to dream, the ability to do. That’s the torch!” he continues.

Put them all together, and you get a striking picture of what America is and who she is for: the “free man … under the law” who can turn “dreams” into reality and thus “light the entire world.”

Believing in this is what true patriotism is about.

“Patriotism is not about red hats. It’s not about waving flags or chanting slogans at rallies. It’s not about God bless the USA. It’s not about any of that stuff,” says Glenn, calling these surface-level expressions “sugar highs.”

“Real patriotism is deeper. … It’s the steady, bone-deep love of the country that raised you even when it didn’t get things right.”

To hear more, watch the video above.

Want more from Glenn Beck?

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Rare Declaration of Independence copy goes on display — 250 years after the British intercepted it

July 4, 2026

Matt Himes

On the night of July 4, 1776, as delegates of the Continental Congress dispersed into the Philadelphia darkness, a printer named John Dunlap got to work.

The assignment was urgent. Congress had just approved the Declaration of Independence and needed copies immediately. Through the night, Dunlap and his assistants set type and printed roughly 200 broadsides carrying the astonishing news that Britain’s American colonies had declared themselves free and independent states.

By early 1778, copies of the Declaration were being debated in Parliament itself.

These first printings were never intended to become museum pieces. They were meant to travel — by horseback, by ship, and by express rider — to army camps, city squares, and eventually, to foreign governments whose support the fledgling republic desperately needed. Some were pinned to walls and read aloud to soldiers. Others were folded, carried, and eventually discarded.

Most were lost, damaged, or simply thrown away.

In enemy hands

Just 26 of the original Dunlap broadsides are known to survive. One of them took an especially unlikely journey.

Barely five weeks after it rolled off Dunlap’s press, the document fell into British hands. Captured during the Revolutionary War and sent back across the Atlantic, it arrived in London accompanied by a dispatch from Vice Admiral Richard Howe and General William Howe, the brothers leading Britain’s military campaign in North America.

The Howes occupied an unusual position. They were not only commanders tasked with defeating the rebellion but also King George III’s peace commissioners, charged with seeking some form of reconciliation with the colonies. Ironically, they were among the last senior British officials who still believed the breach might be repaired. Lord Howe would later suggest that, had his peace commission arrived only days earlier, independence might have been avoided.

Instead, it was the Howes themselves who sent London one of the first printed copies of the Declaration of Independence, informing ministers that the colonists had declared themselves “absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown.”

A decisive break

For many on both sides of the conflict, the Declaration marked a decisive break. The quarrel with the colonies had become something altogether different: the birth of a new nation.

In that sense, this was the copy that told Britain the American crisis had entered an entirely new phase.

Now, nearly 250 years later, that same sheet of paper is on display as the centerpiece of the America 250 celebrations at the American Museum and Gardens in Bath.

The broadside’s story has acquired another twist in recent years. Although it had long been held by Britain’s National Archives, it was only identified in 2009 as a surviving Dunlap Broadside, making it the most recently discovered of the 26 known copies.

David Jones III. Chris Hondros/Getty Images

Philadelphia freedom

More recently still, historians traced the document’s origins to Jonas Phillips, a Jewish merchant and patriot who lived just doors from John Dunlap’s Philadelphia print shop. Research suggests that Phillips mailed the broadside to his cousin and business partner in Amsterdam in hopes of spreading the news of American independence abroad.

To evade British searches, he enclosed a note written in Yiddish referring only to “a declaration of that whole country.” The precaution failed. The letter, the Declaration, and the accompanying papers were seized by the British and eventually filed away in government archives.

What survives, then, is not merely one of America’s founding texts but also a rare piece of wartime intelligence — a document that crossed an ocean, vanished into the British state papers, and remained hidden there for more than two centuries.

The annotations on the reverse are striking for their banality. Officials in the colonial secretary’s office simply logged the Declaration and its accompanying papers as part of the ordinary business of government. One of history’s most consequential political texts was processed like routine correspondence.

Talk of the town

Yet the document did not simply disappear into an archive. By early 1778, copies of the Declaration were being debated in Parliament itself. Charles Lennox, 3rd Duke of Richmond, a leading critic of Lord North’s government, read portions of the text aloud in the House of Lords and argued that Britain might ultimately have no choice but to recognize American independence.

In that sense, the Declaration became more than an American founding document. It also became part of Britain’s own argument over the war and the future of its empire.

The document also illustrates the tyranny of distance in the eighteenth century. News from North America often took six to 10 weeks to reach Britain, and any instructions sent in response required an equally long journey back across the Atlantic. By the time officials in Whitehall learned of dramatic events in the colonies, those events had already become history.

America at 250, Declaration of independence, Great britain

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The 10 best movies to watch on Independence Day

July 3, 2026

Peter Gietl

Some movies impress you, and some entertain you. A very small number remind you why you are proud to be an American. They celebrate courage and patriotism and the undying frontier spirit of the American people. They understand that patriotism is not propaganda. It is affection for a place, gratitude for those who built it, and admiration for ordinary people who rise to extraordinary moments.

These 10 films span 50 years and many genres: Westerns, war epics, historical dramas, science fiction, aviation adventures, and action thrillers. They understand that patriotism is strongest when expressed through individuals who quietly do difficult things.

That may explain why audiences continue returning to them. They do not merely entertain. They remind us of the people we hope we would become when history asks something difficult of us.

This is not a list of the greatest American films ever made. It is a list of 10 movies that understand the American character better than almost any others.

10. ‘Independence Day’ (1996)

Directed by Roland Emmerich

Few blockbusters have ever embraced unabashed American optimism with such infectious fun. The premise is straightforward: Humanity faces annihilation by an alien invasion, and the United States ends up leading the resistance, because of course we would. Together with a ragtag group of scientists, fighter pilots, immigrants, drunks, and the president, they all find common cause. Jeff Goldblum and Will Smith turn in incredibly charismatic performances.

The film’s famous presidential speech has become part of American popular culture because it appeals to something larger than nationalism. It celebrates the belief that free people, when cornered, refuse to surrender. It is loud, funny, unapologetically sentimental, and surprisingly sincere.

9. ‘Air Force One’ (1997)

Directed by Wolfgang Petersen

Harrison Ford understood something many action stars forgot: A hero becomes interesting only when he is willing to sacrifice something.

As President James Marshall, Ford gives us an American commander in chief who is less politician than a reluctant cowboy. Terrorists seize the presidential aircraft, and rather than escape to safety, he stays behind to rescue his family, his staff, and his country.

The movie is gloriously implausible. That hardly matters. Petersen directs with absolute confidence, and Ford’s quiet determination grounds every impossible moment. When the terrorists seize Air Force One remains one of the best staged action scenes ever filmed. The result is one of Hollywood’s great star vehicles.

8. ‘The Patriot’ (2000)

Directed by Roland Emmerich

History professors have spent years debating the liberties this film takes with the American Revolution. Fair enough. But movies are not textbooks.

Mel Gibson plays Benjamin Martin as a man who desperately wants peace but discovers that peace sometimes requires terrible violence. The film captures something timeless about the Revolution: ordinary farmers becoming soldiers because they decide some principles cannot be negotiated away.

Its emotional center is family and what men are willing to do to save the ones they love. Just don’t come between Mel Gibson wielding an axe and his son.

7. ‘Jeremiah Johnson’ (1972)

Directed by Sydney Pollack

Some movies whisper instead of shout.

Sydney Pollack’s mountain epic is among the finest American Westerns ever made because it kicks melodrama to the curb in exchange for raw. Robert Redford disappears into the Rockies, learning that nature rewards patience while punishing arrogance.

The landscape becomes another character. Mountains are magnificent but indifferent. Civilization feels impossibly distant. Johnson survives through competence, resilience, and quiet determination.

Few films understand self-reliance so completely.

6. ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ (2022)

Directed by Joseph Kosinski

Sequels rarely are worth your time. This one is the rare one that is better than the original.

Tom Cruise returned not to relive the 1980s but to remind audiences why practical filmmaking still matters. The flying sequences possess genuine weight because real aircraft performed real maneuvers. Every dive and climb has physical consequence, and you can see it in every frame.

More importantly, “Maverick” celebrates American excellence. It argues that mastery comes only from discipline, repetition, and experience. In an era fascinated with irony, the film believes competence is heroic. Audiences responded by making it one of the defining theatrical experiences of its generation.

5. ‘Gettysburg’ (1993)

Directed by Ronald F. Maxwell

Four and a half hours can feel intimidating until you realize this film never wastes your attention.

Based on Michael Shaara’s “The Killer Angels,” “Gettysburg” treats both Union and Confederate soldiers as complicated human beings trapped inside history’s greatest American tragedy. The performances possess uncommon dignity, particularly those of Tom Berenger as James Longstreet and Jeff Daniels as Joshua Chamberlain.

Rather than glorifying battle, Maxwell reveals its terrible cost. Heroism exists alongside exhaustion, confusion, and grief. The result remains perhaps the finest Civil War film ever made.

4. ‘Apollo 13’ (1995)

Directed by Ron Howard

The most exciting lines in the movie are not shouted. They are spoken calmly by engineers surrounded by coffee cups, slide rules, and impossible deadlines.

“Apollo 13” is a celebration of these brilliant men.

Ron Howard understands that intelligence can be cinematic. Watching engineers solve one impossible problem after another becomes more thrilling than almost any gunfight. Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, Bill Paxton, Ed Harris, and Gary Sinise create an ensemble defined by professionalism.

The movie reminds us that America once solved enormous problems because thousands of ordinary experts quietly refused to fail.

3. ‘True Grit’ (2010)

Directed by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen

The Coen brothers respected Charles Portis enough to trust his words. What results is a superior movie to the previous John Wayne version.

Jeff Bridges gives Rooster Cogburn tremendous personality, but the film truly belongs to Hailee Steinfeld’s Mattie Ross. Her determination never feels modern or revisionist. It feels timeless. She believes promises matter. Justice matters. Character matters.

Roger Deakins photographs the frontier as both beautiful and unforgiving, while Carter Burwell’s score lends every scene a mournful grandeur.

This is less a Western than an American morality play.

2. ‘Saving Private Ryan’ (1998)

Directed by Steven Spielberg

The Omaha Beach sequence changed war movies forever.

Spielberg strips combat of glamour without stripping soldiers of honor. Every explosion is awful because every death belongs to someone. Tom Hanks gives perhaps the defining performance of his career as Captain Miller, a schoolteacher tasked with an almost impossible mission.

The film asks what one human life is worth. It never fully answers the question, because perhaps no answer exists. Instead, it argues that sacrifice creates obligations for those who survive.

Few films have honored the generation that fought the Second World War with such honesty.

1. ‘Red Dawn’ (1984)

Directed by John Milius

John Milius understood myth better than almost anyone working in Hollywood.

“Red Dawn” imagines an occupied America where high school students become guerrilla fighters. The premise is fantastical. The emotions are not.

The Wolverines are frightened kids forced into adulthood overnight. They fight because their homes have been taken from them. They lose friends, family, and eventually themselves. Milius never suggests war is glamorous. He suggests freedom is expensive.

The film became a cultural touchstone because it speaks to something deeply American: the conviction that liberty belongs to ordinary citizens as much as to armies or governments. Patrick Swayze gives the performance that anchors the entire story, balancing youthful confidence with quiet despair.

Viewed today, “Red Dawn” feels almost old-fashioned in the best possible sense. It assumes courage exists. It assumes sacrifice matters. It assumes some causes are worth defending even when victory seems impossible. WOLVERINES. WOLVERINES.

Best movies, Lifestyle, Culture, Entertainment, July 4th

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How to party like it’s 1776 — and honor the founders’ memory in 2026

July 3, 2026

Daniel Horowitz

The most remarkable aspect of the American Revolution is how ordinary — even mundane — the initial grievances were that drove our founders to rebel and form a new government.

The level of government control over our lives today, even in the freest parts of the country, is tyrannically officious compared with the reach King George III wielded over the colonists in the early 1770s. That solemn thought should infuse our celebrations with a fiery dedication to reconstitute what is rightfully ours.

We have failed to ‘keep’ the republic the founders bequeathed to us.

Yet even as we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, most self-identified patriots will not contemplate pledging “our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor” — or even using the constitutional tools still available to rectify today’s “long train of abuses and usurpations.”

How hollow will this anniversary ring if we celebrate a document we ignore when its moral logic applies more urgently now than when Thomas Jefferson’s mighty pen etched the shot heard ’round the world?

Tragically, 250 years after declaring independence from a monarch, we have embraced the “elective despotism” Jefferson feared. We have allowed every sector of our economy to be distorted, manipulated, and monopolized by government and its allies. We have allowed them to surveil and track our lives. We have allowed them to transform our demographics and culture. We have even allowed unelected judges to hand out citizenship to invaders.

In short, we have failed to “keep” the republic the founders bequeathed to us.

All we have left is the flickering ember of the spirit of 1776 still burning within a significant minority. From that ember, we must rebuild, reconstitute, or chart a new path.

But the threat no longer resides across an ocean. It is embedded in our law, culture, government, body politic, and economy. So we are left with a critical question: Do we still possess the wherewithal — or even the desire — to “provide new Guards for [our] future security”?

Or will we continue to suffer while evils remain sufferable until the burden becomes impossible to bear and impossible to defeat?

Elective despotism replaced monarchy

How did we reach a point at which nearly every aspect of the Constitution has been abrogated, except for those clauses debased by courts and political elites to prevent the public from repairing the very holes they tore in our social compact?

George Washington foresaw the danger in the republic’s earliest days. In his farewell address, he warned that political parties would turn public policy into “the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction” rather than the “organ of consistent and wholesome plans.”

Instead of political branches and layers of federalism checking one another, we got unified divisions through political parties owned by special interests rather than by the common good.

Jefferson warned Madison that “factions get possession of the public councils,” that bribery corrupts them, and that personal interests lead them away from the general interests of their constituents.

The modern dysfunction crystallized in the decades after World War II. Fueled by the expansion of the administrative state, the growth of welfare dependency, and cultural balkanization, both parties reoriented themselves toward monied donors and specialized factions at the expense of the nation.

Despite the manufactured theater of division between liberals and conservatives, the true divide lies between the bipartisan donor class — allied on most critical issues — and the everyday citizens they govern.

Bettmann/Getty Images

Ordinary citizens can rarely reach real governing power in meaningful numbers. Winning requires war chests of cash, which are readily available only to those willing to serve special interests.

Today, a single congressional district contains roughly 761,000 people, far more than any individual colony in 1776. Even state Senate races in large states routinely exceed $1 million in campaign expenditures. Running for governor, senator, or president requires astronomical resources. Candidates are forced into an insatiable quest for campaign funds, making them reliant on the forces undermining the common cause.

With rare exceptions, our political system is bought and paid for by narrow donor interests. We pride ourselves on holding free elections, but our actual choices are often scarcely more divergent than those found in openly totalitarian regimes.

Madison’s warning in Federalist No. 10 was prophetic: “Men of factious tempers … or of sinister designs” may “first obtain the suffrages, and then betray the interests, of the people.”

Our modern factions have effectively merged into a monopolistic cartel. We now suffer the disadvantages of a small, easily corrupted republic without the dilution and accommodation Madison hoped would temper faction in an extended republic.

The result is a breakdown of representative government.

Grievances worse than 1776

What has this half-century duopoly wrought?

We now have government-created monopolies in every major industry, from tech and medicine to food and banking. This tyranny largely operates on autopilot. It is decentralized and largely unaffected by elections. It is embedded in crony capitalism — a form of “private” venture socialism that evades our laws, corrupts public policy, and monopolizes the capital required to win office.

Meanwhile, we have a government surveillance state strong enough to monitor, deter, and punish those who organize against its tyranny but somehow too weak to confront violent crime, open borders, Antifa communists, and the threat of Islam.

Anarcho-tyranny at its finest.

Rather than the legislature predominating, as Madison envisioned, we are ruled by an unelected judiciary that has been wrongly accorded the status of final arbiter over every constitutional, political, and social question.

Even if citizens in deep-red states successfully navigate the political process, unelected federal judges claim final authority over every political question, including whether the children of illegal invaders are citizens. And while those judges are nowhere to be found when authentic constitutional rights are violated — remember COVID? — they swoop in whenever states try to interpose against federal tyranny or address illegal immigration.

The grievances against the king cannot hold a candle to the 10-alarm fire we face today.

The grievances against the king cannot hold a candle to the 10-alarm fire we face today. Our modern tyranny is more encompassing and embedded within our own institutions, wielding more power than a distant monarch ever could.

John Adams warned us to “nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud.” Responding to the claim that he was stirring up rebellion over a threepence tax on tea, Adams insisted that “Obsta principiis” — resisting beginnings — was the only maxim that could preserve liberty.

He understood that tyranny grows like a cancer. When the people give way, he warned, “their deceivers, betrayers, and destroyers press upon them so fast” that later resistance becomes impossible. Corruption grows, dependents multiply, and “virtue, integrity, public spirit, simplicity, and frugality” become objects of ridicule.

That is precisely the corruption that has consumed our demographics, government, legal system, and economy. Worse, it has hollowed out the people’s desire to resist.

Patrick Henry warned of the fatal consequences of acting too late. “It is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope,” he said, but he wanted to know “the whole truth” and “the worst” so he could provide for it.

He pressed the urgency: “When shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year?” Would the people gain strength “by irresolution and inaction,” or by “hugging the delusive phantom of hope”?

God blessed the founders’ bold preemptive strike on tyranny while they still had power. With it, they built a prosperous and just civilization.

As late as the 150th anniversary, Calvin Coolidge could boast that despite “the welter of partisan politics,” Americans could still turn to the Declaration and Constitution with confidence that those “great charters of freedom and justice remain firm and unshaken.”

A century later, after at least 50 years of duplicitous leadership and feckless controlled opposition, we find ourselves inside Henry’s nightmare. We are rapidly losing both the resolve and the practical ability to resist.

So what do we do now, years too late and trillions of dollars short?

Nonresistance is slavish

The most vexing question of our time is this: How do we morally and practically apply the Declaration’s principle of the right to revolution in the modern era?

We extol the famous lines about inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We praise government by consent of the governed. But what happens when a citizenry suffers radical social transformation without representation — a transformation that inhibits life, liberty, and property in a way that would make King George blush?

We often gloss over the Declaration’s central justification for revolution: When faced with a “long train of abuses and usurpations,” the people have the right and duty “to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”

To the founders, this was not metaphor. The Maryland Declaration of Rights stated plainly: “The doctrine of non-resistance, against arbitrary power and oppression, is absurd, slavish, and destructive.”

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Yet this doctrine of nonresistance is precisely the posture the modern political right has adopted. Part of this stems from an ethos that venerates law and order and opposes political violence. Part is practical calculation in an age when even local governments possess coercive force beyond what entire armies wielded in the 1770s.

No rational citizen wants violent rebellion or hot civil war. But we cannot even muster a unified vision among Republican leaders for peaceful resistance to unconstitutional laws, policies, and court orders.

Where are the local officials with the spine to refuse enforcement? Where are the state leaders willing to interpose on behalf of their constituents? Need we be reminded of the COVID mandates? How does that overreach compare with the relatively ethereal touch of King George?

Voting Republican every two years, trapped in a perpetual political Groundhog Day while remaining passive in between, will not save the republic. Such complacency is a betrayal of the people and principles we claim to celebrate.

Madison’s final hope

Had the founders established a single consolidated national government, we would be out of time and options. At this late hour, after Adams’ “shoots” of arbitrary power have matured into thickets of tyranny, it is virtually impossible to abolish a centralized leviathan so powerful amid a deeply balkanized population.

Yet one bulwark remains: Madison’s federalist design.

The structural defenses are badly weakened. Nevertheless, we still have 50 state governments and thousands of layered county and local jurisdictions that retain sovereign authority. In a substantial portion of America — perhaps 40% — these jurisdictions are populated by strong majorities who still have the principles of 1776 pulsing through their veins.

If we consistently elected representatives in these regions who reflected the people’s will — treating leaders like Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis as the bare-minimum standard rather than as an anomaly — we could use the 10th Amendment and state institutions to interpose on behalf of the people.

Red-state America, or at least defiant pockets within it, can become the last “asylum on earth for civil and religious liberty,” as Samuel Adams envisioned after the signing of the Declaration.

Isolated citizens acting alone cannot topple systemic tyranny. But if the people reclaim control over one state government, and then a few more, those sovereign institutions can become the shield necessary to resist.

Party conventions can beat elective despotism

None of this will happen under our current electoral system.

No prominent Democrats share our values, and no more than 10% of Republicans share them and are willing to fight for them. That percentage shrinks the higher one climbs the political ladder.

This returns us to elective despotism. The only viable way to reach voters under the current system is through torrents of cash, supplied by the venture-socialist interests subverting our government, society, and economy.

That brings us to a pragmatic solution: the state party convention system.

Ironically, we can weaponize the party apparatus — one of the mechanisms that fueled this crisis — to dismantle it. Changing the general election system would require near-impossible constitutional reform. But the process for nominating candidates is governed by private party rules.

In more than 40% of the country, the Republican nominee is virtually guaranteed to win the general election. The problem is that GOP nominees are often corrupted by the establishment. In direct primaries, the corrupted candidates with enough money win 95% of the time.

But who says we must hold primaries?

Red-state America, or at least defiant pockets within it, can become the last ‘asylum on earth for civil and religious liberty.’

Unlike easily manipulated mass-primary voters, Utah’s convention delegates, while imperfect, are vastly more discerning. They frequently disregard establishment financial advantages and support underdogs over entrenched incumbents. Unfortunately, figures like Mitt Romney maneuvered to gut the convention as the final determinant of nominees in Utah.

Imagine if every red state selected candidates exclusively by convention. It would instantly neutralize the donor class. No amount of special-interest cash could force a thousand informed grassroots delegates to unsee a candidate’s weak record.

Even if a compromised candidate secured the nomination once, he would be kept on a short leash, knowing he would face those same delegates again.

Victory would require convincing 1,000 principled activists rather than raising $5 million — or $100 million in statewide Texas races — for mass television buys. That would spark grassroots candidate recruitment from the very leaders we have ignored: smart, godly men with the tenacity to understand the times but without the money to present themselves in a high-cost direct primary.

Critics may dismiss conventions as smoke-filled rooms. But each delegate is elected at a neighborhood precinct meeting of registered local Republicans. This is hyper-local, decentralized civic engagement — exactly the type of organizing our founders modeled through Committees of Correspondence.

In an era of financial and institutional monopolies, this remains the most viable path to electing a critical mass of patriots in red America within one or two cycles.

Interposition is your friend

Once we establish a mechanism to elect real patriots and reclaim state sovereignty, we must use the doctrine of the lesser magistrate to interpose against external tyranny.

The founders did not fail to imagine federal usurpation. They failed to imagine that all 50 states would genuflect to it like servile puppy dogs.

A rogue district judge ruling? An unconstitutional presidential order? Even a law of Congress? The founders never doubted that states, pressed by homogeneous populations united under a common cause, would refuse to comply.

Even Alexander Hamilton, the great champion of national power, recognized limits. In Federalist No. 33, he wrote that federal acts “NOT PURSUANT” to constitutional powers are “merely acts of usurpation” and “deserve to be treated as such.”

The founders fought a bloody war to create a federalist system so we would not have to. If we asserted the constitutional authority already vested in the states, we could neutralize many tyrannical policies without firing a shot.

That requires reforming nominations, electing leaders with clear marching orders, and finally translating rhetoric into action when faced with unconstitutional mandates.

Naturally, once patriots secure governing control in red regions, they should not rule capriciously, unmoored from constitutional restraint like the French Revolution. But patriot leaders must understand that the Constitution cannot become a one-way street or a suicide pact.

We want to preserve constitutional order. We have no obligation to preserve the usurpations of the other side. Nor must we “amend the Constitution” to reverse decades of unconstitutional laws, policies, and court opinions.

Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images

Immigration offers the clearest example. The only reason we have so many illegal aliens is that the government has violated the immigration laws passed by Congress. Much third-world legal immigration also arose from visa-program abuses not pursuant to law.

The federal government does not get to violate state sovereignty and then insist that states cannot enforce their sovereignty. Strong red states should reclaim control over immigration, remove illegal aliens, and bar employment in visa categories that have been abused, including H-1B.

The same principle applies to the ravaging of red-state lands. Corporate takeovers of farms and ranches through wind, solar, and data centers exist because of government favors. Although conservatives generally oppose heavy-handed regulation, states have a right of self-defense and may use regulatory power to stop takeovers created by government distortion.

The Constitution cannot be treated as strong enough to prevent us from rectifying grievances but too weak to stop the violations that created them.

Where is our modern ‘Common Sense’?

How do we fortify elected officials with the composure and courage to interpose and protect red-state economies, cultures, and quality of life?

We cannot expect one or two courageous leaders to go out on a limb without support from the people. Contrary to the right’s obsession with celebrity saviors, Hillary Clinton was partly correct: It takes a village.

During the Revolution, Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense” and the Boston Gazette helped galvanize colonists into a revolutionary mindset. They helped the people support local patriots over the British.

Where is our Thomas Paine?

The good news is that the internet allows almost anyone to become one. National politics is saturated with commentary, much of it empty calories. But an ordinary patriot can gain prominence locally by doggedly covering state and local issues and officials.

In less populous parts of the country, focused media attention on wayward local officials and praise for patriotic initiatives can build support for the institutional and party changes we need to party in 2026 like it’s 1776.

The public must be activated to treat every day like Election Day. We need a permanent activist class, akin to the Sons of Liberty, willing to create political kill zones for anti-American policies in red America.

We have more guns than ever and fewer liberties than ever.

Day after day, pressure must champion social and economic policies aligned with our founding principles and root out leaders who betray them.

Benjamin Rush understood the power of media. A newspaper in the present crisis, he wrote, would be “equal to at least two regiments.”

Today, we need high-quality, hyper-focused patriot media to awaken red America. Our mission must be to evangelize those who already claim to be patriots but remain passive on the sidelines — and turn them into active reformers.

Preaching to the choir is exactly what we need, so long as it produces revolutionary-minded activism rather than the political fentanyl ravaging conservative media.

Declare independence from federal subsidies

True fortitude requires declaring independence from an abusive relationship. The greatest reason red-state politicians and policies fail to reflect their majority culture is that state governments are addicted to federal funds.

The most dangerous place in government is between a Republican politician and his federal grant.

Whether the issue is Medicaid, education, energy, or environmental grants, follow the money if you want to understand why liberal policies such as solar and wind land-grabs are pervasive across red America despite public opposition.

The people and their leaders must say no to federal funds as fiercely as they say no to unconstitutional mandates and rogue judicial rulings.

You cannot achieve political independence without severing the financial ties that bind you to the mother ship. You cannot enjoy independence from the queen bee’s stinger if you crave dependence on its honey.

Make militias great again

Many conservative Baby Boomers boast that their arsenals of expensive pistols and AR rifles will neutralize tyranny. Yet we have more guns than ever and fewer liberties than ever.

I am not disparaging the Second Amendment. But in its current individualized application, it no longer functions as “the true palladium of liberty,” as St. George Tucker described.

Even a small local law enforcement agency has more firepower, surveillance capacity, and legal authority than any individual citizen can realistically confront. Ask January 6 defendants who did little more than walk into a public building after barriers were removed. Despite whatever firearms they owned at home, they were dragged out by FBI SWAT teams. No one was there to help.

We should not ignore the Second Amendment. We must rediscover its forgotten clause.

Because we spent decades convincing the legal system that self-defense is an individual right — not solely the right of a state-sanctioned militia — we forgot the importance of the militia clause itself.

It is time to make militias great again.

Not ragtag armed hobbyists in the woods, easily infiltrated by federal agents. Rather, as part of red-state and county interposition, we must bring the militia under color of law.

Former Pinal County, Arizona, Sheriff Mark Lamb had the right idea with a pilot “citizens’ posse” to train local patriots as adjuncts to deputies. Ostensibly, the purpose was to protect the community against anarchy and natural disasters. But it also buttresses the doctrine of the lesser magistrate.

By syncing local officials, law enforcement, and the populace under a common cause, the community builds a legally sanctioned shield against tyranny.

SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images

If federal or state government installs unconstitutional surveillance cameras, a local militia backed by law enforcement could protect citizens who dismantle them and enforce local laws against such intrusions.

If a future Democrat president deploys the FBI to arrest political opponents for speech or beliefs, a local militia operating under the sheriff and county officials could ensure that the FBI is not welcome.

Democrats effectively did this in Minneapolis against ICE, uniting citizen groups, local law enforcement, judges, and elected officials against a legitimate federal power. Why should we shy away from using the same unified prescription to protect fundamental American rights against illegitimate federal power?

Make Exodus 18:21 leadership great again

Leaders who cheat on spouses and families will not remain loyal to constituents. Nor will God bless a morally bankrupt movement with success.

Over the past decade, the alleged patriot right has become saturated with figures who espouse biblical virtue on camera while privately living lives often more debauched than those of the secular left. I have lost track of how many Republican officials, candidates, and influencers have engaged in rampant fornication — and even paid for concubines to get abortions.

Part of the reason we are losing ground on cultural issues is that centrist suburban voters look at the GOP, see through the artificial posturing, and recognize that the private behavior of these leaders contradicts the family and biblical values they preach.

The founders were not perfect men. Neither were their movements free from sin. But we must at least return to a standard that seeks virtuous leaders.

Exodus 18:21 tells us to choose “capable men … who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain.”

John Adams understood this. “Public Virtue cannot exist in a Nation without private [virtue].”

Consider our issues today: free and fair markets, sovereignty, ordered liberty, security from crime and Islam, medical freedom, techno-feudalism, life, marriage, privacy. All the special-interest money stands on the other side. Every political temptation will break conservative promises unless leaders have virtue.

Electing transactional fornicators is the surest path to enacting tyranny under the banner of patriotism.

The status quo is not an option. If we fail to innovate aggressively and reconstitute the spirit of the American Revolution in a way that morally and practically confronts today’s tyranny, the remaining options will be dark enough to make the French Revolution look mild.

Let’s choose light, and do it on our own terms, as the founders did.

Our lives, fortunes, and sacred honor must mean something again.

1776, America 250, Declaration of independence, Founding fathers, Anarcho-tyranny, Covid, Republicans, Trump, Democrats, Alexander hamilton, Thomas jefferson, Opinion & analysis

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At 250, America’s fate is wonderfully unwritten

July 3, 2026

James Poulos

America has a habit of bringing ideas — sometimes others’ ideas — to life. This habit breeds a certain culture of meritocratic, independent superiority, understood by self-made elites and commoners alike, that ideas are a dime a dozen: If you don’t get out there and actually do it, you’re just another dreamer.

I think the most powerful example of this dynamic, and its enduring resonance today, is found in a single line from a single film. In the smash hit 1962 epic “Lawrence of Arabia,” our hero sums up the Western ethos of the ennobled individual will by refusing to let his Arab ally die. Confronted with the dismissive, fatalistic belief that the man’s seemingly inevitable death in the desert is foreordained by God, Lawrence famously snaps back that “nothing is written!” Sure enough, he saves the man, through sheer force of personal grit.

The only true choice is one of freely willed action.

The line was written by British playwright Robert Bolt for British director David Lean in a British production of a British tale of a British officer. Yet, casting our eye across the pond on this landmark national anniversary, we are struck by how lonely America seems today in its insistence on not only the Western principle that a man can, through goodness and greatness, personally break the iron grip of circumstances, but on the proactive living-out of that principle, without which it is but a hollow aspiration.

Our uniquely aggressive, defiant, and self-justifying sense of optimism can, of course, be taken too far; at the extremes, it can lead us to deny that God is always in control and to accept the deaths of millions as a price worth paying for greater power, riches, or renown.

Fate, however, is a pagan concept that can fraudulently enchain a whole people; even a whole world. And the power of even the most ordinary and obscure of men to shatter prideful prognostication through freely willed spiritual sacrifice is richly rooted in great godly obedience.

The paradox of these two ways — that our love of enacted independence can either fulfill or default on our relationship with God — weighs extra heavy upon the soul this 250th year of our land. The chaotic circumstances of our fast-accelerating technologies have opened doors to new expressions of both the healing and damaging versions of our national will to do, not just to think, feel, or be.

For many, simply trying to stay abreast of these developments in the field of AI alone is too bewildering, frustrating, and frightening an effort to maintain. Many who manage to keep roughly current are themselves increasingly pushed for the sake of cognitive stability toward one of the two extreme positions — deifying or demonizing the thing.

Yet the actual state of play is not, in fact, reflective of the urge to feel willfully in control by choosing sides in a crisp, clean, complete, and comprehensive war for all the marbles, then determine the fate of America, the world, and humankind.

As disorienting and destabilizing as it may be, the state of the AI art in America is a riot of competing and conflicting trajectories and tendencies. Between the deifiers and the demonizers is a roiling stew of wildly different factions: open-sourcers, both for and against Chinese tech; closed-sourcers, some pragmatic, some principled; groups in favor of nationalization; groups opposed; groups opposed depending on how much nationalization is on the table; groups opposed depending on who is doing the nationalizing. There are interests pushing for federal preemption of the states, others hammering away at state-level laws either to restrict or enshrine the right to compute, and still others focused simply on playing politics with the issues in the most effective and enriching ways.

RYGERSZEM/Getty Images

A farrago of federal bills jostles together with a flotilla of regulatory efforts, some but not all flowing from the administration’s executive orders and broader agenda. The Supreme Court is now in the mix. Foreign countries and administrative bodies are striking at American companies, imposing fines and rules of their own. The list goes on.

No single political authority is in control of our national technological situation. No one spiritual authority is recognized as our shared guide. We exist in a moment indescribable as simply democratic, oligarchic, technocratic, fascist, communist, socialist, capitalist, nationalist, populist, anarchic, despotic, or, frankly, anything else. We have the Declaration, we have the Constitution, we have federalism, and we have each other. The rest is remarkably, almost stunningly, up in the air.

We can all sit around and wait for the shoes to drop, and for many, beset by the universal cares of life and the hypnotic glare of tech’s pulsing power, paralysis can seem the only sustainable option. But for many more, even those inclined to choose silence and self-exile over wading into the melee, the only true choice is one of freely willed action. Interpreting technological acceleration as the unfolding of fate itself is a choice, not a cosmic requirement, one that is often made reactively, as cope, rather than proactively, as will to power. What presents as prediction is often actually a bet on the overwhelming power of the past, one that denies human agency and life-bringing newness more than it enables people with skin in the game to manifest their plans.

Rather than freaking out over the AI chaos, we ought to take this memorable opportunity to put our actions where our principles purport to be. Don’t try to game out the scramble of the factions. Don’t try to win prediction roulette, scrying, soothsaying, and scheming a way to strength or safety. Decide with discernment where you can forge a path in a manner that allows you to meet your own gaze in the mirror in the morning. And trust that what is written about us is written on the heart, where we still may pledge our honor, and all that is sacred within, to freely make good on who we have been given to be.

United states, Artificial intelligence, America 250, Tech

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Glenn Beck REACTS to foreigners LOVING their visit to America

July 3, 2026

BlazeTV Staff

Foreigners across the globe have flooded the United States for the World Cup — and according to videos they’ve been posting to social media, what many of them are finding is freedom, opportunity, abundance, and a culture that still allows people to be different.

One man posted a video of himself walking around a neighborhood with driveways for planes, commenting on how that would never be allowed in the U.K.

Another man posted a video of himself excited about free soda refills, while a woman posted a video of herself wearing a Buc-ee’s hat, excitedly talking about the mindset of Americans: “We don’t care; do whatever you want.”

“If you want to dress a certain way, go for it. If you want to start a project, go for it. If you want to pass a car on the right, you can do it. And it’s something that personally is helping me to heal, because when you’re used to shrinking yourself, and you arrive in the U.S., and you discover this space to just be yourself and do whatever you want,” the woman said.

“It’s so refreshing,” she added.

“Share these things. I’m telling you: All we need is to believe that we are worth saving. That’s the first step. Listen to what people from all around the world are coming here and experiencing and saying about you,” Glenn says.

“You could be overseas and say they just hate people. They are bigots or whatever. They just hate foreigners or they don’t want, you know, brown people or whatever the lie is. It’s not true,” he continues.

Glenn points out that as long as you treat America with respect, you’re welcome here.

“That is America. Again, I don’t need you to look like me. I don’t need you to dress like me. I don’t need you to listen to the same kind of music. I don’t need any of that. I just want you to respect the basic idea that all men are created equal,” he says.

“Endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And governments are instituted among men to protect those rights. And that’s what makes us different,” he continues.

“It’s not our wealth,” he says.

“It’s a total mindset that you can be different because we can all come together on one idea: that we are all meant to be different and the government is to enforce the freedoms that we have.”

Want more from Glenn Beck?

United states, World cup, The glenn beck program, Uk, Glenn beck

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Trump has been normalized — which means American greatness has too

July 3, 2026

Cortney Weil

Sorry, leftists. Despite a decade of screeching demands that we refuse to “normalize” Donald Trump, the concept of Trump as president of the United States and the most powerful man on earth is now the norm.

Thank goodness.

Even some of Trump’s fiercest critics have softened.

As we celebrate our country’s 250th birthday and our exceptional heritage, it’s nice that the cultural focus on politics in general and on Trump in particular has waned.

The Trump obsession has not been healthy for America or our relationships with one another. Deep familial divisions that Jesus predicted would result from resistance to God’s truth instead have occurred because of a fleeting political landscape.

Though communists are on the rise in the Democratic Party and some in America love hating Trump too much to stop, the overall mood in the media and in pop culture has shifted since the beginning of Trump’s second term.

Gone are the days of Jim Acosta and his ilk badgering the president during press briefings with constant interruptions and inflammatory accusations. The “walls” that were always “closing in” on him during his first term somehow decided to stay put in the second.

Even some of Trump’s fiercest critics have softened.

Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani and President Donald Trump in the Oval Office in November 2025; Demetrius Freeman/the Washington Post/Getty Images

Joy Behar, for instance, seemed to forge a genuine connection with Vice President JD Vance during his appearance on “The View” last month. Without any trace of her trademark snark, Behar afterward characterized Vance as “intelligent” and funny, while Vance complimented her tough persona and joked good-naturedly that they are now “best friends.”

Americans in deep-blue cities like Memphis and D.C. have thanked Trump for cleaning up crime in their area and for restoring beautiful fountains and statues. Meanwhile, the No Kings rallies have made little impact, while attempts to cancel celebrities for participating in Trump-adjacent events have failed miserably.

In fact, respecting the office appears to be back en vogue.

For the first time under a Trump presidency, a championship NBA team has accepted an invitation to the White House. Trump’s hometown team, the New York Knicks, will reportedly travel to the White House to mark their first title in more than half a century.

Jack Hughes, who scored the game-winning overtime goal against Canada to bring home Olympic gold in men’s hockey, indicated back in February the power of sports to unite the country:

“Everything is so political. We’re athletes. We’re so proud to represent the U.S., and when you get the chance to go to White House and meet the president, we’re proud to be Americans and that’s so patriotic.”

It turns out that endlessly hating Trump, and by extension, America itself, is exhausting. Even certain Democrats had to admit in an election autopsy that “anti-Trump sentiment alone was insufficient to motivate voters” in 2024.

By contrast, falling in love with the U.S. is easy. Just ask the thousands of World Cup visitors who have been surprised by the kind welcome they have received and the unique culture they have experienced in America’s heartland.

America and American greatness are much bigger than any one person, and though a larger-than-life figure, Trump is just a man — a man who, to paraphrase basketball legend Michael Jordan, still has to use the bathroom just like we all do.

The era of treating Trump as an “existential threat,” an enemy, or even a proxy for all of America’s faults, real or perceived, is over. For nearly six of the past 10 years, Trump has been the president of the United States, and the sun has still risen in the east and set in the west.

In other words, all is normal. Thank goodness.

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America, Politics, Donald trump, Opinion

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Olympian indicted for allegedly vandalizing Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool — and faces STIFF sentence

July 3, 2026

Carlos Garcia

A U.S. Olympian canoeist who was arrested for allegedly vandalizing the reflecting pool at the Lincoln Memorial has been indicted by a federal grand jury, according to U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro.

David Hearn, 67, willfully and “violently” damaged a 2-square-foot section of the sealant at the pool on June 19 after it was renovated by order of President Donald Trump, according to Pirro.

‘By the time I realized what was going on, I was being put in handcuffs.’

“Today a grand jury has returned a felony indictment against a defendant, David Hearn, for felony destruction of property for which he faces 10 years in prison,” Pirro said in a media briefing.

She said Hearn admitted to reaching down into the pool and that National Park Service employees observed him forcefully pulling up and removing the bottom liner “with both hands.”

A National Park Service employee reportedly told Hearn to stop what he was doing.

“Hearn reacted by shouting at that Parks employee, saying that she cared too much about the reflecting pool,” Pirro said.

The witnesses described Hearn’s behavior as “belligerent, rude, and disrespectful.”

Hearn denied damaging the liner in comments to the Washington Post.

“I didn’t vandalize anything,” he said. “I didn’t destroy or break or peel anything. By the time I realized what was going on, I was being put in handcuffs.”

The renovation of the reflecting pool has been mocked by many on the left, but others say it was a necessary and reasonable effort to clean up the monument for the 250th anniversary celebration.

Hearn competed for the U.S. in the 2000 Olympics.

“This was a deliberate act to damage the Reflecting Pool at the National Mall that members of the National Park Service actually have worked hard to restore and have witnessed,” Pirro said.

She added that there are about six other similar cases being investigated.

“Some of them will be misdemeanors, and some of them could be less, like a violation, but we’re reviewing every case based upon the evidence and reviewing all of the reports, and right now it’s about another half dozen misdemeanors,” Pirro said.

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Lincoln memorial, National mall, President donald trump, Reflecting pool, Politics, National park service

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California city council members voted out in a landslide refuse to leave office

July 3, 2026

Joseph MacKinnon

Elected officials in California are carrying on with business as usual, even after their constituents voted overwhelmingly to send them packing.

An election was held on April 28 in the California city of Avenal in Kings County, where the mayor, Alvaro Preciado, and three city council members — Leticia Gamez, David Reynosa, and Pablo Hernandez — were recalled with at least 76% of voters backing the ouster in each case. The Kings County Registrar of Voters certified the recall election.

‘I’ve never seen a city so deflated.’

The driving force behind this electoral housecleaning — which the council members unsuccessfully attempted to stop with a lawsuit in April — was principally voter concerns about transparency and the council’s previous decision to cease contracting with the county fire department.

Preciado, Gamez, and Hernandez voted on June 11 to reject the will of the electorate and remain in office. They even approved a new city budget despite recall advocates producing a restraining order, reported the SF Chronicle.

Those officials clinging to power, including Reynosa, maintain that the recall election was conducted unlawfully by Kings County and without the council’s authorization.

Preciado told the SF Chronicle last month that he was staying in office until a judge decides on the recall’s legality.

California Democrat Attorney General Robert Bonta cleared the way for legal action against the recalled officials on June 11.

In his opinion, Bonta noted that “if the Relators are correct on the merits, then the Defendants are not lawfully occupying office. It would not be in the public interest to permit elected officials to disregard election results.”

Days after Bonta granted the recall campaigners’ application for leave to sue in quo warranto, residents served Preciado and the other recalled officials a lawsuit and an earful at an Avenal city council meeting.

Dalila Barajas, a resident of Avenal who is one of the recall proponents, told KGPE-TV, “It just seems that the more meetings they have, the more money that they’re spending illegally, the more our citizens are getting frustrated and the more we’re asking for them to step down.”

While Bonta cleared lawsuits against the recall officials, King County District 2 Supervisor Richard Valle criticized the state attorney general for his apparent disinterest in the scandal, telling KMPH-TV on Wednesday, “I believe that if these were MAGA republicans who were refusing to leave office, someone in California would have done something about that.”

“We were hoping he would take some action,” added Valle.

“I’ve never seen a city so deflated in my time of being around in public service. The people feel like nobody’s coming to help,” added the King County supervisor. “Why is it being allowed to take place here in the state of California, in the county of Kings, in the city of Avenal? It’s embarrassing.”

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California, Robert bonta, Recall, Election, Politics

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‘37 years left’: Seth Gruber’s chilling warning for America’s 250th birthday

July 3, 2026

BlazeTV Staff

Pro-lifer warrior Seth Gruber has a chilling message for Americans celebrating the nation’s 250th birthday: “To celebrate America, this 250th, while simultaneously doing nothing to tear down the high places of weird, gay sex stuff and baby killing would merely be the decoration of a coffin.”

On this enlightening episode of “Relatable” with Allie Beth Stuckey, Gruber warns that America has “37 years left” before she fails — unless Christians are willing to rise up and be “the last stand.”

Gruber begins by sharing two facts that should alarm anyone who cares about America’s longevity:

In a 2025 interview with Noema Magazine, celebrated historian Niall Ferguson said, “My sense is that history has always been against any republic lasting 250 years.” J.D. Unwin’s 1934 book “Sex and Culture” — a massive study of 80 primitive societies and six major civilizations across 5,000 years of history — found strong positive correlation between a society’s level of sexual restraint (especially premarital chastity and monogamy) and its cultural energy, creative flourishing, and societal achievement in art, science, architecture, literature, etc.

Given America’s age and modern culture’s celebration of all things sexually depraved, Gruber believes the nation is a ticking time bomb.

According to Unwin’s research, “Societies that adopted and … codified total sexual freedom collapsed within 90 to 100 years,” he explains.

He pinpoints 1973 as the year America embraced “total sexual freedom” thanks to three landmark events: Roe v. Wade that made abortion a constitutional right, the Supreme Court’s ruling in Miller v. California that effectively opened the floodgates for widespread, legal pornography distribution, and the passing of the Endangered Species Act that gave more legal protections to animals than unborn children.

These developments put a “demonic trinity” on America’s throne, says Gruber: Molech, the god of child sacrifice, Ashtoreth, the goddess of sexual immorality, and Baal, the god of animal worship.

“That should be a little bit of an Old Testament alarm bell for the church in America that maybe we came into something of a demonic trinity and agreement in ‘73 that codified total sexual freedom,” he tells Allie.

“That’s why I think America began its 90- to 100-year clock in ‘73, which means we could be approaching the third and final chapter of Western civilization in this republic as we understand it today,” he warns. “That should be a sobering wake-up call.”

To hear the full interview, watch the episode above.

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Machete-wielding male drags woman down Texas street, goes after man who told him to stop — but Good Samaritan also has a gun

July 3, 2026

Dave Urbanski

A machete-wielding male who dragged a woman down a Texas street Sunday night went after a man who told him to stop — but the Good Samaritan also had a gun on hand.

Fort Worth Police said officers were called to the 2900 block of Ross Avenue around 10:20 p.m. regarding a male with a weapon, KXAS-TV reported.

‘If you see a lady that’s in danger, I mean, what would you do in that situation?’

When officers arrived, they found a male with an apparent gunshot wound, the station said, adding that officers and Fort Worth firefighters provided medical care before the wounded male was taken to a hospital, where he later died.

Witnesses told investigators that before the shooting, the male in question had been involved in a verbal argument with a woman that turned physical — specifically, he was “dragging the female down the street with a machete in his hand,” KXAS reported.

A neighbor who heard the woman screaming came outside and saw the male dragging the woman and told him to stop, the station said.

Police were told the male with the machete approached the man confronting him, KXAS said, adding that the intervening man shot the machete-wielding male at least once.

Police said witnesses called 911, the station said.

The man who shot the machete-wielding male remained at the scene and cooperated with investigators, KXAS reported, adding that homicide detectives interviewed him.

The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office will determine the man’s identity, as well as the official cause and manner of death, the station said.

Officials did not say if the woman had been injured, KXAS said.

No arrests have been made in the case, the station added.

Nicole Flores told KXAS that the male with the machete has caused issues in the neighborhood before.

KXAS interviewed another witness who said, “If you see a lady that’s in danger, I mean, what would you do in that situation?”

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Fatal shooting, Defending others, Texas, Fort worth, Machete, Armed male drags woman, 2nd amendment, Gun rights, Good samaritan, Crime

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