If a stranger walks up to your doorstep at night for no good reason, you likely would be afraid.

But when that stranger is wearing a Joe Biden mask, the “Freedom” shirt Charlie Kirk wore before his assassination, and no shoes — all while stuffing a banana through the mask — you would be terrified.

That’s what happened to a Texas family whose doorbell camera captured the bizarre encounter in Watauga.

The masked stranger opened his jacket to reveal his T-shirt, then leaned into the camera, tapped it, and took a bite of the banana through the Biden mask before walking away.

“OK, that’s spooky,” BlazeTV host Pat Gray comments after watching the video.

“He’s at somebody’s front door. That’s a little bit different than just walking through the neighborhood.”

“I think he’s OK right up until the point where he starts approaching people’s doors.”

“What are you doing? I mean, because it’s not safe for you to do that, for you or the homeowner. They might shoot you dead. And in Texas, it’d probably be fine. I’m sorry, I’m protecting my castle, and it’s night.”

“For some reason, it’s funny,” Jeff Fisher chimes in.

“If it was my house though,” Gray argues, “and he’s doing that, I don’t think I’d be laughing. I’d be like, ‘OK, what are you doing?’”

Want more from Pat Gray?

To enjoy more of Pat’s biting analysis and signature wit as he restores common sense to a senseless world, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Charlie kirk, Joe biden mask, Texas, Doorbell camera, Blazetv show 

She’s no Dolly.

Now, it must be tough to live in the shadow of a beloved icon like Dolly Parton. Still, kid sister Stella Parton is working hard to stand out — in all the wrong ways.

The New York Times wasn’t happy about David’s handiwork. You can’t do satire that impacts … us!

She’s always been more partisan than the country music legend. Fine. That’s a choice. A less responsible choice? Wishing death on an entrepreneur because you don’t like his politics.

The younger Parton just wished death on Elon Musk and hoped he would be eaten by worms sooner than later. Oh, and she says Musk will rig the midterm elections.

We always did wonder who inspired her big sister’s breakout hit …

Taika break

Remember when director Taika Waititi was a thing?

The New Zealand cutup gave us “The Hunt for the Wilderpeople” and the amazing “Jojo Rabbit.” Even his “Thor: Ragnarok” made us smile. Then, it all went downhill for the wacky auteur.

The less said about “Thor: Love and Thunder,” the better. His fact-based soccer comedy “Next Goal Wins” flopped with critics and audiences. His attempt to modernize the classic ‘80s fantasy “Time Bandits” crashed after one woke season.

Little people couldn’t apply, and it showed.

Now, his latest project is getting skewered before its release. “Klara and the Sun” stars “It” actress Jenna Ortega of “Wednesday” fame. The film sports a blistering 27% “rotten” score at Rotten Tomatoes.

The film’s modest release pattern just got cut in half. The rascally Critical Drinker devoted a “Crash and Burn” episode to the fading auteur last year. Looks like he might have material for a whole new installment …

Let’s get small

Is Sacha Baron Cohen auditioning for an “Incredible Shrinking Man” reboot?

2006’s “Borat” gave the British funnyman “great success” — one he’s been trying to recapture ever since. Sure, he’s aligned with Quentin Tarantino for the director’s upcoming play, but Cohen’s Midas touch disappeared a while ago.

This weekend, his new comedy “Ali G: Who Iz I?” debuts in a few hundred theaters. That wasn’t the original release plan, but the film’s footprint keeps on shrinking.

The film will only be in select theaters one weekend too, even if the film performs well. That’s unlikely.

So what happened? Cohen went woke, raged against free speech, and turned his signature characters into anti-Trump vehicles. Cohen was already exhibiting signs of TDS in “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm,” the depressing sequel to one of Hollywood’s most outrageous comedies.

Not “very nice!”

‘Curb’ your socialism

Talk about a thin skin.

The New York Times reported on Larry David’s new Air Mail satirical column. David’s target? The Democratic Socialists of America. David is a loud and proud liberal, but even he understands the mania lurking not too far beneath the DSA surface.

And he called it out, including the group’s uneasiness with Jewish people. That’s being delicate. David isn’t. The column finds the DSA renaming them the Bagel People and shipping them out of Israel.

The New York Times wasn’t happy about David’s handiwork. You can’t do satire that impacts … us! So it created a “blowback”-style description suggesting the column drew a large, negative response. Except it had no tangible proof of that, so the Old Gray Lady found a few angry social media users posting about the column and gave them all the gravitas of a retired war general.

The newspaper even sought a few of them out to extrapolate on their rage with modest results, at best.

The Times desperately wanted to attack David for mocking its beloved DSA. And it bent Journalism 101 to do it. To be fair, that’s pretty on brand for the newspaper in 2026 …

RELATED: MEAN GIRLS: ‘View’ crew preaches girl power … unless you’re Republican

Lou Rocco/Tom Williams/Getty Images

Merger meltdown

And you thought the left and the media (but we repeat ourselves) loathed Elon Musk already. Now, the tech trillionaire is investing in Skydance to the tune of $1 billion. And that number might grow in the coming weeks.

Skydance has become a Hollywood behemoth with remarkable speed. David Ellison’s original Skydance Media merged with Paramount Global last year, creating Paramount Skydance. This month, that company swallowed Warner Bros. Discovery and renamed the whole operation Skydance. The result puts Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros., CBS, CNN, HBO, and two major streaming services under one roof.

And the Ellisons aren’t exactly your standard Antifa-adjacent Hollywood studio clan. Which raises an intriguing possibility: One of the biggest entertainment companies in America may actually make room for the half of the country Hollywood Inc. has spent years ignoring.

Or at the very least, it could finally drive Mark Ruffalo completely around the bend.

​Borat, David ellison, Elon musk, Hollywood, Israel, Jenna ortega, Mark ruffalo, New york times, Sacha baron cohen, Skydance, Warner bros discovery, Entertainment, Culture, Lifestyle, Toto recall, Dsa 

A targeted enforcement operation intercepted and seized what appeared to be ultra-luxury watches, U.S. Customs and Border Protection says.

CBP officers intercepted 11 watches between September 15 and 22 at the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport in Texas as they were being transported from China, CBP claimed.

‘Our CBP officers are on the front lines every day guarding against defrauders, while protecting legitimate American businesses who are often harmed by these criminal organizations.’

According to the CBP’s Centers of Excellence and Expertise, the watches were determined to have “counterfeit versions of registered and recorded trademarks” of Richard Mille time pieces, the CBP press release said. Richard Mille is a high-tech ultra-luxury Swiss watch brand.

If the 11 watches were sold at the genuine manufacturer’s suggested retail price, they would be worth about $2.6 million.

“The sale of fake goods often funds criminal organizations involved in money laundering, drug trafficking, and other illicit trade,” said CBP Area Port Director Jayson Ahern.

“Our CBP officers are on the front lines every day guarding against defrauders, while protecting legitimate American businesses who are often harmed by these criminal organizations,” he added.

Counterfeit sales adversely affect legitimate U.S. businesses and fund international criminal smuggling enterprises, according to CBP.

RELATED: Police dog detects ‘staggering’ amount of meth in truck driven by Mexican national, CBP says

U.S. Customs and Border Protection

Officials recommend that consumers buy products only from authorized retailers or directly from the trademark holder in order to avoid counterfeit products.

“Remember that if the price of a product seems too good to be true, it probably is,” CBP says.

The agency also asks consumers to review its E-Commerce Counterfeit Awareness Guide online.

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​Customs and border protection, Smuggling, China, Politics 

October baseball brings every pitch into sharper focus. A ball that catches the corner of the plate can decide a season. For Brian Gaffney and his three sons, however, baseball’s most unpredictable pitch became the occasion for a different lesson: How much should a father push, and when should he let his boys find their own way?

Gaffney recounts the experience in “School of Hard Knucks: My Three Sons and Baseball’s Wildest Pitch.” He sets out to help Joe, Emmett, and Ben master the knuckleball, a pitch that demands almost no spin and can flutter in any direction. Even seasoned professionals struggle to control it. In a backyard with three eager boys, the possibilities for frustration are considerable.

A boy struggling with the knuckleball may learn persistence. His father may learn to listen. They may both discover that a failed experiment can lead to a worthwhile afternoon.

What begins as a family experiment becomes an education in baseball and parenting. The boys practice, adjust their grips, and keep trying to command a ball determined to do as it pleases. Gaffney has to confront something equally stubborn: his own desire to see his sons succeed.

Parents know that temptation. We want to spare our children disappointment, help them clear every obstacle, and give them opportunities we never had. Good intentions can make a game feel like a job. The child who once begged to play may begin worrying more about satisfying a parent than enjoying the sport.

Gaffney recognizes that risk in himself. His pursuit of the knuckleball is ambitious, and his sons’ progress becomes something he cares about intensely. But a father cannot take every pitch for his child. He has to decide when instruction helps, when encouragement is enough, and when to get out of the way.

Baseball offers plenty of chances to practice those distinctions. Even the best hitters make outs far more often than they reach base. A bad inning does not prevent a player from contributing in the next one. A young athlete learns to recover, to trust teammates, and to return to the field after falling short. Parents get lessons of their own from the bleachers.

Along the way, Gaffney draws on the experience of knuckleball specialists, including Phil Niekro, Charlie Hough, and R.A. Dickey. Their unusual craft gives the book its baseball appeal. A pitch that survives on patience and feel, rather than sheer velocity, rewards players willing to keep experimenting after a conventional approach fails.

RELATED: The ‘Cornell 7’ case should terrify every father of boys

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

The greater reward, though, is the time Gaffney spends with his sons. Families can fill a calendar with practices, games, and travel while overlooking the pleasure of simply being together. A catch in the back yard or a ride home after a loss may outlast the memory of the final score. Children grow older, and the seasons that seemed endless eventually stop coming.

For Christian parents, the story also raises a question of stewardship. Children are entrusted to us with gifts, limitations, and ambitions of their own. Our responsibility includes teaching discipline and right conduct, but it also requires humility. A son’s worth cannot rise and fall with his batting average, and a parent’s pride should never become the price of affection.

A boy struggling with the knuckleball may learn persistence. His father may learn to listen. They may both discover that a failed experiment can lead to a worthwhile afternoon. Neither needs a trophy to show for it.

As the major league postseason unfolds, young fans are already imagining the spring when they will take the field again. Their parents will buy gloves, drive to practice, and cheer from the stands. If “School of Hard Knucks” reminds those parents of anything, it is that the most important thing they can give their children is not a perfect swing or a winning season. It is their time, their encouragement, and the assurance that their love does not depend on the scoreboard.

When October’s last out arrives, the championships will belong to a few teams. The hours spent playing catch will belong to the families who made time for them. Those are victories no scoreboard can record.

​Baseball, Mlb, Education, Fatherhood, Knuckleball, Family, Fans, Catch, Coaching, Parenting, Opinion & analysis 

A longtime Republican Indiana state senator who landed on President Donald Trump’s good side in the congressional redistricting fight has announced his resignation.

In a Facebook post on Wednesday, state Sen. Ron Alting wrote: “I have informed Senate President Pro Tem Rod Bray of my decision to resign from the Indiana Senate.” Lance Gideon, Alting’s senior press secretary, confirmed to Blaze News that Alting intends to resign should he win re-election on November 3.

Doctors are still seeking ‘a definitive diagnosis.’

The announcement follows allegations that Alting stole items from Walmart store locations in Lafayette and Monticello, Indiana, and Naples, Florida, Journal & Courier reported.

In his Facebook post, Alting made veiled reference to the allegations, suggesting that at least some of them are true. “I did things that were wrong and completely out of character for me,” Alting admitted.

“I take responsibility for my actions. I am deeply sorry for the hurt and disappointment I have caused my family, friends, colleagues, constituents, and the store employees involved.”

He also provided a possible explanation for his alleged behavior: “concerning changes” in his mental health and cognition.

“Over the past several weeks, I have been undergoing extensive medical evaluation for concerning changes in my judgment, behavior, and cognitive functioning. That evaluation has included specialists in neurology, geriatrics, and mental health, as well as an MRI and other testing,” Alting wrote, adding that doctors are still seeking “a definitive diagnosis.”

Though Alting has not yet been charged in connection with the alleged theft, Elkhart County prosecutors are investigating reports tied to Alting, the New York Post reported.

Gideon did not respond to questions from Blaze News about the allegations and Alting’s health.

RELATED: Republican Indiana state senator has no regrets about redistricting vote

Sen. Alting in 2013. Steve Jennings/Getty Images

The midterm election is just weeks away, but the 22nd Senate district seat spanning much of Tippecanoe and Carroll Counties is considered reliably red. It voted for Trump in 2016, 2020, and 2024, and Alting, who was first elected in 1998, has comfortably won re-election there since at least 2006.

Still, more than 5,400 voters in the district cast a ballot in the 2026 Democratic primary, so Democratic challenger Natasha Baker may pose a threat to Alting, whose name will remain on the ballot.

Should Alting win again, his “successor will ultimately be chosen through the Republican Party’s vacancy process,” Alting wrote. That process involves precinct committee members choosing a replacement, Journal & Courier explained.

The Indiana state Senate became a lightning rod a year ago, when President Trump strongly encouraged Republican state senators there to pass a new district map that would have likely resulted in two more Republican members of Congress. The push failed in December after 21 Republicans joined Democrats to block the bill.

Alting was not one of them.

Alting voted for the new map, leading to a “complete and total endorsement” for re-election from Trump. In a Truth Social post on April 7, the president characterized Alting as “a Strong Champion and Highly Effective Representative.”

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

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​Indiana, Donald trump, Redistricting, Politics 

The Department of War recently gave the green light for the Department of Homeland Security to test a “heat ray” weapon for potential use at the southern border.

According to a memo obtained by CNN, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth authorized the DHS to test a military-grade heat ray and to develop tactics for its use at the southern border.

The beam reportedly causes a burning sensation on human skin, a lasting ‘tingling effect’, and ‘an instinctive and irresistible urge to run from the effect.’

The memo reportedly states that it “shall not be operated by DOW … personnel” and that DHS is solely responsible for “system employment, use, and development of tactics, techniques, and procedures.”

The heat ray gun, officially known as the Active Denial System, is a directed-energy weapon that reportedly shoots an invisible, electromagnetic beam with a range of a little more than half a mile.

The signed memo authorized the “temporary loan” of one ADS system for seven months, starting in September.

The beam reportedly causes a burning sensation on human skin, a lasting “tingling effect,” and “an instinctive and irresistible urge to run from the effect,” according to CNN.

RELATED: Did Trump use the ‘Havana syndrome’ weapon on Venezuela?

Brandon Bell/Getty Images

According to a military fact sheet, the Active Denial System fires a radio frequency beam that penetrates the human skin at a depth of 1/64th of an inch, or “the equivalent of three sheets of printer paper.”

According to the results of previous testing involving more than 15,000 exposures on volunteers, the risk of harm is “less than … one-tenth of one percent.”

The technology has been in development for more than two decades as improvements have continued to make the system lighter and more mobile, according to the fact sheet.

CNN reported that the system has been deployed a number of times to potentially assist with crowd control throughout the years in different countries, and its use has been considered domestically as well, though in every case the military has declined to use the weapon’s capabilities.

For example, the U.S. military deployed the system in Afghanistan over two decades ago, CNN reported, but ultimately declined to use it.

“CBP is continually evaluating new technologies, especially those that enhance operational effectiveness and strengthen mission capabilities,” a Customs and Border Protection spokesperson said in a statement to CNN.

The DHS can reportedly submit an additional request for continued use of the weapon at the end of the seven-month loan.

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​Customs and border protection, Department of homeland security, Department of war, Pete hegseth, Southern border, Politics 

Apple is known for many innovative products — phones, tablets, watches, and computers. It has had a harder time getting into the smart home market, but now that Siri is finally closer to an intelligent service, Apple thought that now was the best time to introduce an entirely new product category: the HomeView smart display.

HomeView is the first product of its kind for Apple. Before this, the company dabbled in smart speakers, like the HomePod and HomePod Mini, both with varying degrees of success. HomeView, however, is Apple’s first true home product with a speaker and display united into the same device.

When HomeView launches, it will only come with a small number of Apple’s first-party apps by default.

At first glance, HomeView looks a lot like an Apple Watch-shaped iPad mounted to a stand with a 360-degree speaker grille along the bottom. It features a 7-inch Liquid Retina Display to show information, a 12MP Center Stage camera for FaceTime calls, and four microphones and Spatial Audio speakers to interact with Siri. And it comes in four colors: silver, starlight (gold), rose pink (rose gold), and space gray. Alternatively, you can opt for a wall-mounted version without the speaker stand in either space gray or silver.

HomeView is an odd device in that it doesn’t have its own branded operating system like Apple’s other platforms:

iPhone = iOSiPad = iPadOSMac = macOSApple Watch = watchOSApple TV = tvOSApple Vision Pro = visionOS

Apple filed a trademark for homeOS, which would make sense for HomeView, but so far, the company hasn’t used the name. Instead, HomeView borrows from one of Apple’s existing software platforms.

At first glance, you might expect HomeView to run on iPadOS. It is virtually an odd-shaped iPad on a stand, after all. But you would be mistaken. Early reports suggest that HomeView actually took some software from CarPlay, which is intended for infotainment centers inside automobiles.

RELATED: These nasty iPhone exploits want to steal your money. Here’s how to protect yourself.

Techa Tungateja/Getty Images

This is a dubious move for Apple — first, because its major platforms usually have their own operating systems with unique user experiences, and second, because choosing CarPlay over iPadOS severely limits HomeView’s functionality. CarPlay devices don’t have access to the App Store, so app availability is limited to developers who support CarPlay through the iPhone version of their apps — which requires special approval from Apple.

That means when HomeView launches, it will only come with a small number of Apple’s first-party apps by default. These include:

AlarmsCalendarFaceTimeFind MyHomeIntercomMessagesMusicPodcastsRemindersSafariSettingsTimersWeatherWorld Clock

Additional CarPlay-enabled apps include:

Apple Music ClassicalApple NewsApple TVAudiobooksAny of your third-party apps that are approved

Even more disconcerting are the apps that aren’t approved for CarPlay for safety reasons. Because Apple doesn’t want you driving distracted, you can’t get YouTube, Netflix, TikTok, Starbucks, or ChatGPT in your car. Inadvertently, these won’t be available on HomeView either, at least not at first.

Luckily, unlike CarPlay, HomeView comes with the Safari web browser, so you may be able to navigate to these sites on the web to watch content, but the experience may not be as smooth as using a dedicated app.

The main draw of HomeView is the new Siri, powered by Apple Intelligence. Apple wants this to be the main way you interact with HomeView — by summoning Siri and asking questions. Alternatively, you can use the touchscreen to swipe through the interface, as you would with an iPhone or iPad. Just don’t expect to have all of your favorite apps.

As a Millennial who lived the dream of having an 8-inch TV on a swivel stand in my mom’s kitchen, HomeView could’ve been a great product to invoke that same nostalgia with a new modern twist. It’s odd to me, though, that Apple went out of its way to handicap its first smart display instead of building it off of a well-supported platform like iPadOS. This is virtually what it did for Vision Pro, and although that product didn’t really work out, Apple had the right idea in mind to give Vision access to as many apps on launch day as possible. That’s not happening with HomeView.

Still, my wife insists we get one, so I may have a HomeView review for Blaze News in the future, whether I want one of these or not.

HomeView is currently available for preorder at $299 for either the speaker-stand version or the wall-mounted variant. They will be available in stores and arrive at homes starting on November 13.

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​Apple, Tech 

An Arizona man was sentenced to a little more than three years in prison for threatening to “execute” President Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.

Rene Ortiz of Casa Grande issued the written threats on Election Day in 2024, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona.

He wrote that he would shoot ‘the incoming fraudulent elected [President of the United States] … at the inauguration on January 20th, 2025.’

The 56-year-old wrote a note asserting that he would “execute the newly elected [President of the United States] by firing an M-16A2 service rifle with a magazine of 6 rounds” and delivered it to the federal courthouse in Phoenix.

That threat was directed at both candidates, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

After Trump won, Ortiz issued another written threat that was delivered to the federal courthouse in Tucson.

In that threat, he wrote that he would shoot “the incoming fraudulent elected [President of the United States] … at the inauguration on January 20th, 2025.”

Ortiz was interviewed by U.S. Secret Service, and he reiterated his intent to attack the president.

He was arrested on Jan. 17, 2025, before the presidential inauguration.

Ortiz was convicted by a federal jury on June 8 and was sentenced by Senior U.S. District Judge Stephen M. McNamee on Tuesday.

More recently, a 24-year-old man named Jaden Read was arrested after posting on social media that he would kill the president when he visited Kansas.

RELATED: Man served time for threatening to kill Trump — then gets arrested for more alleged threats against Trump

“Let’s shoot Trump honestly, where’s our shooter? I’m tired of living this money life,” Read allegedly wrote in Facebook comments.

“Can we shoot him in Kansas please I will myself,” he allegedly wrote in another comment.

“[I know] where your speech will be. Already mapped out roofs around,” he added.

He was arrested in Clearwater, Kansas, on Saturday.

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​Death threats, President donald trump, Kamala harris, Arizona, Politics 

The mass rioting and destruction across France in recent weeks has laid bare the direct connection between multiculturalism and authoritarian political movements across the West, as does the similar chaos in countries such as Albania, Belgium, Italy, and Portugal.

The resemblance to the mass disturbances in the United States in 2020 is obvious, with all these incursions combining ethnic agitation with socialism and Marxism, a red-green alliance financed significantly by outside forces such as foreign billionaire Neville Roy Singham and communist parties around the world.

America is the home of Americans: a people born of liberty who are intent on maintaining the world’s greatest home for freedom and serving as an example to the rest of the world.

This combination shows that the planned destination of multiculturalism is hard socialism or, looking further down the road to perdition, outright communism.

The same struggle over identity and political power is visible in American cities and states where progressive movements seek to make group identity the organizing principle of public life. The Trump administration has begun reversing Biden-era immigration policies, but enforcement alone cannot answer a more fundamental question: What holds Americans together?

A fierce argument over national identity runs through our immigration debate. The 250th anniversary last week of an obscure Virginia bill offers a revealing glimpse of how long that argument has endured.

On October 14, 1776, Thomas Jefferson presented a naturalization bill drafted by Edmund Pendleton to Virginia’s General Assembly. He entitled it “Naturalization of Foreign Protestants” and proposed citizenship for foreign Protestants who swore fidelity to the commonwealth and obedience to its laws. The bill also offered newcomers $20 toward passage and 50 acres of unappropriated land. In Pendleton’s original conception, the invitation was explicitly religious: Protestants would enlarge a people whose convictions he regarded as central to the commonwealth.

Jefferson revised the bill, removing its Protestant restrictions and replacing “foreign Protestants” with broader language. The editors of Jefferson’s papers say his changes were designed to open citizenship to Jews, Catholics, and other non-Protestants. The Assembly did not enact the bill. Yet the disagreement survives in another form today: Is America a particular people shaped by an inherited way of life, or a proposition to which newcomers can subscribe?

Pendleton emphasized the formation of a people, while Jefferson rejected a religious test for joining it. Both drafts required an oath of fidelity; neither can be reduced neatly to today’s slogans. But they reveal different instincts about what a political community needs in order to endure.

RELATED: France and the United States can’t govern on blind trust

Remon Haazen/Getty Images

Americans still debate those instincts. One vision sees the United States as a “shining city on a hill,” a people demonstrating the value of a distinctive inheritance. Another emphasizes its welcome to the “wretched refuse” of other nations, placing faith in the power of American principles to transform those who arrive. The economic claims made for immigration are important, but the fiercest disagreements concern what newcomers must share with the people already here.

Those who describe America chiefly as a proposition often claim the moral high ground, dismissing their opponents as bigots or religious zealots. That tactic has proved effective in a cultural struggle in which collectivists seek to redefine the country in their own image. In my view, progressives, socialists, and communists increasingly subordinate freedom of speech, religion, association, and enterprise to an expansive conception of equality enforced by the state.

The result is a politics that invokes equality while giving ever more authority to government officials. If America is only an abstract proposition, the meaning of that proposition can be rewritten by whoever captures the institutions that teach and enforce it. Equality can then displace liberty as the nation’s defining value.

We have reason to take the ideological change seriously. In a July survey, the Cato Institute found that 38% of Americans under 30 held a favorable view of communism. That is a striking measure of the ground an ideology once broadly rejected has gained among the young.

The answer is not to replace a purely propositional identity with an ethnic test or a mandatory religion. Pendleton’s Protestant requirement was itself a statement of values, however narrowly he understood them. He wanted to establish Protestantism as the premise behind Virginia’s expansion of immigration, considering an obvious connection between Protestantism and the rise of representative government.

RELATED: Pray for the country. Then do your part.

Imagedepotpro/Getty Images

In reality, America’s inheritance is centuries of struggle to build and preserve a constitutional order that protects liberty. Americans are born into that legacy, and newcomers can join it. The common obligation is to sustain it, even when powerful institutions press us to abandon it. Such an identity requires more than a passing declaration of agreement with an abstract creed.

The public may be more receptive to this argument than our political disputes suggest. Cato also found that 71% of Americans surveyed believe the ideals and institutions of the founding are part of their inheritance. That is a foundation on which to build a common national life.

We need to build on that attitude and reinforce the public appreciation of our inheritance as Americans. The flying of other nations’ flags at anti-government rallies is an obvious manifestation of the weakening of our national identity by mass immigration and collectivists’ domination of the nation’s education system and mass culture over the past several decades.

Protection and reinvigoration of respect for the nation’s founding values will require a general agreement on the answer to the question of “What is an American?” I believe that the unifying answer is that America is the home of Americans: a people born of liberty who are intent on maintaining the world’s greatest home for freedom and serving as an example to the rest of the world.

​Communism, Marxism, Mass immigration, Multiculturalism, National identity, Socialism, Trump administration, Liberty, Protestants, Freedom, Americans, Opinion & analysis, Donald trump 

A little more than a week ago, I attended a gathering for “young conservatives” at Lazarus, a bar on East Sixth Street in Austin. The occasion was a book talk about holidays and preserving family traditions. I arrived early, passed the build-your-own nacho station, redeemed my free drink ticket, and found a seat among roughly 30 people, mostly men in their 20s and 30s.

The author, a working astronaut, began with a question: “How many of you have children?” Just one hand went up. Once the nervous laughter faded, the conversation moved to spacesuits. But the moment captured a problem that is far larger than one room in Austin: Why are so few young people starting families?

A culture devoted to personal possibility can lose sight of the people who come after us.

The numbers are sobering. The United Nations estimates that the global fertility rate fell from 4.8 children per woman in 1970 to 2.2 in 2024. The world’s population is still growing, but more countries are having fewer children than would be needed to replace one generation with the next. That shift will affect economies, communities, and how people imagine their futures.

The usual explanations are familiar. Young adults date less, marry later, struggle with housing costs, and find relationships harder to build in a screen-mediated world.

Yet economics and technology do not settle the question. In a 2024 Pew Research Center survey, 57% of adults under 50 who said they were unlikely ever to have children cited a simple reason: They don’t want to. That figure describes a particular group, not all young adults. Still, it invites a cultural question: What has changed about our understanding of a good life?

Fifty years ago, Tom Wolfe offered one answer. His 1976 essay “The ‘Me’ Decade and the Third Great Awakening” described Americans absorbed in “remaking, remodeling, elevating, and polishing” the self. He contrasted that obsession with an older sense that people belonged to a “great biological stream”: They carried forward something inherited from their ancestors and entrusted something to their descendants. Wolfe saw more Americans daring to step outside that stream.

French philosopher Jean Baudrillard later encountered a similar restlessness in America. He saw a country fascinated by speed, reinvention, and the perpetual justification of its own existence. The self was no longer merely something to be cultivated. It was a project that could be endlessly redesigned.

The older warning came from Alexis de Tocqueville. In “Democracy in America,” he described individualism as a “mature and calm feeling” that draws a person away from the wider community into a small circle of family and friends. Tocqueville’s individualist still had that circle. What happens when it contracts further, until the individual becomes the central obligation?

RELATED: Young men are being left behind

Kieferpix/Getty Images

Individualism has given America extraordinary wealth, innovation, and freedom to pursue a life of one’s choosing. Those achievements should not be dismissed. But a culture devoted to personal possibility can lose sight of the people who come after us. Children demand time, sacrifice, and commitments that resist being rearranged around our preferences. If freedom becomes simply the absence of such obligations, family formation begins to look less like a natural part of life and more like an obstacle to self-realization.

Governments have tried to make parenthood easier. Singapore subsidizes child care; Hungary offers housing and tax benefits; South Korea supports fertility treatments. These policies can relieve real burdens, especially for people who want children but cannot afford them. Yet they have not produced a reliable formula for reversing low fertility. “No government has discovered a policy that produces sustained bumps in fertility,” Texas A&M historian Trent MacNamara told Business Insider.

Long before today’s demographic debate, Theodore Roosevelt worried about what he called “willful sterility.” Writing in 1911, he blamed “selfishness,” the “love of ease,” and a retreat from risk and duty. His language was severe. His underlying challenge remains recognizable: What are we willing to sacrifice for a future we will not live to see?

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Allan Bloom later worried that young people’s “primary preoccupation” was themselves, “understood in the narrowest sense.” Oswald Spengler reached for an even bleaker formulation in “The Decline of the West”: “Children do not happen,” he wrote, when people can no longer find a reason for their existence. Neither writer supplied a birth-rate policy. Both were asking what people believe their lives are for.

No tax credit or dating app can answer that question by itself. Financial help may make it possible to have children, but a society must also regard family life as something worth choosing. It must leave room for obligations that cannot be measured solely by their return to the self.

Back at the bar in Austin, one hand rose when the astronaut asked who had children. The talk moved on. The question should not. A civilization that prizes individual freedom must still decide what, and whom, it hopes will come after it.

​Civilization, Family life, Housing costs, Individualism, Young adults, Young conservatives, Family traditions, Austin, Children, Americans, Alexis de tocqueville, Hungary, South korea, Finances, Opinion & analysis