Glenn Beck's blueprint for true conservatism in 2026 and beyond
Too many right-wingers today equate conservatism with opposing the left, voting for Republicans, or trying to get back to the “good ol’ days.”
But being a true conservative is none of those things, says Glenn Beck. Conservatism isn’t about reacting to the left, obsessing over policies, or worshipping the past. “It's really about principles,” he says. “And that’s why we've lost our way because we've lost our principles.”
So what are the principles that undergird conservatism?
In this episode of “The Glenn Beck Program,” Glenn delivers an unflinching monologue that reminds us not only what being a conservative is really about, but why recovering true conservatism is critical for the nation’s survival.
1. Stewardship
“Being a conservative has to mean stewardship — the stewardship of a nation, of a civilization, of a moral inheritance that is too precious to abandon,” says Glenn.
This begins with understanding that the word “conserve” means to “stand guard” — in this case to “defend what the founders designed: the separation of powers, the rule of law, [and] the belief that our rights come not from kings or from Congress but from the creator Himself.”
Right now, our founders’ brilliant blueprint for our government is treated like “a museum piece” instead of “a living covenant between the dead, the living, and the unborn,” says Glenn.
2. Confronting reality
“This chapter of conservatism must confront reality: economic reality, global reality, and moral reality,” says Glenn.
Just being against things, like high taxes and runaway inflation, isn’t going to cut it, he warns. We have to be for something — things like “economic sovereignty,” the “right to produce and to innovate,” “fiscal prudence,” and national independence.
“Being a conservative today means you have to rebuild an economy that serves liberty, not one that survives by debt,” says Glenn.
3. Recovering America’s soul
In our current “age of dislocation,” family, faith, and objective truth have all taken a massive hit. The results have been catastrophic. Depression and suicide are rampant. People feel like their lives are meaningless. Millions fill the emptiness with technology and other mind-numbing activities.
“If you want to be a conservative, then you have to become the moral compass that reminds a lost people that liberty cannot survive without virtue, that freedom untethered from moral order is nothing but chaos, and that no app, no algorithm, no ideology is ever going to fill the void where meaning used to live,” says Glenn.
In order to do this, we have to “rebuild competence,” “champion innovation,” “reclaim education, not as propaganda, but as the formation of the mind and the soul,” “harness technology in defense of human dignity,” and above all “restore local strength” through families, schools, churches, and charities.
Drawing these threads together, Glenn paints a vivid portrait of the conservative's role in the years ahead: “A conservative in 2025-26 is somebody who protects the enduring principles of American liberty and self-government while actively stewarding the institutions, the culture, the economy of this nation for those who are alive and yet to be born.”
“We have to be a group of people that are not anchored in the past or in rage, but in reason and morality, realism, and hope for the future. We're the stewards. We're the ones that have to relight the torch,” he pleads.
To hear more, watch the video above.
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‘Narcosatanism’: The dark faith driving cartel horrors — ex-fed agent gives bone-chilling testimony
Everyone knows the deep-seated corruption and evil that characterize the Mexican drug cartels. But how many know just how sinister these narco syndicates truly get?
Dave Franke does. As a former Mexican federal agent who spent years conducting high-risk investigations into the country's most violent drug cartels, he’s experienced firsthand the level of evil some of these criminal networks stoop to.
On a recent episode of “The Glenn Beck Podcast,” Franke exposed a brand of cartel so dark and nefarious that it warrants its own name: “narcosatanism.”
When Franke first started investigating cartels, he saw the typical brutality — beheadings, gunfights, torched vehicles, and targeted assassinations. But the longer he was in the field, the more exposure he got to the cartel’s dark religious underbelly.
Once he started raiding prisons and cartel lairs, Franke realized that the Santa Muerte cult — syncretic folk devotion to a female skeletal "Saint Death" figure that blends Catholic saints with indigenous death worship to justify ritualistic brutality — fuels the spiritual core of many cartels.
“We'd go in [prisons], and we'd inspect all of [the cartels’] blocks for contraband and come out with Santa Muerte carvings on clothing, drawings, on shirts, on paper, etched into wood tables — just everywhere,” says Franke, calling Santa Muerte worship “100% evil,” as the “saint” supposedly gives people permission to torture and kill in the most barbaric ways imaginable.
For example, Franke knew of a case where a cartel gang had a defibrillator, used to bring victims back to life for the explicit purpose of torturing and killing them again. In another case, a cartel recorded itself removing a victim’s face while he was still alive.
“There's evil that exists in every country, but in Mexico it's just over the top,” Franke tells Glenn.
It’s a place where “everyone's trying to one-up each other because they want to impress or send a message, not just to the government and the normal people, but to their enemies. … So you always get someone trying to invent something.”
How does someone not only stomach such unmitigated barbarity but willingly continue to enter the fray?
Franke says it’s his faith that keeps him grounded.
“I have a strong faith in Jesus, but I also have a strong faith that no one's going to send me anywhere one minute before my maker wants me there,” he says.
To hear more, including his warning about what the Mexican cartels are doing here in the United States, watch the full interview above.
Want more from Glenn Beck?
To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
Van Jones sounds alarm over Mamdani’s fiery victory speech
New NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s celebratory speech raised alarm bells not just for Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck and BlazeTV host Stu Burguiere, but shockingly for liberals like Van Jones of CNN as well.
“I think the Mamdani that we saw on the campaign trail, who was a lot more calm, who was a lot warmer, who was a lot more embracing, was not present in that speech,” Jones said on CNN.
“And I think that Mamdani is the one you need to hear from tonight. There are a lot of people trying to figure out, can I get on this train with him or not? Is he going to include me? Or is he going to be more of a class warrior even in office?” Jones continued.
“I think he missed a chance tonight to open up and bring more people into the tent. I think his tone was sharp. I think he was using the microphone in a way that he was almost yelling. ... I felt like there’s a little bit of a character switch here, where the warm, open, embracing guy that’s close to working people was not on stage tonight, and there was some other voice on stage,” he added.
“Huh, it’s almost like a mask has come off,” Glenn comments, unsurprised, before playing clips of Mamdani’s mask-off speech.
“So, Donald Trump, since I know you’re watching, I have four words for you: Turn the volume up,” Mamdani yelled at the cheering crowd.
“We will hold bad landlords to account, because the Donald Trumps of our city have grown far too comfortable taking advantage of their tenants. We will put an end to the culture of corruption that has allowed billionaires like Trump to evade taxation and exploit tax breaks,” he continued.
“We will stand alongside unions and expand labor protections because we know, just as Donald Trump does, that when working people have ironclad rights, the bosses who seek to extort them become very small indeed. New York will remain a city of immigrants, a city built by immigrants, powered by immigrants, and, as of tonight, led by an immigrant,” he added.
“A very angry immigrant whose own mother says he doesn’t identify as an American,” Glenn comments, before playing more of Mamdani’s speech.
“As has so often occurred, the billionaire class has sought to convince those making $30 an hour that their enemies are those earning $20 an hour. They want the people to fight amongst ourselves so that we remain distracted from the work of remaking a long-broken system. We refuse to let them dictate the rules of the game anymore. They can play by the same rules as the rest of us,” he continued, still yelling.
“And if we embrace this brave new course rather than fleeing from it, we can respond to oligarchy and authoritarianism with the strength it fears, not the appeasement it craves. After all, if anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him, it’s the city that gave rise to him. If there is any way to terrify a despot, it is by dismantling the very conditions that allowed him to accumulate power,” he added.
Glenn points out that capitalism is what allowed Trump to accumulate power, which means that Mamdani is saying they must dismantle capitalism.
“What he’s saying here is we have to now dismantle that system of capitalism because that’s what gave him power,” Glenn says.
“It’s going to be interesting to watch New York City over the next four years. Very, very interesting,” he adds.
Want more from Glenn Beck?
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Economist warns NYC’s socialist mayor will trigger a mass exodus of wealth
New York City voters have done what experts across the country have warned will be their doom and elected a Democratic Socialist. Former Trump economic adviser Stephen Moore is among those who sounded the alarm, and he now warns there will be a mass migration out of New York in retaliation.
On Moore’s website, which champions “voting with your feet,” visitors can track “where the moving vans are going to and from and also how much money they’re taking with them.”
“New York has lost two and a half million people. … Half of those people came from New York City,” Moore tells Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck on “The Glenn Beck Program.” “So if they elect a socialist and they raise the taxes again … the rich, they’re not going to be there any longer.”
“One million is probably a long shot, but I think you’re going to see a lot of wealth move out of New York,” he says.
“If they raise these taxes again, you’d pay 17% income tax in New York City. Who’s going to do that? By the way, that’s on top of the, you know, 40% federal tax. So people will move,” he adds.
Moore uses the example of Ken Griffin, the billionaire behind Citadel.
“He was the single biggest charitable giving in the city of Chicago. He gave to the Art Institute, he gave to the homeless shelters, he gave to the food kitchens and the museums and so on. I mean, he was by far the biggest donor to all of the charities,” Moore explains.
“Well, finally they kept raising taxes in Chicago. And as you probably know, he moved out of Chicago and he moved to Palm Beach, Florida. And so then the interesting part of the story is it put a $50 million hole in the Illinois budget. One person,” he continues.
“And so my point is, you chase the ‘evil’ rich out of your city and your state, and you pay a high price for that in terms of the employ,” Moore tells Glenn. “By the way, he took several thousand jobs with him.”
“The rich aren’t rich because they’re stupid,” he adds.
Want more from Glenn Beck?
To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
‘Medals and lessons’: Glenn Beck remembers Dick Cheney
On November 3, Dick Cheney, former U.S. vice president under George W. Bush, passed away at the age of 84 from complications of pneumonia, compounded by longstanding cardiac and vascular disease.
He is a man who leaves behind a most “complicated legacy,” says Glenn Beck.
In 1989 as the secretary of defense under President George H.W. Bush, Cheney brought the mentality that “a nation that can't defend itself isn't going to remain free” to the military. He modernized, refined, and finalized former President Ronald Reagan's defense revival, leading to a swift and surgical Gulf War victory, all while masterfully navigating post-Cold War budget cuts.
“For the first time in decades, Americans felt pride without apology when it came to our military,” says Glenn.
In 2001, Republican candidate George W. Bush chose Cheney as his running mate — a decision Glenn says secured his presidency, as Americans trusted that Cheney’s military experience and success would balance Bush’s inexperience in national security. On September 11, 2001, when the Twin Towers collapsed while the president was occupied at an event in Florida, Cheney stepped up as the acting president.
“He was steady, emotionless, and firm. He didn't tremble. He didn't panic,” says Glenn, “and in those first few hours, America needed that.”
But then Cheney — a key architect of the Iraq War that ensued after 9/11 — started down a dark path. “[The war] just stretched on and on and on, and the mission became blurry. Freedom became a slogan instead of a strategy, and freedom started to take a different meaning here in America,” says Glenn.
Cheney was a pivotal force in the rapid passing of the Patriot Act — a set of policies that expanded federal surveillance, detention, and intelligence-gathering powers — as well as the formation of the Department of Homeland Security and the expansion of FISA surveillance powers.
“None of those things had anything to do with freedom,” says Glenn.
Then when the anthrax attacks started, it was Cheney who insisted the U.S. expand its defensive bioweapons research programs, culminating in Project BioShield, which allocated $5.6 billion to accelerating research, development, and procurement of countermeasures against biological threats.
“So it was Dick Cheney that urged men like Dr. Anthony Fauci to push research further, faster into what we now call gain of function,” says Glenn.
Looking back at the mixed bag of Cheney’s accomplishments, Glenn says his life “offers both a chance to give medals and lessons.”
He teaches us both “the virtue of strength and the peril of excess.”
“He was the iron for many years in America's spine after decades of doubt. But he was also a reminder that iron rusts if it is left unexamined,” says Glenn.
“Dick Cheney was a conservative for a man of his time, but he lost one of the main principles, and that is: Conservatives believe in the rule of law and the Constitution. He's a patriot, yes, but he's also a warning to us. He helped America find its courage, but he also taught us how easily courage can drift into control.”
To hear more of Glenn’s commentary and analysis, watch the clip above.
Want more from Glenn Beck?
To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
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