MAGA Influencers Are Wearing Out Their White House Welcome
"I just have utter contempt for them"
Follow the facts, not the script
In 2018, I was a guest of Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) at the State of the Union. The place was electric — political theater at its finest. Members of Congress, guests, and press were packed into a room that felt more like a pressure cooker than a chamber. And whoever designed those gallery seats clearly had smaller people in mind.
We had to be there early, which meant a lot of sitting. I struck up a conversation with the man seated just behind me to my left. It turned out to be Bill Nye. He was cordial. My kids had watched him on TV. We talked briefly, just two people passing time.
A serious person is obligated to be even-handed, even when he doesn't like someone or disagrees with him.
After the speech by Donald Trump, as the room began to empty, I stuck my hand out to Bill, and his only response was, “He didn’t talk about space.”
It wasn’t a big comment. But it was revealing. We had just witnessed something few people ever experience in person. And that was his takeaway.
A lot has happened with America’s space program since then.
I looked and have yet to see where Bill Nye said, “I don’t agree with the man, but something good happened here.”
I did see he was at a No Kings rally last month.
Which raises a simple question: Are we willing to acknowledge what is true, even when we don’t like who it’s attached to?
We hear a lot about following the science. Fine. Then follow it.
Because if you start with the premise that a person is irredeemable, then everything he does must be dismissed. At that point, you’re not evaluating evidence. You’re protecting a conclusion you’ve already chosen.
We’ve seen this before. A man once stood face to face with truth and asked, “What is truth?” Not because the answer wasn’t there, but because he had already decided what he was willing to accept and what it might cost him.
Truth is not hard to find, but it’s hard to accept when it costs us something.
Sometimes you see people model a better way.
I encountered one of those moments when my wife, Gracie, sang at the inauguration of the governor of Tennessee.
At the time, Harold Ford Jr. was a young congressman who was present at the event. After Gracie performed, there were a lot of people on that platform. Important people. People far more connected than we were.
But Harold made a point to come straight to us.
Not a quick handshake and move on. He engaged. Asked questions. Took genuine interest.
A few days later, we found ourselves on the same flight to Washington. Gracie was headed to Walter Reed to sing for wounded warriors. Once again, Harold made a beeline for us.
Same posture. Same curiosity. Same kindness.
We’ve not crossed paths since, but I still watch him when he’s on "The Five." Not because I agree with everything he says. I don’t. I watch because he is measured. He gives credit where it’s due. He asks questions. He looks for common ground. He treats people as individuals, not categories.
That stayed with me.
I saw something recently that would have been unthinkable not long ago.
Mark Levin had Sen. John Fetterman (D-Penn.) on his show. If talk radio were music, I always considered Rush Limbaugh a virtuoso and Mark Levin heavy metal.
Levin and Fetterman engaged. Asked real questions. Gave thoughtful answers. No rush to score points.
Just two men doing something we used to call normal. And that’s when it hit me. Why does that feel unusual?
RELATED: You don’t have to engage with crazy
For 40 years, I’ve lived in a world where I don’t get to choose who walks into the room to care for my wife. Nurses. Surgeons. Specialists. People from every background and belief system.
I’ve seen medical professionals wearing pronouns on their badges. While I inwardly sighed and questioned the scientific judgment of someone who touts that, Gracie still needed care.
And in that moment, my irritation didn’t get a vote. So I did what caregivers learn to do.
I stuck out my hand and engaged. I listened, observed, and learned to separate what I felt about a person from what I could clearly see in front of me.
A serious person is obligated to be even-handed, even when he doesn't like someone or disagrees with him.
The next time you hear something good about someone you can’t stand, ask yourself a simple question: Could this be objectively true, even though I don’t like this person?
You don’t have to change your vote or your convictions, but you do have to decide whether you’re going to follow the facts or protect a script.
In the real world, where people actually depend on you, clinging to a preferred script isn’t just lazy, it can be very costly.
If you’re willing to set that script aside, even for a moment, you might find something better than being right.
You might find clarity. And in a world this loud, that’s no small thing.
Arming The Iranian People Against The Mullahs Is The Dumbest Idea Ever
Just look at our terrible track record.
Redistricting Debacle Proves GOP Is Too Squishy For An Article V Convention
Given current political divisions, an Article V convention of states would do more harm than good at solving the nation's problems.Mark Levin cheers Trump admin targeting Somalis and Afghans: 'Genius' and 'courageous' against unassimilable Islamists
While the Trump administration continues to target illegal alien criminal offenders, gang members, and national security threats as the primary focus of its mass deportation initiative, it has recently begun zeroing in on two other groups: Somalis and Afghans.
Earlier this year, President Trump terminated Temporary Protected Status for Afghans, and in late November, he announced his intention to do the same for Somalis after reports of mass fraud were exposed in Minnesota’s Somali communities.
Mark Levin is overjoyed that the Trump administration is targeting these two groups. Both, he reminds us, are “Islamists,” meaning assimilation is impossible.
Islamists, he says, are people “who have no intention of having allegiance to our country [and] no intention of joining our culture.”
“Islamism is incompatible with Americanism. It's incompatible with the Judeo-Christian system,” he says, noting that peaceful Muslims are not the same as Islamists.
Unfortunately, there are many people with platforms in our country who are spreading the narrative that America does not have a Judeo-Christian foundation, but these people are “on the Qatar payroll,” says Levin.
Combine this with the spreading false narrative bolstered by America-hating Democrats who want to import blue voters with the massive influx of Islamists, and we’ve got a situation that is “very diabolical,” he warns.
These immigrants are “not vetted” and are “from war-torn countries with terrorist activity,” and yet because a large portion of the nation doesn’t believe that America is built on principles incompatible with Islamism, there’s a massive fight to keep these immigrants here.
President Trump’s unapologetic efforts to stop this disastrous immigration are valiant, says Levin. “He's done things that no other president in my mind would even think about doing — no more third-world entrance into this country until we get this figured out. That is genius. That is courageous.”
The left is, of course, framing him as a racist, xenophobic bigot, but none of that is true. President Trump simply understands the disastrous outcomes of welcoming people who come from economically failing, violence-ridden, regime-controlled countries into America.
“[Trump is] saying, ‘Look, I can't fix that, but we're not going to bring those people into this country,”’ says Levin.
To hear more, watch the video above.
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‘Let me help you out, dingbat!’ — Mark Levin savagely torches Rachel Maddow for accusing Trump of starting war with Venezuela
President Donald Trump obliterates Venezuelan drug boats smuggling loads of fentanyl into the United States, and the left accuses him of starting a war.
But it’s Venezuela’s narco‑terrorist regime that’s declared war on the United States, Mark Levin says, and President Trump has every right to respond as he sees fit.
Levin condemns radical left-wing pundits, like MS NOW’s Rachel Maddow, for accusing the Trump administration of starting a war with Venezuela.
“I don’t understand why we’re going to war with Venezuela, and I’m not sure the administration is even bothered to try to come up with anything even internally coherent,” she whined on the December 2 episode of “The Rachel Maddow Show.”
“Let me help you out, dingbat. Let me help you out,” Mark Levin fires back. “They are smuggling more drugs in the United States directly and through Mexico and with communist China than any other country on the face of the earth.”
For the first time in decades, he says, we have a president who actually takes seriously the Monroe Doctrine — an 1823 policy long abandoned or rejected by weak prior administrations that essentially says, “If something goes on in our hemisphere that affects our country, it’s our business, and we’re going to do something about it,” even if that means military action.
The accusation that Trump committed a war crime by striking a Venezuelan drug boat twice is just “sick” Democrat nonsense, Levin says.
“If another government ... headed by a narco-terrorist is using the power of that government and the resources of that government, of that country, to kill American citizens — it doesn’t matter if they do it with fentanyl drugs; it doesn’t matter if they do it with biochemicals; it doesn’t matter if they poison our water or whatever — these are acts of war,” he asserts.
He then mocks the pearl-clutching Democrats shedding fake tears because narco-terrorists aren’t being politely handcuffed and read Miranda rights.
It’s really simple, he says. “Look at that, a drug boat’s coming. I think we’re going to blow it out of the water. Yes.”
The Constitution, Levin says, gives the president, as the commander in chief, the right to order military actions (like blowing up Venezuelan drug boats) without a formal declaration of war.
He explains that throughout American history, the majority of military actions issued by presidents occurred without Congress declaring war first.
Back in 1801, President Jefferson launched a full overseas naval war against the Barbary pirate states, which were attacking and kidnapping American merchant ships and sailors, without any formal declaration of war.
Calling Trump a war criminal is just proof that it’s not about democracy or the Constitution for Democrats. It’s about ideology.
“They’re on the side of the enemy,” Levin says.
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Mark Levin drops the hammer: America isn’t rigged — your ideology is
One of the great beauties of America, says Mark Levin, is her lack of fixed social classes. With grit and determination, anyone from any background can rise in the ranks and become successful. That’s why America is the top country of origin for self-made millionaires and billionaires.
Now compare that to Marxist regimes, where the mantra is “you are what you are, and that's where you're going to stay.” Work ethic, intelligence, ambition don’t get you anywhere, unless, of course, you’re part of the government machine that crushes the people.
And yet the radical left and the neofascist right alike are pushing similar grievance politics that echo Marxist tactics — demanding more government to “fix” a rigged system. Progressives say, “If you're a minority, the system is out to get you,” while “the neofascists [say] if you're white, the system is out to get you,” says Levin, accusing both groups of “racializing” economics to the detriment of all.
“They want more and more government, which is the biggest problem we have,” he says.
But this push for more federal power is the folly of ideologues. “We conservatives are motivated by reality. ... Our principles are based on knowledge and information and experience and reality — not a fanatical ideology,” says Levin.
“This ideology of Marxism and socialism, it's been imposed on one society after another — imposed. And it's a disastrous outcome in every case: poverty, often genocide, no civil liberties.”
But because the government holds all the power, the blame can’t be placed on the ruling class when everything inevitably goes to hell in a handbasket. Rather the people — powerless and crushed economically and in spirit — shoulder the blame.
But even though history lessons in failed socialism abound, still people like Robert Reich make capitalism the villain. Levin plays a clip of the former secretary of labor under Bill Clinton whining about McDonald’s high prices — the same complaint he made in 1994 — as proof that corporations are deliberately creating a permanent underclass.
Levin’s response is brutal and simple: “You were an idiot in 1994, and you’re an idiot today.” In the 31 years since Reich’s prophecy, millions of supposedly “left-behind” Americans started businesses, bought homes, and invested.
“Your life isn't static. The economy is not static. Nothing is static. The fact is things keep turning along. Sometimes they go over a cliff; sometimes up to the stars,” says Levin, noting that his life has changed tremendously since 1994.
But if you really want to buy Reich’s argument that McDonald’s and “processed foods” are the problem, go ahead and ban them, he says.
Get rid of the Big Macs, the canned beans, the frozen pizzas, the mass-produced bread, the snacks — everything affordable and convenient. The result won’t be social justice; it’s “people starve to death,” says Levin.
The ideological war on private enterprise always ends up punishing the very people it claims to help — exactly the pattern Marxism has repeated from Moscow to Havana. America works, Levin concludes, precisely because we let people solve their own problems instead of letting utopian grifters in Washington or on social media tell them the system is rigged and only total government control can save them.
To hear more of his commentary, watch the video above.
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To enjoy more of "the Great One" — Mark Levin as you've never seen him before — 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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