Historically, Russia was very, very good at what we call psyops, psychological operations designed to undermine the United States.
They are still good at it. The Op is happening. It&#8217;s live, right in front of us. Candace Owens, Andrew Tate, and other Woke Right influencers have now landed in Moscow, and they&#8217;re basically Jane Fonda on the Vietcong anti-aircraft guns during the Vietnam War.
They propagandize for our enemies.
If you somehow believe that these people are just good-hearted folks who are invested in Christianity and the West and traditional conservative values, I hate to break it to you, but you are the sucker. If your head is attached to your shoulders, the Op has never been more obvious.
The dictator who currently runs Russia is Vladimir Putin. He was a member of the KGB. His task: Intelligence and counter-intelligence. He worked under a man named Yuri Andropov, who was then leading the KGB. Later, Andropov became the Premier of the Soviet Union, the dictator of the Soviet Union.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ben-shapiro-show-ep-2438?elementPosition=1&amp;row=0&amp;rowHeadline=Recent+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-981859" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner.avif" alt="" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner.avif 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner-300x50.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner-768x128.jpg 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
And here&#8217;s what Andropov said about psyops directed at Soviet enemies: “Disinformation is like cocaine. Sniff once or twice. It may not change your life if you use it every day, though it will make you an addict, a different man.”
It seems like a lot of people in the West are now all coked up.
Candace Owens is in Russia sitting on Russian propaganda panels. She&#8217;s praising what she describes as Russia&#8217;s approach to families.
Spoiler alert: Russia&#8217;s idea of family values is encouraging couples to have kids so there is an ample supply of soldiers to fight in the Ukraine war.
Meanwhile, Marjorie Taylor Greene is doing the same sort of stuff, signaling her support for Candace&#8217;s big Russian adventure. And Buckley Carlson (a.k.a. Tucker Carlson, minus the skincare regimen) is openly saying that Russia&#8217;s leader looks out for his people&#8217;s interests, and he wishes we had that here. Tucker, of course, says exactly the same thing.
None of them are simply making critiques of America. They&#8217;re all saying that Russia is somehow better, that Russia&#8217;s leadership is somehow better.
And that&#8217;s the tell: There&#8217;s a big difference between saying “countries act in their own national interest” or “America has problems,” and “I wish our country were run more like Vladimir Putin&#8217;s Russia.” Those are not the same arguments.
One of those is rooted in realism. The other is just crazed fan-fiction conspiracy nonsense.
That is what this has become: Geopolitical fan fiction for people who think America sucks so much that countries like Russia not only ought to be a model for us, but ought to have more global power.
This is all part of what I have called a demoralization op.
Demoralization is the effort to destroy basic moral principles and dogmas and replace them with divisive fringe ideologies. It is step one in collapsing your enemies.
That is what is happening here. Enemies of America are using every resource at their disposal to do it — and there is good news for them: There’s an entire online repository of complete dunderheaded morons and conspiratorial America haters to do their dirty work for them, and lots of people online to click into the echo chamber.
The exact same people who built their brands around “Don&#8217;t trust the regime” and “Don&#8217;t trust the media” and “Don&#8217;t trust the propaganda” are suddenly very much in favor of trusting a regime, (when it&#8217;s Russia), the media, (when it&#8217;s Russia Today) and the propaganda, (when they are controlled by the Russian government and tell them America is decadent and the West is collapsing and Putin is strong and Russia protects tradition).
Suddenly, these people are on board all the way. They&#8217;re not investigating or questioning.
This is not skepticism. This is credulity. This is absolute, credulous stupidity. And they are nodding along either because they are bought and paid for, or because the message actually flatters their priors, and their priors are obvious: America sucks. America is in decline. America, in fact, is evil.
These are the ideas they parrot: We took the wrong side during World War II. We were vicious during the Cold War. We were the bad guys in the modern era. We were the great despoilers of innocent Muslims in the Middle East.
In the end, the result is all the same. The only way to fix all of this is to unburden the brutalized, demonized American soul, and give more power to America&#8217;s enemies.
We need — wait for it — multi-polarity. That&#8217;s how the Op works. The goal is to convince you that America is irredeemably crappy morally, and that the people we&#8217;ve always seen as our geopolitical opponents are actually not that bad. Russia is not that bad. In many ways they&#8217;re better than we are. Iran is not that bad. They don&#8217;t bother us. Maybe they could be our friend. China is not that bad.
That&#8217;s the Op, and it&#8217;s working on a large number of people who spend too much time online watching Tucker Carlson or Candace Owens or Sean Ryan or Andrew Tate or Megyn Kelly or any of the increasingly anti-American grifters and clickwhores willing to crap on America, either because they believe it, or for fame and money.

AmericanEagle_RussianBear

How The Woke Right Became What It Hates

Andrew Tate

Ben Shapiro

Candace Owens

Family Values

Majorie Taylor Greene

Opinion

Putin

Tucker Carlson

Across the board, trust in our institutions in the United States is at an all-time low.
Trust in the media is at an all-time low. Trust in church is at an all-time low. Trust in the scientific establishment is at an all-time low. Trust in government is at an all-time low. And, of course, trust in academia is at an all-time low.
Because of our lack of trust in institutions, Americans also mistrust one another.
You might think that it would be the opposite, that we mistrust one another, and therefore we mistrust our institutions.
That’s not the case. Our institutions shape us, and the way that we interact with the world is through the mechanism of institutions.
If you grew up in a religious community, going to church helped shape you. The rules of the church helped shape you. The people you spent time with shaped you. The institution of your family shaped you. Your school or university shaped you. 
As we lose faith in all of those institutions to shape us, we are incapable of coming together anymore.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ben-shapiro-ep-2416-2-university-of-austin-speech"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-974957 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp" alt="DailyWire+" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-300x50.webp 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-768x128.webp 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1536x256.webp 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-2048x341.webp 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
Institutions tend to foster a common orientation, which is why Alexis de Tocqueville was such a big fan of them. It&#8217;s why in Democracy in America, he made the suggestion that one of the things that made America so different from all other countries was the plethora of social institutions in which Americans were enmeshed. He noted that in most other countries, people had formal institutions that they were forced to interact with, but in America, everybody was a member of a social institution or many social institutions — and that created this extraordinary social fabric that was durable, that allowed for innovation, that allowed for freedom. 
Without trust, there can&#8217;t be freedom at all. If the institutions that provide the shaping function that set the rules for our lives, the way we interact with the world, die, so does the social fabric. And then, when the social fabric dies, we stop attributing decent motivation to each other.
Instead, we start engaging in what the philosopher Alistair MacIntyre called “emotivism”: the belief that everybody except for you is motivated by something nefarious. Instead of having a political conversation, what you do is attribute a motive to the person&#8217;s policy.
You shouldn&#8217;t be attributing motivations to other people unless you have good evidence that their motivation is malign.
But that&#8217;s what we jump to when there is no trust.
I trust my wife. I&#8217;m not worried that when she criticizes me, it&#8217;s coming from a terrible place. I trust the people that I go to synagogue with. If they have a critique or we have a disagreement, I don&#8217;t immediately jump to, “They do it because they hate me.”
“You&#8217;re doing it because you hate me” is the death of politics, because if that&#8217;s the case, then how exactly are we supposed to live together and work together and create policy together?
Religious institutions used to be truth-making institutions, but the question of whether those institutions ought to pursue truth has been supplanted by the idea that they ought to do politics. In many cases, they have become progressive bastions where people go to eat pizza and play guitar rather than unite with some eternal value.
That is why many people don&#8217;t attend anymore. Why go there when you can go to a sports event instead?
We saw the scientific establishment move from evidence to narrative, most obviously during COVID. The result for an enormous number of people was to completely discard science in favor of nonsense that has zero evidence to back it.
The slide from truth to narrative is almost invariably followed by a slide from narrative to conspiracism or nonsense.
The move from seeking the truth at universities to “We are going to engineer a population of discontented people who believe that the system must be turned on its ear” led people to stop trusting the universities.
The American government was built to pursue one fundamental principle above all: epistemic humility, the idea that you might not be correct.
If you think you&#8217;re always correct, you might want to be a tyrant. 
Humility with regard to other people in your society, the idea that maybe they&#8217;re right on occasion, maybe you&#8217;re wrong on occasion, has to be rooted in trust of our fellow citizens.
We have checks and balances in the United States government to prevent it from swinging side to side to stop radical things from happening. That is legitimately the point of the American government. Unless we have a very broad agreement on something, it should not happen. That is why we have a bicameral legislature. It is why we have three branches of government.
But when that wears away, when we hate each other, what we end up with is a battle to the death in the blood sport of politics.
We get angry at the checks and balances because it&#8217;s not possible that people who oppose me are correct; those people are malign. “Those people want bad things to happen to me and to my family, and so I&#8217;m going to grab the government. I&#8217;m going to kill the filibuster. I&#8217;m gonna stack the Supreme Court. I&#8217;m going to add states willy-nilly to the United States Senate, and then I&#8217;m just going to run right over everybody.”
In the absence of rebuilding trust in the institutions, you end up with a war of all against all on the governmental level. And things will not go well.
When you get rid of the fundamental epistemic humility of the government, checks and balances give way to a centralized tyranny.
If you don&#8217;t trust your neighbor and you think your neighbor is taking advantage of you, you might say that the government should just do what you want it to do. Grab that brass ring and do exactly what you want with that power.
In order for a solid debate to take place, there must be a fundamental sharing of values and rules of the road. There ought not to be debate about fundamental propositions, because if you are having to debate individual value — such as the idea that individual human beings have individual worth — you&#8217;re arguing with something outside the system.
If you have to argue with somebody about the worthiness of truth, that is not an argument that can ever be won, because truth itself is an assumed value.
This is why, in the Declaration of Independence, when the Founders said that there are certain rights that are self-evident, they didn&#8217;t mean that they prove themselves. They mean that these are the fundamental building blocks of a society. And if you question them, the society crumbles.
Only a carefully cultivated moral culture that values truth and evidence and logic and moral decency, that actually protects free speech and property rights and equal rights under the law, is capable of restoring our institutions.
We shouldn&#8217;t be debating about fundamental moral matters, things like “lying is wrong.” If I have to debate you about that, there&#8217;s no debate.
Individual human beings have moral worth, and their autonomy has moral value.
Those are the values that we begin with, and those are the values that need to be embodied in institutions.

Rotten_Core

The Rot Spreading Through America’s Core

When A Nation Forgets Its Foundations

Church

Federal Government

Founding Fathers

Religion

For decades, Americans have viewed their primary adversaries as foreign nationals or international terrorist organizations. Yet this perspective has proven dangerously naive. Over the past 60 years, socialist and Marxist ideologies have taken root within our own borders, often hiding in plain sight. This internal threat operates not from distant shores but from within.
Recent events only underscore this concern. The arrest of a would-be assassin at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner — reportedly a former “Teacher of the Year” — is deeply disturbing. It raises a critical question: how have individuals entrusted with educating our children become radicalized to such extremes? And more importantly — where is the line when freedom of speech ends and subversion begins?
<h3>Quietly Reshaping Society From the Inside Out</h3>
This enemy is not a shadowy cabal of spies but a network of socialist and Marxist-influenced elites who have methodically gained influence over key pillars of American life: universities, the legal system, media, political parties, and even religious organizations. Operating under the banners of progress, equity, and social justice, they have advanced while many citizens focused on daily responsibilities. The outcome has been a slow erosion of foundational American values and a deliberate division of people along lines of ethnicity, religion, and sexual identity and even splits amongst once close family members. The result is the gradual weakening of the nation’s core institutions and social fabric.
<h3>The Decimation of the Nuclear Family</h3>
One of the most striking impacts appears in the decline of the nuclear family. This trend began prominently in the black community. In the 1960s, roughly 80% of black children lived in two-parent homes. Today, that figure is reversed with 77% of black children born to <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/washington-secrets/693212/77-black-births-to-single-moms-49-for-hispanic-immigrants/">single mothers</a>. The problem has since spread nationwide. Pew Research Center <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2019/12/12/u-s-children-more-likely-than-children-in-other-countries-to-live-with-just-one-parent/">data</a> show the United States has the highest rate of children living in single-parent households among developed nations — 23% of U.S. children under 18 live in fatherless homes, more than three times the global average.
Marriage rates have also hit historic lows, undermining the stable family structures historically linked to prosperity, child well-being, and social mobility. A prosperous country cannot long thrive without strong families as its foundation.
<h3>Academic Excellence Subverted into a Marxist Trojan Horse</h3>
Nowhere is the transformation more evident than in education. In public schools, social justice curricula emphasizing systemic racism, gender ideology, and equity have often displaced core academics. National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores — the Nation’s Report Card — reveal reading and math proficiency at historic lows, with declines affecting students across demographic groups. Resources flow into DEI initiatives and “restorative justice” programs that prioritize emotional outcomes over measurable skills.
The human cost is profound: <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/most-us-would-fail-u-s-citizenship-test-survey-finds-n918961">surveys indicate</a> only about 19% of Americans under age 45 can pass the U.S. Citizenship Test, with many unable to name the three branches of government or explain the Bill of Rights. Older Americans pass at much higher rates (around 74% in some studies), underscoring that this reflects educational shifts rather than inherent generational differences. 
Teachers’ unions have sometimes embraced ideological language. During the 2022 Minneapolis strike, a union leader framed the effort as a fight against “the patriarchy” and “capitalism.”
Universities, once centers of free inquiry, now exhibit stark ideological imbalance. Faculty ratios have shifted dramatically, with liberal-to-conservative balances moving from roughly 2:1 in the mid-1990s to far wider margins today — often 10:1 or higher in many studies, with even greater disparities in humanities and education departments. In the national survey, Departments of Education faculty self-identify as Radical, Activist, Socialist or Marxist. This is especially concerning because they instruct the next generation of public-school teachers.
<h3>Propaganda Masquerading as Journalism and Advocacy</h3>
This academic capture influences media, law, and advocacy. Organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) have faced scrutiny, including allegations in legal contexts of questionable practices while labeling mainstream groups. Media outlets often amplify such frameworks, shaping narratives through selective coverage. In politics, socialist ideas have moved from the fringes to mainstream Democratic platforms.
In November 2025, New York City elected Zohran Mamdani, a self-described democratic socialist, as mayor — the first Muslim and South Asian mayor of America’s largest city. His administration prioritizes expansive government and redistribution. Similar dynamics appear in Minnesota: Minneapolis City Council includes self-declared Democratic Socialists of America members advancing related priorities amid ongoing challenges with crime and services. The 2020 unrest in Minneapolis, involving organized elements, accelerated “defund the police” experiments rooted in these ideologies.
<h3>Undermining Service to Citizens</h3>
Elected officials advancing such agendas can weaken state capacity and national cohesion. When civic education falters, informed citizenship declines — an outcome aligned with views that see the Constitution as an outdated instrument of oppression.
Religious institutions have also been affected. Some mainline Protestant and Catholic circles have incorporated critiques of “systemic sin,” shifting emphasis toward social justice over personal redemption. Sermons increasingly echo academic and media talking points on privilege and reparations.
<h3>Pattern Recognition and the Path Forward</h3>
This is not paranoia but observable pattern recognition. Socialist and Marxist influences advanced not through overt revolution but via tenure committees, HR departments, grants, and activist networks. They reframed compassion-based concepts like diversity, inclusion, and equity into tools against dissent.
Evidence surrounds us: politicized campuses stifling debate, advocacy groups facing credibility questions, socialist elected officials, schools prioritizing socialist ideology, unions opposing capitalism, coordinated protests and riots, and churches emphasizing liberal politics.
Americans must awaken to this reality. The adversary lectures from podiums, edits content, drafts laws, grades papers, and serves on councils — seldom wearing foreign uniforms. Reclaiming institutions require vigilance: restoring academic excellence and viewpoint diversity in universities, demanding transparency from nonprofits and unions, electing leaders focused on merit and results, and ensuring schools prioritize fundamentals — reading, writing, history, and civics — over grievance.
The republic was not lost overnight but inch by inch. The time to push back is now. Our children’s future and the nation’s character depend on it.
* * *
Kendall Qualls is an Army veteran, business leader, and the leading Republican gubernatorial candidate in Minnesota. TakeCharge is a national nonprofit organization led by Kendall and Sheila Qualls focused on restoring strong families as the foundation for opportunity, dignity, and upward mobility.

Former President Obama Joins NYC Mayor Mamdani On A Visit To Child Care Center

The Quiet Campaign Weaponizing America’s Youth

DW Opinion

Education

Gen Z

Leftists

Legacy Media

Minnesota

Propaganda

Teenagers

A recent YouGov poll found that 47% of Americans <a href="https://yougov.com/en-us/articles/54403-what-americans-think-about-overpopulation-birth-rates-and-children">view overpopulation</a> in the United States as a “very or somewhat serious problem,” while only 41% say the same about low birth rates.
The consequences of such inverted priorities are already catastrophic. America’s total fertility rate has collapsed to roughly 1.6 children per woman — far below the 2.1 replacement level needed to sustain a population without immigration.
But don’t share those statistics with Sunny Hostin over at “The View.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
The View’s Sunny Hostin: “I think it’s really reckless to be suggesting that people should have children in this country.” <a href="https://t.co/iNRzG6AfcG">pic.twitter.com/iNRzG6AfcG</a>
— TheBlaze (@theblaze) <a href="https://twitter.com/theblaze/status/2038665904431497635?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 30, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Source: @theblaze/MRC/ABC&#8217;s The View/X.com
“It’s really reckless to be suggesting that people should have children,” said Hostin. “&#8230;when you now know, in this country, there is this affordability crisis and for a two-person household — a married household — you need over $400,000 for childcare.”
Now, you may think planning an armored car heist à la Michael Mann’s 1995 classic “Heat,” is reckless, but according to Hostin, I need <a href="https://alltherightmovies.com/feature/25-interesting-facts-about-heat/">$1.6 million</a> to take care of my eight children. Anything less and they <a href="https://x.com/theblaze/status/2038665904431497635">would be</a> impoverished, uneducated, homeless, and starving.
A taken-aback Ana Navarro then blurted out, “over the lifetime of a child, or what? A year?”
“No, a year,” Hostin said.
Hostin’s fearmongering would be laughable if it weren’t so effective. In April, the CDC announced that America reached a <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/vsrr/vsrr043.pdf">record low</a> in births in 2025, down 1% since 2024 and 23% since 2007. With an estimated population of 342 million, the United States witnessed <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/vsrr/vsrr043.pdf">3,606,400</a> births last year. In 1966, however, America saw a similar number, <a href="https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/1967/demographics/P25-368.pdf">3,661,000</a> births, drawn from a population of less than 200 million.
Hostin was born in October 1968, six months after Stanford professor <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/one-of-the-most-evil-men-in-history-just-died">Paul Ehrlich</a> published his landmark book, “The Population Bomb.” When every single one of Ehrlich’s predictions — from mass starvation in the 1970s to global mineral shortages in the 1980s — turned out wrong, he was awarded a MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant in 1990.
Only 10% of Americans held a favorable opinion of Ehrlich at the time of his death, according to <a href="https://yougov.com/en-us/articles/54403-what-americans-think-about-overpopulation-birth-rates-and-children">YouGov</a> — not too shabby given that only 20% of respondents knew who he was. And yet a full 100% of us have been living in his world — or at least his narrative — ever since he sounded the false alarm that human beings are a form of pollution.
The MacArthur Foundation tipped its cap to Ehrlich’s checkerspot butterfly expertise, but anyone can study the “behavior of an invertebrate population”. His true genius lay in marketing to other spineless populations. 
“A pioneer in alerting the public to the problems of overpopulation,” the award <a href="https://www.macfound.org/fellows/class-of-1990/paul-r-ehrlich">citation</a> says. 
Paul Ehrlich may have been perennially wrong as a scientist, but he had a generational talent for scaring the wits out of dimwitted media personalities, craven politicians, cunning public health authorities, unimaginative screenwriters, and over-imaginative teachers. Exactly the type of marks a good con artist would need to capture if he were going to advance a narrative at war with reality. 
It worked.
On the same episode of “The View,” Sara Haines said, “The world has over 8 billion people. We no longer need to force people to procreate and pump out babies. We have arrived.&#8221;
Socially, the fallout is devastating. Smaller families mean fewer siblings, weaker extended kinship networks, and the erosion of the “social capital” that once bound communities together. Low fertility <a href="https://www.jec.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/635c69dc-6a5a-467b-b7b0-3ab906fb4a94/the-consequences-of-declining-fertility-for-social-capital.pdf">reduces</a> community participation, trust, and mutual support — the very glue of civil society. 
Militarily, the danger is existential. Fewer young Americans mean a smaller pool of potential recruits at the exact moment great-power competition intensifies. The Pentagon already struggles with recruitment shortfalls; an aging, childless society cannot field the force required to deter adversaries like China. 
Economically, the math is brutal. A shrinking native-born workforce cannot support the entitlement programs built for a growing population. Social Security and Medicare face insolvency as the ratio of workers to retirees plummets. Every country that has experienced persistent sub-replacement fertility has seen its GDP growth slow, innovation shrivel, and burden younger generations with crushing tax loads to fund the vacations of the old.
The problem with effective propaganda campaigns is that they are hard to reverse. South Korea serves as a warning. In 1960, the average South Korean woman had six children. After decades of state-backed “family planning” and “voluntary” sterilization services lovingly provided by USAID, fertility fell below replacement and eventually below 1. The Clinton State Department <a href="https://ciaotest.cc.columbia.edu/olj/gli/gli_sep1998.pdf">lauded</a> South Korean population control as one of America’s standout achievements.
No 20th-century public intellectual better apprehended how misanthropic an elite could be. Gilded Age robber barons were at least honest about their rapacious need for more; the postwar meritocrats of the 1960s thought themselves too enlightened for greed but enjoyed all that money just the same. Then, along came a Stanford butterfly researcher, insisting that your neighbors’ kids are hurting the environment, and if only you kept more resources for yourself, nature would heal.
A growing cohort of Americans, particularly young Americans, is waking up to the fact that Paul Ehrlich was wrong all along. And Sunny Hostin’s fearmongering, not the science, has always been the point. Gallup found that 43% of Americans aged 18-29 now say the ideal family will have more than 3 children — a <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/694640/americans-ideal-family-size-remains-above-two-children.aspx">13% jump</a> from the same cohort in 2011.
I remember the halcyon days of 2011 well. I welcomed my second daughter that year. Back then, the majority of my peers told pollsters that “Two is too many!” As Millennials settle into middle age, that number has plummeted by more than 20%. 
We are older and wise enough to know to turn the channel when “The View” comes on. Besides, chances are Michael Mann’s “Heat” is playing on some random cable channel at the very same time.
* * *
Terry Schilling is president of the American Principles Project.

The View’s “Behind The Table” Podcast

First Came Overpopulation Panic, Then Came The Birth Collapse

Abortion

Birth Rates

Children

Population

Sunny Hostin

The View

YouGov

Large American Family Group Gathering

Why Kicking Your Kids Out At 18 Is Actually Insane

family

Marriage

Matt Walsh

Parenting

As we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States, we need to confront two questions that make liberals and the Left uncomfortable: What does it truly mean to be an American, and why have black Americans been discouraged from fully embracing that identity?
For generations, black Americans understood themselves plainly. They were Americans. Their struggle was not to separate from the nation, but to claim it. The Civil Rights Movement did not reject America; it appealed to its founding principles and demanded that the nation live up to the promises made in the Constitution and first articulated in the Declaration of Independence.
Martin Luther King Jr. captured this vision when he spoke of a nation where his children would be judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. That dream assumed character would be formed within families and reinforced by faith, discipline, and responsibility. Strong families were not secondary to progress; they were essential to it.
The previous generations that were not indoctrinated by the 1960s socialist agenda make one thing clear: black Americans did not endure hardship because they rejected America. They endured it because they believed in it strongly enough to demand better.
Over time, however, the story shifted.
In the late twentieth century, black Americans were increasingly encouraged to adopt a hyphenated identity rather than simply being American. This change did not arise organically from lived experience or historical necessity. It was advanced by political activists who emphasized global racial identity over national allegiance.
But what exactly is an “African American”? Africa is not a nation. It is a continent of 54 countries, many of which have been divided by centuries of bloody conflict.
For most black Americans, Africa is not a place they can trace lineage to or claim citizenship in. Their ancestors were born here, labored here, fought here, and helped build this country. Rooting identity in a continent rather than in the Constitution detached black Americans from an American birthright earned through generations of sacrifice.
Hyphenating identity did not elevate black Americans. It weakened citizenship and diluted historical birthrights.
Citizenship implies ownership and responsibility. It declares, “This country is yours, and you are part of this country.” When identity becomes abstract rather than national, accountability erodes. When people are taught to see America as something separate from themselves, the incentive to build and protect institutions — family, marriage, faith, businesses, and community — declines.
This shift has had consequences.
As leftist identity politics expanded, family stability declined. Father absence increased. Faith receded. Dependency on government and political leaders replaced self-determination. What once happened inside the home — character formation and moral grounding — was increasingly outsourced to systems that could never replace it.
The results are visible across the country: generational poverty, struggling schools, unsafe neighborhoods, and cycles of incarceration. These are not merely economic failures; they have become embedded in a generational culture — and it was intentional.
A people taught that they do not fully belong will eventually stop acting as though they do. They may come to oppose the very nation that offers greater opportunity for freedom, wealth, and security than any other country in the world, including those on the African continent.
American history is complex. Slavery was real and evil, and it must never be minimized. But black Americans were never outsiders to the American project. They were participants from the beginning, serving, building, and sacrificing for a country they claimed as their own.
Black History Month should not reinforce separation or grievance. It should remind black Americans of their deep roots in this nation and their rightful claim to its future.
There is nothing empowering about surrendering an American birthright for a global identity with no legal or historical grounding. There is nothing liberating about teaching children that the country they were born into is not truly theirs.
Black Americans are not guests in this nation. They are not hyphenated citizens. They are Americans, by birthright, by sacrifice, and by contribution.
As the nation approaches its 250th anniversary, Black History Month should be a moment of reclamation: of citizenship, responsibility, faith, family, and confidence in the American promise.
Progress has never been given; it has always been built. And it always begins at home.
* * *
Kendall Qualls is an Army veteran, business leader, and the leading Republican gubernatorial candidate in Minnesota. TakeCharge is a national nonprofit organization led by Kendall and Sheila Qualls focused on restoring strong families as the foundation for opportunity, dignity, and upward mobility.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial and the Washington Monument at dawn

Black Americans Are Not Hyphenated Citizens — And It’s Time We Stop Acting Like It

American History

Black History Month

Blacks

Martin Luther King Jr.

U.S. Citizens

American Elana Meyers Taylor has many titles: professional bobsledder, wife, devoted mother of two, proud patriot, and now — finally — Olympic gold medalist.
The 41-year-old also became the oldest athlete to win an individual event in the winter games, and is tied for the most decorated female Winter Olympian for Team USA. Before the Milan Cortina Games, Meyers Taylor has been overwhelmingly close to gold with five previous medals &#8212; three silver and two bronze. But after several years and Olympic appearances, this Monday, she finally secured first.
Her win took place in the women’s monobob competition. Meyers Taylor was to go second to last, and delivered an impressive time of 3:57.93, beating her teammate Kaillie Humphries for the top spot. Only one person stood between her and the gold medal — Germany&#8217;s Laura Nolte, who was the gold medalist in the women&#8217;s bobsled from the Beijing games in 2022. She anxiously awaited as Nolte sped down the track neck-and-neck with her times, but finished a mere 0.04 seconds behind Meyers Taylor.
Once she realized her victory, Meyers Taylor jumped and shouted with joy before falling to her knees, hands to her face and clutching the American flag.
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Elana Meyers Taylor&#8217;s GOLDEN reaction says it all. 💛🥇 <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WinterOlympics?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WinterOlympics</a> <a href="https://t.co/5gU3MItPN5">pic.twitter.com/5gU3MItPN5</a>
— NBC Sports (@NBCSports) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBCSports/status/2023593152083374455?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 17, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
But Meyers Taylor isn&#8217;t just an elite competitor. She is a proud wife, mother, and American.
Meyers Taylor <a href="https://cbn.com/news/world/god-has-plan-bobsledding-olympian-elana-meyers-taylor-wins-silver-medal">met</a> her husband, Nic, who was also a bobsledder, in a Bible study near the U.S. Olympic Training Center in New York in 2011. Their two sons are both deaf, and one has Down syndrome. In a post before the games, she <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DUk-75oDXd7/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link">wrote</a>: “I am a first generation American- a proud Jamaican Panamanian Italian American. I am the daughter of an immigrant and the proud mother of two disabled sons and my story isn’t possible in most other places in the world. I am proud to represent the US and I love my country dearly.”
She is also an outspoken Christian and shared <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DU3CAerjX3a/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&amp;igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==">this</a> on Tuesday: &#8220;The moment we prayed for. Glory to God. Forever an Olympic Champion.&#8221;
Meyers Taylor has had her eyes set on Olympic gold for a long time, but she believes there is more to it than just the game. In a 2016 interview, she <a href="https://cbn.com/news/world/god-has-plan-bobsledding-olympian-elana-meyers-taylor-wins-silver-medal">said,</a> ​​&#8221;We&#8217;re talking about the Olympics. We&#8217;re talking about trying to win the gold medal. All of these things can be overwhelming. But regardless of whether I win a gold medal or never compete again, I just have to trust that God has a plan for my life and I’m called to be his representative through the sport and outside of the sport.”
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<p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DUdW9XhkYe6/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Elana Meyers Taylor OLY (@elanameyerstaylor)</a>
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BOBSLEIGH-OLY-2026-MILANO CORTINA

Meet Elana Meyers Taylor: The American Bobsledder Who Finally Won Her First Gold Medal

Christian

General

Sports

Winter Olympics

World

Something&#8217;s going on with Americans.
We are talking to each other less, but we’re seemingly more engaged in politics than ever before. More than one in 10 Americans <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/05/08/how-connected-do-americans-feel-to-their-neighbors/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">don’t know</a> any of their neighbors. We may be living in a “friendship recession” as 12% of adults report having no close friends and the number boasting 10 or more has tanked since 1990. Instead of engaging with others, we are checking our phones an <a href="https://www.reviews.org/mobile/cell-phone-addiction/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">average</a> of once every five minutes.
Online, we’re seeing political <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2024/06/12/how-americans-navigate-politics-on-tiktok-x-facebook-and-instagram/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">posts</a> everywhere from X to Instagram. But even back in 2020, two-thirds of Americans were already <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2020/02/26/almost-seven-in-ten-americans-have-news-fatigue-more-among-republicans/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">complaining</a> they felt worn out by the news.
This presents an opportunity for conservatives, one we have often not taken.
Unless we’re complaining about Bad Bunny or celebrating Sydney Sweeney, conservatives have largely ceded the cultural conversation to the Left. General coverage of lifestyle, pop culture, and human interest content has become the purview of the liberals at magazines and websites that would prefer for each heartwarming story about a successful GoFundMe campaign for a cancer patient to end in a call for universal healthcare.
In recent years, we’ve seen a shift among conservatives toward more lifestyle content, with the rise of the Make America Healthy Again movement. Almost overnight, conservatives began talking about protein-maxxing and incorporating beef tallow into your beauty routine. But we are often not engaging with the broader culture unless there’s an easy Right vs. Left angle.
That’s a problem. A problem we want to solve here.
At Upstream, we don’t want to focus on stories because there is an immediate partisan takeaway. We want to engage with topics in hopes of reaching a better understanding of our fellow Americans and, ultimately, how to live our own lives well.
Conservatives and traditionally minded people seem to be swimming upstream when it comes to the rest of American society. It may be more difficult, but we wouldn’t sacrifice our values for a life of ease. Plus, if politics is downstream from culture, we should be paying more attention to what’s upstream.
The purpose of this section is to be conversational, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be controversial. The questions about how to live a good life have divided humans for thousands of years. Socrates wasn’t killed for nothing.
We want to engage in considered and thoughtful arguments about everything from what to buy at the grocery store and how to engage with that Oscar-nominated film everyone is talking about, to when to get your kid her first cellphone and where to find products from brands whose values you support. Here we ask the big and small questions, and we champion individual agency.
Upstream is The Daily Wire&#8217;s home for articles on all of these subjects, which you can <a href="https://www.bentkey.com/topic/upstream">find here</a>. We welcome submissions; interested writers can send pitches to upstream@dailywire.com.
“Everything depends on the individual human being, regardless of how small a number of like-minded people there is, and everything depends on each person, through action and not mere words, creatively making the meaning of life a reality in his or her own being,” Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl wrote in &#8220;Yes to Life: In Spite of Everything.&#8221;
When Americans are feeling alienated from each other and are turning for solace to political outrage or AI companionship, exploring how to live the good life is an imperative. Here, you will find real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.

Untitled design – 2026-02-16T105201.190

Introducing Upstream: The Daily Wire’s New Home For Culture And Lifestyle

Culture

MAHA

Upstream

Disney is preparing to fundamentally reshape the streaming landscape. After taking full ownership of Hulu in 2023, the company is now moving to shut the platform down and fold its entire library into Disney+ as part of a “one app experience.” That migration could occur imminently, and the scale of change is staggering.
When Disney launched Disney+ in 2019, the streaming marketplace was already crowded. Amazon Prime Video debuted in 2006, Netflix in 2007, and Hulu in 2008. With few external restrictions on content — no oversight from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and no advertisers, at that time, to hold content in check. As a result, these platforms broke boundaries that even premium cable channels like HBO and Cinemax would not have dared. offering more vulgarity, more graphic violence, more sex and nudity.
Disney+ promised to be different. 
From the beginning, Disney positioned its platform as a safe haven for families; a platform parents could trust implicitly. That promise worked. More than 10 million subscribers signed up within the first 24 hours, many of them parents desperate to escape the exhausting and never-ending task of shielding young eyes from suggestive poster art and racy titles like “Zac and Miri Make a Porno” or “Nymphomaniac” while they searched menus for the handful of child-appropriate titles that might be available. 
Market research confirmed this distinction. One industry analysis <a href="https://morningconsult.com/articles/disney-plus-streaming-market-brand-data">called</a> Disney+ “the category’s most intentionally chosen service.” Morning Consult found Disney+ scored +45 for “entertaining the kids,” while competitors posted negative scores across the board. “Disney+ is not interchangeable here,” the analysis concluded. “In household decision-making, this is Disney+’s moat.”
Disney executives publicly reinforced this family-first positioning. Months before launch, entertainment reporter Eric Vespe recalled asking a Disney representative whether R-rated content would appear on Disney+. The answer: Disney+ would remain PG-13 or softer, while more mature material would live on Hulu. Disney invested heavily in Hulu so adult-oriented material could remain off the Disney+ platform.
That intentional separation is now being completely dismantled. 
In the summer of 2025, executives signaled plans to shut down Hulu and migrate its entire library into Disney+.
Concerned Women for America (CWA) <a href="https://concernedwomen.org/2026-cwa-netflix-research/">looked at</a> the numbers and discovered that while Disney+ currently hosts fewer than 20 R-rated films, after the merger, that number will exceed 400 — a more than 2,200% increase. Mature-rated television series will escalate from 45 to nearly 400 — a more than 800% increase. Families who subscribed specifically for child-friendly programming will suddenly find their child’s favorite streaming platform flooded with volumes of adult material.
Parents have already seen glimpses of what this future looks like. Last year, families reported surprise and frustration when mature-themed series promotions appeared on Disney+ home screens, prompting uncomfortable questions from young children. Many parents believed Disney+ was designed to prevent exactly this scenario.
This shift represents more than a technical update. It represents a fundamental brand reversal.
Disney was once synonymous with wholesome family entertainment. Parents built household media habits around that identity. Children were given access to Disney+ because families trusted the brand.
That trust is now being put at risk.
Even more concerning is the creative direction Disney leadership appears eager to embrace. One of the most striking examples is the company’s reported interest in hiring producer Ryan Murphy as soon as his development deal with Netflix ends; Murphy’s career has largely focused on dark, adult-themed dramas. 
Murphy’s previous projects have centered on crime, horror, and provocative themes that were never intended for children. Yet Disney executives appear willing to fold this creative approach into a corporate ecosystem historically built around family audiences.
Walt Disney famously said, “Our greatest natural resource is the minds of our children.” That philosophy guided decades of storytelling built around imagination, optimism, and moral clarity.
Today’s leadership seems increasingly disconnected from that legacy.
And while Disney may point to parental controls as a solution, technology cannot solve a branding problem. The issue is not whether filters exist. The issue is whether adult content belongs on the same platform that parents deliberately chose for preschoolers and elementary-age children.
Mixing Mickey Mouse with mature television may make business sense on a spreadsheet. But it erodes the trust that made Disney+ successful in the first place.
The question now is simple: Will Disney honor the promise that built its streaming success — or abandon the families who made it possible?
The future of Disney+ may depend on how loudly parents answer that question.
* * *
Melissa Henson is the Senior Policy Advisor for Media and Culture for <a href="http://www.concernedwomen.org/">Concerned Women for America</a>, the nation’s public policy women’s organization, dedicated to promoting biblical values and constitutional principles in public policy. On X: @CWforA
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Rear View Of Two Boys Watching Movie Together, Lena, United States

Disney+ Is About To Be Flooded With Adult Content, And Parents Are Right To Be Alarmed

Disney

Entertainment

Film

Hulu

kids

Movies

sexual content

Television

Violence

I grew up believing America is the land of opportunity. Over the last few years, however, I have begun to wonder if that America still exists. Are we still the kind of nation where children can realistically pursue happiness, homeownership, and the American Dream?
Even in the face of endless division and media narratives designed to make families doubt it, I believe, perhaps now more than ever, the answer is yes. That’s due in large part to the Trump administration introducing <a href="https://trumpaccounts.gov/?utm_source=chatgpt.com">Trump Accounts</a>, a major step in setting American children up for success. And that means a lot to this mother of three with a newborn at home.
During the Biden years, I was genuinely scared about the financial state of our country. Inflation was out of control, crime was rising, and the value of the dollar felt meaningless. I couldn’t help but wonder if my kids would ever be able to afford homes, raise families, or even live independently in the country I love.
That fear is exactly why <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/3209769/why-mothers-should-back-trump/">I pleaded</a> with other moms to vote for Donald Trump. And now, everything feels different.
Last month, I gave birth to my youngest daughter, Monroe Lee, a name rooted in American history. And for the first time in years, I feel something I haven’t felt in a long time about this country, real hope for the American Dream. Inflation and crime are down, and Wall Street can’t outbid first-time home buyers. Under President Trump, the American Dream feels alive and well again.
That’s why Trump Accounts hit me personally.
These investment accounts are brilliant in their simplicity. This isn’t some complicated, exclusive program — it’s a literal capital investment that starts growing right away. A $1,000 jumpstart for a better future.
If we want our nation to prosper, we must facilitate individual prosperity, and one of the easiest ways to kickstart long-term, widespread opportunity is to give every child a personal stake in the nation’s success from day one. Not only will they grow into more financially independent adults — reducing long-term reliance on government programs — but they will be literal stakeholders in America’s prosperity itself. With skin in the game, they’ll be eager to contribute so they can reap the financial benefits of their hard work, thereby driving progress and innovation. It’s textbook win-win-win.
While my first two children were born during the dark economic days under Biden, my third qualifies for a Trump Account. If we simply open the account, that original <a href="https://corporate.vanguard.com/content/corporatesite/us/en/corp/articles/what-to-know-about-new-trump-accounts-for-kids.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com">$1,000 could be up to $8,000 by age 18, and over $18,000 by age 28.</a> It could potentially turn into tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars by adulthood — especially if parents and family contribute. Under current guidance, parents, employers, and even philanthropists can add to these accounts, and contributions are invested in low-cost, diversified funds designed for growth. 
<div id="attachment_1038081" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1038081" class="size-large wp-image-1038081" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-1933761156-864x576.jpg" alt="nicoletaionescu. Getty Images. Mother and child having fun walking outdoors in winter season" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-1933761156-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-1933761156-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-1933761156-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-1933761156-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-1933761156-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-1933761156-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-1933761156-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />nicoletaionescu. Getty Images.</div>
This is the kind of financial opportunity that creates generational wealth — something that has, for too long, mostly been accessible only to the already wealthy. But Trump Accounts change that by giving every child a tangible financial head start.
The tragic reality is that most Americans lack the kind of financial literacy and experience that builds wealth. That’s why it often seems that the rich get richer: they know what they’re doing, and oftentimes they have a head start. While the American Dream provides endless opportunities, that means little to those who don’t know how to take advantage of them. But Trump Accounts make it as easy as it’s ever going to get to <a href="https://time.com/7358662/trump-accounts-babies-kids-investment-businesses/">break the curse of generational poverty</a> and shrink economic disparities.
Hard-working Americans — parents, grandparents, employers, and even outside donors like Michael and Susan Dell — can contribute to these accounts over the years so kids can watch their money grow with them. Major financial firms have committed to <a href="https://people.com/jpmorgan-chase-bank-of-america-match-employees-trump-accounts-11894873">matching contributions</a> for employees’ children, and some philanthropic investments provide additional seed funds for those who otherwise might be left out. 
Even just that sense of security in knowing there’s money in the bank can pave the way for children to pursue greater opportunities as they unfold before them. By the end of President Trump’s term, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/society-equity/bessent-says-500000-have-signed-up-trump-accounts-more-donations-coming-2026-01-28/">25 million American children</a> could have investment accounts growing in their name — if only parents and families simply take advantage of this opportunity.
As a mother, I’m perpetually thinking about the long game: Am I teaching my kids the skills they’ll need as they grow? Am I instilling values that lead to success? Am I doing everything I can to set them up for happiness and prosperity? But it isn’t just parents who should be thinking about these things. The whole nation should consider what we are doing now to build a better future for those coming after us.
At the very least, every American child now has equal access to a seeded investment portfolio, regardless of race, creed, or economic status, thus creating unprecedented possibilities for tens of millions of Americans through generations to come. The clichés are real — the best time to start was yesterday, but the second-best time is now, because now is when their future starts.
***
Jillian Anderson King is a former Washington Redskins Cheerleader Ambassador and ABC’s The Bachelor and The Bachelor in Paradise contestant. She’s a Mombassador for Moms for America, an ambassador for Turning Point and Turning Point Faith, and a proud Christian Conservative mother and wife. Jillian is also the founder of The Kings Firm, a strategic communications firm.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

US-POLITICS-TRUMP

A Mother’s Case For The Return Of The American Dream

A Mother's Case For The Return Of The American Dream

Donald Trump

finance

Funding

Money

Mothers

Trump Accounts

Trump Administration

Conservatives are used to being called names: racist, sexist, transphobic, and the list goes on. Typically, these charges are rooted in policy differences: If you oppose DEI and racial quotas, the Left will call you racist. If you oppose men competing in women’s sports, you’re a transphobe. These labels are weapons used to advance political narratives, and typically deserve the same attention as an unhinged, all-caps comment in your X feed. They should be ignored.
Yet when it comes to sexism, conservatives should consider how their messaging makes the sexist charge stick with women who otherwise might join our movement. Conservative leaders aren’t misogynists, but particularly when speaking to and about women, they are sometimes tone deaf.
Take the issue of marriage and family life. For good reason, conservatives frequently trumpet evidence showing the benefits of marriage and family formation. Children raised by married parents enjoy a long list of benefits. Married women and men are less likely to live in poverty, have better health outcomes, and report higher levels of happiness and life satisfaction than their single counterparts. This is important information for the public to have.
Yet efforts to raise awareness about the benefits of marriage and family formation frequently come across as denigrating childless or unmarried women. Conservatives may think they are countering nihilistic TikTok influencers and gender studies professors who seem driven to convince impressionable young women that marriage and children are the enemies of good mental health, while an OnlyFans career offers true fulfillment. Yet the persuadable women most likely to hear conservatives’ counter messages are women who already recognize the benefits of marriage and children, but who find themselves outside those institutions nonetheless.
Today, nearly 20% of women over age 45 are childless. According to a <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2024/07/25/the-experiences-of-u-s-adults-who-dont-have-children/">Pew survey</a> of childless adults, nearly 40% admit that they once wanted children. That’s almost certainly an understatement since many childless adults likely don’t want to admit, even to themselves, that they regret missing this irreplaceable part of the human experience.
Additionally, about one-quarter of children are being raised by a single parent. Those single parents don’t need to be told how much easier it would be to have another adult helping to give their kids all the love and support they need. They live it every day.
Touting the benefits of a happy family life can seem not so much instructive as rubbing it in. Done wrong, this messaging risks not only alienating childless and unmarried women, but all of those who love them. When women hear that messaging, they don’t solely think about how it impacts them, but also the people they love and worry about the most: their dear best friend who hasn’t found a husband; their beloved, recently divorced sister juggling kids’ schedules and costs. Married women with children will reject those who they see as dunking on their loved ones.
Conservative leaders should also keep this in mind when addressing work-life issues. Of course, parents should know how vulnerable children are in those first months and years of life, and why investing time in them is so beneficial. Yet, when done wrong, those messages can sound like attacks on working women — many of whom would love to downshift their careers but feel like they can’t afford to do so.
It is certainly true that facts don&#8217;t care about your feelings. Political leaders must make policy decisions grounded in clear-eyed reality. Yet it is also true that feelings are often unmoved by facts. That is why, when communicating about sensitive and deeply personal issues, policy leaders must be careful in how they communicate those realities, because poorly chosen words can do far more damage than good.
Republicans do not want to be seen as a party that only values married mothers or only women as mothers. The party also welcomes single women, widows, lesbians, and divorcees — any woman — so long as she shares the core conservative beliefs that personal responsibility, limited government, and free markets are the foundation of a flourishing country.
Republicans should be succeeding in winning women over. Democrats have spent recent years denigrating the very concept of womanhood — as if being a woman is a costume that you can put on and take off. Conservatives took the lead in defending women as a distinct group worthy of equal opportunity and protection under the law. Women saw this and recognized conservatives as the champions of common sense and core women’s rights.
Conservative policies are fundamentally pro-woman: Women thrive in a safe, secure society with a robust economy offering plentiful opportunities for people to pursue their own visions of happiness. This policy vision needs to be communicated carefully, in a manner that shows that women — all women, not just married mothers — are valued and can find a home in our movement.
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Carrie Lukas is the president of the non-profit Independent Women&#8217;s Forum. Follow her on X at @carrielukas.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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When It Comes To Reaching Women, Republicans Aren’t Misogynistic. Just Tone Deaf.

When It Comes To Reaching Women, Republicans Aren't Misogynistic. Just Tone Deaf.

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For most of my adult life, I thought I knew exactly what my family would look like.
Two kids is the cultural norm now. That’s the number most people plan for, budget for, and feel comfortable defending. Two fits neatly into modern life. Two feels responsible. Two feels safe.
But I didn’t grow up in a family of two kids.
I came from a family of three. And because of that, three always felt right to me. Three felt full. Three felt lively. Three felt like the right amount of chaos and connection. So when my wife and I started our family, I assumed we’d land there — not to make a statement, but because it was the model I knew and loved.
For a long time, that plan held.
But I was also very clear about one thing: I would never have a kid in my 40s.
That was the line. The boundary. A promise I made back when 40 felt distant and theoretical — something older people dealt with.
Then I turned 40.
And a few weeks ago, my wife and I welcomed our fourth child into the world.
What I’ve learned, slowly and humbly, is that many of the promises we make when we’re younger are less about wisdom and more about fear.
Fear of sacrifice. 
Fear of inconvenience. 
Fear of losing control over a life we’ve worked hard to build.
Our culture feeds those fears relentlessly. It is engineered for comfort, speed, and personalization. It trains us to ask one question above all others: What do I get right now?
Children ask a different question.
They ask: What are you willing to give, over and over, for something that won’t pay you back today?
In that sense, kids are the ultimate form of delayed gratification.
They require sacrifice upfront — years of it. Sleep. Freedom. Money. Flexibility. Control. There is no way to sugarcoat that. Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying or trying to sell you something.
But the reward comes later. Slowly. Quietly. Compounding over time.
The first time your toddler reaches for your hand in a crowded room. 
The first time your child looks to you for moral clarity. 
The first time siblings defend one another without being asked. 
The moment you realize you are no longer the center of your own universe — and feel relief instead of loss.
This is what our culture never explains: sacrifice is not the enemy of happiness. Selfishness is.
A society addicted to instant gratification struggles to understand children, because children force adults to play the long game. They demand patience. They require faith — not just religious faith, but faith in the future. Faith that what you are building today will matter tomorrow.
That’s why having a big family today feels almost rebellious.
Birth rates are collapsing. Marriage is delayed or avoided. Children are framed as “lifestyle constraints” rather than blessings. Entire industries exist to convince young people that adulthood is something to postpone indefinitely.
And yet, there is a truth no one likes to say out loud because it cuts against the narrative.
No one — absolutely no one — who loves their kids ever says, “I shouldn’t have had that child.”
People regret jobs. 
They regret cities. 
They regret relationships. 
They regret wasted years chasing empty validation.
But parents do not sit at the end of their lives wishing they had fewer children. They wish they had more time with them.
At 40, with four kids, I don’t feel old.
If anything, kids keep you young. They pull you into the present. They keep you moving. They force you to laugh when you’d otherwise brood. They remind you that joy is often loud, messy, inconvenient — and worth it anyway.
And then there is the gift that often goes overlooked: siblings.
Watching siblings grow up together is one of life’s quiet miracles. They fight. They forgive. They learn loyalty, compromise, and love — not from lectures, but from living shoulder to shoulder.
Long after parents are gone, siblings remain.
They are the ones who know your childhood stories. Who remember your parents’ voices. Who will sit beside you at hospital beds and holiday tables. Who will help one another bury the people who once tucked them in at night.
In a world that prizes radical independence, siblings teach something far more enduring: you are not meant to do life alone.
And yes, one day, God willing, these children will flip the script. They will care for us the way we once cared for them — not out of obligation, but out of love forged through years of shared sacrifice.
Which brings me to faith.
From the beginning, Scripture tells us, “Be fruitful and multiply.” Not as a burden, but as a blessing. Children are not described as liabilities, but as arrows, as gifts, as signs of hope.
Faith teaches us that the point of life is not comfort, but calling. Not consumption, but creation. Not hoarding time, but giving it away for something eternal.
That doesn’t mean every family looks the same. It doesn’t mean everyone is called to the same path. But it does mean we should be honest about what leads to meaning — and what leads to emptiness.
For my wife and me, welcoming a fourth child at 40 was not reckless.
It was faithful.
Faith that love multiplies when shared. 
Faith that sacrifice produces joy. 
Faith that the future is worth investing in, even when it costs us something now.
In a culture obsessed with shrinking horizons, we chose to expand ours.
And if I’m being honest, part of that choice is simple.
I’m trying to make heaven crowded.
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Gates Garcia is the host of the YouTube show and podcast “We The People.” Follow him on Instagram and X @GatesGarciaFL.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Father holding her newborn baby

I Said I’d Never Have A Child In My 40s. Then I Turned 40 And Had My Fourth.

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