Star trek starfleet

Woke TV Is Back With A Vengeance In This New Paramount Show

Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

Entertainment

Matt Walsh

Opinion

Paramount

Star Trek

Television

Woke Culture

The following is an edited transcript from &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1894-not-playing-games-trump-launches-investigation-into-minnesota-libs?elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowHeadline=Recent+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel">The Michael Knowles Show</a>.&#8221;
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Michelle Obama went viral yesterday — on Martin Luther King Day of all days — for comments about shopping habits and race.
The viral description making the rounds, however, reads, &#8220;Michelle Obama says she is mindful to try to avoid white-owned brands&#8230;&#8221;
The question is whether what she actually said matches that description.
Let&#8217;s find out. Watch:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Michelle Obama says she is mindful to try to avoid white-owned brands and others also should be <a href="https://t.co/5MqY5gaxUv">pic.twitter.com/5MqY5gaxUv</a>
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) <a href="https://twitter.com/EndWokeness/status/2013356579802767412?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 19, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Credit: @EndWokeness/X.com
At a superficial glance, just hearing her words verbatim, you’d probably have to say the viral description isn’t entirely fair. Nowhere does she explicitly say “don’t shop at white-owned brands.” Nowhere does she say “shop at black-owned brands and not white-owned brands.”
And in defense of Michelle Obama — and I don’t generally defend her — that’s not literally what she said.
She said that if she sees a black-owned brand and she likes their stuff, she’ll choose that brand. But she stops herself. She doesn’t say, “and I won’t buy from anyone else.” She doesn’t say, “I only do it because it’s black-owned.”
But here’s the problem: she injects race into the decision. She’s saying, “If I like their stuff, and if it’s black-owned, then I especially want to buy it.” And when she says, “If you have the money to buy Chanel, you have the money to buy everybody,” she very carefully stops short of finishing the sentence. She doesn’t say “black-owned brands.” She says “everybody.”
What she’s doing is trying to privilege the black-owned brand while avoiding the explicit consequence of that choice. She wants to be a racial identitarian when it comes to the positive act of buying — of supporting a business — but she doesn’t want to be a racial identitarian when it comes to the negative act of not shopping somewhere else.
She never says, “Don’t shop at white brands.” Instead, she says you need to shop at black brands, and everybody needs to shop at black brands — but maybe not less at white brands.
It’s a kind of gobbledygook. And that’s why, ultimately, I think the viral description is basically fair, even if it’s not perfectly precise.
It’s like the IQ bell curve meme. At one end, people say she told people not to shop at white stores. In the middle, it’s “she said to shop at black stores but also shop at white stores.” And at the other end, what she’s really saying is: shop less at white stores. Her minor premise is wrong. She says if you have the money to buy Chanel, you have the money to buy everybody.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1894-not-playing-games-trump-launches-investigation-into-minnesota-libs?elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowHeadline=Recent+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel">WATCH: The Michael Knowles Show</a></h3>
That’s simply not true. Money is a finite resource. Just because you can afford one expensive brand doesn’t mean you have infinite money. And even if you did have infinite money, you have finite closet space. You have a finite number of dresses you’ll wear. A finite number of days in the week. Where are you going to wear all these clothes?
This is the core problem with diversity ideology. If you privilege one thing, you necessarily disadvantage another. 
This is exactly the problem with affirmative action. Everyone says, “Oh, it’s great, we should help out black people.” And yes, for the vast majority of Americans, that sounds good. Who doesn’t want to help?
But affirmative action in practice means something very concrete. There are a finite number of spots at a university. A finite number of jobs. When you give an advantage to black people simply for being black, you are necessarily disadvantageous to someone else — often white people, or Asian people in the case of college admissions. There is discrimination happening. There is an injustice that comes with that, too.
The same logic applies here. When you say, “I’m going to shop at the black brand,” you are necessarily saying that, at the margin — the last dress that fits in your closet — you are not going to shop at the white brand. You are choosing not to go into that shop, not because you dislike the dress, but because of the race of the person who owns it.
That is discrimination on the basis of race. That’s what Michelle Obama is saying — without saying it. She doesn’t want to go all the way, but there is no other conclusion you can reach from her premises.
This ties directly into why people don’t really talk about Martin Luther King Jr. the same way anymore. Part of it is that the modern Left rejects him because he was too conciliatory and too egalitarian. But the other reason is that the practical politics don’t match the rhetoric.
Dr. King famously said, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” 
And yet his successors say that in order to achieve that dream, we need affirmative action, DEI, and diversity ideology. Which, in practice, means judging people — especially white people — by the color of their skin.
Taken to its extreme, it means not shopping at white-owned businesses. And even if you agree with MLK’s premise, you are completely undermining it with these practical consequences.
So no, I don’t begrudge Michelle Obama for shopping at black-owned businesses. That’s fine. But if you’re going to say it, say it with your whole heart. Finish the sentence.
Tell people explicitly: shop at black businesses. Don’t shop at white businesses. Define what counts as ownership — 50% plus one ownership? Board seats? Stakeholders? I don’t know. But say it clearly.
And if you’re not willing to say that, then just buy the dress you like.

2025 Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival

Michelle Obama And The Logic Of ‘Mindful’ Shopping

Affirmative Action

Blacks

Business

Clothes

Corporations

Fashion

Michael Knowles

Michelle Obama

Monday was Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a day celebrating the legacy of a man who is famous in the United States for saying that we ought to judge people based on the content of their character, rather than the color of their skin.
The story of the Civil Rights Act is one of Southern Democrats largely opposing the Civil Rights Movement.
Ever since then, Democrats have been searching for the next Civil Rights Movement. We&#8217;ve seen many iterations of this over the course of the subsequent decades. We saw a quasi-civil rights movement pushed by the Left with regard to gender and sexuality, the idea that women had to be freed from the predations of the patriarchy, similar to the way that black people required freeing from the predations of Jim Crow.
That, of course, was a bad analogy.
Then we heard the same thing with regard to LGBTQ+-, that this was the new civil rights movement.
But now, Democrats seem to have hit upon the idea that the new civil rights movement is illegal immigration.
They believe illegal immigrants must be allowed to stay in the United States, and enforcement of the laws against illegal immigration is itself a form of white supremacy.
The Democrats are stretching on this one because they’re running out of examples of true policy-driven widespread American racism. The demand is higher than the supply.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2350-the-left-says-opposing-illegal-immigration-is-white-supremacy?elementPosition=1&amp;row=0&amp;rowHeadline=Recent+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-974957" 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>
Here’s one example: Eric Holder, the former attorney general of the United States, <a href="https://x.com/DailyCaller/status/2013289466098495727?s=20">suggested on Monday</a> that the Voting Rights Act is under a serious and abiding threat. Not only that, he suggested that there was the threat that America was about to be resegregated by the Trump administration, saying, “We are experiencing unprecedented mid-decade gerrymandering attempts designed to disproportionately disenfranchise black and brown voters. As the president desperately clings to power like an insecure dictator, there is a concerted effort to resegregate America.”
There is not a “concerted effort to segregate America.” No one who is sentient in America believes that there is. No one is worried that black Americans are now going to be forced to drink out of different water fountains, or be forced to go to different schools, or that we are going to resegregate restaurants or anything like that.
This is a wild overstatement. The reality is that the story of the post-Jim Crow racial situation in America was one of increasing good relations between the races.
That was true all the way up to 2013, according to the polling data. A vast majority of both black Americans and white Americans, up until roughly 2013, thought that American race relations were improving steadily, and that they had improved markedly since the 1960s.
Then we slipped into the BLM era and the late stages of the Obama presidency. That sank Americans’ perceptions of race relations.
But that does not mean that black Americans are being held underfoot by white Americans, that white supremacy rules the roost these days.
Thus, Democrats are looking for their new civil rights movement. They need another excuse for why they ought to be in charge, why they have the moral high ground.
That&#8217;s a hard case to make. The Democratic Party has lost the moral high ground on a wide variety of issues: It has become not only the abortion-on-demand party, but the Celebrate Your Abortion party. The Democratic Party has become a party that cannot explain to you why a woman isn&#8217;t a man and a man isn&#8217;t a woman. It has become the party of full-scale open borders, and so now they are going to attempt to cram the illegal immigration issue into the civil rights discussion.
And it won’t work.

GettyImages-963790794

The Left Says Opposing Illegal Immigration Is White Supremacy

Ben Shapiro

Civil Rights

Voting Rights

MixCollage-19-Jan-2026-05-19-PM-4826

It’s Time: We Need To Start Arresting Liberal Lunatics Like Don Lemon — Now

It's Time: We Need To Start Arresting Liberal Lunatics Like Don Lemon — Now

Church

Don Lemon

FACE Act

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

Leftists

Minnesota

Protesters

If there&#8217;s one key rule to American politics, it’s this: Americans do not like ugly pictures on their television.
There’s a lot Americans will tolerate, so long as they don’t have to see it on their televisions. Bad things happen constantly, both around the world and here at home. In a country of 340 million people, that’s inevitable. But when bad things elevate to television on a consistent basis, people tend not to like it. And that&#8217;s what has happened with ICE activity in major cities.
Who gets blamed for those ugly pictures on the television becomes the question, but it is not typically good for the elevation of an issue when raised under a particular president. If there are tons of pictures of people crossing the border en masse on our television under Joe Biden, it is not going to redound to his benefit. If there are a lot of ugly pictures on television of ICE agents confronting illegal immigrants or people who are attempting to block and tackle on behalf of illegal immigrants, it turns out that Americans aren&#8217;t going to like that either.
Americans generally like the idea of Immigration and Customs Enforcement doing immigration enforcement, finding people who are here illegally and deporting them, particularly if those people are criminals.
But what they do not like are pictures on their television screens of mass mobilization in the streets. They don&#8217;t like images of people being shot in their cars, even under disputed circumstances like Renee Good.
Fifty-six percent of Americans thought ICE was being too tough in November; today, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ice-trump-greenland-trump-poll/">that number is 61%</a>. Only about 15% say they&#8217;re not being tough enough. Among independents, only 35% say that the protesters have gone too far.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/bss-ep-2349?elementPosition=6&amp;row=5&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-974957" 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>
The Trump administration would like to believe that Americans believe that the people being prioritized for deportation are criminal illegal immigrants, because that is who is generally being prioritized: criminal illegal immigrants. But increasingly, Americans are not feeling that.
In November, 48% of Americans said that it was largely dangerous criminals who were being prioritized for deportation. Today, that number is 44%. Approval for the Trump administration&#8217;s program to deport immigrants illegally in the United States has dropped from 51% in December, down to 46% today.
It isn&#8217;t about the goals; it is about the pictures. Fifty-three percent of Americans apparently say that ICE operations in the United States should be decreased. Those are not great numbers for the president on an issue where, generally, he is quite popular.
But that doesn&#8217;t mean people trust Democrats.
A recent poll out from the Wall Street Journal looked at which party in Congress is best able to <a href="https://x.com/PollTracker2024/status/2012737797832966225">handle border security</a>. Since Democrats are not trusted on this issue, the Republican numbers look good.
Ugly pictures on the television do make a difference. This is likely why Democrats are sending protesters into the streets now.
But Democrats can overplay their hand. Right now, people are attributing the ugly images to the activities of ICE. But what happens when, for example, chaos breaks out at a church, which is what happened over the weekend, when a chaotic mob stormed through and shut down a Minnesota church over a pastor&#8217;s alleged ties to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The First Amendment does not mean that you get to walk on private property and start shouting in the middle of somebody&#8217;s business or in the middle of a church service.
The FACE Act prohibits desecrating houses of worship or interfering with Christian worshipers. The DHS says they will investigate. “All of the civil DOJ agitators aren&#8217;t just targeting our officers,” said the DHS in a post. “Now they&#8217;re targeting churches to then going from hotel to hotel, church to church, hunting for federal law enforcement who are risking their lives to protect Americans.”
This sort of activity by Democrats is likely to backfire.
The most recent ugly image people have in their heads is the image of Renee Good.
But that image can be replaced by a series of ugly images from Democrats, including, for example, storming churches.
There&#8217;s a fascinating <a href="https://www.wsj.com/opinion/martin-luther-kings-game-theory-c33a577e?gaa_at=eafs&amp;gaa_n=AWEtsqd7S08GEXiQtGaQ5zxl9lQ4CDKDNsoRDUaAA3VKE-QxR5JeQBma1kPr&amp;gaa_sig=fJoFFsQ3hXvmU_v4MjDcqQaWgVg0LpSM1bR8u86IiMpvsiJduWpcV1aqKX2WGjjtpe-Om7UQChhTMC66wbF4eA%3D%3D&amp;gaa_ts=696e74cb&amp;utm_source=chatgpt.com">piece</a> by Roland Fryer in The Wall Street Journal talking about the effect of protests. And one of the points Roland Fryer makes is that a nonviolent protest that does not disrupt things like church services is likely to work out better for you than being absolutely confrontational, violent, or chaotic.
He writes, “When I was young, I mistook restraint for weakness and anger for honesty. What I failed to see — and what we still fail to teach students—was that Martin Luther King wasn’t avoiding conflict. He was engineering it, on terms that made progress possible.”
In other words, don&#8217;t run into a church, start screaming at the top of your lungs, and hope that Americans are going to like that sort of thing — because they very likely will not.
Many things are less about the policy than about the implementation.
And ugly pictures, more often than not, make the difference.

TOPSHOT-US-IMMIGRATION-ICE-SHOOTING

How Ugly Images On TV Shape Immigration Politics

Legacy Media

Minneapolis

Minnesota’s decline did not occur overnight. It was engineered, year after year, under the failed leadership of Governor Tim Walz and Minnesota Democrats. Ideology replaced oversight, political narratives replaced accountability, and “compassion” became an excuse for corruption.
In 2009, Forbes magazine named Minneapolis the safest city in America. Today, however, our state is a shell of itself, no longer known for clean government or competent leadership. It is now known for <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bessent-blasts-coward-tim-walz-for-withholding-security-amid-fraud-probe-anti-ice-protests">fraud and abuse.</a>
Across the state, hundreds of childcare centers are under investigation for allegedly stealing <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/01/12/opinion/annual-600b-federal-fraud-is-killing-us-crack-down-now/">billions of taxpayer dollars</a> meant to help children. Federal auditors are demanding proof that children were even present at these make-shift daycares with <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/minneapolis-quality-learing-center-is-officially-closed-state-records-show?author=Zach+Jewell&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Minneapolis+Quality+%E2%80%98Learing%E2%80%99+Center+Is+Officially+Closed%2C+State+Records+Show">misspelled names</a> and fake addresses. Minnesotans are rightly asking how such a massive scheme could operate openly for years without intervention. The answer is obvious and uncomfortable: Tim Walz and Minnesota Democrats allowed it to happen.
A recent press conference captured the rot. A daycare operator claimed that enrollment records, documents that would supposedly exonerate his organization, were conveniently stolen during a break-in. Worse yet, as he spoke about his business, he wore <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15426835/minnesota-somali-daycare-fraud-nokomis-daycare-glasses-interpreter.html">designer sunglasses</a>, valued at thousands of dollars.
This was not an isolated failure. Under Tim Walz, widespread fraud has become a recurring pattern. The <a href="https://www.kare11.com/article/news/local/feeding-our-future-investigation/full-coverage-feeding-our-future-fraud-scheme/89-c288f8ca-2b8d-405f-b027-e15035bf42bf">Feeding Our Future</a> scandal exposed the laundering of federal nutrition funds, even as warning signs were ignored and whistleblowers were pushed aside. Oversight collapsed. Agencies failed. The amount of fraud in Minnesota can be tied up neatly in one sentence: Tim Walz awarded Ayan Abukar the &#8220;Outstanding Refugee Award,” and four years later, Abukar is one of thousands of Minnesotans convicted of what may be the <a href="https://knsiradio.com/2025/01/27/one-sentence-one-plea-announced-in-250-million-feeding-our-future-fraud-scheme/">largest case of fraud</a> in American history.
This only exposed the central deception of Democratic governance: the idea that fraud-ridden bureaucracies are synonymous with compassion. They are not. Real compassion demands accountability, because every dollar stolen through fraud is a dollar taken from a child who needs help.
I know what government assistance is meant to do because I grew up relying on it. I was raised by my divorced mother on welfare in Harlem and later with my father in a trailer park in Oklahoma. Nothing about my childhood promised success, and the only way out was hard work. I delivered pizzas to put myself through college. I went on to serve as an Army officer stationed in South Korea on the DMZ. Five years later, I was the first in my family to begin a business career in the private sector. My life is a living case study that the promise of America is available to everyone, regardless of race or social station — if they embrace it.
That path was only possible in the United States. But I wouldn’t have been able to do that in today’s Minnesota.
Minnesota Democrats outright reject the very principles of hard work, merit, grit, and dedication. Under their leadership, fraudsters live lavishly while working families are lectured about “equity.” Agencies distribute billions of taxpayer dollars with no verification. Democrats moralize about social justice while presiding over the largest fraud scandal in American history. And unfortunately, fraud is only one symptom of a much deeper problem.
Sadly, the same Democratic ideology that tolerated corruption has also undermined public safety in our state. Under Governor Walz and Mayor Jacob Frey, Minneapolis, once one of America’s safest major cities, fell into <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/03/us/minneapolis-government-george-floyd.html">chaos</a>. In 2020, rioting and looting turned entire neighborhoods into war zones while Walz hesitated, excused, and justified lawlessness. We witnessed politicians excuse rioting and looting for four-days while families fled Minneapolis and trust evaporated.
Let’s be honest – it’s not any better today. The Left’s open border policies that began under Joe Biden’s administration have further strained local resources and eroded confidence in the rule of law. We’re seeing violent rioters destroy businesses, fight law enforcement, and cause chaos in our streets. Meanwhile, they are encouraged and egged on by Democrat leaders. Meanwhile, crime is out-of-control and families are scared to have dinner or see a show in Minneapolis.
As a result, businesses have left the state in droves, and we have quickly become a desert for opportunity and economic growth. Taxes continue to skyrocket, and both families and small businesses leave for safe havens. They don’t have to move far. It’s not only Florida, Tennessee, or Texas; instead, they are finding refuge in the neighboring states of Wisconsin, Iowa, and the Dakotas. From an economic perspective, nearly every economic indicator in Minnesota has been in free fall for a decade.
If this state were a publicly traded company, its leadership would have been fired and its stock dumped years ago.
Now, Tim Walz is <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/01/05/us-news/gov-tim-walz-expected-to-drop-reelection-bid-amid-minnesota-somali-fraud-probe-report/">stepping aside</a>, and Minnesota Democrats want voters to believe the damage leaves with him. The sad truth is, Walz is not the exception; he is the product of a one-party system that normalized failure. This fraud did not occur in one day. It happened over years, in plain sight, while Minnesota’s legislators from both parties voted, agencies approved payments, and oversight mechanisms failed again and again.
Let me be clear — we can’t fix the problems in St. Paul by electing another legislator from St. Paul. We need someone like me, a political outsider and a successful businessman. You don’t have to look far to see how President Trump has revitalized our economy with his business background and shook up the status quo to Make America Great Again. That’s what I want to emulate in Minnesota.
If we want to dismantle the largest fraud case in American history and restore trust in our state’s government, Minnesota needs leadership fundamentally different from what Democrats have to offer. We need someone willing to audit aggressively, prosecute decisively, and dismantle corrupt systems without fear of political backlash. We need a leader who understands that compassion without accountability is not kindness, it is betrayal. Minnesota does not need another lecture from progressives. It needs a reckoning.
This November, we have a once-in-a-generation moment to elect a leader that rejects the notion of socialism – doubles down on free market capitalism and our country’s Judeo-Christian founding principles. The future of Minnesota looks bright if we choose wisely.
* * *
Kendall Qualls is an Army veteran, business leader, and the leading Republican gubernatorial candidate in Minnesota.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Tim Walz announces he won’t seek reelection for Minnesota governor, January 2026

Minnesota Is A Case Study In Democratic Failure. Here’s How We Fix It.

Democrats

Fraud

Republicans

Tim Walz

As a member of Gen Z, I am often told my generation is a lost cause for conservatism — too cynical, too progressive, or just too far gone.
That assumption couldn’t be more wrong. Gen Z isn’t rejecting America; we’re demanding that it work again. And if conservatives are serious about reclaiming the soul of the nation, the path forward runs directly through the issues my generation lives with every day.
Gen Z came of age at the crossroads of stability and uncertainty. 
During President Trump’s first term, we witnessed a strong economy, interest rates that opened the door to homeownership, an end to forever wars, and a return to policies that prioritized the family.
Under President Biden, however, millions of young Americans graduated college and took entry-level jobs that barely covered their student loan payments, even as the cost of everything rose faster than their paychecks. They were told to follow the rules — go to college, take on loans, delay adulthood. Then, when those rules failed them, they were blamed.
What frustrates my peers isn’t tradition or responsibility; it’s a system that feels rigged against them. 
That’s precisely where conservatism, properly articulated, can meet the moment.
<h3>Homeownership</h3>
For Gen Z, homeownership feels less like a milestone and more like a fantasy. Sky-high rents that prevent us from putting money into savings, zoning restrictions that choke supply, and inflation driven by reckless federal spending have priced young people out of opportunity. 
Conservatives should call this what it is: a policy failure. Government rules make it harder to build homes, while bad monetary policy drains savings and pushes the dream of stability further out of reach for young families.
If we believe in ownership, stability, and opportunity, then we should lead on reforms that make it easier — not harder — for young Americans to buy homes and build wealth.
<h3>Student Debt</h3>
Then there’s student debt. Gen Z didn’t invent the student loan crisis; we inherited it.
Many borrowers were reckless, and they should repay what they owe. But recklessness was enabled by a federal loan system that treated teenagers as capable of signing six-figure contracts while shielding universities from the consequences of failure.
Subsidies have fueled tuition inflation and reduced institutional accountability, leaving students to bear the full cost of bad decisions — both theirs and the systems.
Conservatives should reject blanket loan “forgiveness” that shifts the burden to taxpayers, but we must also offer real solutions: ending the federal government’s role as a blank-check lender so private institutions once again have incentives to lend responsibly, expanding alternatives like apprenticeships and credentialing, and breaking the cartel between the federal government and higher education. Responsibility cuts both ways—and universities should finally be forced to bear some.
<h3>Building A Family </h3>
Most surprising to pundits — but obvious to anyone paying attention — is Gen Z’s renewed interest in traditional family values. After watching the loneliness, instability, and social breakdown of the last two decades, many in my generation are rediscovering what older generations once took for granted: marriage matters, family matters, and children are not obstacles to fulfillment but central to it. This isn’t nostalgia; it’s realism. Gen Z wants meaning, not just mobility. We want strong relationships, safe neighborhoods, and a culture that doesn’t sneer at commitment.
Conservatives should lean into this—not with lectures, but with policies that make it possible to start and raise a family. That means an economy where a young family has the chance to create a home and build a foundation for the future, a tax code that doesn’t treat marriage like a liability, and leaders who value faith, responsibility, and strong bonds across generations. When conservatives defend the family, we aren’t clinging to the past — we’re offering a future Gen Z actually wants.
The fight for America’s soul isn’t about writing off an entire generation. It’s about proving that our ideas can meet real needs in real lives. Gen Z is open, skeptical, and looking for answers. If conservatives are honest about the economic realities we’re dealing with and defend the institutions that make life meaningful, my generation won’t just listen — we’ll lead.
* * *
Jake Matthews is a communications manager for technology, economics, and energy at The Heritage Foundation.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Group of young multi-ethnic startup business team collaborating on project in modern office

Gen Z Isn’t Lost. We’re Looking For A Conservatism That Works.

Conservatives

Gen Z

Heritage Foundation

Housing

Real estate

I don’t think Republicans will waltz to victory in 2028.
I don&#8217;t think Democrats will waltz to victory in 2028.
It&#8217;s going to be a dogfight.
And problems exist inside both parties.
The Republican Party is divided on some major issues, ranging from the involvement of the state and economics to foreign policy. The record of whoever is the Republican nominee will also come up for scrutiny.
I&#8217;ve discussed the problems facing the Democratic Party before, which are pretty obvious: There&#8217;s a big divide between the radical base and the moderation they&#8217;re going to need to win.
Gavin Newsom may well be their presidential candidate. He wants to campaign as the guy who cooperates with ICE, as the guy who wants to be at least moderate during the transition. Newsom also wants to be fairly moderate on foreign policy, and doesn&#8217;t want to engage in a lot of the same sort of rhetorical radicalism of his own party.
Will the base allow him to do that? I don’t think so. He&#8217;s been able to hide it so far by attacking Trump. I&#8217;m not sure how long that will last. So that&#8217;s one problem for him. And of course, the other problem is his record in California. There will be a lot of Willie Horton-type ads that come out against Newsom as he runs for the presidency.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/bss-ep-2348?contentProgram=The%20Ben%20Shapiro%20Show&amp;contentType=ShowEpisode&amp;elementPosition=2&amp;location=Home%20Tab&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Home%20Featured%20Carousel"><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>
The problem for the Republicans is that Gavin Newsom is a very talented guy. I don&#8217;t think there&#8217;s any doubt when you <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/bss-ep-2348?contentProgram=The%20Ben%20Shapiro%20Show&amp;contentType=ShowEpisode&amp;elementPosition=2&amp;location=Home%20Tab&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Home%20Featured%20Carousel">watch my interview with him</a>. He is good on his feet, and slippery when he needs to be. He also does a convincing imitation of a pro-capitalist moderate. If you think that&#8217;s an imitation, maybe that&#8217;s the real Gavin Newsom, and he has had to slather it over with radicalism to get where he wants to go.
Here&#8217;s what I would urge for both parties: Perhaps you ought to take a look at what the American people want. Look at the closeness of every American election for the last 12 years and think to yourself: &#8220;Maybe if I tacked toward the middle, maybe what Americans really want is normalcy.”
It’s possible the primary structure prevents normalcy from taking the floor. But as we&#8217;re seeing from the polling data, more and more Americans are identifying as independent. And the reason for this is because all they want is a return to normalcy.
I think the reason President Trump won in 2024 is that he was by far the most normie candidate – by far.
Joe Biden was not a normie candidate. He was dead on his feet and a radical. Kamala Harris was not a normie candidate. She was an empty suit and a radical.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump took the middle position on nearly every issue. Will Republicans do the same, or will they be so high on their own supply that they go rhetorically radical over and over and over for no apparent reason?
Pursuing mainstream policy is going to be the big battle of 2028.

Governor Newsom And San Francisco Mayor Lurie Announce New Funding For Homelessness And Mental Health Ffforts In The City

2028: A Dogfight For The Middle

2028 presidential election

Democratic Party

Elections

Gavin Newsom

Liberals have taken many radical, nonsensical positions in recent years. Few are as baffling as their outrage over President Trump’s removal of Nicolás Maduro, the illegitimate, narco-terrorist dictator of Venezuela — a move the long-suffering citizens of Venezuela are openly cheering.
But not so among progressives, such as the clueless governor of Illinois, JB Pritzker, <a href="https://x.com/GovPritzker/status/2007864220017115141?s=20">who claims</a> Trump&#8217;s action was designed, &#8220;To distract from Epstein, the explosion of health and homeowners insurance costs, and the tariffs that are decimating small businesses &#8230;&#8221;
Or Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who downplays Maduro’s tyrannical brutality <a href="https://x.com/AOC/status/2007472955882692798">by claiming,</a>&#8221; It’s about oil and regime change. And they need a trial now to pretend that it isn’t. Especially to distract from Epstein + skyrocketing healthcare costs.&#8221;
So, who exactly are Pritzker, AOC, and others of their ilk defending? Why are they saying we should have left him in power?
In 2023, Joe Biden&#8217;s State Department produced a 76-page <a href="https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/528267_VENEZUELA-2023-HUMAN-RIGHTS-REPORT.pdf">assessment</a> of specific human rights abuses committed by Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro and his thugs (many of whom were apparently Cuban mercenaries) against their hapless victims. The assessment documents a staggering range of abuses, including:
<blockquote>&#8230;unlawful or arbitrary killings… enforced disappearance; torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment by security forces; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary arrest or detention by security forces… political prisoners… punishment of family members for alleged offenses by a relative… use of children by illegal armed groups; serious restrictions on freedom of expression and media freedom, including violence or threats of violence against journalists… harassment of domestic and international human rights organizations; extensive gender-based violence… trafficking in persons… and the worst forms of child labor.</blockquote>
The report makes for a tough read, given its summation of the viciousness, cruelty, and ruthlessness of Maduro and his henchmen. 
Want more? What about the details in the federal <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/media/1422326/dl">criminal indictment</a> of Maduro issued by a grand jury in New York?
The superseding indictment charges Maduro and a host of other confederates with running a drug cartel “to import tons of cocaine into the United States.” Makes sense from Maduro’s point of view: his disastrous policies turned Venezuela into an economic basket case, making a once-prosperous country a bankrupt third-world hellhole. Thus, Maduro had to get money from somewhere to line his pockets and finance his depredations.
According to the indictment, Maduro essentially turned the Venezuelan government into a massive drug and illegal weapons smuggling operation, doing everything from using Venezuelan law enforcement to protect his distribution system to issuing “diplomatic passports to drug traffickers” and providing “diplomatic cover for planes used by money launderers to repatriate drug proceeds.”
All of the money was used to enrich himself, his family, and the “political and military elite” who kept him in power. That also included partnering “with some of the most violent and prolific drug traffickers and narco-terrorists in the world,” extremely dangerous criminal cartels and terrorist groups that have kidnapped and murdered Americans, like FARC, the Sinaloa Cartel, the Zetas, or Cartel del Noreste, and Tren de Aragua.
By the way, the Caribbean drug smugglers that our military has been taking out? Part of the indictment talks about the 200 to 250 tons of cocaine “trafficked” to the U.S. annually by Maduro and his cartel cronies through “maritime shipments…north from Venezuela’s coastline using go-fast vessels, fishing boats, and container ships.” Additionally, “air shipments were often dispatched from clandestine airstrips, typically made of dirt or grass, and also from commercial airports under the control” of Maduro and his corrupt officials.
I don’t think the majority of Americans have a lot of sympathy for the criminals smuggling drugs on these “go-fast vessels, fishing boats, and container ships.”
From the drugs poisoning our citizens, especially our youth, to the citizens of Venezuela who have been censored, arrested, tortured, and killed, Maduro has been a scourge who has caused untold harm and suffering.
The political parties and both sides of the political aisle may disagree on many domestic issues. But when it comes to the removal of Nicolás Maduro Moros, progressives, liberals, and Democrats, along with conservatives and Republicans, should be praising the president for finally taking action to rid our hemisphere of this menace.
* * *
Hans von Spakovsky is a Senior Legal Fellow in the Meese Institute for the Rule of Law at Advancing American Freedom.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

TOPSHOT-US-VENEZUELA-POLITICS-TRUMP

Why Are Democrats Defending A Narco-Terrorist Dictator?

Cartels

Donald Trump

drug boat

Drug Cartels

Liberals

Nicolas Maduro

Smuggling

Venezuela

Since Inauguration Day, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers have been working nonstop to make America safe again. Thanks to their operations, the Trump administration has <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/12/10/thanks-president-trump-and-secretary-noem-more-25-million-illegal-aliens-left-us">deported more</a> than 600,000 illegal aliens, including predators, gang members, drug traffickers, and violent criminals. Another 1.9 million have chosen to self-deport rather than face arrest.
In Tennessee, we are seeing how these efforts are transforming communities for the better. ICE officers have played a vital role in President Trump’s Memphis Safe Task Force, helping restore law and order in a city that last year recorded the highest crime rate in the country. Since the task force launched in September, overall crime has dropped 44%, including a 70% reduction in car thefts and a 44% decline in murders.
In total, the task force has <a href="https://memphistn.gov/safedata/">conducted</a> more than 5,800 arrests, including hundreds of warrant arrests for domestic violence and aggravated assault and dozens more for narcotics, weapons, robbery, homicide, and sexual assault. Nearly 800 have been immigration arrests conducted by ICE officers, <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/10/20/dhs-law-enforcement-arrests-gang-members-pedophiles-drug-traffickers-part-president">apprehending</a> aliens charged with some of the worst crimes imaginable: child abuse, human trafficking, assaulting police officers, domestic violence, aggravated assault, drug dealing, and more.
A big part of this success: local, state, and federal law enforcement are working closely together to identify and detain criminals, including illegal aliens. In November, the Shelby County Sheriff <a href="https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/news/local/2025/11/05/shelby-county-memphis-tennessee-sheriff-signs-agreement-with-ice/87093263007/">signed a 287(g) agreement</a> that allows law enforcement to detain and transport illegal aliens wanted by ICE, serving as a model of what can be accomplished when authorities at all levels of government cooperate to enforce our immigration laws.
Beyond Memphis, ICE has detained dangerous criminals across Tennessee. Just last weekend, agents arrested a criminal meth dealer in Monroe County. In Nashville, agents have rounded up violent criminal illegal aliens, <a href="https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/8-venezuelan-illegal-aliens-ties-tren-da-aragua-are-charged-transnational-commercial">including Tren de Aragua gang members</a> who operated a transnational sex trafficking ring.
Operations like these are making communities safer for Tennesseans and Americans nationwide. Yet for months, Democrats have smeared these officers for doing their job and enforcing the law.
California Governor Gavin Newsom <a href="https://www.newsnationnow.com/us-news/immigration/newsom-justifies-no-secret-police-bill-prohibiting-ice-agents-from-wearing-masks/?ipid=promo-link-block1">compared</a> them to “secret police.” Minnesota’s Tim Walz <a href="https://x.com/AlphaNews/status/1923906506472243685?s=20">likened</a> them to “modern-day Gestapo.” Rep. Ilhan Omar (Minn.) <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/vile-lie-trump-official-drills-squad-member-anti-ice-post-attacks-increase">called</a> ICE’s operations “vile and beyond cruel,” while Rep. Rashida Tlaib (Mich.) <a href="https://x.com/RepRashida/status/1963246794638340238">claimed</a> agents are “turning our country into a fascist police state.”
This reckless rhetoric has put a target on the back of the brave men and women of ICE, <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/news/2026/01/08/radical-rhetoric-sanctuary-politicians-leads-unprecedented-1300-increase-assaults">who are facing</a> a 1,300% increase in assaults over the last year. In response, far-Left activists have mobilized to disrupt lawful ICE operations, endangering both agents and the public. We saw this in Minneapolis, where 37-year-old Renee Good attempted to impede federal officers and hit an ICE agent — forcing the officer, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ice-agent-struck-by-renee-goods-vehicle-suffered-internal-bleeding-from-incident-dhs-says">who suffered internal bleeding</a>, to use lethal force to stop her.
This tragedy should have never happened. But instead of dialing back their incendiary language, Democrats have doubled down. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey instructed ICE agents to “get the f— out” of the city, and Minnesota is suing the Trump administration to block their law enforcement operations. In Congress, Democrats <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5685388-shutdown-threat-dhs-ice-funding/">are threatening</a> a partial government shutdown to block funding for the agency.
Some media outlets have only made matters worse by amplifying false narratives. Just this week in Tennessee, a local news outlet <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/01/13/us-news/new-police-dashcam-video-refutes-claims-that-cops-ran-over-man-at-rowdy-anti-ice-protest/">claimed</a> that state troopers ran over a man protesting ICE. Dashcam footage later showed that the protester flagged down the vehicle, bent down in front of it, and walked off unharmed.
The lies, slander, and mischaracterizations can’t hide the truth: ICE agents are putting their lives on the line every single day to protect the American people — from Memphis to Minneapolis and everywhere in between. And they deserve our full support as they uphold the rule of law.
* * *
U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn represents the state of Tennessee and serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

National Guard Troops Patrol In Memphis, Tennessee

Marsha Blackburn: How ICE Makes It Safer In Tennessee

How ICE Is Making Us Safer In Tennessee

illegal immigrants

Marsha Blackburn

Memphis

Tennessee

Violent Crime

Domestic Terrorists Have Officially Taken Over Minneapolis. Here’s What Needs To Be Done.

Domestic Terrorists Have Officially Taken Over Minneapolis. Here's What Needs To Be Done. 

domestic terrorism

Law Enforcement

Violence

The Democratic Party is insisting that basic law enforcement action against illegal immigrants, particularly criminal illegal immigrants, is some sort of violation of the American compact. They are, astonishingly, equating the American system with the Iranian ayatollahs in terms of tyranny. 
That is the case currently being made by Ken Martin, the chair of the Democratic National Committee.
And it’s nuts.
The Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/opinion/ken-martin-dnc-ice-donald-trump-iran-renee-good-ee393f1e?gaa_at=eafs&amp;gaa_n=AWEtsqfhG8GUKeO8i8pRXbhSPQ-_Fcv_8DrnExtMG4lDLLwfMCiYuS3EPmunTq1dqXk%3D&amp;gaa_ts=69693e81&amp;gaa_sig=Bhn77IXYRUIPQsFvjsdV-YyKHIRO_XSupTQYSh-LjlWNsFRe6JKgW0tRbM62DzetJBMdDKOZlibDV-WRTYtQMQ%3D%3D">reported</a>:
<blockquote>As President Trump cancels meetings with the Iranian regime, increases the economic pressure and promises imminent help for the protesters being slaughtered in the streets, the Democratic Party’s boss has chimed in. Consider what Ken Martin, the Democratic National Committee Chairman, has to say:
“From Tehran to my birthplace of Minneapolis, people are rising up against systems that wield violence without accountability,” Mr. Martin wrote Sunday on social media. “Solidarity across borders means opposing authoritarian power everywhere and defending the right to live free from fear and state violence.”
When told that the continuing massacres by Iran’s regime and the tragic, split-second Jan. 7 killing of Renee Good by a U.S. law-enforcement officer aren’t the same, Mr. Martin plunged deeper into moral equivalence.
“If comparing the U.S. to Iran makes you angry, ask why,” he wrote. “Killing protesters. Crushing dissent. Kidnapping and disappearing legal citizens. Ignoring courts. Threatening critics. Terrorizing communities. That’s authoritarian behavior—anywhere.”</blockquote>
This is incredibly ironic, as the leader of the DNC — the party that has treated Hamas, Hezbollah, and all the various terror arms of Iran as some sort of half-political organizations, treated the Iranian government as a quasi-innocent in the region — now cites Iran as the repressive power to compare to President Trump, the president who actually struck Iran back in June of last year, blowing up their nuclear facility at Fordow.
It&#8217;s also amazing he compares the ayatollahs who are ordering the shooting of thousands of people in the streets to ICE agents enforcing criminal law while obstructed by benighted and misguided people.
“Killing protesters?” The Trump administration is not unleashing ICE to mass-shoot protesters. That&#8217;s insane. That&#8217;s psychotic.
And disgusting.
Ken Martin is out of his mind. “Kidnapping and disappearing legal citizens. Ignoring courts. Threatening critics. Terrorizing communities. That’s authoritarian behavior—anywhere.”
That is absolutely insane. The fact that Ken Martin would say such things is demonstrative of how disconnected the Democratic Party is from reality at its top levels.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2347-democrats-ice-is-just-like-the-ayatollahs?elementPosition=8&amp;row=2&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-974957" 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>
He&#8217;s not the only one who&#8217;s saying this, by the way. Representative Eugene Vindman of Virginia said on CNN, &#8220;We need to support the Iranian people in their struggle for freedom and independence. They&#8217;re protesting largely peacefully on the streets. And they&#8217;re being attacked and murdered. And I think, you know, there&#8217;s an irony, obviously, in what we see with ICE on America&#8217;s streets.&#8221;
Peter Baker of The New York Times was on MS NOW, where he declaimed, “People are watching the split screen situation of mass protests in Tehran and mass protests in Minneapolis. And of course, they&#8217;re looking to see how a president handles each of them. And while you really can&#8217;t compare the substance of these two very important issues happening for different parts of the planet, you can, I think, look at the rule of thumb that Donald Trump brings to it.”
“And I think the rule of thumb is pretty simple,” he continued. “If you&#8217;re protesting against a regime he disfavors, he opposes, then you&#8217;re heroes. If you&#8217;re protesting him or his policies, then you are illegitimate. You&#8217;re radicals. You&#8217;re radical Left lunatics.”
That&#8217;s ridiculous. If you are protesting the Ayatollah’s regime — the one where they murder you if you protest; the one where women are forced to wear hijabs; the one where they spread terrorism all over the region while impoverishing their people to the tune of no water or power in their capital — I don&#8217;t see how that is comparable to someone looting gun lockers in ICE vehicles in Minneapolis.
Why do Democrats and the Left embrace this equivalence? The truth is that they make excuses on a consistent basis for some of the worst people in the Middle East while ripping into governments that attempt to fight those people in the Middle East.
There&#8217;s been significantly more ire from the mainstream media at Israel for its action in the Gaza Strip, which was targeted action against a terrorist group hiding behind civilians, than there has been against the Iranian government thus far.
The enemy of good sense is the failure to speak basic truths.
There is a deeper agenda at work, of course. And that deeper agenda has to do with a Democratic party point of view that suggests that the importation of a large number of people from outside the United States inherently makes the United States culturally stronger.
That leads to this agenda: Don&#8217;t enforce immigration law.
The narrative that is being promoted by the Democrats and by the legacy media is that ICE is willy-nilly mass-arresting people for no reason at all based on the color of their skin.
That is a lie.
The vast majority of people that ICE is detaining and actually arresting after detention are criminals.
The Democrats are hoping that a little chaos and willfully misleading people will convince America to give up on immigration enforcement.
They are wrong.

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