- 2 days ago
Is America truly the land of the free — or has power, control, and corruption changed everything?
From government overreach to censorship and civil unrest, this video examines how far the U.S. has drifted from its founding ideals. 🇺🇸
🔍 Explore:
How freedom is being tested in modern America
Signs of rising authoritarianism
What history tells us about nations that lost their liberty
A must-watch for anyone who cares about democracy, power, and truth.
⚠️ Watch till the end — the final comparison will leave you questioning everything.
From government overreach to censorship and civil unrest, this video examines how far the U.S. has drifted from its founding ideals. 🇺🇸
🔍 Explore:
How freedom is being tested in modern America
Signs of rising authoritarianism
What history tells us about nations that lost their liberty
A must-watch for anyone who cares about democracy, power, and truth.
⚠️ Watch till the end — the final comparison will leave you questioning everything.
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00Chaos and horror on a college campus.
00:03Conservative activist Charlie Kirk gunned down in front of a crowd at Utah Valley University.
00:08The state's governor calling it a political assassination.
00:13Everyone's just like scared. Like, it's traumatizing.
00:16I watched a fountain of blood come out of the side of his neck like a water fountain.
00:21In September 2025, conservative activist Charlie Kirk was fatally shot during a campus event in Utah.
00:28A political assassination that sent shockwaves across America.
00:32Leaders in both parties quickly condemned the killing as an unacceptable act of political violence.
00:38President Donald Trump mourned Kirk as a great and even legendary ally and ordered flags at half-staff.
00:44Charlie was a patriot who devoted his life to the cause of open debate and the country that he loved so much, the United States of America.
00:54He fought for liberty, democracy, justice, and the American people.
00:59He's a martyr for truth and freedom, and there's never been anyone who was so respected by youth.
01:06But Trump also blamed the radical left for creating a climate of hate, saying their habit of likening conservatives to Nazis,
01:14quote,
01:15While Democrats and Republicans alike called for a unity and a rejection of violence, the aftermath revealed a deeply fractured society.
01:27Some on the right cast Kirk as a martyr and immediately pointed fingers at liberals.
01:32Elon Musk declared, quote,
01:33The left is the party of murder, and others echoed that this is war.
01:38We will prevail over the forces of wickedness and evil.
01:43They cannot imagine what they have awakened.
01:47They cannot conceive of the army that they have arisen in all of us.
01:54Because we stand for what is good, what is virtuous, what is noble.
01:59Meanwhile, a few voices on the left mocked Kirk's death, provoking outrage and swift rebuke.
02:05The tenor of the reaction, grief and fear mingled with partisan blame and even calls for retribution,
02:11exemplified the dangerous erosion of American democratic norms.
02:15A high-profile murder that should have united the nation in mourning instead became further fuel for its political fire.
02:22The whole goal here is to have conversations and to make sure that people can meet in the middle to talk about the issues they care about.
02:29It's not necessary that they agree all the time, but having an open dialogue is critical.
02:33When that breaks down, that's when you get to the moment where people feel the only option is to pursue violence.
02:39This tragic episode crystallizes many symptoms of democratic decay, surging polarization, the normalization of political violence,
02:48and an impulse to silence or punish opponents rather than seek understanding.
02:53Today, WatchMojo examines key themes in America's perceived democratic backsliding,
02:58trends that should alarm conservatives and liberals alike and spur all citizens to defend our fragile republic.
03:04We can do this the easy way or the hard way. Those are not the words of a mob boss in Goodfellas.
03:11Those are the words of the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.
03:15They were words of warning delivered on a right-wing podcast and aimed at the broadcasters of a late-night comedian.
03:22Once a fringe term, cancel culture has become a mainstream concern as Americans witness an escalating cycle of punitive outrage and speech suppression across the ideological spectrum.
03:33In the wake of Kirk's assassination, for example, comments by public figures and private citizens sparked a wave of firings and suspensions.
03:41Educators across the country are filing lawsuits alleging they were unlawfully fired for their comments about Charlie Kirk's assassination.
03:49In the complaints obtained by ABC News, plaintiffs claim their First Amendment rights were violated because the comments were made on personal social media accounts.
03:57One teacher in Iowa says she was fired for comparing Kirk to a Nazi.
04:01Nearly 300 teachers in Texas came under investigation simply for voicing negative opinions about Kirk's politics.
04:08A comic book writer who posted a celebratory remark was promptly dropped by her publisher.
04:13Even major media personalities weren't immune.
04:16ABC suspended the late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel for nearly a week after he made controversial remarks about the circumstances of Kirk's assassination.
04:24We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.
04:37This suspension came only hours after Brendan Carr, the Trump-appointed FCC chairman, openly threatened to revoke TV station licenses over Kimmel's remarks, a shocking precedent of government leverage to silence a critic.
04:50Free speech advocates reacted with alarm, calling it, quote, beyond McCarthyism and warning that dissenting voices are being systematically muzzled.
04:59Going down this road, there will come a time when a Democrat wins again, wins the White House.
05:06They will get rid of every talk show host in America that's a conservative.
05:09They'll get rid of every podcast.
05:11They'll get rid of everybody on YouTube.
05:12They will silence us.
05:13They will use this power and they will use it ruthlessly.
05:17Ironically, politicians who long decried cancel culture on college campuses are now wielding it as a weapon.
05:2344th U.S. President Barack Obama noted that the current administration has taken canceled culture, quote, to a new and dangerous level.
05:31Former President Obama called out Kimmel's show being pulled off the air and he writes, quote,
05:37After years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn't like.
05:51This marks a stark norm shift.
05:54Once, Americans across the spectrum agreed that the remedy for bad speech was more speech.
06:00Now, both left and right often reach for the cudgel of deplatforming.
06:04Such intolerance of opposing views, whether enforced by Twitter mobs or federal regulators, corrodes the culture of open debate that democracy requires.
06:13The new norm that those with power should punish speech they deem unacceptable represents a dangerous abandonment of First Amendment values.
06:22ABC and Disney tonight have good reason to brace for retribution from the president for putting Jimmy Kimmel back on the air.
06:27He's already promised it.
06:29Quoting from his social media posts,
06:30Of course, new norms don't just fall from the sky.
06:47The rise of social media has supercharged political polarization in America, trapping citizens in echo chambers that reinforce their biases and inflame divisions.
06:57Algorithms on platforms like X, Facebook, and YouTube are designed to maximize engagement, often by promoting the most sensational and extreme content.
07:07The result is a digital landscape where partisans on both the left and right inhabit separate realities and rarely encounter dissenting views.
07:15Is YouTube basically recommending all of us videos just to keep us hooked?
07:20Yes, exactly. They are not even the videos that you might want to watch, but they are the best to get you addicted.
07:27The more videos you watch, the more ads you see. That equals more money for YouTube.
07:32It's a problem throughout not just YouTube, but Google, Facebook, all these companies, is that they prioritize growth over anything else.
07:39Studies show that these online echo chambers directly contribute to radicalization.
07:44For example, far more Republicans who consume fringe outlets believe the false claim that the 2020 election was stolen than those who consume mainstream sources.
07:54Alarmingly, a significant share of Americans across party lines now agree that true patriots may have to resort to violence to save the country,
08:03a view far more common among those immersed in partisan misinformation.
08:06In a survey of about 1,200 people conducted with Rutgers University, Hoarder found growing support for political violence among the younger, highly online, and ideologically left-aligned.
08:18According to their results, 56% of people who identify as left-of-center believe there could be some justification for killing President Donald Trump.
08:27Social media doesn't just segregate us by ideology. It cranks up the volume of anger.
08:32As one senator put it, quote,
08:34The algorithm in social media is always pushing who is the angriest, who is the loudest, who says the craziest thing.
08:42In the aftermath of Kirk's killing, this dynamic was on full display.
08:46Graphic video of the shooting spread virally online, and inflammatory reactions poured gasoline on the fire.
08:52And then you see how much violence there is on the left, with our friend Charlie Cook getting murdered in cold blood this week, and people on the left celebrating it openly.
09:06The left is the party of murder.
09:08The collapse of a shared information sphere means we no longer agree on basic facts, undermining any possibility of compromise.
09:16With each camp sealed off in its own media ecosystem, polarization in America has deepened to a perilous degree.
09:23When we look at people who are highly politically active on Twitter, we find that about 70% of the content about politics is generated by just 6% of people.
09:34And those 6% of people are disproportionately very liberal or very conservative.
09:39And so when we wander onto social media, we can wrongly conclude that everyone is extreme, and everyone is sort of out to get everyone else.
09:48Democratic backsliding often begins with the erosion of the rule of law, a pattern now visible in U.S. institutions.
09:56In recent years, and especially under the second Trump administration, numerous legal norms and precedents have been reversed or undermined.
10:04One stark example is the treatment of the January 6th Capitol attackers.
10:09First, we have a list of pardons and commutations relating to events that occurred on January 6th, 2021.
10:15Okay, and how many people is this?
10:18I think this order will apply to approximately 1,500 people, sir.
10:22So this is January 6th, and these are the hostages.
10:27Approximately 1,500 for a pardon?
10:30Yes.
10:31Full pardon?
10:32At the same time, the administration has aggressively expanded executive power while hollowing out institutional checks.
10:39Entire federal agencies have been gutted or shuttered, concentrating more authority directly under the president.
10:45The Supreme Court has cleared the way for the President Trump administration to dismantle the Department of Education.
10:51Now, education advocates warn the president's plan will severely impact students in low-income communities and those with disabilities.
10:58It also promises to gut the department's workforce.
11:01The administration has even defied court orders that struck down some of its policies, simply ignoring judicial rulings it dislikes.
11:09At the state level, we've seen institutional reversals that entrench one-party power, from extreme gerrymandering to new laws enabling legislatures to undermine local election authorities.
11:20The Supreme Court's recent decisions have rolled back long-standing rights and oversight mechanisms as well, from overturning Roe v. Wade to limiting affirmative action.
11:29President Biden last night saying the court went too far right, adding the court has become not just conservative, but it's like a throwback.
11:38Earlier, a reporter asked Biden if the Supreme Court is a rogue court.
11:42Is this a rogue court?
11:47This is not a normal court.
11:49All these reversals represent a regression from democratic norms.
11:53When a government undermines the rule of law by pardoning its loyal offenders, disempowering oversight bodies, and cherry-picking which rulings to follow, it signals a turn toward authoritarian governance.
12:05I do not support the pardons if they were given, if they were given, to people who committed violent crimes, including assaulting police officers, or breaking windows to get into the Capitol, or other violent acts, pepper spray, for example.
12:27Another feature of America's democratic backsliding is pronounced backlash against diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
12:34After the nationwide reckoning on race in 2020, many institutions pledged to become more inclusive.
12:41But in the past two years, a counter-movement has taken hold, seeking to roll back those gains.
12:47DEI is unconstitutional.
12:49What did the Supreme Court say just a year or two ago?
12:51You couldn't use race as the basis in college admissions.
12:54Now, if not college admissions, why the United States military?
12:57Here's the other truth, Laura.
12:58DEI is what the elites use to stay in power, because they use it to divide working people.
13:05Conservative activists and lawmakers have aggressively attacked DEI programs as woke excess, and their efforts are yielding results.
13:14Corporate America is quietly retreating from diversity commitments under political pressure.
13:18Studies show that the share of Black directors appointed to corporate boards has sharply declined since 2022, while the share of White directors has increased.
13:28Executives admit that lawsuits and public criticism have pushed DEI policies down the priority list.
13:34Republican-led states have gone further, banning DEI offices at public universities and restricting related programming.
13:41It's definitely heartbreaking.
13:43The new state law bans diversity, equity, and inclusion offices at the University of Texas.
13:49It also takes away certain organizations.
13:52And students say it's affecting cultural graduation ceremonies.
13:57Ceremonies many students were looking forward to.
14:01Culturally, the pushback is evident in controversies like the Bud Light boycott, corporate withdrawals from Pride sponsorships,
14:07and growing scrutiny of diversity-themed content in entertainment.
14:11Advocates warn that this retrenchment not only threatens hard-won gains in representation, but also corrodes the inclusive spirit of democracy.
14:20A society that can't tolerate diversity risks sliding toward exclusionary ideologies.
14:25The DEI backlash, driven by fears of demographic change and resentment of political correctness, has become a flashpoint in the culture wars.
14:34It is a weaponized buzz phrase, particularly when you say DEI, that has been massively orchestrated to distract the American people from what's really taking place.
14:46And what's taking place is a radical redefinition of the role of government.
14:52Democracy depends not just on institutions, but on unwritten norms of mutual respect and truth-telling.
14:59Here, too, the United States shows signs of backsliding.
15:02In recent years, political rhetoric has normalized levels of demonization once considered a fringe.
15:08It's now routine for partisans to label opponents as traitors, fascists, or even subhuman, language that was rare in mainstream politics a generation ago.
15:17I hate my opponent, and I don't want the best for them. I'm sorry. I am sorry, Erica.
15:25But now Erica can talk to me and the whole group, and maybe they can convince me that that's not right, but I can't stand my opponent.
15:32Polls show that nearly half of Americans believe members of the opposing party are downright evil.
15:38The sense that basic civility is collapsing crosses the aisle.
15:41The net effect is a public increasingly open to anti-democratic views.
15:45That's the American way. That's how we get any type of headway in our country is through dialogue.
15:51And that's why I'm a bit upset at the conservative response when it comes to Jimmy Kimmel.
15:58Surveys find substantial numbers of voters now condone violations of democratic norms if it punishes their rivals.
16:05Meanwhile, norms around free expression are shifting in troubling ways.
16:09Book bans in schools and libraries are at a high not seen in decades.
16:13Driven by political groups seeking to silence discussions of race, history, and sexuality.
16:19It's hard to know what is so controversial or subversive about Julianne Moore's picture book about a little girl who dislikes her freckles but learns to live with them.
16:28But it was among the books that were caught up in a compliance review by the Pentagon for their schools which serve U.S. military families.
16:35Teachers and professors report pressure to self-censor and academic freedom has declined amid mounting pressure to avoid controversial topics.
16:44In short, Americans' commitment to open debate, truth, and tolerance is wavering, a dangerous sign for democracy's future.
16:51This is surprisingly, again, like Julianne Moore says in the country of free speech, this is only the latest effort to take books off shelves in schools and libraries in the United States.
17:01A hallmark of creeping authoritarianism is the consolidation of power in a single leader or party, often through the capture of independent institutions.
17:11Observers warn that the United States is experiencing this phenomenon.
17:15Since 2025, the Trump administration has undertaken a sweeping effort to concentrate authority and eliminate sources of opposition within the government.
17:24Well, the Supreme Court will consider expanding President Trump's power to shape independent agencies.
17:30The high court agreed to quickly hear arguments in a case over the firing of members of the Federal Trade Commission and two other boards.
17:37A 1935 decision found commissioners can be removed only for misconduct or neglect of duty.
17:43Federal agencies that once operated with autonomy have been restructured or abolished outright.
17:49In just the first year of Trump's second term, entire departments were shuttered and tens of thousands of civil servants laid off, ostensibly in the name of efficiency, but in practice, removing professionals deemed disloyal.
18:03The Department of Justice and FBI have seen an exodus of officials amid reports of political interference in cases involving Trump's allies and adversaries.
18:12Denise Chung's resignation comes one day after President Trump formally nominated Ed Martin as U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C.
18:20That's the office that was in charge of most of the January 6th prosecutions.
18:25Martin has defended numerous January 6th defendants and has said he would investigate anyone trying to interfere with Elon Musk's work at the Department of Government Efficiency, also known as DOGE.
18:35The White House has even refused to comply with multiple court orders that struck down its policies.
18:40At the state level, power consolidation is evident in gerrymandering, the stripping of powers from opposition officials, and the capture of election administration.
18:50Conservative groups have openly advanced blueprints calling for sweeping presidential control of the bureaucracy, with critics warning these plans amount to a roadmap to autocracy.
18:59All these signs—purges of the bureaucracy, defiance of courts, militarization of domestic affairs, and the subordination of once-neutral agencies—point to an America whose institutions are being bent to serve the will of a single faction.
19:13And we continue to follow our breaking news.
19:15Just a short time ago, President Trump announcing on Truth Social that he is sending troops to Portland, Oregon to protect ICE facilities.
19:24Now, Portland is just the latest Democratic-run city that the president has either sent or threatened to send troops to in his growing crackdown on immigration and on crime.
19:33Perhaps nothing is more corrosive to a democracy than citizens losing faith that their votes count and that their institutions are legitimate.
19:41In the United States, trust in elections and government has eroded to crisis levels.
19:46After the 2020 election, the big lie that the vote was stolen spread widely.
19:51By late 2021, two-thirds of Republicans believed Joe Biden's win was illegitimate.
19:57These precautions come after Trump supporters, some armed, have been gathering outside of election offices across the country and right here in Las Vegas.
20:06Don't steal the vote! Don't steal the vote!
20:09This makes the second night that Trump supporters rallied outside of the Clark County Elections Office.
20:15They claim fake ballots are being delivered and counted.
20:18That baseless belief fueled the January 6th insurrection and continues to fester.
20:23President Trump's ongoing campaign to overturn results has stoked mistrusts that'll reverberate for years.
20:29Across the country, experienced nonpartisan election administrators have been quitting in droves after facing death threats and intimidation.
20:37They're often being replaced by partisan actors, eroding public confidence that future results will be fair.
20:43In recent days, the Justice Department has sued eight states to compel them to share their voter registration lists with the federal government.
20:51Those lists include voters' personal data, like dates of birth and Social Security numbers.
20:56State officials oppose the move because of concerns about how the information will be used.
21:01That comes as President Trump continues to target election systems, including mail-in ballots.
21:06At the same time, many Democrats have grown distrustful of the Supreme Court, which they see as politicized after controversial appointments and rulings.
21:15Overall trust in the federal government remains near historic lows, and a majority of Americans now say democracy is under threat.
21:23When citizens can't trust that losers will accept defeat and that power will transfer peacefully, democracy is in peril.
21:29The normalization of rejecting any election one doesn't win is perhaps the gravest legacy of the past few years.
21:36Thank you very much. It's a pleasure to be with President Erdogan of Turkey, and we've been friends for a long time, actually.
21:43Even for four years, when I was in exile, unfairly, as it turns out.
21:49Rigged election, you know, he knows about rigged elections better than anybody.
21:53Political violence, once unthinkable in contemporary American life, is increasingly regarded as a grim new normal.
22:00The assassination of Charlie Kirk stands as a stark example, but it's sadly not an isolated incident.
22:06In June 2025, former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband were gunned down in their home by an assailant motivated by political hatred.
22:15Speaker Hortman was someone who served the people of Minnesota with grace, compassion, humor, and a sense of service.
22:22This horrifying plot underscores that violence is manifesting on both ends of the spectrum.
22:39The common thread is the steady destigmatization of political violence.
22:43Surveys confirm that a substantial minority of Americans now condone violence against the other side.
22:48Such views were once relegated to the fringe. Today, they're voiced openly at political rallies and on social media.
22:55In national headlines, President Trump signed an executive order Thursday targeting domestic terrorism networks and organized political violence.
23:02Trump saying the order will work to tackle, quote, anarchists from the left and the groups funding them.
23:08The announcement comes a day after that deadly attack at an ICE facility in Dallas, Texas.
23:13Militant rhetoric has seeped into mainstream politics.
23:16Influencers respond to Kirk's death by declaring, we're at war in this country and urging supporters to prepare for combat.
23:24The line between metaphorical fights and literal ones is blurring.
23:28Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband attacked with a hammer inside of their San Francisco home.
23:32Paul Pelosi is recovering tonight.
23:34He had skull surgery after he was badly hurt in that attack this morning.
23:39Now, Speaker Nancy Pelosi rushed back to San Francisco from Washington, D.C.
23:43You see her there, Chopper 5.
23:44Incidents of violence and intimidation are on the rise.
23:48Armed militias marching at protests, threats toward election workers, attempted kidnappings of officials,
23:54the January 6th insurrection, the attack on Nancy Pelosi's husband.
23:58The list lengthens each year.
24:00Once violence occurs, it tends to spawn retaliatory threats, creating a cycle of escalation.
24:05If political violence becomes normalized as a mode of expression, the very essence of democracy, peaceful contest for power, will be negated.
24:14We do know that Paul Pelosi was hit with that hammer multiple times.
24:18At least one of those blows was severe.
24:20Mr. Pelosi taken to the city's only level one trauma center where doctors say they successfully repaired a skull fracture and treated less severe injuries to his right arm and to his hand.
24:30One of the subtler, yet pivotal drivers of America's democratic backsliding is the fragmentation of the media landscape and the loss of a common reality.
24:39In the mid-20th century, Americans got their news from a few shared sources, which helped anchor debate in agreed-upon facts.
24:46Today, that information consensus has splintered.
24:49Right, if you're a young guy who's interested in fitness and kind of vaguely interested in the news, you're getting your news from the Musketeers, right?
24:57A little bit on Axe, probably listening to Joe Rogan, might be listening to Huberman's podcast on longevity and health.
25:04Conservatives tune into Fox, OAN, Newsmax, or a constellation of online influencers,
25:10while liberals follow MSNBC, NPR, or progressive outlets, with minimal overlap.
25:16Citizens literally don't hear the same news.
25:20Each side lives under its own filter bubble, often with wildly different narratives about events.
25:25The effect is profound.
25:27Without shared facts, good faith deliberation becomes nearly impossible.
25:31Beyond cable networks, the rise of social media has flooded the zone with misinformation.
25:36False stories and conspiracy theories spread faster than fact checks.
25:40I wish I was a cop.
25:41I'd sit and everyone like, this story is horseshit.
25:44Like, none of these things make any sense to me.
25:46Like, you're telling me that this kid, who's not military trained, this guy, first of all, how did he get to the roof?
25:53How come nobody was looking?
25:54How come nobody was, like, there's a direct line of sight between where he's sitting and those roofs.
25:59You guys didn't check?
26:00You don't have a drone?
26:01Within hours of Kirk's shooting, conspiracy theories trended online,
26:04claiming it was a false flag, claims unfounded but widely believed in partisan communities.
26:10The decline of local journalism has further eroded common reference points.
26:14Into that void stepped national outlets and Facebook groups that focus on wedge issues.
26:18The nationalization of the media drives Americans further apart.
26:22Facing deep financial troubles, News Media Corp. has decided to shut down 23 news operations.
26:29Six in Wyoming, seven in Illinois, five in Arizona, four in South Dakota, and one in Nebraska.
26:36The closures by the Illinois-based company are just the latest in a trend,
26:41contributing to growing news deserts in rural America.
26:45Unlike countries with strong public broadcasters, the U.S. system incentivizes outrage and niche targeting.
26:51The result is what some call the post-truth era, where objective reality is contested.
26:57When citizens can't even agree on basic facts, the basis for democracy erodes.
27:02Reports, rumors, and misinformation spread online.
27:07False information about whether he had died, who the suspect was, what the potential motive was.
27:12All of that were huge topics of discussion, even though there was no concrete information available at the time.
27:18Finally, America's democratic backsliding is exacerbated by a younger generation that feels increasingly alienated from the system.
27:26Polling finds that millennials and Gen Z are more disillusioned with democracy than any cohort in living memory.
27:33Globally, only 57% of people aged 18 to 35 say democracy is always preferable to other forms of government.
27:41We are at a time in our politics, unfortunately, where it's very divisive, where it's very hateful, where we have extremes on both sides.
27:47And we're really not talking about, okay, you know, the beauty of America is that our differences is what makes us the United States.
27:55In the United States, about one quarter of young adults have a favorable view of military government,
28:00and nearly half agree that a strong leader who doesn't bother with elections might be a good idea.
28:05These startling views reflect deep frustration.
28:09Young Americans say traditional politics has failed to address issues that they care about most.
28:14From climate change to student debt to social justice, many feel their voices are ignored by elected leaders,
28:21and youth voter turnout remains the lowest of any age group.
28:24One of the reasons why President Trump won the White House is younger voters put him in the White House.
28:29President Donald Trump was unafraid to go on social media, and he dominated on TikTok.
28:33He was unafraid to go on podcasts.
28:36And the younger generation, one of the main reasons they supported President Trump,
28:40they want to be able to own homes, they want to have kids, they want to get married,
28:44they want their slice of the American dream.
28:46I think President Trump is going to deliver for them.
28:48Beyond voting, fewer young Americans participate in civic organizations or even follow political news.
28:54They often seek change outside formal institutions, through protests, social media, or community projects,
29:01rather than through government.
29:02There is a silver lining.
29:04Young people haven't given up on values like freedom and justice,
29:08but they doubt the current political system can deliver them.
29:11Yet disengagement can become a vicious cycle, weakening democracy further.
29:16If fresh generations don't invest in institutions, those institutions age and atrophy.
29:22A society where the young lose faith in democracy could slip into authoritarianism by default.
29:27There's always a lesser of two evils, and the things that he stands for are better than the things that Kamala stands for.
29:34According to NBC News exit polls, among first-time voters, Trump carried 56 percent.
29:39That's a 24 percent bump from the last election.
29:41For first-time voting men, Trump's share jumped to 63 percent.
29:45And while Harris underperformed with voters under 30, Trump gained compared to 2020.
29:49The picture painted by the trends we've outlined is undeniably sobering.
29:54America finds itself at a crossroads.
29:56The guardrails of its republic are straining, and the very habits that sustain self-government, tolerance, truthfulness, compromise, are under attack.
30:05Yet recognizing these warning signs is the first step toward countering them.
30:08Maybe most of all, I want to thank the people who don't support my show and what I believe, but support my right to share those beliefs anyway.
30:19Or I never would have imagined.
30:23Across the political spectrum, voices of conscience are calling for vigilance.
30:27In 2023, the nonpartisan centers of U.S. presidents from Hoover to Obama issued a joint message, urging Americans to renew our commitment to rule of law, civility in discourse, respect for institutions, and secure elections.
30:41This remarkable statement underscores that the preservation of democracy is common cause.
30:46Whether conservative, liberal, or independent, the erosion of democratic norms, be it cancel culture censorship, violent rhetoric, institutional power grabs, or election subversion, ultimately imperils everyone's freedom.
31:00I don't think the murderer who shot Charlie Kirk represents anyone.
31:04This was a sick person who believed violence was a solution, and it isn't.
31:09Ever.
31:16Ever.
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