America’s Crisis: Are We Losing Our Young Men to Despair?

Glenn Beck’s recent sermon to young men — that the country is awash in angry boys and starving for real men — cuts to a truth the left refuses to admit: a nation that loses its men loses its backbone. Conservatives have said for years that character, duty, and responsibility are not optional extras; they are the scaffolding that holds a free society together. If we want a safer, stronger America, we must stop treating the crisis of manhood as a cultural footnote and start treating it like the national emergency it is.

Young men are falling behind where it matters most: education and opportunity. Women now outnumber men across college campuses by a wide margin, and the trend has only widened in recent decades as more women enroll and graduate while millions of boys disengage from classrooms that no longer reward the kind of practical, disciplined work many men thrive at.

The human cost of this drift is visible in our public health numbers — men die by suicide at far higher rates than women, and too many of our young men are spiraling into despair rather than being guided into service and productivity. This is not abstract; it is a moral failure of culture and community when our sons are left to suffer alone without mentors, coaches, or churches to steady them.

A root cause is the collapse of the family and the erosion of fatherhood: millions of children now grow up without a father in the home, and that absence shows up in education gaps, behavioral problems, and vulnerability to gang life and addiction. Conservatives have always known that stable families are the first line of defense against social decay; policies and communities that strengthen marriage and encourage fathers to step up would pay immediate dividends for public safety and prosperity.

Economically, men’s participation in the labor force has softened as well, especially among younger cohorts who lack apprenticeships, trades training, or clear pathways from school to a career. Where once a young man could learn a trade and build a life, now too many are funneled into dead-end degrees or left idle by systems that value credentials over competence. Restoring strong vocational training, reversing the cultural contempt for manual work, and incentivizing family-supporting jobs should be a conservative priority.

The downstream consequences touch every corner of public life: the vast majority of people behind bars are men, and communities without functioning male leadership pay the price in safety and order. That is why conservatives argue for accountability paired with redemption — punish criminality, yes, but also rebuild programs that reconnect men to work, faith, and family so they stop cycling back into the justice system.

The secret Glenn Beck and others keep urging young men to learn is simple and timeless: choose responsibility over rage, discipline over distraction, and service over self. Conservatives believe America is worth fighting for, and that fight begins at home — in the father’s yard, in the shop class, in the church, and at the kitchen table. If we want to perfect our republic, we must raise real men again: men who protect, provide, and lead by example.