The following letter will knock your socks off if you understand just what went on here. It's an open letter to the conservative Republicans who had just been elected to the 2011 Congress with the help of the Senate Conservatives Fund that was founded by South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint, and it appeared in the Wall Street Journal on November 3rd of 2010, a day after the congressional elections, and it was written by Jim DeMint. Folks...this is a leader.....who will never rely on deception....and never condescend to us! The Heritage Foundation no longer valued a man like this, and if President Trump doesn't grab him up as an advisor then he also places no value on true leadership, true conservatism, and true patriotism.
Congratulations to all the Tea-Party candidates who overcame a determined, partisan opposition to win their elections. The next campaign begins today. Because you must now overcome determined party insiders if this nation is going to be spared from fiscal disaster.
Many of the people who will be welcoming the new class of Senate conservatives to Washington never wanted you here in the first place. The establishment is much more likely to try to buy off your votes than to buy into your limited-government philosophy. Consider what former GOP senator-turned-lobbyist Trent Lott told the Washington Post earlier this year: "As soon as they get here we need to co-opt them."
Don't let them. Co-option is coercion. Washington operates on a favor-based economy and for every earmark, committee assignment or fancy title that's given, payback is expected in return. The chits come due when the roll call votes begin. This is how big-spending bills that everyone decries in public always manage to pass with just enough votes.
The above photo was my hardhat at work during the 2012 campaign. The stickers remained until they wore off...long after the campaign ended. The following are a few select paragraphs from a post that I wrote in 2009 titled simply 'Senator Jim DeMint,' and I wrote about him a few more times over the years.
To those of you looking for another Ronald Reagan...I have a candidate for you. He's not a movie star and I have not heard him speak at any length yet, for some can write with verve and passion but do not have great speaking ability, but his writing is on the mark, incisive, clear and just what we need at this time. His name is Jim DeMint and he is a senator from South Carolina.
His book is Saving Freedom, We Can Stop America's Slide Into Socialism. Along with Jonah Goldberg's Liberal Fascism and Mark Levin's Liberty and Tyranny, it is one of the three books that one would have to read on politics to be prepared for the debate that is ahead, and it is by far the most practical book. More importantly, it is written by a United States Senator, for if he can answer a question at a press conference, with the power of intellect and reason that he writes, he will be a force to reckoned with. (In the intervening eight years I have heard Jim DeMint speak many times and in person and he speaks as well as he writes!
DeMint gives a reasoned, legitimate and accurate description of where religious faith should be in America. His Christian testimony is a sound one as he writes The most amazing part of the whole process was the discovery that the freedom I sought all my life was in the last place I thought I'd find it: Jesus Christ.
As you may know by now, Jim DeMint took his action-based political philosophy to the Heritage Foundation and within the last few days was unceremoniously relieved of his duties.
