Posted on 12/06/2012 7:31:44 AM PST by Perdogg
Your post #67 is probably the best on this long thread. Pointing out that DeMint will be a large enough asset at Heritage to overcome his loss from the Senate was essential for people here.
There is very good likelihood that a great conservative will be nominated in his place. In addition, it is important to realize that Ed Fulner is 70 years old, and it is time to get a new captain for the helm of Heritage. I don’t know of a man better for that position than DeMint.
DeMint has not been invisible as far as getting conservatives elected to the Senate up to now. We owe DeMint some credit for least five of the more conservative senators elected in the last 4 years. He has done a lot of good for us as Senator, and will continue to be able to do a lot of good outside the Senate. I hope that time shows that he does even more good at Heritage than he could have done by remaining in the Senate.
One other thing: I have always believed that Senators should serve no more than 20 years, and even more like 14, so his move is consistent with this opinion of mine.
GodSpeed, Jim. Do us proud in your new role!
Couldn’t DeMint become the architect of the conservative movement from the Heritage Foundation? In the Senate he was just another senator but in the Heritage Foundation he doesn’t have to bend his knee to anyone. He is a free agent, on his own. I also like that DeMint has a background in marketing and public relations. This could be a Godsend for the Republican messaging problem. DeMint would make a good spokesman for conservative values.
I think DeMint will be far more visible in the media than Fulner.
same reaction here
You are completely right. Beware of “conservative” Democrats, there are none.
Tim Scott...
I think a depression can have two different effects depending on the moral character of the people of a country. In 1930’s America, which was still mostly Christian, (or at least with Judeo Christian values), and in which most people still respected and obeyed the 10 commandments,the depression had a strengthening and refining effect. In 1930’s Germany, in which most of the country was liberal or non religious, it invoked panic and fear to the point of electing a tyrant to “save” them, and in which the citizens went along with all sorts of evil due to not having that inner character to resist that tyrant and his secret police, guards, soldiers, etc.
Which of those is closer to the character of most Americans today I wonder? I truly hope there is still a majority with values closer to 1930’s America, but just don’t know if we can count on that.
Maybe he just got tired of scratching fleas all day.
The battle of conservatism in the Senate is lost????
Or did Obama and Hairy Reed have black mail material even on Jim?
You should go to market-ticker.org for the real skinny.
I concur with virtually everything in your post except this. You are absolutely spot-on with regard to the power of ideas in changing politics. What has happened with homosexuality is an example of how much damage a small cadre of radicals can do when they control the fields of entertainment, education, and media.
However, I don't agree that the addition of Asians to the Democratic voting block is a foregone conclusion. I understand your parallel between Asians and highly educated and economically successful Jewish voters who have traditionally voted against their economic self-interest to support Democrats for ideological reasons, but I do not believe that is true with Asians — at least not yet.
What has happened, unfortunately, is that Asian immigration has been centered in areas of Democratic Party dominance, and people who come from countries with authoritarian control systems understand that doing business means getting along with the government. A businessman from China, South Korea, or Japan understands that his business will be helped or harmed based on his relationship with local officials who can do serious damage or provide significant help. That mentality — which at a very basic level does not understand that we are a nation of laws and not of men — takes time to change. Let's just say urban pockets of Democratic Party control are not the best places in America to learn the lesson that laws count rather than personal relationships with the people who implement the laws.
I have some optimism that virulent anti-communism of first-generation Cuban immigrants to Florida which developed into a stable Republican base among Cuban voters can be repeated with second-generation Koreans and Vietnamese. The big problem is that Cubans came to Florida with a pre-existing conservative culture where Republicans and Democrats shared many core values and had hotly contested elections in which new Cuban voters could play an important role, while Asians typically immigrated to places with a pre-existing Democratic Party control of the levers of power which made their cities into virtual one-party governments.
Religion is also an important factor. A traditional Roman Catholic of Cuban ancestry probably won't have a big problem with joining “the party of ill-educated rustics and fundamentalists.” The same can be said of a Vietnamese Catholic or a Korean Presbyterian or Korean Pentecostal.
The second generation, however, raised in American schools and raised with American movies, can end up rejecting the faith of their parents.
Time will tell.
Nashvillian:
“DeMint will be free to say what he wants in his Heritage position; no longer beholden to the Party and to RINOs therein. As president he will verbally eviscerate the modern Republican party, likely becoming a major factor in the movement to pry the conservative guts and brains from the Republican carcus. A disembodied conservative movement, combined with the imminent creation of many more conservatives thanks to modern times, bodes well for a competitive third party effort in the near future.”
Tesla:
“As much as I like DeMint, he has maintained the (false, fake) face “collegiality” of the Senate all these years, which I have always despised. Unless he is willing to get in the trenches from his position at Heritage and unequivocally call out all the bull****, he is voluntarily giving up the little power he has to get noticed that his Senate seat gives him. Let’s face it, there will be no effective conservatives in DC, as Boehner’s actions foretell, emphasis on the word “effective”. Conservatives are being relegated to the Ron Paul/Kucinich minority level, and will simply be used as window dressing by the Rethugs. Demint is right to get away from that, but he can’t distance himself from RINOs if he continues nicey-nice footsie.
As prepared as I am to weather a storm for a while, I don’t see that early January the SHTF. Unless there is a credit event such that, like 2008, the banking system goes into terminal seizures, we will be QEing ourselves into more deficit spending, supporting the FSA and more “stimulating” of cronies until sometime after Europe or Japan can no longer kick the can.”
Themortgagedude:
“When the people in Washington are more afraid of their constituents and voters than they are of the interest groups that control Washington then this country is going to start moving in the right direction.
Jim DeMint August 20, 2009”
He's leaving to take on a more activist role - at least I hope so!
Four years ago you explained about the approaching crash of 2008, and I want to thank you for that tip.
I took your advice and encouraged by Dad into getting all his money out of mutual funds and into bank CDs. He actually made money in 2008 rather than losing money like so many others did.
I honestly think DeMInt in his new role will be a great help in reshaping, redefining, and reinvigorating the conservative movement.
The likes of Mitch McConnell and Trent Lott hate DeMint because he didn’t go along with Senate tradition. You see, the senate, like the old aristocratic republics, wants to choose its own members. It doesn’t want the people choosing its members. Hence the tradition of always supporting the reelection of your colleagues. McConnell would not help Reid’s opponent, Santorum was encouraged to support Specter, senators tried to help Lugar and supported Murkowski, etc.
DeMint said to hell with that. He felt that the senate and the republican caucus would be better off without Arlen Specter, a backstabber and a liberal. He openly came out for Specter’s opponent and that was the end of Specter. That’s all it took. Specter instantly betrayed the party that had elected him for 30 years. Then DeMint supported Rubio, against Cornyn’s NRSC endorsed Charlie Crist, another turncoat. The NRSC sure can pick-em!
The senate should not be choosing who sits in the body, the people should. The people should choose the nominee and then the NRSC should help to get them elected. DeMint will be a powerhouse to get conservatives nominated in the states, and that’s the key. And he’ll keep the more moderate-liberal leaning senators looking over their shoulders at a primary challenge. I’m looking forward to the battles!
NH showed her true colors a number of times since being elected. I have NOT been impressed
Stevenson was the Illinois Senator who lost in 1952 and 1956. He was the last Democrat candidate to refuse Mob help to win election, and the 1956 election was the last with honest numbers from Illinois and other Mob-controlled states.
FUJD
You’re a good man, Jim DeMint. Just disappointed we’re losing you in the Senate.
The Heritage Foundation is one of the last major conservative bastions in a sea of leftists. Don’t blame Sen. DeMint one bit. The conservative fight is going to have to be carried out away from DC because the GOP has conceded, caved in, and put up the white flag there. The election was a major battle lost against the left and we’re losing the overall war against them.
There. Did I do a decent imitation of the infantile Palin bashers who wanted her to stay on as governor and be a human sacrifice?
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