Posted on 02/22/2009 12:07:49 AM PST by Syncro
Jim DeMint's gentlemanly air and refined tone belie a power and an urgency in his words.
The stately senator from South Carolina sees America's unique centuries-old system of freedom dying out.
And he thinks we may have to take to the streets to save it.
"I would think it's time to start thinking about peaceful demonstrations," he told us last week.
Seriously?
"Seriously.
"The power of the people is there. Freedom is in the people's hands right now, and it's about to slip through."
Of course, the recent "stimulus" debate is what's fresh on DeMint's mind. Despite DeMint's putting 15 aides on it overnight, no one in Washington was able to read the bill, which was the most expensive in American history -- as well as being perhaps the most irresponsible.
The worst since the adoption of the income tax, DeMint figures.
It's not just the amount of money involved, some $780 billion -- although that, alone, is corrosive enough to American freedom. "I've seen it happen inside government agencies: 'What can we do to get it spent?' It's the only way (the agencies can get money)," DeMint says. "I see that happen in Afghanistan and Iraq, where our aid programs are basically based on people being able to spend the money within a certain period of time so we can say we did something. And it just leads to a bunch of waste."
Perhaps even worse than the money is the strings that come with it. It's the growth of the federal government's reach and influence too. The "stimulus" bill has increased the federal role in, among other things, education -- and gets the government's nose fully in the tent of private medical decisions.
The slab has been poured underneath what some want to become nationalized health care.
"Your medical treatments will be tracked electronically by a federal system," writes Betsy McCaughey, adjunct senior fellow at the Hudson Institute. "Having electronic medical records at your fingertips, easily transferred to a hospital, is beneficial. It will help avoid duplicate tests and errors.
"But the bill goes further. One new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective. The goal is to reduce costs and 'guide' your doctor's decisions."
In short, rationing.
In truth, the leviathan that is the stimulus bill is just the most recent in a chain of actions by an aristocratic and arrogant Washington that is eroding our freedoms.
With our tacit permission.
"The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism," American socialist Norman Thomas famously once said, "but under the name of liberalism they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program until one day America will be a socialist nation without ever knowing how it happened."
DeMint sees it -- from a front-row seat in the U.S. Senate.
"We're being drawn in with a lot of promises -- and the fact that so many people are already dependent on the government and so few actually pay taxes," DeMint says.
Sadly, DeMint saw that dependence in full bloom -- in the faces of South Carolina leaders who tried to twist his arm to vote for the stimulus bill to get their own goodies.
"Just about everybody who came in my office, even the mayors from all over the state, they would usually say, 'DeMint, I agree with you -- this is a bad bill. But it's got this in here for us, and we want our piece.'"
Historically, the federal government has been about 18 percent of the gross domestic product. By next year, it could grow to nearly 40 percent, according to Newsweek .
"The late sociologist Seymour Lipset," writes National Review editor Rich Lowry, "wrote a brilliant book on why the U.S. didn't embrace socialism, called It Didn't Happen Here. In a few years, its conclusion might look premature."
DeMint is hopeful -- but not when he looks around Capitol Hill.
"I've become increasingly aware that the thoughtful, well-informed leaders are very few and far between in the Congress -- people who seem to be well-read and continuing to kind of grow their skills. It's become rhetorical and political ..."
Instead, DeMint is looking to the people -- where he still sees a "remnant" of freedom-loving still stirring.
Only a remnant?
"That's all it is," he concludes. "But that's all it takes.
"Freedom is in our hands; it always has been. We've entrusted it to people in Washington, and increasingly they have picked our pockets and pulled power from us. We're just going to have to take it back.
"The real shame of all this is, I feel Republicans had said that we were going to carry that banner of freedom -- and they completely betrayed that. And it's going to be hard to get it back."
But with all except three Republicans in Congress voting against the stimulus bill, perhaps getting that banner back has started. There are a few rising conservative stars on the national scene, including Reps. Jeff Flake of Arizona, Jeb Hensarling of Texas and Mike Pence of Indiana.
Still, DeMint says star power isn't what we need. "I think what we need to look for first is to find the principles that will bring us together. I'm not looking for a face right now."
Continued below.
That's too far off to concentrate on now.
At least for me.
Romney started a money making org that said it was to raise money to help republican candidates in the last election.
It's been shown that he stuck much of that money in his own coffers for his run for president in 2012.
His minion's attacks on Sarah Palin were discusting practices for a "conservative."
If you want to discuss Romney and his free "guilt", start a thread about it.
Let this thread serve it's purpose, please.
YEP!!!
I agree completely. But there needs to be far more than that. The Republican Party needs to recommit to a genuine conservative message and repent of all the big spending and government growth of the Bush era.
They need a complete makeover.
Just move forward to conservatism.
To let all voters vote in their primaries is just asking to be manipulated.
Historically, the federal government has been about 18 percent of the gross domestic product. By next year, it could grow to nearly 40 percent,
If anyone has any doubts, those 18 and 40% figures, are consumption, of gross domestic product not production. Government is the big consumer of our production. So, the economy does not grow, business does not grow, jobs are not created, other than to manage the government consumption, and the people work for the government not for themselves and family.
It really shook up both the Dems and Republicans, the political establishment.
and handed the Presidency to one WJC.
There folks are working on ideas.http://www.resistnet.com/
We need to have ALL groups organize. A million man march on DC is whats needed . I hope someone with REAL organizational skills can put something together . It HAS TO BE a nation wide protest , something that gets the worlds attention. Obama is hell bent on tearing this country to pieces and I feel time is running out for us .
Most conservatives are too busy working and zero plans to keep us worrying about food and shelter so we don’t have time.
You are right and it is built right into the stimulus and the tax code that relieves over 40% of Americans from the burden of taxes. If everyone was paying them, we wouldn’t be having this little problem. As you said, the 60 percent that do pay them will be too busy for protests because they will be anxiously engaged in supporting themselves their families and the forty percent that are not paying their share of the load.
Thats why the country has slipped away from us in the last 20 years because people like us are at work while the leftist take to the streets and the offices of lawmakers and get what they want. Look at the environmentalist, they are probably %2 of the population yet they control so much power .We need to ORGANIZE folks and take to the streets .
Well , lets all call and write to Talk Radio host and tell them we need thier help. I feel we are in desperate times here and we all better pitch in and MOVE .
PING about the tea party and ping for heavenly assistance.
4TheFlag was a South Dakota Freeper who has passed on but the name is still on the active files as I believe all deceased freepers are. Just a little trivia reminder, and note that they are still with us in principle if not physically.
4TheFlag hosted the first meeting of freepers in the State of SD way back in 1999 if I remember correctly.
BKO and BCM were both casualties of 9-11. BKO in the Pentagon aircraft, and BCM in the second tower hit.
BFL
This is a really good idea. How does one ping Rush? This idea needs to get immediate media play.
OUtstanding ideas......
I have always thought protests should involve statehouses, in every state where our cause has support, but it’s more symbolic than anything else......it’s interesting when you consider that nearly ALL state capitols are outside the most highly populated areas, though now that I think of it, the majority populations in those areas are probably not on our sides anyway. There is enough support in ALL states to allow large numbers to go to statehouses, whether or not the respective Governors are in the bag for Obama’s “plan”.There is nothing to prevent smaller , more localized groups to descend on their own City Halls to show their support for the overall struggle. We have NO chance of mounting this protest
in an “ideal” form soon enough to ensure that it’ll have maximum impact, but we DO have voices on FOX and a wide range of radio outlets who would be thrilled to become the regional CICs of this effort over the next several months.
We all know something is brewing.But the fix is already in, and we are already partially smothered in so many ways
by the juggernaut of this current Administration and its
Enforcer Media.
If "conservatives" are too busy to dedicate some of their time and effort to preserving their Freedom than they are not patriots and the liberals have already won. I hope the material things they gain from all of their "hard work" will make the chains rest easier on them and their families.
What does it profit a man to gain the whole world only to lose his freedom and dignity.
Do you also think someone like Michelle Malkin might give it some blog legs? It would be great to get a blog movement going too. Today, we could start emailing whatever hosts come to mind. I wonder if Beck would be a good guy to start it. He has his show on Fox News now as well and might challenge others to jump on.
Keeping the message simple and getting the word out quickly are key. Also, making this about the Taxpayer and keeping it about the Taxpayer so that everyone owns the idea. That way it isn't dismissed any one personality's idea.
(It might even begin to wake up the non-educated Dems who are not aware of all the damage that has being done by this administration so quickly as well.)
What you said. That's what got us McCain, which in turn got us -1.
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