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Air Date: April 2, 2014
Host: Jim Schneider
Guest: Jim DeMint
Jim DeMint served as a United States Senator representing the State of South Carolina from 2005-2013. He is now the President of the Heritage Foundation, a research and educational institute, whose mission is to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values and a strong national defense. He is the author of: Saving Freedom: We Can Stop America’s Slide into Socialism; Now or Never: Saving America from Economic Collapse and his latest book, Falling in Love with America Again.
Jim began by noting that We have to understand what makes us exceptional as a nation. America is the only nation built from the ground up, not from the top down. Unlike many nations that are ruled by a dictator or strong central government, America had a much different beginning. He referred to Alexis De Tocqueville who recognized that if an American saw a problem in their community, they wouldn’t rely on the government to solve the issue. They would find some neighbors and they would solve the problem themselves.
Jim feels America’s down-slide began decades ago and it was fueled by policies such as Social Security and Medicare that caused people to become more dependent upon government. Once government had the income tax, they began to control education and the environment.
He cited Obamacare that he believes was written by big hospitals and big health insurance companies who like the idea of forcing people to buy health insurance that they don’t need or want. In similar fashion, the Dodd-Frank regulation was supposed to help the ‘little guy’ but all it did was bail out the big Wall Street banks who caused the problem in the first place.
Falling in Love with America Again is based on a quote from British Statesman Edmund Burke who over 200 years ago pointed out that the beginning of our love for each other and our country (what Burke referred to as our public affections) are those little platoons in our lives that make America work. This includes our families, churches, the businesses we work for, the shops where we purchase things and the charity groups we work in.
Jim also commented on the concept of federalism, the importance of marriage and the family, the centralization of power at the federal level, whether the course of America can be changed and more.
In the end, this is not a ‘gloom and doom’ book. Instead its a book the deals with what can rekindle the fires of patriotism and love of America once again.
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