Jim DeMint Issues Political Call to Arms

[Geee]

American Spectator:

On the phone on Thursday, U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) was politely emphatic: "We've never been here before." And again: "We've never been here before."
"Here," in DeMint's parlance, was the nation's exceedingly precarious fiscal condition, exacerbated by a fast-approaching political tipping point as well; together they indicate that "the 2012 election will be a make-or-break moment for America." That last quote is from DeMint's new book, released this week, called Now or Never: Saving American From Economic Collapse. In an extended interview on "The Daily Show" with Jon Stewart this week, Stewart complained to DeMint that the book contained too much "apocalyptic" rhetoric, and that people like him on the left side of the spectrum would be too turned off by such rhetoric to consider the book's substance.

To which, DeMint basically told me that he didn't mean to be apocalyptic -- just accurate.

"The whole point of the book," he said, "is to help create a sense of urgency, but in a way that calmly and rationally goes through the facts of where we are and why we're here. The key statistics, about the debt relative to the size of our economy and relative to the projected size of our economy in the future, are alarming." With the debt of $15 billion now equaling the size of the entire economy, he said, he looks at it like a businessman looking at his balance sheet and realizing that "our short-term debt is as large as our annual sales, plus you have to borrow even more money every day just to keep the lights on." Such a situation, he writes in Now or Never, is "demonstrably unsustainable," and it is "insane."
I haven't had time to read the whole book, but I've read every word of about 50 pages and skimmed much of the rest. It's well worth the time.
He writes that we have:

… weakened an American culture once renowned throughout the world for its spirit of independence, rugged individualism, strong work ethic, commitment to family, and moral dignity. For example, for decades the federal government has encouraged unwed births, a major cause of poverty, school dropouts, drug use, juvenile delinquency, and incarceration. Forty percent of American children, including 70 percent of African-Americans, are now born out of wedlock. Rather than encouraging independence and personal responsibility, our government continues to encourage irresponsible and destructive behavior while expanding welfare and entitlement programs that force millions of Americans into dependency on taxpayer-funded programs. Some politicians have suggested that social issues be set aside while we address our fiscal crisis, but this view belies the real root causes of the nation's reckless spending and crushing debt. Cultural pathologies caused by the unintended consequences of naïve social policies have contributed to many of America's economic and fiscal problems. The economic crisis was caused by too much government. The same is true of many of our social crises, where the solutions must also mean getting away from government interference and largesse.

[Jill]

Sheesh, why should anybody care if Jon Stewart doesn't like DeMint's book? He's a comedian (and a bad one IMO) who is going to vote for Obama again regardless of what happens in the election. DeMint does NOT have to answer to that twit, and I think the senator has jumped the shark already by predicting a Romney win in South Carolina next week.