In a CPAC speech that mentioned Edmund Burke but never Barack Obama, Jim DeMint warned that America was losing love.
Sharing the story of a man who had his ninety-three children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren each answer “how are you doing,” with the word, “grateful,” the Heritage Foundation President said he’d come to wonder, “when my grandchildren are grown, will they still be grateful for the country? Will America…still be earning the right of its citizens to be grateful?” He warned, “Each year another piece…falls. Things like job security, religious liberty, hope, and even love.”
Citing Burke, DeMint listed “little platoons” including family, church, middle school soccer team, PTA, and small business, and argued it was “through our investment and loyalty in these small institutions, and their investment and loyalty to us, that we have affection for our communities,” which “sustains our love in America, the country that makes it all possible.” When “power is taken from individuals in the little platoons and concentrated in Washington,” the ex-senator warned, “resentment replaces love of country.”
“When so many different viewpoints and mindsets are forced into one bubble,” he told the CPAC crowd, “the free market of ideas becomes a tyranny over our hearts and minds.” He ticked off alleged examples including being targeted by the IRS, “forced to pay for the taking of human life,” and “forced into failing schools.”
Touting the example of red state governors, DeMint closed by emphasizing that there was hope: “When Washington stops trying to direct all aspects of our lives, Americans will fall in love with each other, and their country.”
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