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Glenn’s interview with Jim DeMint

December 07, 2012
Wilson

Writer

Senator Jim DeMint joined Glenn on radio this morning to discuss his decision to resign from the Senate and accept the position as the President of the Heritage Foundation. Senator DeMint, a long time favorite among true conservatives in the Republican part, explains to Glenn that he took the position to expand the influence his Constitutional principals can had on growing the conservative base.

Senator Jim DeMint discusses who his possible replacement will be in the Senate, the future of the GOP, and the future of the country.

GLENN: We have Senator Jim DeMint joining us now and Senator, you are leaving ‑‑ tell me about Tim Scott and who are you pulling for to replace you? 

 

SENATOR DeMINT:  If I said, that would probably be the last person to be selected.  So I don't want to show my hand.  Actually I feel very close to the Republicans in our delegation and most of them were elected in 2010 and very principled people.  So ‑‑

 

GLENN:  So whoever? 

 

SENATOR DeMINT:  They are all good.  Maybe I have a few favorites in there but ‑‑

 

GLENN:  I understand that. 

 

SENATOR DeMINT:  I don't want to say.  But I trust Governor Haley to make a good decision here and so I feel comfortable I'll be able to support whoever she selects. 

 

GLENN:  You were pretty outspoken about John Boehner here in the last week or so and the Republicans, the progressive Republicans are trying to tell the Republican Party that they've got to move left and they have to compromise all of their values, et cetera, et cetera. 

 

SENATOR DeMINT:  Well, Glenn, we have to separate what they consider political realities or political expediency from what our country really needs.  What the president has been talking about is neither a plan or a solution.  His increase in taxes in the top 2% is a drop in the bucket for our deficit and is likely to cost a lot of jobs and result in less revenue because of the way our tax system works.  But we will have historic levels of revenue this year in our country, tax revenues.  And the thought that if we take more money out of our economy and give it to incompetent, wasteful politicians and bureaucrats, that somehow that's going to help the middle class is completely irrational.  The president wants a political trophy and what he is proposing won't solve any problem.  So for Republicans to concede that we need more money in Washington when what we really need is less government for our country is just a, it's a bad mistake I think politically but it's certainly bad policy.  We cannot concede that we can't cut spending, and what the president put on the table through Geithner was a real joke, it was a slap in the face to any American who is thinking, and Republicans should call it that.  And we should have put it on the floor of the House and forced a vote on it so the Americans would see that not even Democrats would vote for what the president's talking about. 

 

GLENN:  Correct. 

 

SENATOR DeMINT:  But ‑‑ so I understand political realities.  I've been there a long time.  The president won the election.  But the fact is the president can't get anything unless the House passes it, and he's asking for an unconstitutional blank check to create more debt when the congress is there as a backstop so the administration can't keep borrowing money. 

 

GLENN:  So why doesn't the House just pass exactly what he's asking?  I mean, this is what Rand Paul said.  Give him it.  Give it to him.  Give it to him.  Do you agree with that? 

 

SENATOR DeMINT:  Well, it wouldn't pass.  And two years ago the same situation, same economy.  The president said, we can't raise taxes on the 2%.  They are the job creators.  So the president is feeling his oats from the election when really all we got was a status quo.  And the reason he won was not because his policies are good but it was because Republicans didn't talk about what we believed in, in terms that people could relate to.  So we tried to make the election about Obama's bad policy instead of making it about our vision for the future. 

 

GLENN:  So ‑‑

 

SENATOR DeMINT:  It didn't work. 

 

GLENN:  So do you agree with Rand Paul that we should give him what he wants? 

 

SENATOR DeMINT:  Well, probably ‑‑ ultimately he's going to get one way or another what he wants and if we did, he couldn't continue to try to blame Republicans for his own policies.  The fact is we've already gone over a cliff.  We just hadn't hit the bottom yet.  So people don't know it.  But the policies that are in place through ObamaCare, the spending, the debt, the printing of money to pay for our own debt.  As Mitch Daniels said this week, it is inevitable that our country is going to be brought to its knees in the next few months or years.  So what we have to do is make sure that the alternatives to that, the solutions for that are in place at least at the state level so that we can pull our country back up. 

 

GLENN:  Amen.  Let me ask you about Egypt just a bit.  Egypt, the people are on the streets.  They are protesting again because of another dictatorship.  This is, the president is doing exactly what he did in Iran.  He's saying nothing.  This is the ‑‑ these are the people that are standing up against Sharia law and dictatorship again.  And the only thing this administration is doing and with the help of the Senate and the House, we are being silent except with our checkbook.  We are sending a Sharia law Muslim extremist dictator money.  Why? 

 

SENATOR DeMINT:  It's really frustrating if you know anything about history.  I visited a lot of the former Soviet republics a few years ago and so many people were thankful for Ronald Reagan just for being their beacon of hope by criticizing the totalitarian government that they were under.  And that kept them going.  And the fact that we don't have leaders of the free world speaking out in favor of the people who are fighting for the things we advocate.  And I'm proud of the people of Egypt.  I thought maybe, you know, they overthrew one dictator and they were just going to be happy with another. 

 

GLENN:  They're not. 

 

SENATOR DeMINT:  But they're not.  That means that they have in their hearts the same thing we do, is just a hope for freedom.  And they need people who are part of the free world to be advocates for them because we don't have to intervene militarily to embolden them and strengthen them with our words.  And it's certainly a deadening silence coming out of Washington. 

 

GLENN:  There were people that were in the crowd who were Germans who never thought that wall would come down. 

 

SENATOR DeMINT:  Right. 

 

GLENN:  Until Ronald Reagan said Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.  And when he said that people on both sides of the wall thought, "My gosh, that's a possibility.  I never even thought of that being a possibility. "

 

SENATOR DeMINT:  That's the kind of hope we need to instill, not a false hope of government compassion and security but the real hope of freedom.  And when you instill that in the heart of a person, they believe it can happen.  And once they believe it, it will happen. 

 

GLENN:  Senator, I want to thank you personally for giving so many Americans hope.  You have been there saying the things that so many have.  You've been standing and fighting the hard fight when nobody else would.  You have been maligned and made into the ‑‑ made into the guy who brought on the recession all the way to a hate monger racist, you name it.  Many people across the country have been made into the same thing.  I mean, you're not experiencing anything that we haven't experienced on a smaller scale, no matter where we live in the country.  But you've done it and you've done it with class and with honor and we have oftentimes said to each other, "Well, at least there's Senator DeMint.  We appreciate your service, sir, and we look for not a ride off into the sunset.  I swear to you I'm going to hunt you down myself if you go away. 

 

SENATOR DeMINT:  I'm not going anywhere.  I'm raising the level here.  Glenn, I have to thank you and all the Americans who covered my back through a lot of this, is what keeps me going.  Everywhere I go people say thanks for fighting, and it makes me want to jump back in the arena.  But I'm still in the arena and I frankly think that you and me and folks outside of congress can do more good than those who are sitting in those seats. 

 

GLENN:  Well, anything that you need, Senator.  We need your voice and you have our back.  So and I mean, we'll put our back into, you know, the direction that you think is important.  We'll be with you side by side.  So let us know. 

 

SENATOR DeMINT:  Thanks, Glenn.  Good to be back on your show.  See you soon.  I'm going to bring a few buses to your Christmas party.  I'll see you then. 

 

GLENN:  You got it.  Thanks a lot.  Senator Jim DeMint. 

Without civic action, America faces collapse

JEFF KOWALSKY / Contributor | Getty Images

Every vote, jury duty, and act of engagement is civics in action, not theory. The republic survives only when citizens embrace responsibility.

I slept through high school civics class. I memorized the three branches of government, promptly forgot them, and never thought of that word again. Civics seemed abstract, disconnected from real life. And yet, it is critical to maintaining our republic.

Civics is not a class. It is a responsibility. A set of habits, disciplines, and values that make a country possible. Without it, no country survives.

We assume America will survive automatically, but every generation must learn to carry the weight of freedom.

Civics happens every time you speak freely, worship openly, question your government, serve on a jury, or cast a ballot. It’s not a theory or just another entry in a textbook. It’s action — the acts we perform every day to be a positive force in society.

Many of us recoil at “civic responsibility.” “I pay my taxes. I follow the law. I do my civic duty.” That’s not civics. That’s a scam, in my opinion.

Taking up the torch

The founders knew a republic could never run on autopilot. And yet, that’s exactly what we do now. We assume it will work, then complain when it doesn’t. Meanwhile, the people steering the country are driving it straight into a mountain — and they know it.

Our founders gave us tools: separation of powers, checks and balances, federalism, elections. But they also warned us: It won’t work unless we are educated, engaged, and moral.

Are we educated, engaged, and moral? Most Americans cannot even define a republic, never mind “keep one,” as Benjamin Franklin urged us to do after the Constitutional Convention.

We fought and died for the republic. Gaining it was the easy part. Keeping it is hard. And keeping it is done through civics.

Start small and local

In our homes, civics means teaching our children the Constitution, our history, and that liberty is not license — it is the space to do what is right. In our communities, civics means volunteering, showing up, knowing your sheriff, attending school board meetings, and understanding the laws you live under. When necessary, it means challenging them.

How involved are you in your local community? Most people would admit: not really.

Civics is learned in practice. And it starts small. Be honest in your business dealings. Speak respectfully in disagreement. Vote in every election, not just the presidential ones. Model citizenship for your children. Liberty is passed down by teaching and example.

Samuel Corum / Stringer | Getty Images

We assume America will survive automatically, but every generation must learn to carry the weight of freedom.

Start with yourself. Study the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and state laws. Study, act, serve, question, and teach. Only then can we hope to save the republic. The next election will not fix us. The nation will rise or fall based on how each of us lives civics every day.

Civics isn’t a class. It’s the way we protect freedom, empower our communities, and pass down liberty to the next generation.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

'Rage against the dying of the light': Charlie Kirk lived that mandate

PHILL MAGAKOE / Contributor | Getty Images

Kirk’s tragic death challenges us to rise above fear and anger, to rebuild bridges where others build walls, and to fight for the America he believed in.

I’ve only felt this weight once before. It was 2001, just as my radio show was about to begin. The World Trade Center fell, and I was called to speak immediately. I spent the day and night by my bedside, praying for words that could meet the moment.

Yesterday, I found myself in the same position. September 11, 2025. The assassination of Charlie Kirk. A friend. A warrior for truth.

Out of this tragedy, the tyrant dies, but the martyr’s influence begins.

Moments like this make words feel inadequate. Yet sometimes, words from another time speak directly to our own. In 1947, Dylan Thomas, watching his father slip toward death, penned lines that now resonate far beyond his own grief:

Do not go gentle into that good night. / Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Thomas was pleading for his father to resist the impending darkness of death. But those words have become a mandate for all of us: Do not surrender. Do not bow to shadows. Even when the battle feels unwinnable.

Charlie Kirk lived that mandate. He knew the cost of speaking unpopular truths. He knew the fury of those who sought to silence him. And yet he pressed on. In his life, he embodied a defiance rooted not in anger, but in principle.

Picking up his torch

Washington, Jefferson, Adams — our history was started by men who raged against an empire, knowing the gallows might await. Lincoln raged against slavery. Martin Luther King Jr. raged against segregation. Every generation faces a call to resist surrender.

It is our turn. Charlie’s violent death feels like a knockout punch. Yet if his life meant anything, it means this: Silence in the face of darkness is not an option.

He did not go gently. He spoke. He challenged. He stood. And now, the mantle falls to us. To me. To you. To every American.

We cannot drift into the shadows. We cannot sit quietly while freedom fades. This is our moment to rage — not with hatred, not with vengeance, but with courage. Rage against lies, against apathy, against the despair that tells us to do nothing. Because there is always something you can do.

Even small acts — defiance, faith, kindness — are light in the darkness. Reaching out to those who mourn. Speaking truth in a world drowning in deceit. These are the flames that hold back the night. Charlie carried that torch. He laid it down yesterday. It is ours to pick up.

The light may dim, but it always does before dawn. Commit today: I will not sleep as freedom fades. I will not retreat as darkness encroaches. I will not be silent as evil forces claim dominion. I have no king but Christ. And I know whom I serve, as did Charlie.

Two turning points, decades apart

On Wednesday, the world changed again. Two tragedies, separated by decades, bound by the same question: Who are we? Is this worth saving? What kind of people will we choose to be?

Imagine a world where more of us choose to be peacemakers. Not passive, not silent, but builders of bridges where others erect walls. Respect and listening transform even the bitterest of foes. Charlie Kirk embodied this principle.

He did not strike the weak; he challenged the powerful. He reached across divides of politics, culture, and faith. He changed hearts. He sparked healing. And healing is what our nation needs.

At the center of all this is one truth: Every person is a child of God, deserving of dignity. Change will not happen in Washington or on social media. It begins at home, where loneliness and isolation threaten our souls. Family is the antidote. Imperfect, yes — but still the strongest source of stability and meaning.

Mark Wilson / Staff | Getty Images

Forgiveness, fidelity, faithfulness, and honor are not dusty words. They are the foundation of civilization. Strong families produce strong citizens. And today, Charlie’s family mourns. They must become our family too. We must stand as guardians of his legacy, shining examples of the courage he lived by.

A time for courage

I knew Charlie. I know how he would want us to respond: Multiply his courage. Out of this tragedy, the tyrant dies, but the martyr’s influence begins. Out of darkness, great and glorious things will sprout — but we must be worthy of them.

Charlie Kirk lived defiantly. He stood in truth. He changed the world. And now, his torch is in our hands. Rage, not in violence, but in unwavering pursuit of truth and goodness. Rage against the dying of the light.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Glenn Beck resurrects the 9-12 Project to support Charlie Kirk's family

Glenn Beck is once again calling on his loyal listeners and viewers to come together and channel the same unity and purpose that defined the historic 9-12 Project. That movement, born in the wake of national challenges, brought millions together to revive core values of faith, hope, and charity.

Glenn created the original 9-12 Project in early 2009 to bring Americans back to where they were in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. In those moments, we weren't Democrats and Republicans, conservative or liberal, Red States or Blue States, we were united as one, as America. The original 9-12 Project aimed to root America back in the founding principles of this country that united us during those darkest of days.

This new initiative draws directly from that legacy, focusing on supporting the family of Charlie Kirk in these dark days following his tragic murder.

The revival of the 9-12 Project aims to secure the long-term well-being of Charlie Kirk's wife and children. All donations will go straight to meeting their immediate and future needs. If the family deems the funds surplus to their requirements, Charlie's wife has the option to redirect them toward the vital work of Turning Point USA.

This campaign is more than just financial support—it's a profound gesture of appreciation for Kirk's tireless dedication to the cause of liberty. It embodies the unbreakable bond of our community, proving that when we stand united, we can make a real difference.
Glenn Beck invites you to join this effort. Show your solidarity by donating today and honoring Charlie Kirk and his family in this meaningful way.

You can learn more about the 9-12 Project and donate HERE

The critical difference: Rights from the Creator, not the state

Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

When politicians claim that rights flow from the state, they pave the way for tyranny.

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) recently delivered a lecture that should alarm every American. During a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, he argued that believing rights come from a Creator rather than government is the same belief held by Iran’s theocratic regime.

Kaine claimed that the principles underpinning Iran’s dictatorship — the same regime that persecutes Sunnis, Jews, Christians, and other minorities — are also the principles enshrined in our Declaration of Independence.

In America, rights belong to the individual. In Iran, rights serve the state.

That claim exposes either a profound misunderstanding or a reckless indifference to America’s founding. Rights do not come from government. They never did. They come from the Creator, as the Declaration of Independence proclaims without qualification. Jefferson didn’t hedge. Rights are unalienable — built into every human being.

This foundation stands worlds apart from Iran. Its leaders invoke God but grant rights only through clerical interpretation. Freedom of speech, property, religion, and even life itself depend on obedience to the ruling clerics. Step outside their dictates, and those so-called rights vanish.

This is not a trivial difference. It is the essence of liberty versus tyranny. In America, rights belong to the individual. The government’s role is to secure them, not define them. In Iran, rights serve the state. They empower rulers, not the people.

From Muhammad to Marx

The same confusion applies to Marxist regimes. The Soviet Union’s constitutions promised citizens rights — work, health care, education, freedom of speech — but always with fine print. If you spoke out against the party, those rights evaporated. If you practiced religion openly, you were charged with treason. Property and voting were allowed as long as they were filtered and controlled by the state — and could be revoked at any moment. Rights were conditional, granted through obedience.

Kaine seems to be advocating a similar approach — whether consciously or not. By claiming that natural rights are somehow comparable to sharia law, he ignores the critical distinction between inherent rights and conditional privileges. He dismisses the very principle that made America a beacon of freedom.

Jefferson and the founders understood this clearly. “We are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights,” they wrote. No government, no cleric, no king can revoke them. They exist by virtue of humanity itself. The government exists to protect them, not ration them.

This is not a theological quibble. It is the entire basis of our government. Confuse the source of rights, and tyranny hides behind piety or ideology. The people are disempowered. Clerics, bureaucrats, or politicians become arbiters of what rights citizens may enjoy.

John Greim / Contributor | Getty Images

Gifts from God, not the state

Kaine’s statement reflects either a profound ignorance of this principle or an ideological bias that favors state power over individual liberty. Either way, Americans must recognize the danger. Understanding the origin of rights is not academic — it is the difference between freedom and submission, between the American experiment and theocratic or totalitarian rule.

Rights are not gifts from the state. They are gifts from God, secured by reason, protected by law, and defended by the people. Every American must understand this. Because when rights come from government instead of the Creator, freedom disappears.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.