![]() Saving Freedom: We Can Stop America's Slide into Socialism
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GLENN: 888‑727‑BECK, 888‑727‑BECK. I swear to you in 30 minutes I may hang myself. I may hang myself just live on the air just over Project Porchlight. I can't ‑‑ in New Jersey ‑‑ Sarah, you got this on your doorknob?
STU: Yeah, she brought it in to me yesterday because she thought it would make me ‑‑ she thought it would piss me off, but I knew it was actually going to be worse for you.
GLENN: Oh, I can't ‑‑ I may, I may hang myself in 30 minutes. You don't want to miss it. It may be the last broadcast ever because I just may not be able to take it.
STU: Will you hang yourself with the rubber band provided by Project Porchlight?
GLENN: Certainly I will, certainly. That way we can recycle it. We can use it. It was used for the hanging of the stupid fluorescent light bulb that the state seems to be giving away and used to hang me.
STU: There's a lot of people out there saying if Project Porchlight can get you to hang yourself, it really was worth the time.
GLENN: It was worth every time the taxpayers put into it.
Let me go to Senator Jim DeMint who has a new book out today called Saving Freedom: Can We Stop America's Slide Into Socialism. Senator?
SENATOR DeMINT: Glenn.
GLENN: The answer is yes?
SENATOR DeMINT: Yes, the answer is yes, but it's not going to happen because the people in Washington decide to do it. It's only going to happen if people across the country understand what's happening and why it's happening and what we can do about it.
GLENN: So why is it, why isn't it happening, Senator?
SENATOR DeMINT: Well, what I do in Saving Freedom is give a behind‑the‑scenes look on what really is the motivation and the pressure that makes people in congress and presidents do what appear to be irrational things like spending ourselves into oblivion. But I mean, the interest groups on the outside are obviously key, but good intentions have gone wild in Washington. We're no longer following the limited government pattern of the Constitution. And if people don't understand that this country really is great because of freedom and not because of government, then we can't stop it. But I sense all across the country today, and I know you do, too, is that people are starting to wake up and get more informed. That's what Saving Freedom is about is trying to enlist people from all over the country to understand what's going on and take decisive action.
GLENN: Senator, I have been receiving a lot of calls and a lot of e‑mails. You and I have talked for several years, and I know in the last two years you are one guy who has gotten it the whole time. You were fighting it under Bush and I said, when Bush was still in office, there is a change, a sea change that is happening in America. And I asked you at the time if congress understood what they were facing, the anger from the people. May I take that a step further? I think there is another sea change happening in the country, and I believe that people are beginning to see those members of congress and those in the administration on both sides of the aisle as traitors or treasonous. Do you see that starting to bubble up in the surface that people cannot understand what congress is even doing? It doesn't make any sense whatsoever and so they're going to these horrible options of, "My gosh, they're selling our country out."
SENATOR DeMINT: Well, I hear that everywhere, and people keep asking me what can I do. That's the question I get from people all over the country when I travel around to speak and that's what I hope I am doing in Saving Freedom is tell people what they can do. But I feel the same way you do. I really think the politicians over the last 10 years have sold out our country, and it's all with good intentions. They just think if there's a problem ‑‑
GLENN: I don't agree with you anymore. I don't agree with you anymore. I think it is some with good intentions. I think it's some with arrogance that they just think they can do it because they need to be in power and they want to have their own money and perks.
SENATOR DeMINT: Yeah, let me qualify because people ‑‑ the good intentions are they believe they can manage the country better than we can manage our own lives and that's why they continually try to centralize power in Washington. One thing the Democrats have done is have gotten all the groups that want central power united and that's why they have been able to get the president to see the majority. The Republicans are more adrift. Most people who support us want less government. They don't want to be bothered. They want to be free. They are not as well organized and so that has weakened the party because the party has not stood for those things. But that's what we're trying to change. I think there's a good core group, the House and the Senate that are going to stand up for the principles of freedom and we're trying to take our message to the outside because the last place that's going to change, Glenn, is going to be the United States Senate.
GLENN: Do you think you'll be able to stop this global warming bill?
SENATOR DeMINT: I think so. I'm almost certain we can stop it the way it came out of the House. The problem and the way the system works ‑‑
GLENN: Doesn't matter once they get their foot in the door.
SENATOR DeMINT: If we pass anything that's a compromise or supposedly a fix of this thing, then it still goes to a conference with the House and with the Democrats in complete charge, I'm afraid it will come out as bad as it was in the house. So we've got to stop it cold. But it's ‑‑
GLENN: So Senator, I mean, you know, you talk about what the average person can do in your book Saving Freedom. So what is it? Because honestly I asked the audience, and they did, and Senator, I would love to come down to Washington and share the e‑mail that I get to members of congress. You do because I think you're perceived by many people as being a fighter for freedom, but a lot of people in Washington on both sides of the aisle have no clue, and they are tired. They called on Friday, they called and called and called. They were treated like garbage by the staff of people in the House. They were not usually lied to by their congressmen but they were told, "Well, I'm not sure how I'm going to vote." Bullcrap. You are either for it or you are against it. There's no part in this. 1300 pages? What, you didn't get a chance to read it Thursday, but Friday you had read it, you had studied it, you thought it out, you prayed on it and you voted for it? I don't buy it in a second. What do people do? They are tired of getting the same thing and getting kicked in the face.
SENATOR DeMINT: Well, what they should do is look at everyone who voted for that bill and do everything they can to keep them from getting elected next year because House members are all up every two years. They have got to pay in November. If they don't, they are going to keep doing it. The other thing they can do is all the e‑mails and calls that you're getting that need to be directed now at the Senate, and it doesn't matter if you like your congressman or senator or not. If they vote for this thing, they shouldn't be in office. I don't care if they're Republican or Democrat. And the same with the healthcare bill, Glenn. If we lose this healthcare issue and socialized medicine in America, I'm not sure if it's retrievable at that point.
GLENN: Senator, is it retrievable, is it retrievable if we give more power to the Fed even? You know, the thing ‑‑ the lie that we heard is we didn't need to have manufacturing in the country because we were going to be the paper people. We were going to be the accountants. We were going to be the bankers. Well, now you've got bankers leaving the United States and going and working in other countries because they want to be salary caps or you've got the government controlling the banks. You can't get anything done here. If you look at what they're doing to the financial sector, they are destroying it. What else do you have? What else do you have?
SENATOR DeMINT: Well, we're obviously not letting free enterprise work anymore, and freedom is synonymous with free enterprise. And several chapters in the book, Glenn, are just about what are those foundations of freedom and that invisible hand that Adam Smith talked about that makes our country pros pus, you are exactly right. We are killing the goose that lays the golden egg in America and we've got to stop it. And that's ‑‑ we've been complaining about it for several years but now we need to take to our feet. We need to go to tea parties. We need to work against any elected official who pushes these things at the federal level, and it doesn't matter what party it is. We've got to find people who will stand up for freedom in our country, and I think they are out there, but the political machines have been too powerful for a lot of people to get through the process and get elected. But I think Americans are outraged and we need to take to the streets and get this, you know, get it changed.
GLENN: Senator, do you think that these tea parties are ever going to mean anything to ‑‑ I mean, I've been waiting for the American people to just go and march on Washington. I mean, I know people have jobs but, you know, it's ‑‑ I can't believe how they are ignored, how they are abused in the media, how they are treated as crazies when Washington and the media elite have no clue that they are in the vast, vast minority. Most people, while they don't attend tea parties, can understand the tea parties more than they can understand Washington.
SENATOR DeMINT: I agree, and I hope on July 4th this week that is all about freedom that people will come out again to tea parties all around the country and let Washington know that that was not a one‑time thing on tax day. The only answer to what's going on in Washington is they believe that either Americans are asleep or they are stupid, and the scariest thing I think for people in office is an electorate that's informed and engaged and activated, and they are not stupid. And we need to prove to them between now and the next election that Americans have caught onto what's happening in Washington.
GLENN: Senator DeMint, the name of the book is Saving Freedom. Sir, I appreciate your bravery. I appreciate you standing up. You have against the nonsense in Washington under Bush and you are doing it now, and I appreciate it, sir. Thank you very much.
SENATOR DeMINT: Don't hang yourself, Glenn. We need you.
GLENN: You haven't seen the fluorescent light bulbs that I ‑‑ I'm telling you I know government money was behind and they are passing them out in New Jersey. You know, that's why, you know, people say to me, Glenn, why don't you have any shoestrings in your converse, sneakers? Because I'd hang myself with them! Senator, thank you very much.
SENATOR DeMINT: Thank you, Glenn.
GLENN: Talk to you again.