Saving Freedom - Review

By Michael S. Smith II

In the debate over the Obama Administration's health care, "health insurance," or whatever "reforms" the president and his Democrat allies in Congress are cooking up, Sen. Jim DeMint (R, S.C.) has emerged as the media's darling among the conservative legislators who oppose ObamaCare. Since calling the policy prescriptions contained in HR3200 President Obama's "Waterloo," Sen. DeMint has become the most visible opponent of what many Republicans are calling a first step toward socialism in America. The timing for all of this couldn't be much better for Fidelis Books, publisher of "Saving Freedom: We Can Stop America's Slide into Socialism."

"Like the sailors in Homer's Odyssey who could not resist the siren song, American voters have been led astray by politicians who offer quick-fix government promises. Too many Americans have stopped looking within themselves for hope and opportunity; we have sailed too close to the island of socialism," writes Sen. Jim DeMint in his opus, "Saving Freedom."

At a time when conservative-oriented books are selling quite well, "Saving Freedom" could be dismissed as just another message in a bottle afloat in a sea of likeminded authors' works. However, unlike so many of those works, "This book is critical of both parties," DeMint notes.

Just what has prompted the senator's critiques? According to DeMint, "Our federal government and opportunistic politicians became the ‘enablers' by telling Americans they could have it all," and Americans have become "addicts of government promises." All of which DeMint argues has perpetuated "America's slide toward socialism"

-- a tide DeMint hopes to reverse with the gusto of, as he puts it, a Don Quixoteish "windmill in a tornado."

With the subtlety of a hand grenade, in "Saving Freedom" Sen. DeMint issues a series of blunt warnings against what he describes as the rise of "collectivist principles" in our nation's Capitol, principles the senator decries as "facilitators of America's decline."

Much as Sen. DeMint concedes early in the work, "Saving Freedom" is hardly an academic thesis, nor will it be regarded as a Democrat's or a NeoCon's cup of tea.

A unique work of political philosophy? Yes.

Likely to be enjoyed by all readers? Probably not.

But making friends does not seem to be a driving force in the author's agenda these days

-- and for many of his supporters, that just may be "all right."

SAVING FREEDOM:We Can Stop America's Slide into Socialism. By Jim DeMint. Fidelis. 277 pages. $26.95.

Copyright © 2009 by Michael S. Smith II and The Free Enterprise Foundation. All rights reserved

About the author: Mr. Smith is executive editor of The Ethical Standard: Official Publication of The Free Enterprise Foundation. He is also a contributing editor for SCHotline , a Columbia, S.C.-based conservative-oriented news aggregator site.

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