Review of Jim DeMint, Now or Never: Saving America from Economic Collapse (Center Street, 2012), xxix + 271 pgs., hardcover, $24.99. Drug warrior, warmonger, and police statist Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) recently did an interview about his new book Now or Never in which he said: "A lot of the libertarian ideas that Ron Paul is talking about…should not be alien to any Republican." Okay, Jim, so why are they alien to you? They are obviously so alien to DeMint that he couldn’t endorse Ron Paul in the South Carolina Republican presidential primary. He didn’t endorse Ron Paul in 2008 either – he endorsed Mitt Romney.
Although DeMint’s newest book (he has written two others) extols the glories of – believe it or not – individual liberty, decentralization, and limited government, in the end his prescription is the same as that of John Boehner, Eric Cantor, Mitch McConnell, Fox News, and the head of the RNC: vote Republican.
Now or Never contains ten chapters, the first nine with introductions by notable conservatives: Senator Pat Toomey, Senator Marco Rubio, Senator Mike Lee, Representative Steve King, Senator Tom Coburn, political pundit Jack Hunter, political consultant Frank Luntz, former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, and grass-roots activist Dave Zupan. Each chapter except the last is divided into sections and concludes with a "share the truth" section that summarizes the chapter in bullet points. The book contains a foreword by Senator Rand Paul as well as acknowledgments, an introduction, endnotes, and closing sections on "for additional study" and "about the contributors." There is a blurb on the front cover by conservative talk show host Sean Hannity. There is no index.
After receiving his MBA from Clemson and working in business for a number of years, DeMint was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1998 (not 1994 as his book’s dust jacket states). After three terms in the House, he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2004 and reelected in 2010. He is known as one of the most conservative members of the Senate. But this was not always the case. And this is not necessarily a good thing anyway. And, of course, how hard is it to be to the right of most of the socialists, statists, and charlatans – of both parties – in the Senate?
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