DeMint to Conservatives: 'We Must Redouble Our Efforts'

Senate conservative and Tea Party leader Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) released a letter to conservatives this afternoon titled “Undaunted”:

Dear Friends,

Like you, I was disappointed by the outcome of election day.  But I remain undaunted.

Hundreds of Republican candidates campaigned on real plans to address our runaway debt and looming entitlement crisis and won a strong majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. Rising conservative leaders like Jeff Flake, Ted Cruz and Deb Fischer will now join me and stalwarts like Ron Johnson, Mike Lee, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio and Pat Toomey in the U.S. Senate.

Yet many are still asking: “Where do we go from here?”

We will certainly face many battles in Congress in the coming months that will give us the opportunity to clearly articulate the failures of liberalism and the common sense of conservative alternatives. We must not shrink from the fight on Capitol Hill or in drawing these distinctions for the American people, regardless of the attempted distortions by the mainstream press.

This election didn’t change the fact that wasteful spending has not healed our economy. It hasn’t changed the fact that Obamacare will allow bureaucrats to make decisions that should be left to patients and their doctors. It hasn’t changed the fact that high taxes and burdensome regulations destroy American jobs and force businesses overseas. And it hasn’t changed the fact that our rising $16 trillion debt is crushing our children and grandchildren’s hope for a better life. We must redouble our efforts to educate all Americans about the benefits of limited government and individual liberty in their everyday lives.

And there is also an opportunity for conservative leaders to show by example what works in communities, organizations and states that are successfully implementing these principles.  Many governors are already leading the way, showing in these islands of freedom that choosing the path of fiscal responsibility has allowed their states to thrive even during the national economic turmoil.

This is why we must continue to fight in Washington and why I remain hopeful that we are not destined for decline. We must limit the burdens the federal government places on families, businesses, cities and states to prosper. Free people making their own decisions in a free market with limited government is what has made us the greatest nation on earth. Freedom will work again if we continue to fight for it.

This two-pronged approach of pushing commonsense solutions and educating at the national level, while working at the state and local level to demonstrate success is conservatism’s clear path forward.

Together, let us remain undaunted and committed to the work before us.

Yours in Freedom,

Jim DeMint