Senator echoes Tea Party rally cry

'People have to show that they're not going to take it anymore'

By Drew Zahn

Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C.

Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., a staunch opponent of the federal government's increase in size and spending legislated by President Obama's stimulus package, has issued a call for Americans to stand up – literally – and take back their freedom.

"I would think it's time to start thinking about peaceful demonstrations," DeMint said in an interview with Georgia's Augusta Chronicle. "The power of the people is there. Freedom is in the people's hands right now, and it's about to slip through."

DeMint lobbied his fellow Senators to resist the $787 billion stimulus package's new federal regulations in the areas of education, medicine, welfare spending and other arenas – all to no avail, as three of his fellow Republicans joined all the Democrats in the Senate to approve the massive spending bill by a vote of 60-38.

Disappointed by the outcome on Capitol Hill, DeMint is now calling on the common people to resist government actions he sees overflowing constitutional bounds.

"Really, I think the hope right now is not in Congress to make the right decision, because they're not," DeMint says. "It's just whether or not the American people are going to stand up and say enough is enough."

DeMint told the Chronicle despite the economic times that are pressing people into advocating the massive federal expansion, he still sees those that value their freedom over the government's handout, a group of people he called a "remnant."

"That's all it is," he concludes. "But that's all it takes. … Freedom is in our hands; it always has been. We've entrusted it to people in Washington, and increasingly they have picked our pockets and pulled power from us."

"People don't need to look to Washington," DeMint continued. "It's the people's government. And the people are going to have to take it back. They can do it with their voices and with their votes – and they may have to do it with their legs. People are going to have to show that they're not going to take it anymore."

What exactly, does DeMint advocate the "remnant" do? Apparently, make a noise in the government's seats of power.

"I think some of these folks," DeMint said, "might think twice if they had several hundred people standing outside one of their state offices asking, 'What in the world are you thinking?'"

DeMint's comments, as it happens, come at a time when many Americans are responding to a remarkably similar rally cry: the call to a new American Tea Party.

As WND reported, CNBC analyst Rick Santelli became a YouTube sensation after he spoke out against President Obama's proposed $275 billion deficit-financed homeowner bailout plan and other massive spending measures with a call for a new "tea party" from the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

Full story HERE