Putting the "freedom fighter" DeMint in his place

Jim DeMint, the so-called freedom fighter, is being put in his place by H. Brandt Ayers, chairman and publisher of The Anniston Star:

Two voices illustrate the fight for the mind and soul of the GOP.

First is the fiery voice of party purification, Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina, the state that brought us John C. Calhoun, the theory of nullification, civil war, Strom Thurmond's Dixiecrats and Gov. Mark Sanford, the Appalachian trail explorer.

Sen. DeMint parsed the complex issues of access and cost in health-care legislation with this pretty paragraph: "If we are able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him, and we will show that we can, along with the American people, begin to push those freedom solutions that work in every area of our society."

DeMint has become the rhetorical leader of the no-tax, no-spend wing of the party, which at its core says: If it's broke, don't fix it … if it costs money or helps the wrong kind of people. If you can't afford a doctor, get a life or go to the ER.

DeMint and his wing-nut ways are good for the past, but we don't live in the past. This country is trying to escape the horrid past others want to relive again and again.