He’s been called the “Conservative Kingmaker” by CNN.

He picked the winner of the Delaware primary last month, having endorsed Christine O’Donnell in her come-from-behind challenge to Rep. Mike Castle.

And in June, he began raising support for one of the most important Gun Owners of America-supported candidates — Sharron Angle in Nevada, who many thought would never have a fighting chance to beat Majority Leader Harry Reid. Angle now leads Reid by four points, 50-46 percent, according to Rasmussen’s October 7 poll.

Even though the “Conservative Kingmaker” has successfully picked many of the Republican upstarts who are challenging the Establishment candidates, his name is still not a household word … not yet.

Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina may not have the name recognition of a Sarah Palin, but he’s a man on a mission. He’s been a leader on issues of interest to gun owners and has a 100% (A+) rating with Gun Owners of America.

More than being a good vote, DeMint has been a leader who thinks of ways to kill anti-gun legislation in the Senate and has successfully gotten pro-gun legislation passed.

Whereas President Obama has done much to destroy the Constitution and the 2nd Amendment in the past two years, Senator DeMint has been a fierce defender of our rights.

But as much as he’s doing to change the face of Congress this November, DeMint realizes that the battle for our future must be won in the hearts and minds of the next generation.

It’s a message that gun owners should take to heart.

In his book, Saving Freedom: We can stop America’s slide into socialism, DeMint says that many Americans want out of their “abusive marriage with the federal government” and have asked him what they can do help bring about real change.

DeMint has a prescription, but it’s … um … not quite what we have been used to hearing from Washington.

For example, he quotes President John Quincy Adams who, in a letter to his son, says that to be a good citizen, you must learn to follow the two most important commandments: love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself.

“This is not an admonition for government to love people,” DeMint says, “it is a command for us to love people.” We have to live it out in our lives.

So don’t just talk about “family values,” he says, we’ve got to work at keeping families and marriages together. Don’t just rail against the national debt, we’ve got to live within our own means as well.

In other words, walk your talk.

In the realm of Second Amendment rights, I’ve used DeMint’s advice to encourage pro-gunners for years. It’s great to be an activist for an issue you believe in — like gun rights — but one has to be careful about trying to save the world, only to lose your own family in the process.

After the Columbine tragedy in 1999, I discussed the shooting with my own children. I asked them what they thought should have been done to prevent those kids from wreaking the havoc that they did. And I was pleased to hear them say — without any prompting from me — that law-abiding people (like teachers) should have been able to carry guns to stop the killers.

Even at their young age — they were all under 12 at that time — they understood that guns save lives.

Well, I told some fellow gun rights activists about this, and I remember one saying, “I’ll go home tonight and ask my kids the same question.” Well, to his shock and horror, his kids said that the way to stop future Columbines was to have the government take guns away from the people.

Needless to say … he was appalled.

But why shouldn’t his kids say that? Isn’t that what the schools are teaching kids today? One of the government textbooks being used in public schools all over this country gives higher praise for the United Nation’s Declaration of Rights than for our own Constitution.

This textbook denigrates the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms and completely ignores the 10th Amendment, which would teach kids that the federal government’s powers are to be strictly limited.

While it may not be true in every single classroom, it is certainly accurate that — on the whole — what is being taught to our children is antithetical to our American founding and the Constitution.

In Saving Freedom, DeMint gives some practical solutions as to how We the People can take back our kids’ education. But regardless of whether you have children or not, his message to all Americans is the same: Change starts with you.

Stop waiting for someone else to come along, DeMint says, we all need to get involved. Like George Bailey in the classic movie, It’s a Wonderful Life, one individual can have a dramatic impact on those around them.

DeMint reminds readers how George Bailey is about to commit suicide until an angel shows him how much worse his community would be if he’d never been born — there would be people who would have died (like his brother); people who would be in jail; and so forth.

Likewise, DeMint says, we can tremendously affect the lives of people around us and, in many cases, even affect our entire nation. We must stop thinking the answer to every difficulty is: “Gee, somebody ought to do something about these problems.” Change starts with you!

What a different message from the “Hope and Change” we’ve heard preached from the White House which assumes that change must be imposed from the top-down.