Jim DeMint is the Forrest Gump of the Tea Party. He’s been everywhere from the halls of Congress to the beating heart of the modern conservative movement at the Heritage Foundation. But after the better part of two decades, DeMint says it’s all for naught.

“I’ve finally realized the most important truth of our time,” DeMint said in a Monday press release. “Washington, D.C. will never fix itself.” And so with that mindset, the fiery former South Carolina senator and Heritage president got himself a new job.