The swearing in of a 113th Congress last week was not only historic but some new members also give conservatives some hope for the future.

Tim Scott became the seventh African American to serve in the U.S. Senate when he took his oath on January 1, making him the only African American in the current Senate. That body had been without a black member since Roland Burris, the Illinois Democrat who filled President Obama's seat and left the Senate in 2010. Scott also became the first to be affiliated with the Republican Party to represent a southern state since the end of the Reconstruction Era.The makeup of the new Congress also broke gender barriers. There are 74 female Representatives in the House and 16 female Senate members, making this the highest number of women members in the history of the Congress. A bright star in the House of Representatives is Rep. Ann Wagner from Missouri, who was chosen by the 34 newly-elected GOP House members to be their "freshman representative" at the GOP House leadership table. Wagner believes in core conservative principles, including limited government and harnessing the out-of-control federal spending of this administration."We need to create an environment that gets government out of the way and off the backs of hard-working people who are trying to make a living," Wagner said.Conservative groups, meanwhile, including the Club for Growth and FreedomWorks, praised Gov. Nikki Haley's decision to name Scott as the successor to Jim DeMint, won resigned his Senate seat. Jenny Beth Martin, president of the Tea Party Patriots, called it a victory for conservatives, stating that Scott "has taken our core values seriously in the House, and we have every reason to expect similar principled behavior in the Senate."Scott also said he would not be joining the Congressional Black Caucus, stating that the decision was not a racial issue. He explained that his campaign was never about race and that the future is more important than the past.""The black community, like all communities, will benefit when businesses can use their profits to hire more workers instead of paying higher taxes," he said in a written statement. "Reducing the tax burden, decreasing government interference in the private sector, and restoring fiscal responsibility, and I don't think those ideals are advanced by focusing on one group of people.".Despite Scott's historic appointment as an African American, the liberal press and black community showed none of the exuberance they afforded Barack Obama when he was a candidate. In fact there was immediate criticism from the voices on the left.Ben Jealous, the head of the NAACP, said that Scott did not "believe" in civil rights, and that he earned a grade of "F" from the NAACP.Adolph Reed, a professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania, wrote that Scott is "utterly at odds with the preferences of most black Americans" and that black Republicans like him "have been more of a token than signs of real progress."This "token" appointment that Reed degrades traveled the hard road. After his parents were divorced when he was 7, Scott's mother worked 16-hour days to support the poverty-stricken family. He attended Presbyterian College from 1983 to 1984, and graduated from Charleston Southern University in 1988 with a B.S. in Political Science.Unlike many elected leaders in Washington, Scott understands the free market system and the small business world, having run an insurance agency and worked as a financial adviser.Both Rep. Wagner and Sen. Scott are optimists who can be an inspiration to others concerned about America's future.By Jim Zbickjzbick@tnonline.com