In his Washington Post opinion piece yesterday, former Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) threw down the gauntlet to his fellow Republicans and challenged them to “risk [their] careers in favor of [their] principles” concerning Donald Trump’s unworthiness to be re-elected in 2020.
Using his personal experience of being forced out of office in 2018 due to his rejection of Trumpism, Flake provided an example of the possible consequences Republicans are likely to face if they follow his lead and challenged them by saying, “For those who want to put America first, it is critically important at this moment in the life of our country that we all, here and now, do just that.”
Flake gets a lot of things right in his call for Republicans to break free of the Trump Matrix when he points out things like:
- How Trump’s “fondness for authoritarians and his scorn for allies” has damaged America’s standing in the world
- How Trump’s “hostility toward security alliances and trade agreements” has put America’s security and economy at risk
- How Trump’s tyrannical use of the NAZI-esque phrase “enemy of the people” threatens freedom of the press
- How Trump’s “disparagement of the judiciary, antagonism toward Congress, and casual disregard for the truth” has done tremendous damage to America’s political and social culture.
In light of the Ukraine scandal and the impeachment inquiry, Flake acknowledges the gloomy days ahead. But based on his “grave reservations about impeachment,” he doesn’t call on Republicans to impeach or not impeach Trump. Instead, Flake simply concludes that regardless of the outcome, Republicans should refuse to support Trump’s re-election.
While I agree with the points made about Donald Trump by the ex-Senator from Arizona, I completely disagree with his call for the GOP to save itself because, quite simply, it is beyond redemption. And the kicker is people like Jeff Flake are the primary reason this is so.
During his one term in the U.S. Senate, Jeff Flake “accomplished” the following:
- In Feb. 2014, he joined failed GOP presidential candidates Mitt Romney and John McCain to convince then-Governor Jan Brewer to veto a bill protecting religious liberty for Christian businesses who refuse to participate in same-sex weddings, which she did
- In Feb. 2015, he sided with Democrats to rubber-stamp Obama’s unconstitutional executive amnesty plan for illegal aliens
- In April 2015, he joined such stellar “conservatives” as Lindsey Graham and Orrin Hatch to confirm Eric Holder 2.0 (Loretta Lynch) as Obama’s Attorney General
- In March 2016, he was one of seven GOP senators willing to meet with Merrick Garland, Obama’s nominee to replace Scalia on the Supreme Court
- In June 2016, he co-sponsored an anti-gun bill with Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) following the Orlando nightclub shooting.
Despite claims made in his book, Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle — a book written in a lame attempt to win conservative support for his 2018 re-election before deciding not to run — Flake is the kind of faux conservative responsible for the rise of Trump and his hijacking of the Republican party.
Jeff Flake is wrong to believe Republicans can save their souls because the GOP is a zombie — a mindless, lifeless, apathetic corpse of a party possessing no soul.
David Leach is the owner of The Strident Conservative.
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