Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) on Monday said members of his own party have “have maintained an unnerving silence as instability has ensued” under President Donald Trump’s administration.
“With hindsight, it is clear that we all but ensured the rise of Donald Trump,” Flake said in an excerpt published by Politico of his upcoming book.
He cited Republicans “who, upon Obama’s election, stated that our No. 1 priority was not advancing a conservative policy agenda but making Obama a one-term president,” as well as those “who were largely silent when the most egregious and sustained attacks on Obama’s legitimacy were leveled by marginal figures” — including Trump.
“It was we conservatives who rightly and robustly asserted our constitutional prerogatives as a co-equal branch of government when a Democrat was in the White House but who, despite solemn vows to do the same in the event of a Trump presidency, have maintained an unnerving silence as instability has ensued,” Flake said.
Flake, who is up for reelection in 2018, said he was “sympathetic to this impulse to denial” but called it “a monumental dodge.”
“To carry on in the spring of 2017 as if what was happening was anything approaching normalcy required a determined suspension of critical faculties. And tremendous powers of denial,” he said.
Flake on Sunday similarly criticized Republicans for being “complicit” if they do not speak out against President Donald Trump’s actions or behavior when they disagree.
“That unnerving silence in the face of an erratic executive branch is an abdication,” he said in the excerpt published Monday. “And those in positions of leadership bear particular responsibility.”
These republicans definitely put the “con” in “conservative.” Lucky for them, the country has more than its fair share of gullible racists and bigots.
Not lucky for America.
It would seem to me that Senators who voted “aye” for each nominee of MANGOTUS are also to blame, Senator.
While at first blush, this seems to be conservative Republican Senator putting distance between himself and the Trump disaster for the good of the country, his actions betray these words.
He has voted in line with every Trump desired bill that has come up, and has done nothing to reign this out of control freak from the damage he is doing. So actions speak louder than these timid words (as welcome as they may be in their limited fashion).
But it may signal that Republicans on the Hill are rapidly approaching “done” with Trump territory.
Unfortunately the rot that has eaten away any pretense of ethics, intellectual coherency, or rational policy within the entire Republican party will remain until the party can metaphorically die-off and the disease within it that lead to Trump (who is a symptom not a cause) can be cut away and treated like political and intellectual greyscale.
Sen. Flake is not wrong, but he doesn’t offer the real prescription, impeachment, he walks right up to the line but never goes there, why? You want to be Sen. Goldwater, Mr. Flake? Write the words, say the words, ITMFA.
He stayed in the Republican party and he voted for ACA repeal. He is as complicit as every other Republican office holder, with partial exception of Collins, Murkowski, and McCain (they deserve an exception for ACA vote but it was just one, albeit important, vote).