Jeff Flake: Honest Mormon Republican Senator?

[_Analytics]

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/ ... ump-215442

Who could blame the people who felt abandoned and ignored by the major parties for reaching in despair for a candidate who offered oversimplified answers to infinitely complex questions and managed to entertain them in the process? With hindsight, it is clear that we all but ensured the rise of Donald Trump.

I will let the liberals answer for their own sins in this regard. (There are many.) But we conservatives mocked Barack Obama’s failure to deliver on his pledge to change the tone in Washington even as we worked to assist with that failure. It was we conservatives 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—the corollary to this binary thinking being that his failure would be our success and the fortunes of the citizenry would presumably be sorted out in the meantime. It was we conservatives who were largely silent when the most egregious and sustained attacks on Obama’s legitimacy were leveled by marginal figures who would later be embraced and legitimized by far too many of us. 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. 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.

I’ve been sympathetic to this impulse to denial, as one doesn’t ever want to believe that the government of the United States has been made dysfunctional at the highest levels, especially by the actions of one’s own party. Michael Gerson, a con­servative columnist and former senior adviser to President George with. Bush, wrote, four months into the new presidency, “The conservative mind, in some very visible cases, has become diseased,” and conservative institutions “with the blessings of a president . . . have abandoned the normal constraints of reason and compassion.”

For a conservative, that’s an awfully bitter pill to swallow. So as I layered in my defense mechanisms, I even found myself saying things like, “If I took the time to respond to every presiden­tial tweet, there would be little time for anything else.” Given the volume and velocity of tweets from both the Trump campaign and then the White House, this was certainly true. But it was also a monumental dodge. It would be like Noah saying, “If I spent all my time obsessing about the coming flood, there would be little time for anything else.” At a certain point, if one is being honest, the flood becomes the thing that is most worthy of attention. At a certain point, it might be time to build an ark.

This excerpt is from Flake's article, "My Party Is in Denial About Donald Trump: We created him, and now we're rationalizing him. When will it stop?", which is an excerpt from his book, Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle.

Is Flake ahead of the curve, or is he in left field?

[_The CCC]

He faces a re-election Primary from his right. That is his only reason for his come to Jesus moment. He VOTES with Drumpf over 95% of the time.

[_Chap]

...

... “The conservative mind, in some very visible cases, has become diseased,” and conservative institutions “with the blessings of a president . . . have abandoned the normal constraints of reason and compassion.”

For a conservative, that’s an awfully bitter pill to swallow. ...

Try taking it with a glass of water.

But by golly it is a pill that has to be gulped right down.

[_Analytics]

He faces a re-election Primary from his right. That is his only reason for his come to Jesus moment. He VOTES with Drumpf over 95% of the time.

Just to understand what you are saying, are you suggesting that he doesn't think he can beat his challenger amongst the MAGA cult members, so he's making a hard tack towards the center and seeing if he can win based on rationality?

Whether the come-to-Jesus moment was triggered by his own conscience or whether it was triggered by political expediency, it is still a win for decency.

[_cinepro]

In all this, the three conservatives I have admired the most were George Will, Michael Medved and Mitt Romney (in spite of his apparent willingness to at least consider joining Trump's cabinet).

I might have to put Jeff Flake on the list, even though he didn't speak out earlier about Trump like the other guys did.

[_Maxine Waters]

In all this, the three conservatives I have admired the most were George Will, Michael Medved and Mitt Romney (in spite of his apparent willingness to at least consider joining Trump's cabinet).

I might have to put Jeff Flake on the list, even though he didn't speak out earlier about Trump like the other guys did.

Is George Will even a consevative now? Sean Hannity is a registered conservative. What is conservative about George Will's views?

Cinepro I remember you saying, "What a disaster Mitt Romney turned out to be," shortly after he lost the election of 2012. I didn't know it at the time, but Mitt Romney's loss ended up being the best thing for us. RINOs always criticized the Tea Party saying, "The Tea Party can't win." It seems to me that it's the moderate Republicans like John McCain and Mitt Romney that can't win elections.

Sadly our Republican majority congress won't even help stop the backup of Trump nominees that need to be confirmed to run the government. It's their way of leaving Obama appointees in power. It's a silent coup being staged by the establishment to usurp the will of the voter in a democratic election.

[_MeDotOrg]

...Is George Will a conservative now? Sean Hannity is a registered conservative. What is conservative about George Will's views?

Former editor of the National Review, Reagan Speech writer...yeah, the guy's a commie, alright. Just shows you what has happened to the word conservative in American politics since 1980.

[_honorentheos]

Is Flake ahead of the curve, or is he in left field?

I have a different perspective on this from having writing Senator Flake along with Senator McCain and my Representative on at least five occasions since Trump took office. Of the three, Flake is the only one who raised my opinion of him by sending responses that both reflected the concerns expressed in my letter and acknowledging the importance of Nation over politics. I don't know if he's ahead of the curve or not, but I have a different opinion of him than I had 10 months ago. The content you quoted is consistent with the general content of his responses, even if likely written by an intern from scraps of form letter responses.

But putting that in context, I didn't see a response from McCain that wasn't a canned letter more appropriately written for an old retiree Sheriff Joe voter. My representative, when they bothered to send a reply, was even more entrenched in negative polemics despite this usually being at the heart of every letter I sent.

So, I tend to think Flake's current coming out in the news is from at least some marginally genuine place. But I doubt he has the ability to move Washington in any way, certainly not members of the House.

[_The CCC]

Just to understand what you are saying, are you suggesting that he doesn't think he can beat his challenger amongst the Make America Great Again cult members, so he's making a hard tack towards the center and seeing if he can win based on rationality?

Whether the come-to-Jesus moment was triggered by his own conscience or whether it was triggered by political expediency, it is still a win for decency.

I have a very low opinion of most politicians. Lower than pond scum. Words are cheap for politicians, show me how they vote and I'll know what they truly believe. I find Mr. Flake's actual votes deplorable.

[_Maksutov]

Talk is cheap.