Flake

In his book “Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle,” Flake put on paper the criticism of Trump’s style he had previously expressed publicly.

In the poisonous atmosphere of Trump’s GOP, Flake said he can no longer be “complicit” in the “alarming and dangerous state of affairs” in American politics.

You have to look closely to see a glimmer of optimism in this exit speech. But it was there.

“This spell will eventually break,” Flake said.

Why?

“Because to have a healthy government we must have healthy and functioning parties. We must respect each other again in an atmosphere of shared facts and shared values, comity and good faith. We must argue our positions fervently, and never be afraid to compromise. We must assume the best of our fellow man, and always look for the good,” he said.

How? He answered that one, too. “Until that day comes, we must be unafraid to stand up and speak out as if our country depends on it. Because it does.”

In a world where political debate is increasingly conducted in Twitter bursts, Flake took his time to outline a problem that is painfully clear to many, many Americans.

We live in a time, he said, “when it seems that our democracy is more defined by our discord and our dysfunction than it is by our values and our principles.”

We all know politics is about hot kitchens and hardball. Always has been. For decades, elder statesmen and women have decried the loss of comity and the rise of animosity among political rivals. Flake knows this, too.

But Trump’s presidency has taken things to a disturbing new low.

This is a president who tweeted earlier this month that it might be time to “challenge their license,” after NBC News aired a report he didn’t like. It’s the kind of threat you expect from a Third World despot. Not the president of the United States.

Not here. Not yet.

Flake decried “the daily sundering of our country — the personal attacks; the threats against principles, freedoms and institutions; the flagrant disregard for truth or decency; the reckless provocations, most often for the pettiest and most personal reasons, reasons having nothing whatsoever to do with the fortunes of the people that we have all been elected to serve.”

This is not a new litany of offenses. Trump has been consistent in his disrespect for the dignity of the office he holds.

Mainstream Republicans spoke against Trump’s style and lack of substance as he muscled his way through the GOP primaries. The criticism continued as he brought his divisive tactics to the White House.

In addition to Flake, Republicans Sens. John McCain, Bob Corker and Ben Sasse have been sounding the alarm. Former President George W. Bush also criticized Trumpism — without mentioning Trump.

Yet Trump’s base remains solidly in support of the man — the man, not necessarily the principles of the party he heads.

So why speak out now?

Flake said it was because the children are watching. He spoke about duty. About America’s ideals.

Trump is the titular head of the Republican Party, not his own cult of personality. Yet Trump uses his position to divide the American people and promote himself as the singular solution to all problems.

“There is an undeniable potency to a populist appeal — but mischaracterizing or misunderstanding our problems and giving in to the impulse to scapegoat and belittle threatens to turn us into a fearful, backward-looking people,” Flake said. “In the case of the Republican Party, those things also threaten to turn us into a fearful, backward-looking minority party.”

America is on the brink of outrage fatigue. Trump is making the offensive feel commonplace.

This is where Flake challenged America to look back down the long, mirrored corridors of our history and our heritage. To remember that we are better than this. And to say so.

“Without fear of the consequences, and without consideration of the rules of what is politically safe or palatable, we must stop pretending that the degradation of our politics and the conduct of some in our executive branch are normal,” he said. “They are not normal.”

Those words illuminate the way out of the corrosive and dysfunctional politics of today.

Those who want to keep this from becoming a “new normal” need to speak out.

They need to answer what Flake called the “reckless, outrageous and undignified” habits of this administration by standing up for unity, decency and dignity.

This is the light of truth we need to find our way back.