Flake for President
On the day the President insulted, yet again, Sen. Bob Corker for daring to speak the truth, fellow Republican Jeff Flake of Arizona announced he would not seek reelection and delivered a stirring repudiation of the man who stands atop the Republican Party and the executive branch.
Applaud these men for their courage. Lament that it remains a tiny minority of GOP senators — Flake, Corker, John McCain — with the guts to call Donald Trump the threat to American politics that he plainly is.
Lament too that almost to a person, the Republicans who speak out most eloquently are leaving the chamber, seemingly emboldened because they have nothing left to lose.
Pray that others step forward to save their party and country as Flake did on the Senate floor:
“We must never regard as ‘normal’ the regular and casual undermining of our democratic norms and ideals. We must never meekly accept 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 . . . .
“If we simply become inured to this condition, thinking that this is just politics as usual, then heaven help us. 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. They are not normal.
“Reckless, outrageous, and undignified behavior has become excused and countenanced as ‘telling it like it is,’ when it is actually just reckless, outrageous, and undignified.
“And when such behavior emanates from the top of our government, it is something else: It is dangerous to a democracy. Such behavior does not project strength — because our strength comes from our values. It instead projects a corruption of the spirit, and weakness.
“It is often said that children are watching. Well, they are. And what are we going to do about that? When the next generation asks us, ‘Why didn’t you do something? Why didn’t you speak up?’ — what are we going to say? . . .
“I rise today to say: Enough.”