Another milestone. I knew a few years ago when John Boehner began to sound reasonable and sane, after cleaning out all the liquor cabinets on Capitol Hill that something unusual was afoot. Now former Arizona senator Jeff Flake has come forward and he’s making perfect sense as well. The common denominator to these revelations — and others like them — is the depredation and decay of the GOP. A lot of people from both parties, and independents, are in agreement about that reality. Here’s what Flake has to say as he comes forward to defend Liz Cheney and kick in his two cents about how this moment in history came to be. Washington Post:
This allergy to self-evident truth didn’t happen all at once, of course. This frog has been boiling for some time now. The Trump period in American life has been a celebration of the unwise and the untrue. From the ugly tolerance of the pernicious falsehood about President Barack Obama’s place of birth to the bizarre and fanatical fable about the size of inauguration crowds, to the introduction of the term “alternative facts” into the American lexicon, the party’s steady embrace of dishonesty as a central premise has brought us to this low and dangerous place. […]
When I became an unwitting dissident in my party by speaking in defense of self-evident truths, I assumed that more and more of my colleagues would follow me. I remain astonished that so few did. Congresswoman Cheney, I know how alone you must be feeling. But just know that history keeps the score, not Kevin McCarthy or Elise Stefanik.
In January 2018, three years before the Capitol insurrection, I said the following on the Senate floor:
“Mr. President, let us be clear. The impulses underlying the dissemination of such untruths are not benign. They have the effect of eroding trust in our vital institutions and conditioning the public to no longer trust them. The destructive effect of this kind of behavior on our democracy cannot be overstated.”
Three years later, it’s clear that I didn’t know the half of it. The destructive effect of the president’s behavior — and the willingness of Republican elected officials to indulge, excuse, defend, justify and, in many cases, just roll with it — has taken a devastating toll.
It is elementary to have to say this, but we did not become a great nation by believing or espousing nonsense, or by embracing lunacy. And if my party continues down this path, we will not be fit to govern.
Your party already is not fit to govern. That became glaringly evident the day you put the reality TV actor slash tabloid headliner at the top of your ticket. At that moment, the GOP formally abdicated all claim to decorum and decency, not to mention common sense. At that moment the Party of Lincoln not only betrayed Old Abe, it betrayed Eisenhower, Reagan, even the Bush family. It betrayed the dignity of the office. That’s the plain, self-evident truth of the matter.
All this puts me in mind of a great scene from the movie Judgement At Nuremberg. The corrupt German judge, played by Burt Lancaster, is having a man to man talk with the tribunal from the Allies, played by Spencer Tracy. Lancaster says, “You must believe me, I never knew that things would get to where they got.” Tracy replies, “Things got there, Herr Janning, the minute you pronounced a man guilty whom you knew to be innocent.”
Lancaster has an epiphany and realizes the truth of Tracy’s words. This moment is just like that one. The debasement and destruction of the GOP happened the minute the GOP put Trump on the ticket. Since that moment, it’s all merely been about the details of your continuing disgrace and decline, Mr. Flake. But you were done as a party as of that minute. And on some level you all know it. We hold that truth to be self-evident.
Trump stripped the Republican party naked. They have been evil all of my life. Lies is all they have ever had. Welfare queens. A lie. Trickle down economics. A lie. WMD. A lie. Oh well. Flake is sad. Cheney is sad. Their so called conservative ideology is smoke. Trump has as much substance as the ideology of conservatives. In fact, he is loved by Republicans because he is a tangible example of the essence of R’s, greed, hate and low self-esteem.
This incarnation’s ideology is certainly shot of any of its remaining credibility. However, I look folks like Flake, Cheney and Romney to reshape it into something that actually works for this century.
While it’s fashionable to still be frightened by Trump’s premature ghost, folks like Flake are people I’d watch closer. Like his eventual leader Liz Cheney, he has enough of a grasp of the situation’s reality to be able to do something about it. All that’s needed is the right support in the right places. And with the Trump cult daily proving itself to be dangerous in the micro but powerless in the macro, can any of us doubt that the sane but evil people will take back their movement?
I’d doubt their success at taking it back.
Absolutely. the Republicans have been big-time liars for a very, very long time. For example, check out the Dulles brothers and their network, including the Bush family, helping the Nazis before the war was even over. Joe McCarthy. The China Lobby. Richard Nixon. Reagan, an actor who played the president. George Bush and Iran-Contra. And yes, Dick Cheney, Haliburton, and “Team B”. For more enlightenment, check these out, all available on line:
Maureen Dowd, “Liz Cheney and the Big Lies”
William Rivers Pitt, “Liz Cheney Plays the Martyr — But She Helped Build the Monster”
Neil Gabler, “The GOP’s McCarthy Gene”
James Downie, “The Big Myth about Cheney, Trump, and the GOP”
George Packer, “The Corruption of the Republican Party”
“Author Larry Tye on parallels between Trump and Joseph McCarthy”
Beverly Gage, “McCarthyism was never Defeated”
These sad Republicans are kinda like if you went to a funeral for an alcoholic who drove their car over a cliff, and all their drinking buddies showed up to speak and ask how this could possibly have happened.
You…Jeff Flake and Liz Cheney…in part this happened because of you.
I’d be just fine with NO repuke party at all.
Let the left and center Democratic Party work out the details to help us all.
Jeffery stood in front of the nation TWICE during 2 impeachment trials, & swore a sacred oath, which he violated TWICE, thereby pissing on 2 opportunities to end this cult. The rest is history. If he’s a part of a ‘new’ Republican party, I will remind myself to keep my expectations low.
Oh yeah.. WHO AGAIN GAS signed onto the #NotCrazyParty of LIZ AND who hasn’t.. someone said not Rick Wilson or Steve Schmidt (but I think he is Dem now) or George Conway . Since of course his wife is Philly mob and has teams of muggers and thuggery behind her as do all GOP BE HOLDEN TO #TrumpRussia and the #RussianMob in America .. RIGHT? @FBI
VERY GOOD PIECE.. thanks Ursula.. and TY to Jeff Flake. .. and Liz Cheney .. HAS RHERE BEEN AN ASTOUNDING SILENCE FROM #MittROMNEY or not?! Not following exactly who signed onto new manifesto and who hasn’t.