In the world of American politics, yesterday
was likely an aberration of the highest order. While the era of #45 has given
us many firsts, (including alleged adult day care and eff’n moron, just last
week), I have little doubt there will be many more to come. Yesterday stands
out as one for the record books. In two separate instances, two different Senators
took great pains to offer starkly unflattering depictions of a President, whom
at least on paper, is a member of the same Party from which they hail.
In a series of tweets, Donald Trump’s most
frequent weapon of choice, the President repeatedly attacked Senator Bob Corker
of Tennessee. I referenced the budding feud that has been brewing since Sunday
before last, in last week’s post. Well, suffice it to say, it ain’t over.
Trump’s tweet salvo included the following:
“Bob Corker, who helped President O give us the bad Iran Deal
& couldn't get elected dog catcher in Tennessee, is now fighting Tax
Cuts....”
“...Corker dropped out of the race in
Tennesse when I refused to endorse him, and now is only negative on anything
Trump. Look at his record!”
“Isn't it sad that lightweight Senator Bob Corker, who couldn't get re-elected
in the Great State of Tennessee, will now fight Tax Cuts plus!”
“Sen. Corker is the incompetent head of the Foreign Relations Committee,
& look how poorly the U.S. has done. He doesn't have a clue as.....”
“...the entire World WAS
laughing and taking advantage of us. People like liddle' Bob Corker have set
the U.S. way back. Now we move forward!”
Senator Corker made it clear how he viewed the
President’s antics a couple of Sundays ago. The screed above served only to
harden his resolve. He is by no means the prolific tweeter that Mr. Trump has
come to be. However, to quote Shakespeare’s Lord Polonius in Hamlet,
“brevity is the soul of wit.” Ergo, Corker’s response was short, sweet, and cut
to the quick. His sole retort was:
“Same untruths from an utterly
untruthful president.” #AlertTheDaycareStaff
If the Senator had been holding a mic, surely
he would have dropped it after typing and sending that tweet. Tax reform, healthcare,
Niger, North Korea, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Puerto Rico, the fate of the NFL,
and oh yeah, Russian collusion, will all undoubtedly surface in coming news
cycles. Nevertheless, a betting man would absolutely place the electronic
Trump-Corker tete-a-tete in the upper range, if not near the very top, of any list of stories apt to
claim our collective attention in the coming days.
Back on August 2nd, I published a
post that discussed Arizona Senator Jeff Flake, who wrote an op-ed for Politico Magazine. The piece was a prologue
to his new book, entitled, “Conscience of a Conservative.” You might recall
that Flake’s thesis is that the GOP is responsible for making Trump a phenomenon
of epic proportion when it opted to vehemently oppose President Obama at every turn.
As Flake put it at the time:
“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.”
That was twelve weeks ago. Yesterday, Senator
Flake unexpectedly announced on the Senate floor that he would not seek
reelection in 2018, becoming the second Republican in the upper chamber to
forgo a campaign next year. Like Tennessee Senator Bob Corker, who made a
similar announcement last month, Flake has been a vocal critic of the Trump
administration. And like Corker, Flake seems poised to use his newfound freedom
to warn of the threat he believes President Trump poses to his party and to the
country.
Here is a complete transcript of Senator
Flake’s remarks.
Mr. President, I rise today to address a matter
that has been very much on my mind, at a moment when it seems that our
democracy is more defined by our discord and our dysfunction than by our own
values and our principles. Let me begin by noting a somewhat obvious point that
these offices that we hold are not ours indefinitely. We are not here simply to
mark time. Sustained incumbency is certainly not the point of seeking office.
And there are times when we must risk our careers in favor of our principles.
It must also be said that I rise today with no small measure of regret. Regret, because of the state of our disunion, regret because of the disrepair and destructiveness of our politics, regret because of the indecency of our discourse, regret because of the coarseness of our leadership, regret for the compromise of our moral authority, and by our—all of our—complicity in this alarming and dangerous state of affairs. It is time for our complicity and our accommodation of the unacceptable to end.
In this century, a new phrase has entered the language to describe the accommodation of a new and undesirable order—that phrase being “the new normal.” But we must never adjust to the present coarseness of our national dialogue—with the tone set at the top.
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 institution, the flagrant disregard for truth and 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 been elected to serve.
None of these appalling features of our current politics should ever be regarded as normal. We must never allow ourselves to lapse into thinking that that is just the way things are now. If we simply become inured to this condition, thinking that it 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?
Mr. President, I rise today
to say: Enough. We must dedicate ourselves to making sure that the anomalous
never becomes the normal. With respect and humility, I must say that we have
fooled ourselves for long enough that a pivot to governing is right around the
corner, a return to civility and stability right behind it. We know better than
that. By now, we all know better than that.
But what happens if ambition fails to counteract ambition? What happens if stability fails to assert itself in the face of chaos and instability? If decency fails to call out indecency? Were the shoe on the other foot, we Republicans—would we Republicans—meekly accept such behavior on display from dominant Democrats? Of course we wouldn’t, and we would be wrong if we did.
When we remain silent and fail to act when we
know that that silence and inaction is the wrong thing to do—because of
political considerations, because we might make enemies, because we might
alienate the base, because we might provoke a primary challenge, because ad
infinitum, ad nauseum—when we succumb to those considerations in spite of what
should be greater considerations and imperatives in defense of the institutions
and our liberty, we dishonor our principles and forsake our obligations. Those
things are far more important than politics.
Now, I am aware that more politically savvy
people than I will caution against such talk. I am aware that a segment of my
party believes that anything short of complete and unquestioning loyalty to a
president who belongs to my party is unacceptable and suspect.
If I have been critical, it is not because I
relish criticizing the behavior of the president of the United States. If
I have been critical, it is because I believe it is my obligation to do so, and
as a matter of duty of conscience. The notion that one should stay silent
as the norms and values that keep America strong are undermined and as the
alliances and agreements that ensure the stability of the entire world are
routinely threatened by the level of thought that goes into
140 characters—the notion that we should say and do nothing in the face of
such mercurial behavior is ahistoric and, I believe, profoundly misguided.
A president—a Republican president—named
Roosevelt had this to say about the president and a citizen’s relationship
to the office:
“The President is merely the most important among
a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed
exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad
conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and
disinterested service to the nation as a whole.” He continued, “Therefore,
it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the
truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly as necessary
to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any
other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile.” President
Roosevelt continued. “To announce that there must be no criticism of the
President, or that we are to stand by a President, right or wrong, is not only
unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
Acting on conscience and principle is the manner
in which we express our moral selves, and as such, loyalty to conscience and
principle should supersede loyalty to any man or party. We can all be forgiven
for failing in that measure from time to time. I certainly put myself at the
top of the list of those who fall short in that regard. I am holier-than-none.
But too often, we rush not to salvage principle but to forgive and excuse our
failures so that we might accommodate them and go right on failing—until the
accommodation itself becomes our principle.
When a leader correctly identifies real hurt and insecurity in our country and instead of addressing it goes to look for somebody to blame, there is perhaps nothing more devastating to a pluralistic society. Leadership knows that most often a good place to start in assigning blame is to first look somewhat closer to home. Leadership knows where the buck stops. Humility helps. Character counts. Leadership does not knowingly encourage or feed ugly or debased appetites in us.
Leadership lives by the American creed: E pluribus unum. From many, one. American leadership looks to the world, and just as Lincoln did, sees the family of man. Humanity is not a zero-sum game. When we have been at our most prosperous, we have been at our most principled. And when we do well, the rest of the world also does well.
These articles of civic faith have been central to the American identity for as long as we have all been alive. They are our birthright and our obligation. We must guard them jealously, and pass them on for as long as the calendar has days. To betray them, or to be unserious in their defense is a betrayal of the fundamental obligations of American leadership. And to behave as if they don’t matter is simply not who we are.
Now, the efficacy of
American leadership around the globe has come into question. When the United
States emerged from World War II we contributed about half of the world’s
economic activity. It would have been easy to secure our dominance, keeping
those countries who have been defeated or greatly weakened during the war in
their place. We didn’t do that. It would have been easy to focus inward. We
resisted those impulses. Instead, we financed reconstruction of shattered
countries and created international organizations and institutions that have
helped provide security and foster prosperity around the world for more than 70
years.
Now, it seems that we, the
architects of this visionary rules-based world order that has brought so much
freedom and prosperity, are the ones most eager to abandon it.
The implications of this
abandonment are profound. And the beneficiaries of this rather radical
departure in the American approach to the world are the ideological enemies of
our values. Despotism loves a vacuum. And our allies are now looking elsewhere
for leadership. Why are they doing this? None of this is normal. And what do we
as United States Senators have to say about it?The principles that underlie our politics, the values of our founding, are too vital to our identity and to our survival to allow them to be compromised by the requirements of politics. Because politics can make us silent when we should speak, and silence can equal complicity.
I have children and grandchildren to answer to, and so, Mr. President, I will not be complicit or silent.
I decided that I will be better able to represent the people of Arizona and to better serve my country and my conscience by freeing myself from the political considerations that consume far too much bandwidth and would cause me to compromise far too many principles.
To that end, I am announcing today that my service in the Senate will conclude at the end of my term in early January 2019.
It is clear at this moment that a traditional conservative who believes in limited government and free markets, who is devoted to free trade, who is pro-immigration, has a narrower and narrower path to nomination in the Republican party—the party that has so long has defined itself by its belief in those things. It is also clear to me for the moment that we have given in or given up on the core principles in favor of a more viscerally satisfying anger and resentment. To be clear, the anger and resentment that the people feel at the royal mess we have created are justified. But anger and resentment are not a governing philosophy.
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. The impulse to scapegoat and belittle turns threatens to turn us into a fearful, backward-looking people. In the case of the Republican party, those things also threaten to turn us into a fearful, backward-looking minority party.
We were not made great as a country by indulging or even exalting our worst impulses, turning against ourselves, glorifying in the things that divide us, and calling fake things true and true things fake. And we did not become the beacon of freedom in the darkest corners of the world by flouting our institutions and failing to understand just how hard-won and vulnerable they are.
This spell will eventually break. That is my belief. We will return to ourselves once more, and I say the sooner the better. Because we have a healthy government, we must also 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. Until that day comes, we must be unafraid to stand up and speak out as if our country depends on it. Because it does.
I plan to spend the remaining 14 months of my senate term doing just that.
Mr. President, the graveyard is full of indispensable men and women—none of us here is indispensable. Nor were even the great figures from history who toiled at these very desks in this very chamber to shape the country that we have inherited. What is indispensable are the values that they consecrated in Philadelphia and in this place, values which have endured and will endure for so long as men and women wish to remain free. What is indispensable is what we do here in defense of those values. A political career does not mean much if we are complicit in undermining those values.
I thank my colleagues for indulging me here today. I will close by borrowing the words of President Lincoln, who knew more about healing enmity and preserving our founding values than any other American who has ever lived. His words from his first inaugural were a prayer in his time, and are now no less so in ours:
“We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break the bonds of our affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely as they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”
Thank you, Mr. President. I yield the floor.
Before anyone rushes to what I believe would be the errant conclusion that the GOP Sky is falling, not so fast. Yes, Corker, Flake, and even McCain have thumbed their noses at Trump, and they have all done so on more than one occasion. But the truth is, Senator McCain is ill, and unlikely to seek another term, and both Corker and Flake, who’ve announced they will not seek re-election, would have been improbable victors, even were they to have run. Their anti-Trump rhetoric, especially in Tennessee, and Arizona, didn’t help their prospects.
Conversely, a host of other Republicans, in both Houses of Congress, are like…”What’s the problem? Donald Trump is the greatest President ever.” I don’t believe that, and most likely, neither do they. But they do like their jobs, they want to be re-elected, and they are betting that carrying Trump’s water bolsters their chances. All that may be true. But this week, at least, we have…”The Corker-Flake Combo: GOP SenatorsDeliver Epic 1-2 Punch!” I’ll take it.
I’m done; holla back!
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Consult the links below for more detailed information on a variety of aspects relating to this post:
http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/24/politics/jeff-flake-retirement-speech-full-text/index.html
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/republican-sen-bob-corker-trump-leave-professionals/story?id=50675996
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