{"id":80605,"date":"2017-08-08T10:08:35","date_gmt":"2017-08-08T14:08:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=80605"},"modified":"2017-08-08T10:09:40","modified_gmt":"2017-08-08T14:09:40","slug":"why-do-the-most-dangerous-rinos-come-from-arizona","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=80605","title":{"rendered":"Why do the most dangerous RINOs come from Arizona?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Jeff Flake\u2019s Ridiculous, Fake Anti-Trump Rebellion Should Terrify Republicans<\/span><\/h1>\n

They’re all far too complicit in the president’s rise to run against him now.<\/h2>\n

BY\u00a0BRIAN BEUTLER
\nNew Republic\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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In a\u00a0Politico<\/i>\u00a0op-ed late last month,\u00a0Jeff Flake,\u00a0the pseudo-apostate Republican senator from Arizona,\u00a0warned<\/a>\u00a0that his party was in \u201cdenial\u201d about President Donald Trump. Conservatives, he wrote, \u201chave maintained an unnerving silence as instability has ensued,\u201d adding that this \u201cunnerving silence in the face of an erratic executive branch is an abdication, and those in positions of leadership bear particular responsibility.\u201d The press ate it up. \u201cFlake makes waves with Trump takedown,\u201d Politico\u00a0declared<\/a>\u00a0days later.\u00a0The Los Angeles Times<\/i>\u00a0called him<\/a>\u00a0the \u201cone Republican willing to take on President Trump and his party\u2019s \u2018denial.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n

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It is very unlikely that Flake\u00a0particularly cares about winning plaudits from the establishment press or the left\u2014not when his political career depends first and foremost on winning the GOP nomination in his own reelection campaign next year.\u00a0But his reemergence as a vocal Trump critic, amid the collapse of his party\u2019s legislative agenda, points to an awareness on his part that the president will be a drag on him and other similarly situated Republicans in general elections outside of throbbing-red Trump country.<\/p>\n

There is nothing novel about down-ballot politicians attempting to distance themselves from their parties\u2019 standard bearers, especially with hollow criticism. What makes Flake\u2019s rendition unique is the irreducible nature of his criticisms. He isn\u2019t calling out Trump for milquetoast sins like losing touch with the working class, or setting his legislative priorities in the wrong order. His recent broadsides against the administration more closely resemble establishment conservative efforts to expel Trump from Republican politics during the presidential primary than it does typical party frustrations with an unpopular president.<\/p>\n

Considering Flake\u2019s near-complete unwillingness to save himself or his party from what he describes as a serious threat, his half-hearted rebellion is a microcosm of the crisis that awaits Republicans if the Trump presidency collapses terminally. They won\u2019t be left asking themselves, as Democrats are today, where they and the party went wrong, but explaining why they made a Faustian bargain with a known villain at unacceptable cost for the rest of us.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Flake\u2019s recent trip off the reservation is doubly coincidental, timed as it is for the\u00a0release of his new book<\/a>,\u00a0Conscience of a Conservative<\/i>. But it is very hard to imagine Flake going about this rebranding exercise if Trump had been a capable steward of the GOP agenda or had managed to conduct himself less dishonorably\u2013and thus enjoyed favorability numbers higher than the mid-30s.<\/p>\n

But Trump has debased everyone who\u2019s tolerated his corruption, indecency and ineptitude even briefly\u2014such that they can\u2019t really attempt to draw a contrast without looking ridiculous.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish that we as a party would have stood up, for example, when the birtherism thing was going on,\u201d Flake lamented on\u00a0Meet the Press<\/i>\u00a0this past Sunday. \u201cA lot of people did stand up, but not enough. That was particularly ugly.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Sen. @jeffflake<\/a> (R-Ariz.) tells @chucktodd<\/a> in an exclusive interview, "I wish we as a party had stood up" to the birther movement. #MTP<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/LfIABvICFj<\/a><\/p>\n

— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) August 6, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n