Add Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake to the depressingly small roster of outspoken Republican critics of President Donald Trump.
Last Tuesday, Flake gave a heartfelt speech criticizing Trump’s “regular and casual undermining of our democratic norms and ideals.” He urged resistance to tyranny, questioning how history would look back on those who did not fight against our commander in chief. I would ask instead how Flake will look 50 years down the line, given that he plans on giving up the fight he champions in his speech. He will not seek reelection in 2018.
Flake declared, admirably, that he “will not be complicit” in Trump’s America. But surrender is another form of complicity. Flake, for his remaining time in office, will no doubt be a vocal critic of Trump. I am just not sure that this will accomplish much.
Flake is a lame-duck politician with an approval rating in Arizona significantly lower than Trump’s approval rating there. Despite ostensibly being one of the most powerful people in the country, Flake will soon sacrifice all that power. He is abdicating his seat to someone who will almost certainly be complicit in Trump’s government. What good exactly has this self-righteous act actually achieved? Flake would face a significant uphill battle to win reelection. But to fight on would be far better than to throw in the towel.
There is a convincing anti-Trump case to be made. The newest polls put his approval rating in the low 30s, significant portions of the American population cannot stand the man or his politics. But not enough people have been convinced. Work has yet to be done.
A Republican senator who actively campaigns against Trump probably wouldn’t win reelection in the conservative state of Arizona. But he might change some minds. More importantly, he would justify a credible anti-Trump Republican position that other people would flock to. Many Republicans won’t ever vote Democrat — Fox News’ absurd vilification of Hillary Clinton has taken care of that. But Republicans who don’t support Trump should be given a platform within their own party. There may not be enough of them to win elections in Republican states, but at least their voices will add fuel to the anti-Trump fire. There is still value in the fight, even if it does not succeed. There are few memorials to Vichy French officials, and quite a few to those who fell in combat.
Quitting implies that nothing can be done, that the fight is lost. Flake does not seem to believe that he is quitting. Regardless, the Republican Party must be taken back. I have never been a conservative, but I do know there must be a truly conservative party in existence to balance the extravagance of a liberal one. Similarly, a true conservative would want a liberal party to exist. No democracy can function with a party led by a classic authoritarian.
We are not so far gone as to make resistance impossible. Republican voters need to be won back into some new kind of conservatism, something exciting enough to compete against Trump, but restrained relative to his unnecessary bombast. There is no way their votes will not be counted, no way in which their issues will not be catered to — nor should there be. We ignore them at our peril. But they cannot vote for candidates who do not run, nor can they be convinced by arguments that are not made. And Jeff Flake undoubtedly has the right principles and the right ideas.
In peacetime, in a government not headed by a pathological liar, a sex criminal, a would-be fascist and a racist all rolled into one, Jeff Flake would be an ordinary senator from Arizona. His decision to retire now robs him of the chance to be anything more.
