Jeff “Snow” Flake Not Seeking Reelection – IOTW Report

Jeff “Snow” Flake Not Seeking Reelection

Tuesday, 24 October 2017, 18:30 BFH Uncategorized 47

He says the Trump era is too nasty.

QUITTER!

NYTs-

JEFF FLAKE, Senator from Arizona: At a moment when it seems that our democracy is more defined by our discord and our dysfunction than by our own values and principles, let me begin by noting the 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. Now is such a time.

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, I mean 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.

That we must never adjust to the present coarseness of our national dialogue with the tone set up 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. Here today I stand to say that we would be better served — we would better serve the country — by better fulfilling our obligations under the Constitution by adhering to our Article 1 — “old normal,” Mr. Madison’s doctrine of separation of powers. This genius innovation which affirms Madison’s status as a true visionary — and for which Madison argued in Federalist 51 — held that the equal branches of our government would balance and counteract with each other, if necessary.

“Ambition counteracts ambition,” he wrote. 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 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 nauseam, when we succumb to those considerations in spite of what should be greater considerations and imperatives in defense of our institutions and our liberty, we dishonor our principles and forsake our obligations. Those things are far more important than politics.

Now, I’m aware that more politically savvy people than I will caution against such talk. I’m aware that there’s a segment of my party that 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 and duty of conscience, the notion that one should stay silent — and 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 or 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 — that there should be a 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 in a manner — 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 this regard. I am holier than none.

But too often we rush to salvage principle — 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. In that way and over time, we can justify almost any behavior and sacrifice any principle. I am afraid that this is where we now find ourselves.

When a leader correctly identifies real hurt and insecurity in our country, and instead of addressing it, goes to look for someone 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 look somewhat closer to home. Leadership knows where the buck stops.

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47 Comments on Jeff “Snow” Flake Not Seeking Reelection

  11. McShitstain is beginning to show subtle physical signs of nearing death. His face is becoming drawn. He didnt have much hair, but now he has even less and his eyebrows are falling out. His collars on his shirts are starting to be to big for his shriveling neck. His cheeks are getting drawn a little bit. His teeth are even yellower then just a few months ago.

    You tend to notice these small signals when you are rooting for a scumbags death.

  15. I didn’t read it. Didn’t need to.

    Coward knew he was gonna get whipped and he’s running for the hills.

    Who’s next? Cmon you pussies. When the going gets tough…..,

    Hahaha.

  20. I keep hearing that, should Tax Reform should not pass, Republicans will lose the House or Senate. They will, but to more Conservatives, not to Democrats. These recent retirements prove this.

    Looks like Bannon is more effective outside of the White House.

  22. What Curly Bill said.

    Good riddance.

    Term limits. Now.

    And what a ghostwritten crock of s speech. Flake wouldn’t know Federalist #51 from Area 51. Or the 51 United States.

    Steve Bannon only just declared war, and already has major scalps hanging from his tipi ridge pole. And more coming.
    McConnell and Ryan must realize their sands are running out.

  27. “We must never regard as normal the regular and casual undermining of our democratic norms and ideals.”

    Mr. Flake, it’s the one thing you wrote that I can get behind. You are absolutely correct, and that’s why we elected Trump. We refuse to accept your definition of normal and have had, as a cowboy said to me one time, “an eloquent sufficiency” of it. I don’t need to read the rest of that bullshit.

  29. Sorry any “conservative Republican” who says we have a democracy is an idiot.
    Another idiotic thing he said was “career,” serving in congress was never supposed to be a career.

    He quit because he knows he was going to get his ass kicked by the base he hates.

  30. Term limits are a feel-good solution, but in the long run would be even a bigger mistake than the 17th Amendment. Imagine 1/3 of the Senate and maybe all of the House as lame ducks, like Corker and Flake, no longer caring how much damage they inflict, since they aren’t running for re-election.

    The founders were right to not put term limits in. They knew we already had them; they are called elections.

  38. please excuse my french….

    WHAT AN ARROGANT ASS.

    why didn’t he give this speech in 2010? 2012? 2014? 2016?

    BFH got it right in the picture….nose bent, broken in obama’s as…..um….a….aaaaa…….um…..

    ….butthole.

  43. His last name is “Flake”. There should never have been any expectations this elitist dolt would be a patriotic, principled man of integrity. He’s an Arizona “Breck Boy”.

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