TALKIN' LOUD AND SAYIN'

The hottest take on Jeff Flake’s decision not run for re-election next year has been that he should have stayed in the race and fought, even in the face of almost certain defeat against Krazy Kelli Ward in the Republican primary.  I understand that reaction, but it’s hard for me to fault Flake for deciding not to burn through millions of dollars fighting for a lost cause.  Republicans who have had enough of Donald Trump can fight more effectively in other ways. 

Jeff Flake always struck me as a younger version of John McCain (minus the POW pedigree on one side and the Keating scandal on the other).  Both of them have talked the maverick talk, but they’ve rarely walked the maverick walk.  Flake has voted like an orthodox right-wing Republican all year, and so has McCain, with rare exceptions.

Arizona’s two senators, plus Bob Corker, Ben Sasse, and Trump’s other Republican critics benefit from the soft bigotry of low expectations.  When one of them finally speaks up, the press begins to salivate. Suddenly it’s “profiles in courage” time, even if they’re simply repeating what Democrats have been saying for over a year.

I’m withholding judgment on all of them until I see how they vote over the next fourteen months.  A few Republicans seem to be discovering that they have a conscience.  Good for them.  The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, and all that.

But the more important question is, what will their second step be?  Actions speak louder than words. 

Senator Flake, if you and a few of your colleagues want to save your party, start by acknowledging that the problem is bigger than just Donald Trump.  Refuse to endorse Roy Moore, the genuinely deplorable Republican Senate candidate in Alabama.  Introduce resolutions denouncing the Klan and neo-Nazis.  Force your colleagues to make their position public, yea or nay.

Steve Bannon has declared war on the Republican Party, and it’s clear by now that Donald Trump doesn’t give a damn about the welfare of the GOP.  Stop letting Bannon and Trump roll you.  Stand and fight for the principles you claim to believe in. 

You’re about to be handed an opportunity to rid yourselves of the Trump grifters and Bannonite white supremacists that have taken over the Republican Party.  I’m speaking of the indictments that Robert Mueller will hand down against Trump’s family and cronies.  I don’t know whether they will come later this year or sometime in 2018, but they’re coming, and you’ll probably still be in Congress when it happens.  There will be plenty of evidence of corruption and criminality in the White House. 

In 1974, prominent Senate Republicans, led by Arizona’s Barry Goldwater and Tennessee’s Howard Baker, told Richard Nixon that his choices were to resign or be impeached.  The GOP recovered from the Watergate scandal in part because Republican senators demonstrated that they had the courage to stand up for the rule of law.  Soon, Republican senators from Arizona and Tennessee will have a chance to redeem their party again. 

Will they do it?  I remain skeptical.  After all, the rule of law doesn’t seem nearly as important these days, especially when there is so much money to be made by ignoring it. 

It seems more likely that the Party of Lincoln will complete its transformation into the Party of Dracula.  The Zombie Republican Party will become a front for international oligarchs, existing only to provide cover for vampires like the Kochs, Mercers, and the Putins of the world.   

McCain, Flake, and Corker have begun to say the right things, but so far they’ve done nothing.  And as the saying goes, all that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.