Quote: algernonpj wrote in post #1

---

Flake: Trump Rallies Reflect ‘Spasms of a Dying Party'
by Pam Key, 24 Dec 2017
Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) said the crowds at rallies for President Donald Trump and other Republicans reflect “spasms of a dying party.”

Flake said “When you look at some of the audiences cheering for Republicans, sometimes, you look out there and you say, ‘Those are the spasms of a dying party.'”

He added, “When you look at the lack of diversity, sometimes, and it depends on where you are, obviously, but by and large, we’re appealing to older white men, and there are just a limited number of them, and anger and resentment are not a governing philosophy.”

(h/t The Hill)

http://www.breitbart.com/video/2017/12/2...ms-dying-party/

---

FYI here's a review of Flake's book from the New Republic...

Why Jeff Flake’s "Conscience of a Conservative" Rings Hollow

The senator’s new book is a lucid examination of everything that’s wrong with the GOP in the Trump era. Too bad Flake is part of the problem.

There are two things that Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona wants the reader to take away from his new book Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle.

The first is that President Donald Trump is a singular threat to democracy, conservatism, and America, and that the Republican Party, after decades of drift, abetted his rise out of a mix of cynicism and cowardice. The second is that he really did not want to write this book.
“I will start by saying that I regret having to write this book,” reads the book’s first sentence. “I regret it because its necessity is a sign that the American conservative movement, which has been a force for great good to our country and to the world, is lost.” Writing to imagined conservative critics—who will no doubt be real enough, soon enough—he concludes defensively: “This is not an act of apostasy. This is an act of fidelity.”

Flake’s Cincinnatus shtick is a clever, if transparent, rhetorical trick. Publishing an attack on one’s own party called Conscience of a Conservative—taken from Barry Goldwater’s seminal manifesto of mid-century conservatism—could seem like grandstanding. This makes dialing up the humility quotient to eleven a necessity. But this tension reflects what is wrong with Flake’s book, which sacrifices an actual philosophy of conservatism for a sentimental and often disingenuous plea to make America decent again.

Conscience of a Conservative was written in secret. Until late last week it was kept under wraps by Flake’s publisher, Random House, because Flake wanted to guarantee that no one would try to talk him out of it as he heads into what is expected to be a tough re-election fight in 2018. “I have good people around me who are committed to principle,” Flake told NPR, “but the political world will tell you keep quiet, don’t take a risk, and I thought that it was important to stand up when I had something to risk. I think it means more at that point.”

At its best, Conscience of a Conservative is both solemn and fiery, an excoriation of Flake’s own party and president. He describes his party’s embrace of Trump as a “Faustian bargain” that “wasn’t worth it,” because Republicans deluded themselves about Trump’s true nature. “We pretended that the emperor wasn’t naked,” he writes. “Even worse: We checked our critical faculties at the door and pretended that the emperor was making sense.” He presses his colleagues to call out Trump’s various attacks on conservatism, democracy, and reason. In this respect, Conscience of a Conservative may be the most clear-eyed and righteous takedown of Donald Trump from a Republican in office.
snip


Well, you get the picture, don't buy the book. Imagine Democrats criticizing one of their own like this? Nope. And here Flake feels compelled to write a book to do it! He's definitely "part of the problem." After 4 years of Trump it'll be Flake's faux analysis of conservatism that'll be ringing hollow. TM

Quote: Cincinnatus wrote in post #6

---

Flake’s Cincinnatus shtick is a clever. I resent that. I want no part of flaky Flake.

What is it with AZ? Flake and McCain. Does the heat do something to the voter's brain cells?

---