Jeff Flake, the junior Senator from Arizona, has stated that he will not be running for office at the next election. He has been an outspoken critic of Trump for some time, but my interest in him started when I heard him interviewed a year or so ago. Before I knew anything about his politics I was struck by his genuineness and humility during the interview. He has made it clear that his decision to leave the Senate is driven largely by his unwillingness to stay silent as Trump leads the Republican party with lying, divisiveness intimidation and bullying, He said that the Republican party of today would be unrecognizable to Dwight Eisenhower, Barry Goldwater and even Ronald Reagan. So I decided to do a little checking. I found an excerpt of one of Ike’s speeches and was pretty impressed. He said:
“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities.
It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some fifty miles of concrete pavement. We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people.”
Recall that Eisenhower is the person who coined the term “the military-industrial complex” and warned of the effect that juggernaut would have on our society. And what he foresaw has indeed happened. We have the largest military in the world and spend more than the next 10 combined, in spite of the fact that most of them are allies (or would be, except for that idiot currently in the White House doing everything possible to alienate them), so it seems Ike’s warning was well-founded.
It’s not Eisenhower’s concern about the amount spent on the military warping our national economy that I want to discuss, but his underlying concern for the poor and hungry that struck me. If you listen to many Republicans today, the poor and hungry are that way because they aren’t industrious enough or are simply lazy. And the public aid programs (named “entitlements” by those wishing to do away with them) are part of the problem, not the solution.
That concern for those less fortunate than us that Eisenhower was referring to, comes across as well from Jeff Flake. His conservative credentials hold up against any challenges, but he tempers his desire for smaller government with the awareness that the government is uniquely (and perhaps solely) able to help those in need. He is more than willing to work with Democrats to govern, yet he finds himself no longer comfortable in his own party. This is largely because he calls out the incompetence of Trump as the leader of the Republican party and the willingness of the rest of the party leadership to fall in step behind him (at least publicly. There’s talk that in private, many in the Republican party feel they’ve created a monster in Trump that may lead to the downfall of the party. But that’s grist for another post).
I probably disagree with much of Mr. Flake’s politics, but he strikes me as someone that I would truly enjoy getting to know. I respect his candor and his honesty; maybe those are exactly the things that are driving him from the Senate. More to the point, he has respect for others and their opinions even if he disagrees with them. I recall that Bob Dole was known as a great deal-maker (as was Lyndon Johnson). Both of them understood the need to “cross the aisle” to reach a compromise, recognizing that is how law is made. It’s meant to be a slow, deliberative process. Our branches of government were specifically put in place to be checks and balances against one another; for nearly 250 years I’d say it worked pretty well.
Until now. I understand Flake’s decision; I can’t even say I wouldn’t do the same thing if I were in his place. But he’s exactly the type of person that we need in politics.
About BigBill
Stats: Married male boomer.
Hobbies: Hiking, woodworking, reading, philosophy, good conversation.
Senator Jeff Flake is not running in the next election.
Recall that Eisenhower is the person who coined the term “the military-industrial complex” and warned of the effect that juggernaut would have on our society. And what he foresaw has indeed happened. We have the largest military in the world and spend more than the next 10 combined, in spite of the fact that most of them are allies (or would be, except for that idiot currently in the White House doing everything possible to alienate them), so it seems Ike’s warning was well-founded.
It’s not Eisenhower’s concern about the amount spent on the military warping our national economy that I want to discuss, but his underlying concern for the poor and hungry that struck me. If you listen to many Republicans today, the poor and hungry are that way because they aren’t industrious enough or are simply lazy. And the public aid programs (named “entitlements” by those wishing to do away with them) are part of the problem, not the solution.
That concern for those less fortunate than us that Eisenhower was referring to, comes across as well from Jeff Flake. His conservative credentials hold up against any challenges, but he tempers his desire for smaller government with the awareness that the government is uniquely (and perhaps solely) able to help those in need. He is more than willing to work with Democrats to govern, yet he finds himself no longer comfortable in his own party. This is largely because he calls out the incompetence of Trump as the leader of the Republican party and the willingness of the rest of the party leadership to fall in step behind him (at least publicly. There’s talk that in private, many in the Republican party feel they’ve created a monster in Trump that may lead to the downfall of the party. But that’s grist for another post).
I probably disagree with much of Mr. Flake’s politics, but he strikes me as someone that I would truly enjoy getting to know. I respect his candor and his honesty; maybe those are exactly the things that are driving him from the Senate. More to the point, he has respect for others and their opinions even if he disagrees with them. I recall that Bob Dole was known as a great deal-maker (as was Lyndon Johnson). Both of them understood the need to “cross the aisle” to reach a compromise, recognizing that is how law is made. It’s meant to be a slow, deliberative process. Our branches of government were specifically put in place to be checks and balances against one another; for nearly 250 years I’d say it worked pretty well.
Until now. I understand Flake’s decision; I can’t even say I wouldn’t do the same thing if I were in his place. But he’s exactly the type of person that we need in politics.
About BigBill
Stats: Married male boomer. Hobbies: Hiking, woodworking, reading, philosophy, good conversation.