Say What: The War Between Trump and GOP Elites

Say What is the segment of Liberty Nation Radio where we treat listeners to some of the most wacky, astonishing and damnable things uttered by politicians and the chattering class.  Here is the latest episode:

Tim Donner:  Exhibits A and B this week are two Republican Senators who quit their races for reelection; Jeff Flake, Arizona, and Bob Corker, Tennessee...because they realized they couldn't win...and then delivered public floggings of the president now that they no longer have to face voters who have doubled down on last year's election by rejecting establishment candidates like Flake and Corker in favor of Trump-like challengers from the fast growing populist wing of the party. Jeff Flake of Arizona, apparently desirous of following in the footsteps of his colleague John McCain, had fallen way behind in his primary race, like 20 points behind, as an incumbent. And his approval numbers back home had dropped like a rock. So he proceeded to stand up in the senate chamber and announce that he has quit his reelection race and then attack Donald Trump for his incivility.

Jeff Flake: Mr President, I rise today to say enough. We must dedicate ourselves to making sure that the anomalous never becomes the normal. With respect to 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.

Tim Donner: Yes he and his colleagues know better, and are being rejected and criticized by voters far and wide. So Flake sought the last refuge of losers, saying, "We must stand up and oppose Trump for the kids."

Jeff Flake: 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?

Tim Donner: Well you're gonna say that when you were confronted with a changing political landscape, instead of fighting for all that's supposedly right and good, you quit. And you went down kicking and screaming, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing except that you couldn't take the heat. I mean doesn't he get it? The voters don't want people like Flake getting more. They don't want a [inaudible 00:02:36]. They don't want swamp dwellers. They don't want self proclaimed conservatives who either lie to the voters or lose their nerve when they face the power elites.

62 million people voted that way last November, and they've reaffirmed their judgment against the power elites in every special election since then, except the ones people like Flake run away from, and then get all brave when they no longer have to face the voters who would've booted them out or else they would never have quit to begin with. All hat, no cattle. That's one of my favorite expressions. Comes out of Texas. But I mean it's all self righteousness and desperation that they're losing their way of life. The nice comfortable position of standing up and making speeches at the world's greatest deliberative body, posturing as anti-establishment and then proving that they are part of it. And achieving nothing.

Same story with Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee who, like Flake, quit his race and, like Flake, took off the gloves and dropped any pretense of supporting Trump. Instead, after Trump tweeted out his dissatisfaction with Corker, he called the president a liar.

Bob Corker: Everything he said today was absolutely untrue. We grew up in our family not using the L world. Unfortunately I think world leaders are very aware that much of what he says is untrue. Certainly people here are because these things are provably untrue. I don't know why he lowers himself to such a low low standard and debases our country in the way that he does, but he does.

Tim Donner: So how could things get this ugly within the republican party? Not even bringing the Trump hating left into the mix. Well did you think draining the swamp as Trump promised was gonna be easy or pretty? Do you realize what it takes to tear down this establishment, built over decades. Brick by brick. Did you think he was gonna go only after democrats? Especially after he openly criticized a bunch of republicans during his presidential campaign. As former Trump foreign policy advisor Sebastian Gorka says, "Flake represents everything that's wrong with Washington."

Sebastian Gorka: He's a prime example of why the rank outsider from New York was elected president of the United States last November. Just as with Brexit in the UK, here in America the voters have had enough of business as usual politics and fake conservatives or business as usual politicians living in their elite bubbles. Flake and Corker are prime examples. They have realized that the winds of change are blowing through the body politics, so they bowed out rather disgracefully.

Tim Donner: You know the leftists in this country call themselves the resistance. But the more significant resistance movement is in the establishment that refuses to accept that the voters don't trust them anymore. And are kicking and screaming into the wind. We see this in their repulsion to not just Trump, but what Trump represents. A pitchfork revolution. We see this in England where establishment forces are delaying and watering down Brexit. We see it in Spain, where the Spanish senate is now bringing broad powers to the central government to take over Catalonia, which has declared independence. We see it in the European Union super structure, which has proven repeatedly that they'll do almost anything to stop naturalist movements which are breaking out all over Europe. Yes folks, the hard left may call themselves the resistance, but the real resistance is the establishment both here in the US and in Europe. And with all the power they've accumulated. And as Jeff Flake and Bob Corker have proven, they're not gonna go quietly into the night.