“You have to be angry about it … and I just can’t go there.”įlake’s departure represents a particularly alarming development for other Republican members of Congress, confirming that even ideologically loyal incumbents are vulnerable to electoral purge. “It’s not enough to be conservative anymore,” Flake told CNN. Yet Flake’s sharp personal criticisms of Trump, his sponsorship of bipartisan immigration reform measures, and his relatively mild-mannered rhetoric and demeanor - which contrast dramatically with the perpetual expressions of outrage characteristic of ideologically aligned media - put him out of step with the current Republican zeitgeist. According to one political science measure derived from analysis of roll-call votes, he is one of the three or four most conservative members of the Senate - and he is a well-known crusader against legislative earmarks. Indeed, his record in office is staunchly right of center in nearly every substantive respect. In such a context, the Trump campaign’s lack of public support among Republican politicians during the 2016 presidential primaries turned out to be far from fatal to his popularity with party voters.įlake presents himself as far more faithful to conservative ideological principles than the current leader of his party. Conservative media outlets have incessantly painted conventional party leaders as overly accommodating to liberalism, ineffective in achieving major rightward policy shifts, and inattentive to the costs and threats of contemporary social change. (Despite occasional suggestions otherwise, no equivalent purge campaign exists in today’s Democratic Party.)Ī number of self-styled “constitutional” conservative elites like Flake were dismayed and baffled by Trump’s ascendance to the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, but Trump’s anti-immigration rhetoric and combative manner found fertile ground among a Republican primary electorate primed by years of aggressive conservative media messages. What’s changed is whom voters are listening to: Unelected elite actors, especially conservative media figures, are gaining influence over the behavior of Republican voters while officeholders and candidates are losing it. The turmoil in Republican ranks is often described as pitting the party’s leadership class against an unruly popular “base.” But as scholars of public opinion often point out, few citizens develop strong political opinions or are mobilized to political action without influence from trusted authorities. It’s not really about an angry Republican “base” That conflict both predated and helped fuel Trump’s rise to the top of the party. Bob Bennett and Dick Lugar and House leaders John Boehner and Eric Cantor. ![]() He is only the latest prominent casualty of a longer clash that previously claimed the political careers of prominent Republican officeholders, including veteran Sens. But the implications of Flake’s actions for intra-Republican battles may be more important. That seems to be the story that much of the media is telling. And perhaps such forceful condemnations of an incumbent president, expressed by a senator of the same party, may reduce Trump’s chances of reelection. Media attention has focused on Flake’s scathing criticism of Trump on the Senate floor and in a subsequent newspaper opinion piece, in which he implied that Trump’s actions in office represent a threat to American democracy. ![]() The increasingly bitter divide between the elected and unelected wings of the Republican Party pits traditional leaders like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell against media personalities like Breitbart chair (and ex-Trump adviser) Steve Bannon - two men who are now openly attacking each other as they fight for control of the GOP. ![]() But his departure does confirm that the civil war between Republican politicians and non-officeholding actors - notably in the conservative media - is still raging, and maybe intensifying, a decade after its emergence. It’s too soon to say how his retirement changes that calculus. Before the announcement, Flake’s Senate seat had been seen as the one Democrats would be most likely to pick up in 2018.
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