Senator Jeff Flake's Retirement Announcement: Appealing to Tradition

Jeff Flake's Retirement Speech

Announcing that he would not run for reelection, conservative Republican Arizona Senator Jeff Flake delivered on the Senate floor a carefully-crafted blast at President Trump. Flake said that "Reckless, outrageous, and undignified behavior has become excused and countenanced as 'telling it like it is,' when it is actually just reckless, outrageous, and undignified." He warned that "when such behavior emanates from the top of our government, it is something else: It is dangerous to a democracy." He denied that "a pivot to governing is right around the corner." He protested the abandonment of American political tradition: "We must never regard as 'normal' the regular and casual undermining of our democratic norms and ideals." 

As a thoroughgoing mainstream conservative, Flake filled his speech with appeals to tradition. For example, he cited Federalist #51: "Ambition counteracts ambition." Noting that many Republicans favor absolute loyalty to President Donald Trump, Flake responded by quoting Republican President Theodore Roosevelt to say: "To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." He said that "Humility helps. Character Counts." He cited one of the United States' mottoes: "E Pluribus Unum. From many, one." He said that history had proven our ancient principles: "When we have been at our most prosperous, we have also been at our most principled." Continuing to address principles, he insisted that "These articles of civic faith have been central to the American identify for as long as we have all been alive. They are our birthright and obligation."

Flake then listed the harms that he felt President Trump had caused by deviating from our traditions: "Now, the efficacy of American leadership around the globe has come into question." He further said that "the beneficiaries of this rather radical departure in the American approach to the world are the ideological enemies of our values. Despotism loves a vacuum." He warned that "mischaracterizing or misunderstanding our problems and giving in to the impulse to scapegoat and belittle threatens to turn us into a fearful, backward-looking people." Yet he had hope: "This spell will eventually break. That is my belief. We will return to ourselves once more, and I say the sooner the better." Flake ended his speech by quoting Abraham Lincoln's First Inaugural Address: "We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”

The definition of conservatism requires a speaker to talk about traditional practices or values. Many, probably most, people who call themselves conservatives do nothing of the kind, and instead advocate the triumph of their class over others. That leads to disruption, and conservatives fear disruption more than they fear cardiac arrest. Yet, President Trump identified worries and concerns that many voters experience, and, although he seems to have the wrong solutions -- stopping immigration and suppressing Muslims will not improve America's heartland -- those worries remain unaddressed. Flake articulated what may be the United States' defining conflict: can returning to ancient traditions restore us to health? Or do we need to move to new principles and, if so, what will those principles entail?

Reactions to the speech have split, not according to party lines, but according to alt-right versus everyone else. My next post will look at those reactions. Later, I will also post about the appeal to tradition, which some people (most often, liberal college professors) consider to be a fallacy. Is tradition a fallacy? Or is it wisdom's source?

Here's my follow-up, as promised.


Image from www.flake.senate.gov