Party should have stood up to birther movement

[struggle4progress]

JASON SILVERSTEIN
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Sunday, August 6, 2017, 1:35 PM

... Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona said he regrets that his fellow Republicans kept quiet years ago as Trump rallied his phony conspiracy theory that former President Barack Obama wasn’t born in the United States.

“I wish that we, as a party, would have stood up...when the birtherism thing was going along,” Flake said on NBC News' “Meet the Press.”

“That was particularly ugly” ...

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/gop-stood-trump-birther-movement-flake-article-1.3388785

[struggle4progress]

1. My Party Is in Denial

By JEFF FLAKE July 31, 2017

... we all but ensured the rise of Donald Trump.

... we conservatives mocked Barack Obama’s failure to deliver on his pledge to change the tone in Washington even as we worked to assist with that failure. It was we conservatives who, upon Obama’s election, stated that our No. 1 priority was not advancing a conservative policy agenda but making Obama a one-term president — the corollary to this binary thinking being that his failure would be our success and the fortunes of the citizenry would presumably be sorted out in the meantime. It was we conservatives who were largely silent when the most egregious and sustained attacks on Obama’s legitimacy were leveled by marginal figures who would later be embraced and legitimized by far too many of us. It was we conservatives who rightly and robustly asserted our constitutional prerogatives as a co-equal branch of government when a Democrat was in the White House but who, despite solemn vows to do the same in the event of a Trump presidency, have maintained an unnerving silence as instability has ensued. To carry on in the spring of 2017 as if what was happening was anything approaching normalcy required a determined suspension of critical faculties. And tremendous powers of denial ...

Under our Constitution, there simply are not that many people who are in a position to do something about an executive branch in chaos. As the first branch of government (Article I), the Congress was designed expressly to assert itself at just such moments. It is what we talk about when we talk about “checks and balances.” Too often, we observe the unfolding drama along with the rest of the country, passively, all but saying, “Someone should do something!” without seeming to realize that that someone is us ...

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/07/31/my-party-is-in-denial-about-donald-trump-215442

[RKP5637]

3. IMO just about the entire country enabled the rise of Trump in one way or another. n/t

[brush]

2. This guy sounds more and more like he's positioning himself to primary trump.

He's probably got some support behind him to be coming out so boldly against a sitting president in his own party.

IMO this is evidence that some have inside info on Mueller's investigation.

[leftstreet]

5. !!

IMO this is evidence that some have inside info on Mueller's investigation.

I hadn't thought of that

[Wellstone ruled]

7. You are most likely right about what he is up to.

Flake is not going to change his colors anytime soon. He is the GOP and do remember him bashing Obama and carrying water for the Birther Movement. Now he is just trying to do History Revisionist garbage. Flake,Hatch,Lee,Bishop,Love,Stewart,and Chaffetz are all on the same page and have been for many decades. His base is changing and he has to change with them. He has a Tea Bagger that wants to and will Primary him and with the screwed up rules of his party,he could very well get his butt handed to him. The same is happening to the a for mentioned Party Members. Their Party is being Hy jacked by the Koch ALEC group.

[Cary]

4. What took him so long?

[guillaumeb]

6. What exactly took him so long?

Was it:
A) a principled stand against racism, or

B) is he worried about his political chances?

It would have been impressive if anyone in the GOP had attacked the Trump birtherism and called it out as the racist attack that it was.

[jrthin]

8. Now that he's selling his book, he says this. He should just piss off. nt

[mcar]

9. Too little, too late Jeffy

[malaise]

10. Tell that Flake that malaise saysto go Cheney himself.

He was part of the gang that wanted to keep their racist base - that horse done bolt.