Montini: Jeff Flake condemned by Trump’s 3 stooges (Arpaio, McSally and Ward, oh my!)

EJ Montini: If you choose to elect a senator who never questions the president, you don't have a democracy. You have a cult.

EJ Montini
The Republic | azcentral.com
Sen. Jeff Flake

Sen. Jeff Flake committed the unpardonable sin – for a Republican, anyway – of speaking truth to power.

He spoke the truth about President Donald Trump’s attacks on the media, on truth.

Flake said, “No politician will ever get to tell us what the truth is and is not. And anyone who presumes to try to attack or manipulate the press for his own purposes should be made to realize his mistake and to be held to account."

The three stooges running in the Republican primary to replace Flake do not want to hold Trump to account.

They want to kiss his … ring.

All 3 are proving their Trump devotion

Joe Arpaio, Kelli Ward and Martha McSally want to convince primary voters of their devotion to Trump, especially McSally, who became devoted shortly after entering the race. (I’m sure it was just a coincidence.)

On the floor of the Senate, Flake pointed out that Trump has been using the same language as Josef Stalin, describing the media as the “enemy of the people.”

He said, “It is a testament to the condition of our democracy that our own president uses words infamously spoken by Josef Stalin to describe his enemies. It bears noting that so fraught with malice was the phrase ‘enemy of the people,’ that even Nikita Khrushchev forbade its use, telling the Soviet Communist Party that the phrase had been introduced by Stalin for the purpose of ‘annihilating such individuals’ who disagreed with the supreme leader.”

Flake’s opponents were quick to jump on the senator.

“I don’t agree with Senator Flake and comparing our President to Stalin, who murdered 20 million people, is absurd," McSally told the Arizona Daily Star.

(Flake was comparing Trump’s words to Stalin’s words. Not his deeds. And the words are identical. So …)

Shouldn't senators be independent?

Ward and Arpaio responded in kind. Or unkind, depending on one’s point of view.

Ward tweeted:

Arpaio tweeted:

A U.S. senator is supposed to be independent. The Senate itself is a co-equal to the House and the presidency.

A senator can agree with the political positions of a president and still point out when he says something or does something that is clearly wrong.

If the next senator we elect in Arizona is nothing by a rubber stamp, refusing to question the president, ever, and the voters are the same way, then we no longer have a democracy.

We have a cult.

READ MORE:

Montini: Jeff Flake and John McCain defend the 'enemy of the people'

Roberts: Flake says truth needs allies. Amen, but where are they?

Editorial: Jeff Flake and John McCain tried to save us from ourselves