By his own admission, Jeff Flake couldn’t win a Republican primary for U.S. Senate in Arizona next year. When anybody last cared enough to test his poll numbers, his approval rating in the state he represents was 30 percent.
Yet there he was, on ABC’s This Week, lecturing us about how President Donald Trump’s rallies are “the spasms of a dying party.”
Why?
All those “older white men.”
We’ve been hearing this sort of demographic doom and gloom for the GOP for 30 years or more. But Republicans tend to rise and fall on the ideas they offer and the forcefulness with which they offer them, not on identity politics.
Here’s an even odder statement from Flake, though, given the timing: “Anger and resentment are not a governing philosophy. So you have to actually govern and do something.”
Do something like … cut taxes?
President Trump and the Republicans in Congress (including Flake) have just this past week enacted a major tax cut. Corporate rates are going to be much lower in 2018. Individual income tax rates will also be lower for most people.
Previous major tax cuts have led to significant economic growth.
If that happens in 2018, why wouldn’t Republicans like their chances for the foreseeable future?
Not that that matters. The point of our politics isn’t to help any particular political party or candidate. It’s to represent our citizens, uphold our freedom, and keep our country strong and (to the extent possible) prosperous.
Some Americans find peace and prosperity in their homes, their communities, and their work.
We suspect Flake is looking for his at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, which, after all, is looking for a new director of its Institute of Politics. A squishy Republican may be just what the dean ordered.
