Jeff Flake is a very conservative Senator from Arizona. As a Democrat from Illinois, it's fair to say that I am pretty much opposed to just about everything he is promoting in his views of governing, and in his agenda for America.
At the same time, I am very impressed that he has decided not to seek another term in the Senate and he was willing to stand on the Senate floor and deliver a blistering, devastating assessment of the current President.
If you are interested, engaged, and want to be informed about what's going down in Washington D.C. you should probably read the full speech, or watch it. It's pretty amazing. Especially coming from a Republican Senator.
Lots of highlights... for instance:
"We must never regard as “normal” the regular and casual undermining of our democratic norms and ideals. We must never meekly accept the daily sundering of our country — the personal attacks, the threats against principles, freedoms, and institutions; the flagrant disregard for truth or decency, the reckless provocations, most often for the pettiest and most personal reasons, reasons having nothing whatsoever to do with the fortunes of the people that we have all been elected to serve.
None of these appalling features of our current politics should ever be regarded as normal. We must never allow ourselves to lapse into thinking that this is just the way things are now. If we simply become inured to this condition, thinking that this is just politics as usual, then heaven help us. Without fear of the consequences, and without consideration of the rules of what is politically safe or palatable, we must stop pretending that the degradation of our politics and the conduct of some in our executive branch are normal. They are not normal." - J. Flake
