May you live in interesting times, as they tell me the Chinese used to say.
This week, retiring senator Jeff Flake of Arizona gave a speech on the floor of the Senate. This is some of what he said:
Twenty seventeen was a year [that] saw the truth – objective, empirical, evidence-based truth – more battered and abused than any other in the history of our country, at the hands of the most powerful figure in our government. It was a year which saw the White House enshrine “alternative facts” into the American lexicon, as justification for what used to be known simply as good old-fashioned falsehoods. It was the year in which an unrelenting daily assault on the constitutionally protected free press was launched by that same White House, an assault that is as unprecedented as it is unwarranted. “The enemy of the people” was what the president of the United States called the free press in 2017.
Then he brought Nikita Khrushchev, Josef Stalin, and the old USSR into the conversation. My guess is that Nikita and Stalin are just as confused as I am.
As some of you may remember, I was critical of what then-candidate Donald Trump said about POW John McCain and the attacks on President Bush’s decision to go into Iraq.
Nevertheless, Trump won, and his first year in office has turned out to be rather good for those who wanted a conservative in the Supreme Court, fewer regulations, and tax reform.
So let me give Senator Flake a bit of advice:
1. Drop it. President Trump did not make you unpopular with the Arizona GOP.
2. Drop the silly comparisons to the USSR or any other police state. Stalin didn’t give out “fake news” awards. He shot journalists, not too different from the Cuba you are so fond of opening relations with.
Yesterday, I speculated that Jim Acosta may be auditioning for a TV show on MSNBC. Maybe Jeff Flake is doing the same thing.
PS: You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.