The demise of Sen. Jeff Flake's political career really is a tragedy

While reviewing the exit poll for Arizona, I was taken aback by a question regarding Jeff Flake.

The pollster asked whether respondents had a favorable or unfavorable opinion of Flake. The result: only 26 percent favorable; an astonishing 61 percent unfavorable.

I’ve never seen such a favorability deficit for an American politician who wasn’t involved in a scandal of some sort.

There is, of course, no scandal with Flake. In personal matters, and in his political business, Flake is a Boy Scout. A scandal for Flake would be to be caught cursing.

That Flake’s political career is coming to an end on such a note is lamentable.

Flake remains an unswerving conservative

I’ve known Flake for a very long time. I was part of the Goldwater Institute’s executive committee that brought Flake back to the state to run the think tank in 1992. That began the odyssey that ultimately landed him in the U.S. Senate.

Flake and I share a libertarian conservative perspective regarding policy. And Flake’s primary service has been to hold steadfast to those principles while serving in political office.

Most politicians trim their sails when facing countervailing political winds. That may be for the good. That’s the way consensus and compromise get forged.

But it is an important contribution to have at least some in a legislative body, from both the right and the left, who keep a light on an unalloyed alternative.

I see Arizona Congressman Raúl Grijalva serving a similar function on the left, although Grijalva practices a more mean-spirited politics than Flake ever has.

He balked at Bush's big-government ideas

George W. Bush and Karl Rove thought that they could forge an enduring Republican majority through what became known as big-government conservatism. Republicans would stop fighting for a smaller federal government. Instead, a powerful central government would be harnessed to serve conservative ends.

An example was No Child Left Behind. The federal role in K-12 education would be expanded, but hitched to an accountability-through-testing regimen. The expansion of Medicare to include prescription drugs was another. That was supposed to be accompanied with a general Medicare overhaul that never materialized.

Most Republicans went along with Bush’s big-government conservatism. Flake generally didn’t, serving as a sentinel for a truer conservativism.

Flake wasn’t much of a legislator. He didn’t get a lot done in Congress. His signature accomplishment was getting rid of earmarks that were larding up appropriation bills with goodies for the home front.

But he influenced the debate. He became a national thought leader for libertarian conservatives.

What Flake can't handle: Demonization

After serving six terms in the House, Flake never got sound political footing in the U.S. Senate. He had a lot of negative advertising directed his way in the Republican primary. Arizona has a late primary, so he was instantly hit with a ton of negative advertising in the general election. Then, shortly after being installed, he was slammed with a negative advertising campaign against him regarding gun control.

Flake was never particularly diligent about tending to the mechanics of electoral politics. So, he wasn’t in a strong position even before Donald Trump came galloping onto the political scene.

The way Trump practices politics shook Flake to his core. Flake isn’t really a bipartisan figure, although of late he has professed to be. His forte is articulating the case for the right, not finding a sweet spot in the middle.

But he believes that comity is an important lubricant for democratic governance. He sees the politics of demonization as a threat.

That, however, is all that Trump has. And he engenders an escalation of it in others.

Maybe one day we'll appreciate this

So, Flake has felt a moral obligation to speak out against and denounce what he sees as Trump’s corrosive effect and threat to democratic governance.

Yet Trump has governed in a surprisingly conservative way. So, Flake has found himself generally supporting the president in policy and personnel.

That has left Flake in no-man’s land politically. All politics is seen through a Trump lens. Flake has alienated Trump loyalists with his denunciations and Never-Trumpers with his support for Trump’s policy and personnel decisions.

All politics shouldn’t be seen through a Trump lens. Flake is a good man who practiced politics civilly and constructively. He was a beacon for a point of view that should have a place in American politics.

That merits more appreciation than it is getting.

Reach Robb at robert.robb@arizonarepublic.com.

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