Jeff Flake > Quotes

“Assume the best, Look for the good.”
― Jeff Flake, Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle

“CNN and The New York Times are called fake news by some people on our side, while the president personally thanks infowars.com and its founder Alex Jones for “standing up for the values that makes this country great.” Jones, it must be noted, has rarely met a bizarre conspiracy that he didn’t fully embrace and is one of the most egregious polluters of civil discourse in America. He believes, for instance, that 9/11 was perpetrated by the American government and that the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December 2012, in which twenty first-graders were killed, was a hoax staged by the government as a pretext to confiscate our guns. Those grieving parents that we all saw were—according to Jones—paid actors. It was disheartening to learn that in the days immediately following his election, as President-Elect Trump was receiving the well wishes of world leaders, he also took time to place a call to this man to let him know how important his support had been to the success of his campaign. Giving away one’s agency and becoming captive to such outlandish and vile alternative facts would be bad enough were one an average person, quietly living his or her life. But giving away one’s agency to such a confusion of fact and fantasy when one has power—well, that is truly dangerous.”
― Jeff Flake, Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle

“Far too often the Internet is where the truth goes to die.”
― Jeff Flake, Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle

“Perhaps most destructive of all, we haven’t ever had an occupant of the White House who so routinely calls true reports that irk him “fake news” while giving his seal of approval to fake reports that happen to support his position.”
― Jeff Flake, Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle

“Bad information propagated by powerful people spreads like a contagion, infecting vulnerable people in its path.”
― Jeff Flake, Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle

“All of which is proof that conservatives can have honest differences of opinion on policy matters, among themselves and with others—or be open to entirely new ideas—without being thought heretical.”
― Jeff Flake, Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle

“Growing up with migrant workers, I knew that they usually worked harder than we did. Sometimes my dad and my uncles would hire a few of my buddies from school to help with the harvest or the branding; they would last maybe a day or two and were often unreliable. But our Mexican migrant laborers worked hard, and we could count on them. Because of this experience, I have always said that I could never look at these migrants and consider them criminals. They were working to feed their families, and we simply could not have gotten along without them. So when during the 2016 campaign Jeb Bush committed a sin of candor by saying that people crossing the border did it as an act of love, well, that’s exactly how I felt, too. And I said so at the time. Having grown up with migrant labor and with the Hispanic community that was here long before we were, I knew that what Jeb Bush was saying was true. Among those who were raised in rural Arizona, it is much more difficult to summon the vitriol for immigrants that fuels so much of the politics in the age of Trump. Of course, Jeb Bush was savaged for saying what he said, just mocked mercilessly. But then, unlike his critics, he knew what he was talking about and dared to speak truthfully, which is both a rarity and liability these days. We have to return to the politics of comity and inclusion and reject the politics of xenophobia and demonization.”
― Jeff Flake, Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle

“We stand to be left further and further behind. We simply cannot afford four years of watching China move ahead.”
― Jeff Flake, Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle

“It will always be essential for conservatives to find energy and ideas by defining ourselves in opposition to the liberal impulse to find a government solution to every problem and the equally illiberal impulse to silence disagreeable speech.”
― Jeff Flake, Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle

“Voting no but hoping yes is not governing in good faith; it is the antithesis of accountability.”
― Jeff Flake, Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle

“Instead, we demonize them, marginalize them, blame them for our country’s problems. We knew all of this before the last election, but we quickly set it aside for the sugar high of populism, nativism, and demagoguery. The crash from this sugar high will be particularly unpleasant.”
― Jeff Flake, Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle

“Whatever the source, a steady diet of bad information, conveyed in bad faith, can over time become a serious threat to a democracy. Over time, a determined effort to undermine the very idea of truth softens the ground for anti-democratic impulses. This is why the Founders felt it critical that an American electorate be well informed, and why being a discerning and informed citizen is now more important than ever before.”
― Jeff Flake, Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle

“I kept that Armey-Archer T-shirt so that I could remember a time when Republicans thought about ideas and enjoyed those good-spirited and consequential debates. It seems that time is gone, replaced by a race to the bottom to see who can be meaner and madder and crazier.”
― Jeff Flake, Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle

“By any honest assessment of where we are as a party, without a major course correction, we are simply on the way out. The demographic picture of America is rapidly changing, and we have to change with it. George W. Bush got 56 percent of the white vote, and won. Mitt Romney got 59 percent of the white vote, and lost. Every four years in this country, the electorate gets about two percentage points less white; as an increasingly old and increasingly white party, we are skidding with each passing election toward irrelevance in terms of appealing to a broad electorate. We hold out our hand, expecting our share of nonwhite votes, and yet we give these Americans too few reasons to come our way. Instead, we demonize them, marginalize them, and blame them for our country's problems. We all knew of this before the last election, but we quickly set it aside for the sugar high of populism, nativism”
― Jeff Flake, Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle

“We are only as good as our information, and if we lose our sense of objective truth, we lose everything. We must protect and persevere our healthy public sphere - the civic space in which we vigorously debate and negotiate, agree and disagree - or else.”
― Jeff Flake, Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle

“Presidential power should be questioned, continually. That's what our system of government, defined by the separation of powers, is all about. It shouldn't matter whether the president belongs to my party or to another one.”
― Jeff Flake, Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle

“And what is that truth? NAFTA created the largest free trade zone in the world, with an economic output of $20 trillion. It quadrupled trade between the three countries, quadrupled American exports to Canada and Mexico, eliminated tariffs that had increased the cost of doing business, and reduced prices for consumers. NAFTA also reduced American dependence on Middle Eastern oil, created many more jobs than it eliminated, and fostered new markets for investment by American companies.”
― Jeff Flake, Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle

“We have gone the way of many a democratic society that has lost its freedom by persuading itself that if “the people” rule, all is well.”
― Jeff Flake, Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle

“When your raison d’être stops being How can we hold to the principles of limited government and economic freedom? and becomes How can we hold on to this majority for one more cycle? then you’ve become the very thing that you’re supposed to be against. That corruption of the spirit opens the floodgates to actual corruption, and before long you have Congressman Cunningham giving his price list to lobbyists for “services rendered.”
― Jeff Flake, Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle

“Our crisis has many fathers. Among them is Newt Gingrich, the modern progenitor of that school of politics. Any honest accounting of how we got to this new day has to reckon with Newt, whose talent for politics exceeded his interest in governing.”
― Jeff Flake, Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle

“It is a testament to just how far we fell in 2016 that to resist the fever and stand up for conservatism seemed a radical act.”
― Jeff Flake, Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle

“list could be much longer. It is unpleasant to have to ask these questions. It is not easy to think about the current state of conservatism. But it is a conservative’s responsibility to do so. I certainly could never presume to answer those questions for Senator Goldwater, but for myself, I will resoundingly say no in answer to each. Emphatically: No. It was to advance and defend conservative principles that I first decided to stand for election and get involved in public life. At that time, our national political duopoly was well established, and I had a pretty clear notion of who my political allies would be in this endeavor and, conversely, who my political opponents would be. And for the most part that dichotomy has held—until now. It is political unwindings such as we are now experiencing that scramble alliances and undo parties. But if I find myself here having to defend conservative principles against threats to those principles from people on my own side, well, it won’t be the first time that that has happened.”
― Jeff Flake, Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle

“Mexico as a trade platform to reach other markets, as Mexico has free trade agreements with more than twice the number of countries the United States does. As most things are, this issue is considerably more complicated and requires deeper thought than an early-morning tweet about a border tax might allow.”
― Jeff Flake, Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle

“The better path, always, is to break out of rigid ideological thinking, to listen to reasoned arguments on both sides, and to use your best judgment.”
― Jeff Flake, Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle

“If principle is only defended when there’s nothing at stake, then it is probably not much of a principle after all.”
― Jeff Flake, Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle

“In the late 1990s, the conservative gadfly Roger Stone began to observe, not disapprovingly, that popular culture had become more influential than politics.”
― Jeff Flake, Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle

“It is the job of Congress to push back, to contain and counter the power of the president when necessary.”
― Jeff Flake, Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle

“One of those outrages, presumably, was Joseph Smith’s vocal opposition to slavery, and the governor’s executive order was the culmination of years of anti-Mormon sentiment, spurred by what were perceived as Joseph Smith’s designs on taking over American civil society. A manifesto written and signed by hundreds of Missourians, including elected officials, had preceded the extermination order, calling Mormons “a pretended religious sect,” and “deluded fanatics.” Mormons, then, have had foundational and horrifying experience with some of these worst impulses of mankind and became both refugees and immigrants in our own land. And so when someone starts talking of religious tests and religious bans, we know better. Because we have seen this all before. When we say “No Muslims” or “No Mexicans,” we may as well say “No Mormons.” Because it is no different. That kind of talk is a dagger in the heart of Mormons. It is a dagger in my heart. Because we know firsthand that America was made great not by giving in to these impulses but by fighting them, and defeating them. Governor Boggs’s Mormon ban was officially on the books in Missouri for 138 years. Thankfully, cooler heads prevailed long before it was officially rescinded in 1976.”
― Jeff Flake, Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle

“political experiment struck me as bizarre when I was younger, but I have grown to appreciate the wisdom in it, too—the wisdom that says that before we are members of a party, we are people. Too often, labels prevent us from really seeing each other as such. Well, the Flakes listened in church, and we took this assignment to heart. There are to this day Flakes in town who have remained faithfully registered Democrats their whole lives and who are always up for a good argument at family gatherings. This enforced ecumenical spirit didn’t ever diminish my ardor for conservative policies or principles; if anything, it served to sharpen my arguments. But it did something else, too—it made me look for premises we could agree on.”
― Jeff Flake, Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle

“where the wisdom of deliberation comes in. It is that deliberation that is one of the principal features of American conservatism as a coherent governing philosophy. If conservatives do not believe in the calm, sober use and restraint of government power, then we believe in nothing. Especially when it is exercised in haste, arbitrarily, and without deliberation or care. There is the trust your gut, shoot from the hip approach to political decision-making, and then there is the fly off the handle approach. As evidenced by the 2016 presidential campaign, flying off the handle is a big, big hit right now—at least in terms of its entertainment value and ratings. In this book I mean to establish that as a governing philosophy, the instability of flying off the handle is a disaster for the United States and is profoundly unconservative. The same goes for our state-of-the-art presidential bellicosity—which seems to be quite popular in “conservative” circles these days. That is the antithesis of conservatism, too. And it is also very often the antithesis of truth.”
― Jeff Flake, Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle