Lots of people are calling out Jeff Flake for voting to advance the Trump agenda by restricting people's ability to sue when a bank rips them off, just hours after Flake gave a rousing Senate speech about the danger that Trump poses to the country. As much as I am pissed off about Flake's vote (and the votes of all but two Senate Republicans), I don't think we can call Flake out for hypocrisy on this one.
In his speech, Flake never promised to oppose everything that Trump supports. He said he would stay loyal to his "conscience" and "core principles" instead of blindly following the president, and will "stand up and speak out" when Flake thinks the President is wrong. Flake never said that he would protect consumers from Trump's efforts to limit their ability to sue banks. Flake is a hard-right conservative. His conscience and core principles are completely fine with screwing consumers for the benefit of banks. This vote was not an instance where Flake had to choose between loyalty to the president and loyalty to his beliefs. On this issue, his beliefs are fine with the Trump agenda.
Flake is a rightwinger. He just happens to be a rightwingers who is bothered by pussy grabbing and nuclear war with North Korea. That's a really low bar, which might come in handy in a handful of narrow circumstances, but otherwise we should not count on him to do much to counter Trump's legislative agenda.
ADDING: Matthew Yglesias makes a compelling argument that Flake (and other allegedly anti-Trump Republican Senators) could have used last night's vote as leverage even if they ultimately agreed with the legislation. They do have a lot of leverage. That's why Big Media Matt is paid the big bucks!
In his speech, Flake never promised to oppose everything that Trump supports. He said he would stay loyal to his "conscience" and "core principles" instead of blindly following the president, and will "stand up and speak out" when Flake thinks the President is wrong. Flake never said that he would protect consumers from Trump's efforts to limit their ability to sue banks. Flake is a hard-right conservative. His conscience and core principles are completely fine with screwing consumers for the benefit of banks. This vote was not an instance where Flake had to choose between loyalty to the president and loyalty to his beliefs. On this issue, his beliefs are fine with the Trump agenda.
Flake is a rightwinger. He just happens to be a rightwingers who is bothered by pussy grabbing and nuclear war with North Korea. That's a really low bar, which might come in handy in a handful of narrow circumstances, but otherwise we should not count on him to do much to counter Trump's legislative agenda.
ADDING: Matthew Yglesias makes a compelling argument that Flake (and other allegedly anti-Trump Republican Senators) could have used last night's vote as leverage even if they ultimately agreed with the legislation. They do have a lot of leverage. That's why Big Media Matt is paid the big bucks!
