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    Jeff Flake Has Taken On Trump And The GOP, But Will It Matter?

    The GOP has "given in to the politics of anger—the belief that riling up the base can make up for failed attempts to broaden the electorate," the senator says. "These are the spasms of a dying party."
    by Jessica Taylor Aug 08, 2017 7 minutes
    Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., at an town hall event in Mesa, Ariz. He wrote a new book, in secret, criticizing President Trump and Republicans who have not stood up to him in defense of conservative values. / Ralph Freso / Getty Images

    Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake wrote his new book Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle in secret, not even telling his closest political advisers about his plans until it was ready. And given the political test he'll face over the coming year, it isn't hard to see why.

    Flake is up for re-election in 2018, where he faces real threats from both the left and the right. His book is inspired by former Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater's 1960 tome of the same name and is direct in its criticisms not just of President Trump, but toward other Republicans for, as Flake sees it, turning a blind eye and making a "Faustian bargain" when Trump abandoned many core conservative principles like free trade, and for his controversial stands, from birtherism to racial dog whistles.

    While the things he lays out in his book may well endear him to independents and even Democrats in Arizona, the radical way he takes on Trump without abandon certainly won't help him in his first test next year: A GOP primary, where challengers — who are being egged on by the White House — are already circling.

    Near the end of the 2016 election, seeing tape surfaced.

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