FOX News 'MediaBuzz' host Howard Kurtz (L) weighs in on the question that if Jeff Flake (C) and Bob Corker (R) are so appalled by Trump's conduct in office, why are they quitting?
Corker and Flake complain about Trump’s personality and statements (including tweets) but strongly support Trump’s policies, including those to enrich corporations and plutocrats at the expense of the middle class and those in poverty. Just this year they both voted at least four times to take away health insurance from upwards of 30 million Americans. They did not vote funds needed for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which provides healthcare for 9 million children.
Yesterday they voted to allow corporations to force consumers to give up their rights to justice in the court system and instead use only binding private arbitration, using arbitrators chosen from corporate-friendly panels in a system with no published opinions and no appeals to the real court system.
Corker and Flake are perfectly fine with stopping all government action to combat pollution and climate change.
They also like that the United States has troops in over 170 countries and actively seeks to kill people in many of them. Neither objected to Trump’s announced ban on transgender soldiers. <>
I have found only one actual significant Trump policy or decision that Corker or Flake have objected to. Corker and Flake support “free trade” agreements that allow panels of corporate attorneys to undermine democracy by nullifying national laws that protect workers, consumers, or the environment. Trump says he is against those agreements but has taken no action against them, except for exiting the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). So, even where a policy disagreement allegedly exists, Corker and Flake seem worse than Trump for the average American.
Corker and Flake seek to enjoy the policy benefits of Trump’s presidency for their corporate taskmasters without taking responsibility for the personality that achieves those benefits for them (by getting himself elected President). They denounce Trump’s racism, sexism, anti-Semitism, “nationalism,” military blustering, and lying, but they support Trump’s actual policies and decisions. They want the fruit of Trumpism without touching the fertilizer that feeds the tree of Trump.
But, say the liberal parts of the media, at least Corker and Flake are better than those Republicans who fail to denounce Trump at all; they are the true “zeroes.” But those Republicans are not like Corker and Flake in making a big show of distancing themselves from the bad (Trump’s behavior) while still benefiting from the “good” (Trump’s policies and decisions). Corker and Flake want the Trump policy “benefits” without accepting the inherent connection to Trump’s behavior.
Do Corker and Flake rise to the level of heroes? Or even zeroes?
DAN MEEK—Corker and Flake complain about Trump’s personality and statements (including tweets) but strongly support Trump’s policies, including those to enrich corporations and plutocrats at the expense of the middle class and those in poverty. Just this year they both voted at least four times to take away health insurance from upwards of 30 million Americans. They did not vote funds needed for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which provides healthcare for 9 million children.
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Parting shot—a word from the editors
The Best Definition of Donald Trump We Have Found
In his zeal to prove to his antagonists in the War Party that he is as bloodthirsty as their champion, Hillary Clinton, and more manly than Barack Obama, Trump seems to have gone “play-crazy” -- acting like an unpredictable maniac in order to terrorize the Russians into forcing some kind of dramatic concessions from their Syrian allies, or risk Armageddon.However, the “play-crazy” gambit can only work when the leader is, in real life, a disciplined and intelligent actor, who knows precisely what actual boundaries must not be crossed. That ain’t Donald Trump -- a pitifully shallow and ill-disciplined man, emotionally handicapped by obscene privilege and cognitively crippled by white American chauvinism. By pushing Trump into a corner and demanding that he display his most bellicose self, or be ceaselessly mocked as a “puppet” and minion of Russia, a lesser power, the War Party and its media and clandestine services have created a perfect storm of mayhem that may consume us all.— Glen Ford, Editor in Chief, Black Agenda Report
