Republican Senator Jeff Flake’s full commencement speech was music to America’s ears, here’s a choice snippet:
How did this happen to us? And what might we learn from it? How did we get swept up in this global resurgence of the authoritarian impulse, which now has democracies teetering on the brink, strongmen placing themselves above the law, and in our own country a leader who reveres some of the most loathsome enemies of democracy in our time?
On a weekend celebrating courage and heroism, we’re happy to see the senator stand up and speak truth to power, which doesn’t come easy. But I also have to point out: Senator, your party enabled this blundering menace every step of the way. Every time they turned a blind eye toward birtherism and the racism it represents, every time you encouraged the fantasies of creationists or global warming deniers, every time your party insisted Hillary Clinton was guilty of murder or treason, every time your base gobbled up extremist rhetoric, passed around bizarre conspiracies, or assured themselves that concern over assault weapons was part and parcel of a violent liberal takeover, you helped make this possible. Each and every time you painted a market-based conservative plan to expand the access and quality of lifesaving health care to ordinary working families as an evil Stalinist plot, you added fuel to the very fire you now recognize is burning out of control. So, I hope Sen. Flake continues to speak up on what you have wrought, because he and his ilk have a lot of apologizing left to do.
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