Op-Ed

Jeff Flake Doesn’t Even Deserve A Dog

Shutterstock/Eric Isselee, public domain

James T. Harris Host, The James T. Harris Show
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It has been suggested that Arizona Senator Jeff Flake get himself a dog. Given Flake’s family’s history with dogs, that suggestion was met with horror.

The Never-Trumper who suggested that Flake get a dog as some sort of therapeutic remedy suffers from Trump Derangement Syndrome. Apparently, the loss of friends that results from this mental condition can be devastating for the weak of heart.

The get-a-dog suggestion was probably not helpful. It was definitely instructive. It shows just how out of touch some pundits are with the voters in states like Arizona.

You see, Arizonans began to turn their backs on Sen. Jeff Flake long before President Trump entered the political fray. The only thing the Trump presidency has done to guys like Flake — and Bob Corker — is focus the nation’s attention on them. In other words, Trump made them noticeable. Little they had done prior to Trump’s inauguration earned them the national spotlight. Nearly everything they had done earned them the scorn of their constituents.

They failed to protect the American worker.

They failed to protect the people living along the southern border of the United States.

They failed in so many ways, but most importantly, they failed to see that the middle- class was shrinking bit by bit — not because it is made up of lazy, ignorant red necks, but because it is made up of small business owners trying to compete with corporate monsters who have no problem exploiting cheap labor.

Jeff Flake was done long before Trump put into 140 characters the frustration felt by the hard-working men and women of the middle class.

The loss of Flake to the nation is not Trump’s fault. It is a direct result of the collective conscience of conservatives.

The suggestion to Jeff Flake that get a dog was made by Never-Trumper Charlie Sykes, a former conservative and once prominent Milwaukee talk show host who tried to help Flake find therapeutic remedies for his Trump Derangement Syndrome. According to Sykes, Flake’s criticism of President Trump will end with Flake’s right-leaning friends abandoning him just like Sykes’ friends already abandoned Sykes.

Sykes advised Flake to accept the “betrayal” and get a dog instead.

Conservatives believe it is Flake who is guilty of betrayal. Sykes did himself no favors by suggesting that Flake needs a dog when his immediate and extended family members have a sketchy history that includes hiring illegal aliens — and the horrific deaths of at least a couple dozen dogs.

It is possible that Sykes’s advice was well-intended, just like his transformation from conservative talk show host to MSNBC apologist. Good intentions or not, nothing excuses the bitter indictments Sykes, Flake and other out-of-touch elites issue on the airwaves on a daily basis against very people they once embraced.

Those people haven’t changed. Their values are timeless. Their crime is only that they haven’t accepted the insanity that liberal culture — now through the likes of Sykes — promotes as “normal.”

Sykes is correct about one thing: Flake may now need the comfort of man’s best friend because he wasn’t the average man’s (and woman’s) best friend.

So, go get yourself a dog, Senator, even though you don’t deserve one. Just remember you need to do a better job taking care of it than you did taking care of your constituents. If not, that dog might just act like the voters in Arizona, and bite you in the ass.

James T. Harris (jamestharris.com) is a radio talk show host, international speaker, social media sensei and writer based in Tucson, Arizona.