Jeff flake Finally came out and said it. The presidency is imploding, and Republicans are letting it happen. On Monday, Politico.com published a hard and honest look at Republican denial, written by Arizona senator Jeff Flake.

"My Party Is in Denial About Donald Trump," Flake wrote. And the title of his piece is about as insightful as it can get, not to mention astonishingly bold, given the backlash he’ll almost certainly get from within his own party.

Jeff Flake risked being labeled a traitor, but he spoke out anyway

For six months, Republicans have been going about their business as if nothing strange was happening in the White House.

Scandal and controversy were shrugged off as if the rest of the country was guilty of making a big deal about nothing. Why? Because gaining control over the presidency, Congress and the House was a long, hard road. No one wanted to admit that the road was paved with Jell-O. Any Republican who questioned the party's position was going to be dismissed at best (Mike Huckabee shrugged off the comments as the words of a "globalist") and labeled a traitor at worst, and Jeff Flake must have known it.

Why did Jeff Flake speak out?

Flake's disdain for Donald Trump is nothing new--he spoke out against Candidate Trump during the election and has been one of the few Republicans who never jumped on board the Trump Express (he even has the distinction of being a past target of a late-night Trump Twitter rant).

So his Politico piece really isn't shocking, given his politics. But speaking out was still a gamble--he's not in a great place for re-election, running on a campaign of "decency," which probably won't resonate with liberal voters in his district and may or may not move conservatives. So what does the Politico piece do for Jeff Flake?

If nothing else, Jeff Flake has shown an ability to think in terms of the future—an ability that has been shockingly absent from most Republican behavior for at least the last six months. The Trump Express is about to fly off a cliff, and almost every other Republican is looking at their feet. What happens when Trump's base realizes that their lives haven't improved under the reign of the Orange One?

What will happen to Republicans in the next election, if they keep supporting a man who openly admires autocracies and can't put together a coherent sentence?

Maybe more Republicans will follow Jeff Flake’s lead. It would certainly be a breath of fresh air. But at the very least, Flake’s honest analysis of the current state of his party (denial) should at least resonate with the few remaining voters who are still defending Trump. The ship is going down, and it looks like Jeff Flake was the first one smart enough to get on a lifeboat.
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