Robert Reich: A time for integrity

To: Senators Jeff Flake, John McCain, Bob Corker, and Susan Collins From: Robert Reich Senators, I write you not as a Democrat reaching out to Republicans, or as a former cabinet member making a request of sitting senators. If just two of you changed parties — becoming Independent, and caucusing with the Democrats — the Republican Party would no longer have a majority in the Senate. As he said at the time, “Increasingly, I find myself in disagreement with my party… Given the changing nature of the national party, it has become a struggle for our leaders to deal with me and for me to deal with them.” I knew and admired Jeffords years before he switched parties. Senator Flake recently introduced a non-binding resolution acknowledging Russian involvement in the 2016 elections, expressing support for the Justice Department investigation and calling for oversight hearings about what happened in Helsinki. Senator McCain said the President has “proved not only unable, but unwilling to stand up to Putin;” that Trump “made a conscious choice to defend a tyrant against the fair questions of a free press, and to grant Putin an uncontested platform to spew propaganda and lies to the world;” and that the President has “failed to defend all that makes us who we are — a republic of free people dedicated to the cause of liberty at home and abroad.” Senator Corker has likened the Republican Party to a “cult,” and conceded “it’s not a good place for any party to end up with a cult-like situation as it relates to a President that happens to be of purportedly of the same party.” Moreover, the three of you have decided against seeking reelection.