I have often wondered about people who change their party affiliation from one to the other.  What changed their minds?  What would cause a conservative with an asserted conservative world view (less government, less taxes, more accountability) to become a tax-and-spend Democrat?  What would cause someone who viewed the government as the source of everything good in the country and for whom imposing taxes and draconian environmental regulations was more important than economic survival, to abandon that view and become a Republican?  Could it be that these people are less about principles and more about holding on to power?  Stay with me.

Former Senator and Kavanaugh-era-turncoat Jeff Flake (who was appropriately born in Snowflake, Arizona) announced he is supporting Joe Biden.  Jeff Flake, during his career in both in the House and in the Senate, was a fiscal conservative.  Flake took the Taxpayer Protection Pledge.  He opposed pork-barrel spending, and even voted against the Trouble Asset Relief Program in 2008.    At every turn in his legislative work he voted against higher taxes and against spending taxpayer money.  So, how could he suddenly support a man who promises to raise taxes, federalize health care, give away free college, and permit every illegal alien in the country to have citizenship?  How does a man who received a 100% approval rating from the American Conservative Union fall in line with a Democrat platform that promises the death of American Exceptionalism?

Some might suggest that this is no more than a knee-jerk reaction to his own form of Trump Derangement Syndrome.  He so hates Trump that he will do anything to remove him from office.  He is literally willing to risk destroying the country and imposing socialism because he hates Donald Trump.  But, it’s worse than that.  It’s a character flaw that goes direct to the soul (if he even has one) of this man, and his craven lust for power and privilege.

Flake voted against the bill that would have required universal background checks.  His record on gun rights is somewhat spotty (he co-sponsored a bill that would have prevented gun sales to anyone who had ever been committed for mental health treatment), but the general tenor of his record is that he favors the Second Amendment.  So why would he support a team like Biden-Harris that want to simply shred the document and impose a different rule on the country?

The answer may be in what happened to Flake when he made principled decisions on gun rights and other issues.  Instead of being seen as principled for sticking to his guns (no pun intended) Flake saw his popularity fall and his unfavorability ratings soar.  He was the least favorably viewed senator at the end of his term because he consistently straddled the fence, voting, as he did, to extend the Kavanaugh hearings.  If “T” were his middle initial, it would stand for “Tergiversate.”   Instead of being seen as principled, he was seen as a waffler.  He wanted to be on the winning side, not the right side.  Instead of reaching the correct conclusion from this data: that it’s better to find a position and a philosophy and stick to it, he decided to borrow a page from Charles Durning and “dance the little sidestep.”  What he seeks is to be remembered for being “principled” when in fact it is his turncoat ways that will make him persona non grata at every Republican convention in the future along with John Kasich.

Flake and Kasich, along with people like Colin Powell, are people who stick their finger in the air, try to figure out what direction the wind is blowing, and move in that direction.  They have no guiding principles beyond what will serve their very own personal interests the best.

There’s a sad fact about Never Trump Republicans:  they can never be trusted again.  They do not owe their loyalty to an ideology or a set of conservative principles.  They owe their loyalty only to themselves and their future political aims.  As voters we must do everything in our power to ensure that these people never hold a political position again in this country.