‘Our democracy will not last’: Jeff Flake’s speech comparing Trump to Stalin, annotated; Washington Post, January 17, 2018

Amber Phillips, Washington Post; ‘Our democracy will not last’: Jeff Flake’s speech comparing Trump to Stalin, annotated

"For the second time in a span of several months, Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) took to the Senate floor to  call out President Trump. This time, Flake excoriated the president for launching a war on the media, comparing the president to Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin and warning his colleagues that nothing less than American democracy is at stake. It was all pegged to Trump's “Fake News Awards,” which the president said he was going to hand out Wednesday. Here's Flake's entire speech, annotated. Click on highlighted text to read the annotations."

What Flake got right — and wrong; Washington Post, January 17, 2018

Jennifer Rubin, Washington Post; What Flake got right — and wrong

"Flake gave an impressive and far-reaching speech indicting Trump’s web of lies and the damage his international pals (e.g., Vladimir Putin) are doing to freedom of the press. He correctly admonished his Senate colleagues that undermining truth strengthens the hand of despots. Give him credit — but only partial credit. Elected Republicans engage in much of the same anti-truth propaganda as the president does. The evening programming of an entire TV cable “news” network is dedicated to conspiracy theories, misleading information about immigrants and terrorists, and refusal to cover facts that contradict the president’s tropes.

Trump did not materialize out of thin air. He masterfully manipulated white grievance and anti-elite conspiracy-mongering. But the ground was plowed by many of Flake’s colleagues and by Republicans’ self-selected news outlets. Getting rid of Trump will help, but unless and until the mind-set that permeates the right is dismantled, the war on the truth will rage on."