Here lies the problem with Jeff Flake and Republicans like him: Desiring civility is a fine thing, but it cannot replace your desire for liberty.

There’s a great quote from the poker movie “Rounders”: “If you can’t spot the sucker in the first half hour at the table, then you are the sucker.” Time and time again, Sen. Jeff Flake has allowed the left to use him as a tool to advance their agenda.

Flake’s desire to be accepted and loved by the left all too often ends with him knifing conservatives in the back. Repeated attempts to be liked by his enemies has now morphed into Flake working against the small-government ideals he once claimed to champion.

Flake: "Not a chance" I would have called for Kavanaugh investigation if I was running for reelection https://t.co/14QzosCZxt pic.twitter.com/si3w52c1BY — The Hill (@thehill) September 30, 2018

Flake didn’t delay Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation vote out of some sense of higher moral duty. Giving the FBI another week to take the same sworn statements we already have on record isn’t going to move anyone a single step closer to determining if Kavanaugh assaulted Christine Blasey Ford. For all his weakness, Flake knows this. For all his flaws, Flake is not an idiot. Well, not entirely.

I say “not entirely” because he seems to miss an essential awareness of reality. Flake is constantly being played for a fool by the left because he relates to the leftist’s desire to live in a world of make-believe. He thinks there can be some “return to civility” in Washington. If he can just shine enough Democrat shoes, pick up their dry-cleaning, or maroon himself on an island with enough of them, then all will be nice and civil.

His efforts at “civility” all too often end with him siding with the enemy. On Thursday, Sen. Chris Coons made a SCOTUS hearing about how much beer someone drank in high school. On Sunday, Flake sat beside Coons on “60 Minutes.”

Therein lies the problem with Flake and Republicans like him. Desiring civility is a fine thing, but it cannot replace one’s desire for liberty. America is only America because America is about freedom—freedom from government interference in our lives. The entire purpose of the modern Democratic Party is to destroy that freedom and expand government. They must be defeated. There is no reasoning with people whose only goal is your complete submission.

A decade ago, I was running for Congress in Arizona’s Eighth Congressional District. I was young, hotheaded, and completely unknown. I had never run for office or been politically involved before, but I saw what Barack Obama was doing to this country and wanted to do something to stop him. So I threw myself into it.

Every free moment I had was spent crisscrossing my district giving speeches, shaking hands, and kissing babies. But running for office is nearly impossible if you don’t have any campaign money. And it is difficult to talk people into giving you campaign money when you’re completely unknown and have no legitimacy.

One of the best ways to get legitimacy is endorsements. In the grand scheme of things, they don’t really mean that much. But for a young unknown candidate, they are everything. So I began asking every Republican committeeman, state senator, congressman, and U.S. senator that I could get a meeting with. My campaign manager and I flew to Washington D.C. and started asking everyone we could for his endorsement.

Most of them flatly said “No,” and we didn’t blame them for it. There is absolutely no advantage for a congressman to endorse an unknown candidate. We did get a few of them to say “Yes,” though. One of them was then-Rep. Trent Franks. Trent helped me get meetings with the others in the Arizona delegation, including Flake.

We walked into Flake’s office at meeting time, exchanged a few pleasantries, and then I asked for his endorsement. He didn’t say “Yes.” He didn’t say “No.”. He didn’t ask my positions on taxes, abortion, immigration, or anything else. He didn’t ask about my religious beliefs or my family life. He didn’t laugh in my face and tell me to get out of his office.

All of those things would have been perfectly acceptable and understandable. Instead, however, he said something I’ll never forget, and to this day it makes my stomach turn. He looked me right in the eye and said, “What did John McCain say?”

That’s who Flake is. That’s who he was, and it’s who he’ll always be. He is wholly reliant on stronger men to make his decisions for him. McCain was once that man for him. It didn’t even occur to him to say yes or no when asked for an endorsement.

Now he has turned to Democrats, who know they can use Flake to further their goal of stopping Kavanaugh, the same way they used him to try and pass the Gang of Eight amnesty bill. Flake is the 15-year-old boy who shoplifts for a street gang “because they were nice to him.”

True peace can only be found on the other side of war. Flake simply lacks the necessary equipment to fight the political battles we need. The modern left is weaponized. They are not interested in your peace gestures. The left is only interested in dominating you.

Men like Flake had their place, but that place no longer exists in modern America. Flake is made for a world of bubblegum and unicorns and campfire giggling with Democrats. That world is gone, and his efforts to live on the Fantasy Island of Civility are now kneecapping conservative causes and judges.

This extra week Flake gave the Democrats will be used to rip apart Kavanaugh, his wife, and his daughters. Whether he acknowledges it or not, he will now own a part of every single attack on Kavanaugh—every absurd “investigation” into how much Kavanaugh liked beer in high school, every political cartoon mocking his daughters, every death threat against Kavanaugh’s family. Flake is now partially responsible for all of them.

The Lord may hate cowards, but leftists love them.