If I have been critical, it not because I relish criticizing the behavior of the president of the United States. If I have been critical, it is because I believe that it is my obligation to do so, as a matter of duty and conscience. The notion that one should stay silent as the norms and values that keep America strong are undermined and as the alliances and agreements that ensure the stability of the entire world are routinely threatened by the level of thought that goes into 140 characters — the notion that one should say and do nothing in the face of such mercurial behavior is ahistoric and, I believe, profoundly misguided. . . . Acting on conscience and principle is the manner in which we express our moral selves, and as such, loyalty to conscience and principle should supersede loyalty to any man or party. We can all be forgiven for failing in that measure from time to time. I certainly put myself at the top of the list of those who fall short in that regard. I am holier-than-none. But too often, we rush not to salvage principle but to forgive and excuse our failures so that we might accommodate them and go right on failing — until the accommodation itself becomes our principle.

He explained in solemn tones why President Trump is inimical to our democratic tradition:

When a leader correctly identifies real hurt and insecurity in our country and instead of addressing it goes looking for somebody to blame, there is perhaps nothing more devastating to a pluralistic society. Leadership knows that most often a good place to start in assigning blame is to first look somewhat closer to home. Leadership knows where the buck stops. Humility helps. Character counts. Leadership does not knowingly encourage or feed ugly and debased appetites in us.

Flake is no interventionist, but he is an internationalist and warned against the kind of “America first” hooey that Trump spouts. We cannot abandon the post World War II order, he warned:

The implications of this abandonment are profound. And the beneficiaries of this rather radical departure in the American approach to the world are the ideological enemies of our values. Despotism loves a vacuum. And our allies are now looking elsewhere for leadership. Why are they doing this? None of this is normal. And what do we as United States senators have to say about it?

He explained the dilemma for what he called “a traditional conservative who believes in limited government and free markets, who is devoted to free trade, and who is pro-immigration.” That person has a narrow path to nomination for office as a standard bearer of the party. He spoke optimistically about the chances for his party’s revival:

We were not made great as a country by indulging or even exalting our worst impulses, turning against ourselves, glorying in the things which divide us, and calling fake things true and true things fake. And we did not become the beacon of freedom in the darkest corners of the world by flouting our institutions and failing to understand just how hard-won and vulnerable they are. This spell will eventually break. That is my belief. We will return to ourselves once more, and I say the sooner the better. Because to have a healthy government we must have healthy and functioning parties. We must respect each other again in an atmosphere of shared facts and shared values, comity and good faith. We must argue our positions fervently, and never be afraid to compromise. We must assume the best of our fellow man, and always look for the good. Until that days comes, we must be unafraid to stand up and speak out as if our country depends on it. Because it does.

In praising Flake, GOP lawmakers only underscored the problem. Why have they not been speaking out? Why are they allowing a president to indulge in self-enrichment, bigotry, lying and abuse of power?

[How Republicans can heed Flake’s stirring call to action]

Maybe Flake is right, but all signs point to the end of the GOP he described. He and Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) have no home in the new GOP, and neither do legions of Americans. Hope lies, I would suggest, in marginalizing Trump and Trumpism. To do that a center right party or a centrist party (combining moderates of both parties), I suspect, will be needed. There are lots of impressive people to lead such an effort — Flake and Corker, to name just two.