This week in an outburst of egregious political stupidity, Senator Flake decided to compare Trump to Stalin.
Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) said Sunday that President Donald Trump's declaration that media is "the enemy of the people" is a throwback to Josef Stalin that should have no place in political discourse.
"I'm saying he borrowed that phrase," Flake told MSNBC's Kasie Hunt of Trump's choice of words. "It was popularized by Josef Stalin, used by Mao as well — enemy of the people. It should be noted that Nikita Khrushchev who followed Stalin, forbade its use, saying that was too loaded and that it maligned a whole group or class of people, and it shouldn't be done.
"I don't think that we should be using a phrase that's been rejected as too loaded by a Soviet dictator."
So Flake's working theory is that Trump had read the works of Stalin and Mao. And decided to borrow one particular phrase. A phrase that had never before been used in the past.
... this is what happens when you get your briefings from Evan McMullin.
I realize that we crossed the event horizon of stupidity years ago, but does Flake believe what he's saying? Do the words coming out of his mouth make any sense in his own head?
Addressing Trump's favored "fake news" insult, Flake will caution that "when a figure in power reflexively calls any press that doesn’t suit him “fake news,” it is that person who should be the figure of suspicion, not the press."
Except that it was the media that began hurling accusations of fake news at conservative outlets and pressuring Facebook, Twitter and Google to censor them. Trump took over the phrase, but the censorship is underway. If Senator Flake cares so much about freedom of the press, perhaps he might be interested in looking into that.
Flake is recycling a bizarre media claim from last year. That was back when the media couldn't decide if Trump was Hitler or Stalin. But if we're going to toss around totalitarian accusations lightly, Senator Flake is Stalin. Much like Stalin, Senator Flake accuses his political foes of exaggerated political crimes that he knows to be untrue for ideological reasons.
So Flake is Stalin.