Mike Flynn Speaks
Revolver has a 50 minute or so minute interview with Mike Flynn. It's billed as a sort of a tell all for conservatives:
In fact, it's nothing of the sort. Flynn makes vague accusations about high ranking persons in the Deep State being out to get himself and Trump, but if you're looking for names named, new facts presented, truths revealed, etc., forget it. It'll only be time lost from your life. I would hope that readers at this blog who listen to Flynn will not come away feeling more knowledgeable.
Actually, the interview comes across as the kind of interview a prospective candidate for high office might give, if he were going to attempt to run as a non-establishment outsider, running to clean up Washington DC and restore the greatness that used to be America. Heard that before? But there are no details there. Yes, Flynn hints broadly at a cultural war, but I have to say that there's a real moral emptiness at the core of what he's saying. No suggestion whatsoever of any steps that he would champion. That becomes especially clear in the final segment in the terms with which he urges young people to enlist in the military. One comes away wondering: What does America stand for, in Flynn's mind? What makes it worth fighting and even dying for--in his mind?
My parents were born in 1920. They were what would be called "lifelong Democrats"--actually activists. The high point of their lives in a political sense was the election of 1960. But the last election in which they voted Dem was 1964. They left on the issue of abortion, although there were other matters of disagreement as well. They couldn't abide what they could no longer deny was the leftist nature of what they had thought of as "their" party.
Flynn was born in 1958. He admits to having been a "lifelong Democrat", including during the 2016 Trump campaign. He claims to have grown up as a Dem in a conservative, pro-life, non-socialist family. Problem: That would have been more or less the same period in which I grew up--I was born in 1950. I have never voted for a Dem in my life. Not for any reason whatsoever. What did I see beginning in 1968 or so that Michael Flynn failed to see--right up to the moment that he was taken down by a bi-partisan DC Establishment? What does that say about Flynn's insight into himself and his country?
Unbelievably--and I mean that literally--Flynn maintains that he was a lifelong Dem right up through the Trump campaign, but that the Dem party changed "all of a sudden" . Really. His words. "All of a sudden." Where, one might well ask, was Michael Flynn from, say, 1980 through 2016? I'm not going to claim that no one (like myself) could have served in the US Government in good conscience during many of those years, but I will say that the change that came over America--and especially the change that came over the Dem party--did NOT occur "all of a sudden". I count myself lucky that I was able to retire when I did. Flynn's claim of a sudden change in the Dem party, which he repeats throughout the interview, is the purest bullshit. A bit like his claim that the purpose of the US military is to "fight and win" wars--his repeated emphasis.
Michael Flynn didn't do this interview to admit that he had failed to understand what was going on in America, to admit that his supposed "non-political" military career was about career advancement, an ambition that may have blinded him to some hard realities. I suppose I get that--Flynn is still young enough to possibly have a career in public office ahead of him. He does say some sensible things, but I don't get the sense that this is a guy who could make America great again. His vision is far too limited and--to be fair--that's a job that's certainly beyond any one man. Nevertheless, a bit more honesty and self examination would be helpful.
The fact that Michael Flynn was shamefully treated by a shameless DC establishment should not blind us to his limitiations--limitations that are imposed on any office holder in today's America. If you don't believe me, look at Trump's three justices on the SCOTUS--no blame there on Trump, he did the best he could.
We can't give up, and to that extent we need to support men like Flynn. But we need to support them with eyes open.