NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “A thoughtful defense of traditional conservatism and an intensive assault on the way Donald Trump is certainly betraying it.”-David Brooks, in his NY Times column

In a bold act of conscience, Republican Senator Jeff Flake requires his party to task for embracing nationalism, populism, xenophobia, as well as the anomalous Trump presidency. The publication is an immediate call for a return to bedrock conservative theory and a cry to once again put country before party.

about Conscience of a Traditional: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Go back to Principle

Dear Reader,

I am a conservative.

I believe that we now have limits to what government can and really should do, that we now have some issues that federal government cannot solve, which human initiative is best when remaining unfettered, clear of authorities disturbance or coercion. I believe that these concepts, tested by time, provide most independence and best final results in the lives of the most people.

But today, the American traditional movement has lost its way. Given the condition of our politics, it really is no exaggeration to say that this can be an urgent matter.

The Republican party utilized to play to a broader target audience, one which demanded that we accomplish something. But in this period of dysfunction, our primary accomplishment has been constructing the debate that we’re never to blame. We’ve decided that it is easier to build and maintain a majority by using the levers of power rather than the artwork of persuasion and the fight of suggestions. We’ve determined that placing party over country is okay. There are many on both sides from the aisle who think this an excellent model which to build a political career-destroying, not really building.

And even while, our nation burns, our institutions are undermined, and our ideals are compromised. We have become therefore estranged from our concepts that we no longer know what principle is.

America isn’t just a collection of transactions. America is also a assortment of ideas and beliefs. And they are our ideals. They are our concepts. They aren’t subject to modification, owing to politics style or cult of character. I believe that people desperately need to get back to the thorough, fact-based arguments that produced us conservatives in the first place. We have to recognize that the stakes are simply just too high to stay silent and fall in line.

That’s the reason I have created this book and am taking this stand.

-Jeff Flake