By Jeff Flake
Eight years ago, I stood on the floor of the Senate and announced that I would not run for re-election. I spoke then of a fever in our politics, a fever that I hoped would soon break. I noted that in today鈥檚 Republican Party, anything short of complete and unquestioning loyalty to President Trump 鈥 then in his first term 鈥 was deemed unacceptable and suspect.
Last weekend, Senator Thom Tillis announced that he would not seek re-election, and delivered a message that echoed my own. 鈥淚t鈥檚 become increasingly evident,鈥 he said, 鈥渢hat leaders who are willing to embrace bipartisanship, compromise and demonstrate independent thinking are becoming an endangered species.鈥
His decision underscores what I feared in 2017: The fever still hasn鈥檛 broken. In today鈥檚 Republican Party, voting your conscience is essentially disqualifying.
When I was first elected to the House, in 2000, there was room in the G.O.P. for independent judgment. There were plenty of occasions when I voted against President George W. Bush鈥檚 agenda, including on No Child Left Behind and the Medicare prescription drug benefit. But President Bush never took it personally. He understood that members of Congress might differ with him and one another on policy without questioning their loyalty. Later, when I was in the Senate, he even came to Arizona to help raise money for my last, abbreviated campaign.