Jeff Flake in Conscience of a Conservative, by Jeff Flake

On Budget & Economy: Big-spending GOP gave away limited government mantle

FLAKE: I got to Congress in 2001, myself and Mike Pence, actually. We had run conservative think tanks, in the '90s. We got elected together. I remember him saying that he felt like that we were Minutemen called up to the battlefront, only to be told the revolution of ideas was over. And we have given into kind of the politics of personal destruction, and quickly to a lot of spending and other things that really, I think, made the ground fertile for the type of politics that we have today. And that's unfortunate. We, as Republicans, gave away the limited government mantle when we spent like crazy while Republicans had the majority in both houses and the White House. And then that forced us to delve into the wedge issues, like flag burning or things like that.

On Principles & Values: Wrote Conscience of a Conservative because GOP lost its way

FLAKE: I felt that, just like Goldwater had felt in his time, 56 years ago, when he wrote the original "Conscience of a Conservative," that the party had lost its way. Similarly today, the party's lost its way. We have given into nativism and protectionism. If we're going to be a governing party in the future, and a majority party, we have got to go back to traditional conservatism, limited government, economic freedom, individual responsibility. Those are the principles that made us who we are.

Q: You write in the book: "It is not enough to be conservative anymore. You have to be vicious." What do you mean?

FLAKE: We have seen, unfortunately, too many examples of elected officials referring to opponents in ways that you would have never done before, ascribing the worst motives to your opponents and assuming that other Americans are the enemy. And that is just not the way it used to be. And I don't think it can be that way in the future.

On Principles & Values: We get nothing done because of lack of political civility

FLAKE: One, it has to start with demeanor. We have to model behavior that we would be proud that our kids are watching, because [otherwise] we're not going to tackle the big issues. In the book, I talk about when our chief military officials, General Mattis, also Bob Gates, when he was still in position, were asked what the biggest problems were, they didn't talk about North Korea or Iran or the Middle East. They said the lack of civility and the lack of people getting along here in Congress, and that turning inward. We are the biggest problem here. And until we fix that, until we recognize that we have got to get together, whether it's on health care or taxes, if we want to move ahead on those issues and have something that the president can sign, I would submit we better start looking across the aisle and saying, "How can we do this together?"