or psychosis
Very possibly.
We learned too late that Anthony Weiner had developed a psychosis after being teased all his life about his last name.
Could Flake be suffering from a similar psychosis? Could he be overcompensating for being teased as a child for being a flake by being overly assertive towards the unpopular position as an adult?
It would be so much easier for him to become a Democrat, but then he would just be one in the crowd. As a Republican, he gets to be the intransigent naysayer who in his mind belies his childhood taunts.
-PJ