Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 06:51 pm
Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) tried to reshape and save the Republican Party from Donald Trump during a Capitol Hill speech to House interns, but instead of rescuing his party, Ryan drowned in a fantasy of his own creation.
Ryan set the tone early with a bogus both sides do it argument. Speaker Ryan said, “Looking around at what’s taking place in politics today, it so easy to get disheartened. How many of you find yourself just shaking your head at what you see from both sides of the aisle these days.”
Rep. Ryan invoked the Founders and quoted from the first Federalist Paper. Ryan talked about the oath to uphold the Constitution and said the way we govern endures through debate, not disorder. Ryan painted himself as moderate by invoking his mentor Jack Kemp. Ryan took his first shot at Trump by saying, “We don’t just resort to scaring you. We dare to inspire you.”
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Speaker Ryan also criticized the partisan echo chamber, and took another shot at Trump by saying that, “We don’t insult people into agreeing with you.”
Ryan walked back his makers and takers comment that destroyed his run with Mitt Romney, “There was a time that I would talk about makers and takers in this country referring to people who accepted government benefits. But as I spent more time listening, really learning the root causes of poverty, I realized something. I realized that I was wrong. Takers wasn’t how to refer to a single mom stuck in a poverty trap trying to take care of her own family. Most people don’t want to be dependent and to label a whole group of Americans that way was wrong.”
Ryan closed by saying, “We think of politics as this vote or this election, but it can be so much more than that. Politics can be a battle of ideas, not a battle of insults. It can be about solutions. It can be about making a difference. It can be about always striving to do better, and that’s what it can be. That’s what it should be.”
Speaker Ryan’s speech was very nice and completely detached from the reality of where the Republican Party is right now. Ryan was speaking about a form of politics that does not exist in his own House Republican caucus. Ryan’s vision doesn’t exist anywhere in the Republican Party. Ryan talked about hearing both sides while Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is obstructing President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee for partisan political gain.
If this speech was designed to detach the rest of the Republican Party from Donald Trump, it failed. Paul Ryan’s speech was a fairy tale born of D.C. Beltway Republicans.
Ryan’s speech could also be viewed as the Speaker throwing his hat into the ring if no candidate clinches the Republican presidential nomination, and the party goes to an open convention, but that is a long way down the road.
The Republican Party is the party of Donald Trump, not Paul Ryan. From the perspective of political reality, Speaker Ryan’s speech was realistic as his Ayn Rand influenced budgets. His speech was intended to reshape the popular perception of the Republican Party while offering an alternative view that is not the ugly rhetoric of Trump.
Paul Ryan is a mouse screaming moderation into a paper cup, compared to 900 lb. media dominating gorilla of division and hate with a megaphone that is Donald Trump. Try as he might, not even Speaker Ryan can save Republicans from their inevitable destruction at the hands of Trump.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
