Mr. Ryan yesterday stepped forward to say that he was abandoning support for Donald Trump, the GOP presidential nominee. The Speaker said he would not campaign with Trump and would not urge Republicans in the House to support the nominee.
Ryan, in an unmatched display of sanctimony, seemed to imply that Mr. Trump’s moral principles did not match the great goodness of Mr. Ryan’s own heart. ..a position which seemed to put Mr. Ryan’s high ideals closer to those of Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton.
His action continues a long practice of Establishment Republicans to undermine any GOP officeholder or candidate who threatens the status quo in Washington…and Republican voters’ wishes be damned.
Ryan, since replacing John Boehner as Speaker in 2015 has firmly established his credentials as a Washington insider. Immediately following a landslide GOP win in the 2014 mid-terms, the Speaker led a complete repudiation of the GOP’s and the Speaker’s own, campaign promises.
To the dismay of conservatives and even moderate or mainstream Republican voters, Ryan’s first action in the lame duck session was to shepherd through the heavily majority GOP House complete approval of President Obama’s spending priorities. The Wisconsin Republican claimed helplessness to do otherwise , blaming his predecessor, Boehner, for bequeathing a “crap sandwich” of budget proposals.
Since then, and throughout his brief tenure as Speaker, Ryan has overseen Obama’s implementation of virtually every piece of his agenda, including: the recent giveaway of US control of the internet to world bodies, including nations which favor heavy political censorship’; approval of an Iran “nuclear agreement” which has included giving the world’s chief supporter of terrorism $150 billion, lifting of all sanctions, a clear pathway to nuclear weapons on a timetable Iran will determine with its demonstrated violation of virtually any “claimed” restraint in the agreement; Completion of a “climate change” treaty in which the US agrees to essentially damage its own economy and strength of global leadership, while claiming it is not a treaty and that it is “non-binding”.
Mr. Ryan can also claim credit for overseeing the mostly ineffectual opposition to administration illegal and unconstitutional action, including State Dept, IRS, Justice Dept, and EPA wrongdoing. The Speaker can also be recognized for the GOP dominated Congress’s failure to achieve even the most modest goals, despite the clear desires of voters who had turned out in great numbers to grant a Congress the very means to accomplish them.
There are many Republican voters, many Americans, who are now openly questioning whether Speaker Ryan and the other members of the GOP leadership actually stand for anything they claim to when they are running for reelection. Given the complete abdication of their Constitutional authorities since gaining control of the House and then both Houses, there is a growing consensus that Paul Ryan cannot be any less effective as Minority Leader than he is as Speaker.
Perhaps it is Mr. Ryan’s real desire to be unburdened of his current responsibilities so that he can spend even “more time with his family”.
Many fear that his desires will be accommodated, and while his leadership would not be missed, the complete control of all levers of our government in the hands of Hillary Clinton is a prospect too terrible to contemplate.
DLH
