The collateral damage surrounding the Republicans’ scheduled presidential nomination of the openly racist Donald Trump now includes the once seemingly indestructible Washington reputation of Wisconsin Congressman and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan.
Ryan’s denunciation of Trump for his textbook racism, accompanied by Ryan’s simultaneous endorsement of the racist billionaire for president of the United States, was finally too much for Washington’s political analysts, regardless of ideology.
Those of us who watched Ryan’s calculated career moves and insincere political posturing from the beginning were always amazed that he got away with it as long as he did.
Even when Fox News contributor Sally Kohn described Ryan’s vice presidential nomination acceptance speech at the 2012 convention as “an apparent attempt to set the world record for the greatest number of blatant lies and misrepresentations slipped into a single political speech,” Ryan’s critical press barely lasted more than a blip.
The Washington media on both the right and left quickly reverted to describing Ryan as a serious, intellectual Republican policy wonk, the Republicans’ bright, young “ideas” man.
Never mind that Ryan’s only real idea was the same stale old Republican attempt to repeal successful government programs that have benefitted Americans ever since Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal of the 1930s.
Ryan’s innocent, boyish appeal served the same purpose for the right-wing media commentariat as it did for the Republican Party.
Ryan was able to look straight into TV cameras, bite his lip and fake absolute sincerity, whether Republicans were trying to dismantle Social Security or take food away from hungry children.
And even some liberal media appreciated Ryan’s ability to sound much more thoughtful, intelligent and decent than the average right-wing Republican gnome.
Endorsing and Criticizing Trump
So what happened to cause the sudden, widespread collapse of the media’s adoration of Ryan? Trump happened, of course. But Ryan also tripped himself up with the same sort of political double talk that worked so well for him in the past.
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Some people actually think Ryan wants to do something to reduce poverty because he says so. Only by looking closely at his latest poverty proposal and his past House budgets would they realize none of Ryan’s plans do anything to reduce poverty. They simply cut government programs that benefit poor people.
With Trump about to receive the party’s nomination, Ryan was looking for an equally clever way to say one thing and do the opposite.
Ryan’s solution was to make a big show of withholding his support from Trump, publicly criticizing Trump for unacceptable demagoguery and then lying low for a few weeks before endorsing Trump in the interest of party unity.
Both conservative and liberal media analysts immediately condemned Ryan for violating his own alleged principles of decency to support a vicious, unprincipled candidate. Apparently, they actually believed Ryan held some of those sanctimonious principles he espoused in public.
Conservative columnist George Will was withering in his multi-syllabic scorn: “The Caligulan malice with which Donald Trump administered Paul Ryan’s degradation is an object lesson in the price of abject capitulation to power.”
Michael Gerson, a conservative former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, wrote that Republicans like Ryan who supported Trump while criticizing his racism were destroying both themselves and their party.
“Having tied themselves to Trump’s anchor, the protests of GOP leaders are merely the last string of bubbles escaping from their lungs,” Gerson wrote.
Ryan justified his endorsement of Trump by claiming, “I believe that we have more common ground on the policy issues of the day.” He said Republicans had a better chance of passing their right-wing agenda under the unscrupulous Trump, possibly true, but not very admirable.
“Ryan showed that his itsy-bitsy legislative ideas took precedence over mere matters of principle,” wrote Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen.
Cohen’s colleague Eugene Robinson added: “GOP leaders who choose ‘party unity’ over principle should know that there is no way back.”
Addressing Ryan directly, Robinson said: “Your claim to intellectual leadership of the Republican Party is forfeited by your endorsement of a man who mocks the high ideals you espouse.”
At a private gathering in Park City, Utah, of 300 skeptical Republican leaders and donors organized by Mitt Romney, who chose Ryan as his vice-presidential running mate in 2012, Ryan faced scathing attacks for endorsing Trump.
Meg Whitman, president and CEO of Hewlett-Packard, who raised millions as finance co-chair of the Romney-Ryan campaign, was incredulous. Whitman asked Ryan behind closed doors how he could possibly endorse one of the worst political demagogues in history, comparing it to endorsing Adolph Hitler or Benito Mussolini.
Described by those present as clearly uncomfortable, Ryan claimed House Republicans pressured him into supporting Trump because many of them represented districts where Trump was popular.
Trump can now add to his notorious boast: “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody without losing the support of itsy-bitsy Paul Ryan.”
