Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has a tough job these days.
He’s attempting to maintain his party’s power without actually campaigning for the nominee they chose. He withdrew Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s invitation to a political event held earlier this week in Wisconsin, and would not mention Trump’s name during a 45-minute address to college Republicans. He did attack Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, but did not offer Trump as the alternative choice.
The Speaker instead focused on policy such as tax reform and electing down-ballot candidates. Since there will be a Supreme Court nomination, the GOP is concerned about maintaining a majority in Congress. Ryan has not formally announced that he is revoking his support for Donald Trump, but some observers believe that is only because Ryan is trying to avoid another destructive Twitter tantrum from their nominee.
Last week, Donald Trump turned viciously on Ryan when he denounced Trump’s behavior as seen on the infamous Access Hollywood tapes. Trump tweeted that Ryan was “weak and ineffective” and referred to him as disloyal.
Brian Walsh, a Republican strategist, explained it this way:
“You essentially have a crazy person at the top of the ticket, someone who just has no focus on how to win elections but has demonstrated he doesn’t care if Republicans control the House or the Senate. He is willing to pull the pin and take everyone down with him. Let’s not give him any more oxygen to burn the Republican ship down.”
Paul Ryan’s advice to the college Republicans echoed the foxhole strategy:
“Don’t get into a personality contest, don’t talk about the latest Twitter storm from somebody.”
It looks like the GOP has a quite a challenge. If they don’t do Trump’s bidding, he fires off at them. They don’t want Hillary Clinton to be elected, but if she wins, they have to block her moves by electing a GOP majority in the House and Senate. This is a tall order in the Republican disarray. To compound their misery, a vocal faction of the GOP base won’t stop broadcasting racism, anti-Semitism, conspiracy theories, and wild accusations about the government. The Republicans have quietly pocketed this faction’s votes, whistling and looking the other way, for over a decade. This faction senses that its day has finally come with the anointing of a kindred spirit, Donald Trump.
Now it’s all baking in the noonday social media sun. Good luck with that, Speaker Ryan.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnZ7HKn7C-0
Featured image courtesy of Greg Nash/The Hill.
