Assembled Wednesday in a committee room full of congressional interns — and reporters — House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) rebuked the disagreeable tone of politics in the 2016 race and even criticized his own use of divisive rhetoric in the past. From his familiar perch in the Ways and Means room, Ryan told the crowd of interns that, in this space, members used to hold themselves to a “higher standard of decorum.”…. “We treated each other with respect,” Ryan continued. “We disagreed — often fiercely so — but we disagreed without being disagreeable.”…. Ryan said he spoke in the past tense only because he no longer serves on the Ways and Means Committee. “But it almost sounds like I’m speaking of another time, doesn’t it?” he asked.
I suspect I’m not the only one who finds it interesting- and more than a wee bit hypocritical- that one of the radical Right-wing politicians directly responsible for the tone and tenor of acrimony on Capitol Hill is now bemoaning the monster he helped create…but can no longer control.
He’s right about there being a time when legislators fought like cats and dogs while conducting business in Congress…and then went out to dinner together afterward. There was a recognition of the distinction between work and not work, between a time when contentiousness was appropriate and the rest of the time when the expectation was that people would relate to one another as human beings and not as ideologues.
That Ryan is to obfuscate the truth that he’s part of the Tea Party generation arguably responsible for poisoning the well is…interesting. He’s trying to appear above the fray- as if doing so will help insulate him from responsibility for his part the highly partisan, deeply visceral, and intensely personal antagonism that’s part and parcel of public discourse today. Over the years, he’s demonized the poor, the sick, the unemployed. He represents an ideology that believes in a Randian dog-eat-dog America, where survival of the fittest is the Prime Directive and those who are passed by are left to fend for themselves. Why waste public resources on “takers,” those who don’t contribute to the Greater Good, when they could be more profitably devoted to rewarding “makers,” the job creators who make America great?
Ryan may be trying to distance himself from the monster he played a part in creating, but anyone who’s been paying attention understands that he is where he is because of the Tea Party. He’s not going to be able to separate himself from the acrimonious environment that exists in part because he sold his soul to a movement based on divisiveness and anger. That said anger is now being manifested by the Tea Party primarying Ryan in his Congressional district is proof of what can happen when you create a monster and turn it loose, only to quickly realize you’ve lost control of it.
Paul Ryan is the face of a movement that’s succeeded in bringing Congress to a virtual halt. That’s not something to be proud of, nor that he and the rest of the Tea Party should be allowed to forget. You break it, you buy it. You don’t get to disclaim responsibility for your mess by blaming it on The Black Guy in the White House ©.
I’d argue that America deserves better, but it was the votes of the American Sheeple which brought the Tea Party into Congress in the first place. If you’re looking for someone to blame, and you’re one of the millions who bought into the Tea Party’s promise to (metaphorically) burn Washington to the ground, congratulations. You have EXACTLY the quality of leadership you deserve…but I think you owe the rest of us an apology for contributing to the creation of a government that works for no one- because it doesn’t work at all.
