The GOP’s Trump/Ryan Problem
Started by Robert M
By Patricia Murphy @ Rollcall on Jan. 3
Either
Ryan or Donald Trump will survive politically in 2016. The one who does
will decide the party’s course on issues large and small. (Tom
Williams/CQ Roll Call)
Is
there a doctor in the house? Technically, yes, there are 18 physicians
serving in the 114th Congress. But a regular M.D. may not be enough to
save what is ailing today’s Republican Party, where two men, exact
opposites in temperament, experience and political inclinations sit atop
the GOP like conjoined twins fighting for survival.
The
twins, let’s call them Paul and Donald, don’t share a brain or a heart,
but they rely on the same vital organs to stay alive.
Paul,
the younger twin, is Paul Ryan, the new House speaker and second in
line to the presidency. Pragmatic, earnest, patient, the 45-year-old has
risen through the GOP power structure over the course of two decades,
from staffer to back-bencher to Ways and Means chairman to speaker. His
first job in high school was at McDonald’s.
Donald
Trump is our older twin, for argument’s sake. He is impulsive, often
crude, prone to rants, and sometimes brilliant, and is now the
Republican front-runner for the presidency. He’s never held a job in
politics other than (admittedly) trying to influence lawmakers with
donations and wondering aloud where Barack Obama’s birth certificate
could possibly be. Donald worked in real estate his whole life, and, as
he tells it, got his start with a “modest $1 million loan” from his
father.
The
same Republican Party that elected Paul Ryan speaker eight weeks ago
also rocketed Donald Trump to the top of the national polls eight weeks
before that. The men ascended at essentially the same time, but it’s
hard to believe they’ll both make it through 2016 politically alive. The
survivor will decide the course of the party on issues large and small,
but their words over the course of the last several months show just
how significant those differences are.
On immigration
Trump: “We
are becoming the world’s dumping ground for everybody else’s problems.
When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re
sending people that have lots of problems ... they’re bringing drugs,
they’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good
people.”
Ryan: “Legal
immigration is America. My name is Ryan. I think you could have a
pathway to legal status. Earn your way to legal status, but not to
citizenship.”
On Muslims traveling to the U.S.
Trump: “Donald
J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims
entering the United States until our country’s representatives can
figure out what the hell is going on.”
Ryan on Trump’s proposal: “This
is not conservatism. What was proposed ... is not what this party
stands for, and more importantly, it’s not what this country stands
for.”
On the $2 trillion omnibus spending bill
Ryan: “This bipartisan compromise that secures meaningful wins for Republicans and the American people.”
Trump: “Elected leaders in Congress threw in the towel and showed no budget discipline.”
On Social Security and Medicare
Ryan: “The
good news on these issues is that if we reform them for the next
generation now, we can guarantee – guarantee – that people in or near
retirement don’t have any changes in their benefits.”
Trump: “We’re
going to save Medicare and save Social Security and we’re not going to
raise the age. We’re going to increase jobs and make ourselves rich
again.”
On each other
Ryan on Trump: Ryan
won’t comment on Trump because he says his position chairing the
Republican convention requires him to stay neutral. But when asked about
Trump, he told reporters, “I will stand up for what I believe. I will
stand up for what I believe is right. I will stand up for our party’s
principles and our nation’s principles.”
Trump on Ryan, via Twitter, of course: “Paul
Ryan is far from my first choice, but a very nice guy. The Republicans
should go for tough and (very) smart this time – no games!”
Between
the two, Republicans have a speaker who thinks before he talks and a
screamer who hardly seems to think at all. One makes sense. The other
makes headlines. Washington Republicans have chosen Paul Ryan, but the
GOP’s grassroots voters — the ones who go to the rallies and man the
phone banks and fuel successful elections — seem to want something else
entirely.
Trump
and Ryan could both survive at the top of the party, but that would
only seem to delay, not decide, knowing what type of party Republicans
will have in the future.
There’s
no easy answer between choosing the head or the heart, but at least
Republicans have Ben Carson to go to. He won’t be the presidential
nominee, of course, but he has separated conjoined twins before.
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