Donald Trump has a lot to learn from Paul Ryan — and Ryan has a lot to learn from Trump. | AP Photo
Time and again, the populist appeal of Donald Trump is said to be that he speaks his mind and “tells it like it is.”
But so much of the Trump-driven pressure on Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) now seems in the opposite direction: Don’t speak your mind, don’t tell it like it is.
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The same young wonk from the Midwest — too pure to support a bipartisan farm bill just three years ago—is now expected to embrace the rough-talking New York billionaire who violates so much of what Ryan learned from his mentor, the late Rep. Jack Kemp (R-N.Y.).
If this were happening to some jaded speaker in his last years in office, it might be written off as business as usual. But Ryan is in his 40s and will have to live with whatever compromises he makes.
It’s really the stuff of a Washington novel. Or for the literary crowd down at the Obama White House, maybe even an echo of Melville’s “Billy Budd” and Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness.”
What’s more, it comes on top of the fact that Ryan was previously asked to sacrifice his independence for the good of the GOP by taking on the speakership after former Speaker John Boehner bailed out last fall.
That job is a slippery slope in its own right since Ryan’s House Republicans are really two parties in one. For many of the most difficult issues, Ryan — like Boehner before him — really commands a plurality, not an effective majority. And progress so often rests on building coalitions with the third party, the Democrats — a risky business given the uncompromising demands of the Republicans’ conservative base.
The continued budget impasse is just the latest example. Ryan, who made his political name as House Budget chairman, can’t get the votes to pass a GOP budget now when he is ostensibly more powerful as speaker.
For sure, there is a measure of hokum in all of this endorsement drama.
Do any politicians — Trump or Ryan — really “tell it as it is"? Or do voters fool themselves because they are hearing what they want to hear? And if Trump has shown a gift for flimflam, Ryan’s famous budget plans have had their share of illusions as well.
To get to balance, he quietly shaved half a percentage point from the annual cost of his Medicare reforms. And back in the tortuous farm bill debate, then Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) became the villain when he tried to write actual legislation that achieved some of the promised food stamp savings that Ryan’s budget had blithely assumed.
Nonetheless, to blur over the huge differences between Ryan and Trump is really to give lie to both men.
Ryan has the most to lose, but Trump could be hurt as well. He wants Ryan’s endorsement as another step toward uniting the party he has captured. But is he really well served by submerging the independence in others — the same quality he celebrates in himself? Doesn’t this play right into his opponents’ criticism that he is an authoritarian bully who wants only his way?
In truth, Trump could learn a lot from Ryan both in terms of policy and how to deal with Congress. Ryan could learn too from Trump. The New Yorker has tapped into the genuine anger of working-class voters whose economic troubles have been too long ignored by Ryan’s Washington. And Trump’s willingness to “deal” — small or big — could he healthy for a House GOP that has seemed forever trapped in its self-defeating ideology and demands for anti-tax purity.
One possible truce would be for each man to endorse the other as equals at the same time.
For eight years, Republicans have complained about what they see as the steady encroachment of executive power under President Barack Obama. If Trump wants Ryan’s backing, might he not endorse the speaker in turn? And with that, the right of Congress — as an equal branch — to speak its mind too and “tell it like it is.”
Time and again, the populist appeal of Donald Trump is said to be that he speaks his mind and “tells it like it is.”
But so much of the Trump-driven pressure on Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) now seems in the opposite direction: Don’t speak your mind, don’t tell it like it is.
Story Continued Below
The same young wonk from the Midwest — too pure to support a bipartisan farm bill just three years ago—is now expected to embrace the rough-talking New York billionaire who violates so much of what Ryan learned from his mentor, the late Rep. Jack Kemp (R-N.Y.).
If this were happening to some jaded speaker in his last years in office, it might be written off as business as usual. But Ryan is in his 40s and will have to live with whatever compromises he makes.
It’s really the stuff of a Washington novel. Or for the literary crowd down at the Obama White House, maybe even an echo of Melville’s “Billy Budd” and Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness.”
What’s more, it comes on top of the fact that Ryan was previously asked to sacrifice his independence for the good of the GOP by taking on the speakership after former Speaker John Boehner bailed out last fall.
That job is a slippery slope in its own right since Ryan’s House Republicans are really two parties in one. For many of the most difficult issues, Ryan — like Boehner before him — really commands a plurality, not an effective majority. And progress so often rests on building coalitions with the third party, the Democrats — a risky business given the uncompromising demands of the Republicans’ conservative base.
The continued budget impasse is just the latest example. Ryan, who made his political name as House Budget chairman, can’t get the votes to pass a GOP budget now when he is ostensibly more powerful as speaker.
For sure, there is a measure of hokum in all of this endorsement drama.
Do any politicians — Trump or Ryan — really “tell it as it is"? Or do voters fool themselves because they are hearing what they want to hear? And if Trump has shown a gift for flimflam, Ryan’s famous budget plans have had their share of illusions as well.
To get to balance, he quietly shaved half a percentage point from the annual cost of his Medicare reforms. And back in the tortuous farm bill debate, then Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) became the villain when he tried to write actual legislation that achieved some of the promised food stamp savings that Ryan’s budget had blithely assumed.
Nonetheless, to blur over the huge differences between Ryan and Trump is really to give lie to both men.
Ryan has the most to lose, but Trump could be hurt as well. He wants Ryan’s endorsement as another step toward uniting the party he has captured. But is he really well served by submerging the independence in others — the same quality he celebrates in himself? Doesn’t this play right into his opponents’ criticism that he is an authoritarian bully who wants only his way?
In truth, Trump could learn a lot from Ryan both in terms of policy and how to deal with Congress. Ryan could learn too from Trump. The New Yorker has tapped into the genuine anger of working-class voters whose economic troubles have been too long ignored by Ryan’s Washington. And Trump’s willingness to “deal” — small or big — could he healthy for a House GOP that has seemed forever trapped in its self-defeating ideology and demands for anti-tax purity.
One possible truce would be for each man to endorse the other as equals at the same time.
For eight years, Republicans have complained about what they see as the steady encroachment of executive power under President Barack Obama. If Trump wants Ryan’s backing, might he not endorse the speaker in turn? And with that, the right of Congress — as an equal branch — to speak its mind too and “tell it like it is.”
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