Day: October 10, 2015

Jonathan Chait says Republicans need Paul Ryan as their next speaker:

What actually separates the insurgents from the Establishment is not ideology but tactics. The insurgents refuse to accept the constitutional limits of their power, and believe that more frenzied assertions of their core beliefs, combined with a periodic willingness to shut down the government and threaten a currency default, can prevail over President Obama through force of will. The insurgents mistakenly interpret disagreements over means as disagreements over ends; when Republican leaders express reluctance to shut down the government over Obamacare or Planned Parenthood, the insurgents take this as actual support for those programs. What makes Ryan so perfectly suited to bridge this divide is that he perfectly combines ideological extremism with methodological pragmatism.

So Ryan's ideological bona fides are so strong that he and only he can convince restive and angry conservatives to delay ideological gratification until that 2017 when Republicans control the federal government and can descend America into the horror that comes from Republican policies. But Ryan still says no. LOL.