GOP and American politics.

Paul Ryan lays it on the line

The new speaker makes clear in a speech he's disturbed by the state of the GOP and American politics.

By Jake Sherman

It’s now clear what Paul Ryan thinks about 2016.

The political system is completely broken — possibly beyond immediate repair — and it’s his task to at least try to inject some sanity and civility back in the process.

Is he running for president? The answer is exactly the same as it was in 2014, when he tiptoed into Iowa for his first speech in the state since running on a national ticket. No, he isn’t.

But he's been inexorably drawn into the election, and sees himself as responsible for the future of his party. And the GOP, for the time being, is being led by someone who Ryan believes is frequently is at odds with conservative — and American — principles.

During a 30-minute speech billed as the “State of American politics,” given in a flag-draped Ways and Means Committee room in the Longworth House Office Building, Ryan didn’t mention Donald Trump by name.

But he didn’t need to. Standing in the same room he assumed the speakership five months ago, Ryan took aim at the core of Trump’s message.

He decried identity politics, criticizing those who pit groups of Americans against each other. He said the nation’s political system doesn’t need to be this bad. He accused both parties of staying comfortably in their corners, only talking to those who agree with them.

Ryan also looked beyond 2016, saying he didn’t want to “talk about politics as it is today, I want to talk about what politics can be.”

“This is not just a lesson for young minds, but a message for all Americans,” he said to a room of mostly congressional interns. “Our political discourse, both the kind that we see on TV, and the kind that we experience among each other, it did not used to be this bad. And it does not have to be this way. Now, a little skepticism? That’s really helpful. But when people distrust politics, they come to distrust institutions. They come to lose faith in government. They lose faith in our future.”

He later added, “We are slipping into being a divisive country. We are speaking to each other in echo chambers where we only talk to those who agree with us, and we think that there is something wrong with people who don’t agree with us. We question and impugn motives instead of test the original thesis. That is where it doesn’t need to be, where it wasn’t and where it shouldn’t be. So the whole point I would make is if we are going to keep this beautiful American experience going, we’re going to have to stay unified as a country.”

This sunny message from Ryan is hardly new. He’s been delivering shining-city-on-a-hill speeches and accompanying policy papers for some time.

It started out with his budget a half-dozen years ago. Now, it’s his "Confident America" push, a policy program aimed at giving the House Republicans a new identity. In the spring, Ryan hopes to release a detailed agenda so the voters can compare and contrast the Republican and Democratic parties.

To be fair, Ryan admits he’s fallen short in much of what he’s preaching. He took responsibility for previously describing the nation as “makers and takers” – something he called an “oversimplification” of the nation’s social fabric.

“I realized I was wrong,” Ryan said. “’Takers’ wasn’t how to refer to a single mom stuck in a poverty trap, just trying to take care of her family. Most people don't want to be dependent. And to label a whole group of Americans that way was wrong. I shouldn’t castigate a large group of Americans to make a point.”

But that’s what Ryan sees happening across the country this election. He’s already called out Trump for proposing a ban on Muslims, seeming to incite violence at political rallies and refusing to immediately disown a former leader of the Ku Klux Klan. Without naming names, the speaker said his chief concern is that today’s politicians are driving a wedge through the heart of the country.

“What really bothers me the most about politics these days is this notion of identity politics,” he said, responding to a question from an intern in the crowd. “That we’re going to win election by dividing people. That we’re going to win by talking to people in ways that divide them and separate them from other people. Rather than inspiring people on our common humanity, on our common ideals, on our common culture, on things that should unify us.

"We all want to be prosperous. We all want to be healthy. We want everyone to succeed. We want people to reach their potential in their lives.”

Ryan is trying to change his party, while at the same time trying to change another stagnant institution: Congress. This speech comes on the same day the House leaves town for two weeks with Republicans having failed to agree on a budget – what many in the party call their most basic responsibility in governing.

On Capitol Hill, Ryan’s party is divided over spending levels – an argument that many believe boils down to one side wanting to making progress, and the other side wanting to make a point. Ryan admits that his push to change Capitol Hill is still very much a work in progress.

“This institution does not function at its whole potential,” Ryan said. “And that is one of the reasons why I decided to take this job, because I wanted to see that kind of leadership change occur. Now, I gotta tell you, that’s not easy to do. Change in the culture is hard to change, but I think we’ve made a great deal of progress.”