2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumPaul Ryan Breaks Down Under Wonkterrogation [Updated]
Paul Ryan Breaks Down Under Wonkterrogation [Updated]
Paul Ryans great genius has not merely been that he has united conservative Republicans around a single vision several Republicans have done this before but that he has simultaneously persuaded moderates that he shares their beliefs as well. That is how Ryan has pitched himself to America, not as a right-wing ideologue but as a thoughtful numbers guy. Literally every piece of evidence in Ryans career from his formative infatuation with Ayn Rand to his indoctrination in the works of supply-siders to his mentorships under Jack Kemp and Sam Brownback to his entire voting record in public life says that Ryan is a hard-core supply-sider whose overarching goal is to reduce tax rates on the rich, far more than it is to bring budget deficits to heel. Nevertheless, Ryan has managed to persuade legions of moderates and moderate conservatives see James Stewart, Ruth Marcus, and Ross Douthat, to take a few examples that he is secretly willing to raise tax revenue as part of some bipartisan agreement.
Here Ryan is descending into word salad, which impresses observers because he is using terms that pertain to tax policy statically, Joint Tax Committee but he is not using them in a way that makes any sense.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/01/paul-ryan-breaks-down-under-wonkterrogation.html
burnsei sensei
(1,820 posts)Paul Ryans great genius has not merely been that he has united conservative Republicans around a single vision several Republicans have done this before but that he has simultaneously persuaded moderates that he shares their beliefs as well.
Only to self-deceived moderates.
There is no "great genius" in Paul Ryan, he is a Tim Geithner wannabe.
Nothing more.
What the reporter is observing here is not Ryan's "genius" but the utter vacuousness of so-called "moderates."
The only moderates who support Ryan are conservative extremists who have been telling themselves and their starry-eyed constituents that they are moderate.
The Republican Party is impoverishing this country.
It is de-stabilizing policy-making apparatus.
These pretenders to freedom are the new Jacobins.
Scuba
(53,475 posts)In the runup to the 2012 election he said it "would take too long" to explain his budget.
He's not a wonk, he's a wanker.
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)Ryan only ran because he was SO SURE, they would win. He will never recover or rebrand, a loser for life.
Lay off the testosterone cream, loser!
magical thyme
(14,881 posts)I had to check the url. This wasn't the Onion?!? Borowitz?!?!
Squinch
(50,949 posts)So, he does have qualities. Or rather, a quality.
LiberalFighter
(50,912 posts)Where are these legions of moderates?