You know this plot. On one side is a blowhard billionaire known for treating women badly, making outrageous statements, and over-the-top displays of wealth. On the other side is a square-jawed stalwart who suddenly looks like a relic of times past. And then they fight.
Sure, Paul Ryan is no Captain America, and Donald Trump is only Tony Stark in his dreams, but the Republicans seem determined to choose up sides and start a slugfest.
House speaker Paul Ryan, the highest-ranking elected Republican official in the US, has said he does not yet support Donald Trump as the party’s presumptive presidential nominee.
Marking the latest defection in a brewing civil war that threatens to tear apart the GOP before the general election in November, Ryan, who will chair the party convention in Cleveland in July, said Trump had yet to prove he shared the conservative values and principles necessary to be the party’s standard-bearer.
And naturally, Trump slipped on his bionic Twitter finger to fire back.
But just like the Marvel film opening today, this “civil war” is following a script, and it’s one that’s designed to give Republicans the best odds of winning.
While #NeverTrump, #NoTrump, and #StopTrump were all flailing desperately, and Cruz and Kasich were making and breaking alliances in a day, Paul Ryan has been executing the Republican Party’s fall back plan–create a Trump alternative.
Those officials in the GOP who are half awake have understood that the possibility of Trump Trumping of their party were very real from the beginning. They’ve assumed that Trump would have the nomination, that the platform would be in the hands of his whacked out delegates, and that vulnerable Representatives and Senators (especially Senators) would need a way to distance themselves from whatever comes out of Cleveland.
That’s why for months now Ryan has been creating a plan that can act as an alternative to Trump’s platform. And that’s why Ryan expressly didn’t allow any consideration of himself as a round four candidate in a contested convention. He couldn’t go there. He has to assume a different role: alternative leader of the Republican Party.
Downticket races in tight places won’t be seeing Donald’s orange face showing up for campaign events. It’ll be Ryan. And they won’t be running on the Republican platform ala Trump. They’ll be running on the Ryan Plan.
Should Trump go down the expected path to disaster, it’ll be Paul Ryan who gathers up the pieces. In the traditional Republican way, 2020 will be His Turn. A turn he will have earned by playing sensible father to a party on a bender.
Should things start to turn in Trump’s way… why, there’s always time for a noisy and public reconciliation. That’s already been scripted, as well.
The only danger to this blockbuster in the making? Trump, of course. No matter how many times someone tries to explain it to the Trumpster, all he can see is someone who won’t kneel before Don.
And Trump isn’t keeping his associates on script.
Pierson admitted Friday that Ryan’s unwillingness to unite the party behind the people’s candidate indicates that he, “isn’t fit to be Speaker.”
Or maybe that is the script. After all, you have to make those punches look real if you’re going to have good make-up sex reconciliation. Just reconciliation.