House Speaker Paul Ryan's Thursday CNN "town hall" was enlightening, if for no other reason than being able to hear from the horse's mouth just why a supposedly decent, upstanding not-racist Republican like Speaker Paul Ryan would not just tolerate, but openly support a candidate whose penchant for public racism has defined his belligerent, anti-Hispanic, anti-Muslim campaign. It is for the same reason every other supposedly decent conservative Republican ever does: Because having an openly racist president would be worth it, so long as that person supported the conservative agenda.
QUESTIONER: Speaker Ryan, I cannot and will not support Donald Trump and it concerns me when Republican leadership is supporting somebody who is openly racist and has said islamophobic statements, wants to shut down our borders. How -- can you tell me how can you morally justify your support for this kind of candidate, somebody who could be very destructive?
A Republican asking a Republican politician how they can “morally justify” supporting racists sounds like a plant, but let’s presume we’ve found one of the few remaining voices of party sanity and move on.
RYAN: First of all, I would say a few things. That basically means you are going to help elect Hillary Clinton. I don't think Hillary Clinton's going to support any of the things that you stand for if you are a Republican. [...]
When you believe someone who calls a federal judge "a Mexican," who promised race-based deportations on a historic scale and who proposed we bar Muslim-Americans from re-entering the country is still preferable to working with the other party, the game is up. We don't need to ask what kind of person you are; you've just told us outright what sort of person you are.
[...] Look at the agenda that we are pursuing. Look at the agenda we are pursuing in conjunction with our nominee, our presumptive nominee, and I know that that agenda which I hope they have a chance to talk about has a much better chance of going into law because I know it won't go in there with Hillary Clinton. We have to get people out of welfare and out of poverty. We have got to fix our national security. Yes, we do have to secure our border. We have to replace Obamacare. We have to grow the economy. We have to get cronyism out of the system. I can go on and on. None of those things Hillary Clinton is going to advance.
Welfare reform is worth a president who says certain federal judges can't be impartial because they are "Mexicans." How very white of him.
She represents a third Obama term. I don't think that's good for America. I think that's the wrong direction. So yes, things have been said that I too disagree with. I will make that point then but I'm going to go fight for the principles and the solutions that I believe in and the candidate that I think is so much more likely to put those into law because I know Hillary Clinton won't do that. It's a binary choice. It is either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton. You don't get a third option. It's one or the other. I know where I want to go.
There's no analysis needed here. Speaker Paul Ryan was asked why he, as the top House Republican, was willing to tolerate a candidate from his party who has advanced the most racist, xenophobic, hateful speech since the days of segregation. He says he doesn't agree with such things, but it's either that or setting back a laundry list of current Republican goals, so the racist it is.
Paul Ryan is indeed a true conservative. I wonder if he even realizes how much his statement embodies the last half-century of Republican history. He is a policy wonk, we are told, so I'm sure he does.
