We don't need anymore 'think' pieces on Paul Ryan. His is not a complex person to understand. He said one thing and did another. On purpose. As a strategy. We don't need to deconstruct why his values (what he said he stood for) and his actions (what he actually did) were not in agreement. There is a long public record and a ledger full of $$$ that document his career. As a leader he lacked honesty, integrity, and empathy. Politically he was a coward and a second-rate actor. These were the features of his character, not bugs. He fits right in with other venal, shallow, and self-serving charlatans of his generation like Jared Kushner and Martin Shkreli.
10
Ok, sure. Ryan is all of those things. But declaring his "failure" in not supporting Nunes???? Are you insane? Nunes has engaged in veritable treason, obfuscating the truth, obliterating the line between executive and legislative, and presenting a committee "report" that was blatant propaganda. This is an example of GOP rectitude? I guess so.
14
The notion that the craven and corrupt Devin Nunes is some sort of hero in this fantasy underscores what sheer and utter nonsense Buskirk's argument is. Ryan is nose down in the mud now because that is where he met Trump. Good riddance to both of them.
13
Anyone who takes crackpot Devin Nunes seriously cannot expect to be taken seriously.
11
Bought and Sold.
Now he is off to collect his $$$ Koch dollars.
Good Riddance indeed.
5
A consummate taker.
4
I am at a total lose for words, this piece is nothing but a huge pile of nonsense. The piece starts with the assumption that the new crop of Republicans have an agenda and the policies to enact same. Then he pays homage to the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue as someone at the head of this group of people, leading them toward their promised land. Well guess what? Trump has no coherent policy. Don't believe me? Look at today's headline that he is thinking of leading us back into the Pacific Rim Trade Agreement, something he yanked us out of early on in his so called Presidency. See the thing with Trump is that he does something that he expects will be a good thing, never realizing that no matter what, things help some, hurt others and then tries to reverse course. He is totally clueless that things are not simplistic enough for him to wrap his feeble brain around. FOLKS: The Emperor has no clothes on, been buck naked since the days of The Apprentice and his casino in Atlantic City.
Republicans need a leader who is in step with the president and his agenda
I ask, WHAT AGENDA, the one from last October, November, January, March? The agenda changes from moment to moment.
10
Dear Mr. Buskirk: Perhaps your Party's political agenda has faltered, not because Paul Ryan was ineffectual, but because your Party's agenda is based on flawed ideas and reasoning. You might be better off if you left off castigating your leaders and instead examined your faith in the bankrupt and/or corrupt ideas of your Party, such as Reagonimics, gerrymandering, Ayn Rand's "Objectivism" and the like. You could start your examination with Gov. Brownback's tax plan in Kansas and work out from there. Good luck!
6
Here's a clue. Trump voters won't miss him.
Paul Ryan was only there to pass massive tax cuts ( not tax reform) for him and rich republicans. Now that he got it he wants out. I say Mr. Ryan and all you millionaire Republicans Just go far away and enjoy your loot ,just leave us alone!
5
Conservatives don’t know their Shakespeare. Hamlet acted crazy, like our president. Ryan was more Polonius, the double dealing advisor who says but doesn’t practice, “to thine own self be true”.
1
simply put,
glad he is leaving..a feckless and weak leader
1
"...the reformation that is currently underway on the right."
What a banal euphemism; devolution is more like it. MAGA indeed.
3
You lost me the second you began speaking of the virtues of poor, unfairly maligned Devin Nunes.
8
Nothing new from Mr. Buskirk here: Ultra-Conservative Republicans in the Trump era desecrate the bodies of their dead. (Figuratively speaking, Buskirk is dragging Ryan's corpse behind his stony chariot, taunting milquetoasts in every quarter of American political life as goes by.) Is he auditioning for a job in the administration, a Trump chatterer in proper prose? What do you bet they eat their children too?
5
"Voters gave Republicans power because they believed that the policies the party promised offered them a better future." Uh, no. Gerrymandering. Voter suppression. Propaganda. Those are the reasons GOP controls the three illegitimate branches of government.
4
In an attempt to be fair, I would assert that it is not Mr. Ryan's fault that so many Republican voters are stupid and demand as much from their elected representatives.
1
Good riddance was my first thought when I read that Ryan will not run for re-election. And why should he? He has a big fat pension and benefits for the rest of his life and he doesn't have to face criticism any more.
Another seat that we can turn blue with some hard work and a little luck.
5
I only remember one thing about Paul Ryan: he received public assistance as a child and wants to reduce it, eviscerate it, eliminate it as an adult in congress. He reportedly is also Catholic. I don't know if the Kochs will hire him but he has certainly earned their good will by taking their money.
1
Paul Ryan has left a true legacy for his children and grandchildren - a huge federal deficit that will worsen thanks to his flawed tax plan. Ryan's name will forever be linked to the national federal debt and his direct role in causing this hole to plunge to such depths. They and their descendants will pay in shame and from their wallets for Ryan's big-eared, wild-eyed decisions. Good riddance, indeed.
1
I understand that a family tragedy led to Ryan receiving Social Security survivor benefits for a time in his teens. What a disconnect.
1
As a rational person, I read both sides to most arguments. You had me until you held up as good examples Nunes and Gingrich. If that's the best the GOP can do, then I am disappointed and depressed.
5
Nobody's fooled by this. It's not about Paul Ryan; the whole point is to "nominate" Devin Nunes to fill Ryan's shoes. We can only hope there will be a Democrat in the Speaker's chair after the November election.
4
you are so right. The last one to observe fiscal restraint sufficient to restore a balanced budget was that great Republican Bill Clinton. Not even your revered RR could do that. Thanks for the chuckles.
4
"Republicans want and deserve a speaker with the courage and tenacity of Mr. Nunes" - Really?! I associate both Ryan and Nunes with Cowardice and nefarious malice. The author recaps many reasons to stop voting his party into power.
At least "the third generation that squanders the family fortune" isn't the one creating the wealth on the backs of others, with cons, insider information, legal and financial bullying as the family trump family has done. These are the families Republicans are willfully bankrupting our country to give unsustainable tax cuts to.
The GOP political realignment is towards crazy like trump and the obscenely wealthy above all while Democrats are realigning towards saner like Bernie and saving our planet for all.
Destroy the Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge with a wall that does nothing but become a symbol of hatred, blocking the natural flow and movement of wildlife. Don Jr. may as well shoot the elephant as the Republican symbol and replace it with a more appropriate symbol - a wall.
Good riddance. But like trump, should NOT be relegated to the dustbin of history. Both should be reminders every time we vote and the consequences of how bad it can get. Look how close we came to losing health care, privatized Social Security and Medicare (to be looted by wealthy privateers). Good riddance, but remember!
Remember too the Con-tract Gingrich and the Republicans put on America. Forgetting the Grinch and promises promises from the GOP helped get us to this point.
3
"Republicans need a leader who is in step with the president and his agenda, one who emphasizes pro-citizen immigration policies, pro-worker economic policies and an America First national security policy that is circumspect about foreign military intervention."
In other words, a return to values that weren't popular since the last time they reared their ugly heads in the 1930's and haven't been seen in America since.
Republicans do not need a leader who is in step with the President. They need a moral center that informs their decisions no matter what position they hold. At the present time, that's a tall order across a party with so many 'core values' they run over and get in each other's way at every turn.
Newt Gingrich was the man who made the Republican party the party of the Big Lie. If that is how you define success, the rudderless morass of conflicting agendas and values that the Republican party has become is more successful now than ever before.
1
Does anyone remember the incident during the Romney campaign when Ryan dragged his wife and kids into some charity's soup kitchen, rolled up his sleeves, donned an apron and pretended to wash a pan. It was during some holiday. He smiled for the camera and dashed out. The charity spent the next several days calming patrons who thought the charity was endorsing Romney/Ryan. He's always been a shallow sleaze bag. All show, no substance. The only thing I agree with in this article is good riddance to him.
1
I would love to see Paul Ryan have a real debate with a representative from Denmark, a successful welfare state, whose citizens enjoy the distinction of being found the happiest people in the world, with cradle to grave support for the welfare of all. Would he be able to defend his rhetoric about how to succeed in this country? (A few big winners, many losers) He is used to being up on stage at his town hall meetings, where the audience is not allowed to get a word in edgewise. He only hears himself. A wise man listens and is willing to walk in another man's shoes to see how it truly is out in the world and is willing to think about making things better for all. His time has been up for awhile.
"Reaganism remains a rich legacy, but Republicans can’t live off the interest."
99% of Americans can't live off the interest from Reaganism, because all the interest went to the 1%.
1
Couple of things.
"Intellectually and politically, Mr. Ryan is part of the Reagan Revolution’s third generation. They don’t know how it was created, and in their own lives they have known nothing but wealth."
This is so intellectually dishonest I had to comment.
After Ryan's father died, he received Social Security survivors benefits, and worked his way through high school and college.
To me, his subsequent actions represent his betrayal of the working class, not the indifference of the 3rd generation of wealth as to how it was gotten- in spite of the fact that he came from a well-to-do family, he did at one time experience the other economic reality.
The other major misstep in this essay is the canard that Ryan played Hamlet in the search for the speaker of the House. The House is, and has always been, a circus of chaos since the tea party began. Ryan was almost forced into the job precisely because no one else could win it (with those fractious yahoos in the House running around like chickens with their heads cut off). They have gotten virtually nothing done in 10 years, except Ryan's beloved tax cut.
Stop pretending that this herd of cats could have done any better with anyone else.
As Gore Vidal said of Capote, "Every generation gets the Tiny Tim it deserves."
The House got Ryan.
1
Unfounded claims against Nunes? Ha! He was "cleared" by a group of partisans. This may have been the only remotely honorable thing Ryan did, apart from his brief condemnation of Trump.
When you believe that the sniveling, obsequious Rep. Nunez is an example of strength and leadership, well, there's really not much to say. Go Blue Wave.
1
Ryan is merely symbolic of what the Republican Party has become.
The GOP was bought, lock stock and barrel, by big money from the extreme right like the Koch brothers who forced out any moderate Republicans- so called RINO's- who still fundamentally believed in the Constitution and the American way of life.
The GOP lost its way as a cohesive credible political force focused on financial conservatism. Republicans have grabbed power at the local and state level through the flow of massive amounts of dark corporate money supporting the expansion of the extreme right. They have been aided and abetted by the Big Lie Fox/Breitbart/hate radio propaganda machines. The Republican Party is now owned and controlled by billionaire far-right wing donors like the Kochs, Mercers, Adelsons and Wynns...etc. At the end of the day, it is not a matter of red or blue, conservative or liberal ..it is a matter of respect for our our country's Constitution and the rule of law. To support Trump, a dangerous narcissist, a self-perceived god-king as president is truly an act of anti-Americanism. But Trump's blind, adoring fans don't care - they prefer a clown show to a real government. Ryan is a mere player behind the scenes.
Only getting out the vote of people who truly care about the future of our nation on a massive scale can eliminate the Trumpian/GOP scourge that plagues America. Ryan is leaving a sinking ship, and yes, good riddance.
2
A Recent Example of Lyin' Ryan:
He said that he is too honest to run in 2018 and then retire. He will not deceive his many fans, for he is a man of truth, and truth only. He is, indeed, an open book.
But on December 14, CBS reported: "Asked by a reporter if he's quitting anytime soon, Ryan chuckled and said, "I'm not. No."
Ashlee Strong, spokeswoman for Ryan told CBS News the reports were "pure speculation."
"As the speaker himself said today, he's not going anywhere any time soon," Strong added.
Soon ain't what it used to be: On April 11, the self-taught actor announced that he would not seek re-election. He didn't chuckle.
1
What an incoherent piece of fantasy.
Paul Ryan is the true representative of a duplicitous, intellectually dishonest, hypocritically unbalanced party.
As for Gingrich being the last "great" GOP House leader - your recollection is different than mine. A philanderer who led the Clinton impeachment parade while doing the same he accused Clinton of, a self absorbed egotist who complained about his exit from Air Force One, a despicable self-serving grifter who took $4 million from Murdoch to open the door to FOX (the current Trump propaganda network), and on and on.
It's easy to understand why you hold Gingrich in such high regard, from your opinion piece (Nunes? Really!) it's clear you have no grasp of reality.
21
Gingrich is the reason we came close to a balanced budget (except for FISA receipts being spent) and many welfare recipients finding work that re-established their self-worth in the world of work.
I thought I was going to read something worthwhile, something to learn. Instead I got a bunch of republican drivel written by an example of why the republican party is so despised today; owned by the NRA, large corporations, and the wealthy, and about as un-American as you can get.
17
Trump is the harbinger of an "intellectual and political reformation"? Our president has the attention span and temperament of an unruly child. This column has no connection reality and and its writer has no command of fact or logic.
16
Paul Ryan had a phony reputation as a policy wonk, and didn't know what he was doing, and turned into basically a Trump bootlicker.
9
Yea, the Nunes thing cancelled out the entire piece.
Newt Gringrich?...puhlease
12
I would love to see Paul Ryan have a real debate with a representative from Denmark, a successful welfare state, whose citizens enjoy the distinction of being found the happiest people in the world, with cradle to grave support for the welfare of all. Would he be able to defend his rhetoric about how to succeed in this country? (A few big winners, many losers) He is used to being up on stage at his town hall meetings, where the audience is not allowed to get a word in edgewise. He only hears himself. A wise man listens and is willing to walk in another man's shoes to see how it truly is out in the world and is willing to think about making things better for all. His time has been up for awhile.
78
"Voters gave Republicans power because they believed that the policies the party promised offered them a better future."
I will never not be baffled at the assertion that a political analyst whose job it is to understand the Republican voting public post-Tea Party, post-Trump are motivated by interests that articulate into a coherent set of policies. The Republican party is the unleashed id of America's ethnic majority after having its paranoias stoked and its worldview warped by years of pablum from right wing media into unadulterated xenophobia. Whatever supposed intellectual integrity the Republican party held died with Iraqi WMDs, death panels, birtherism, and the rest of it.
12
Paul Ryan, the Congressman from Koch Brothers, did his masters’ bidding. A man with no soul or conscience.
10
Hmmm. Remarkably difficult to find anything out about Christopher Buskirk that was not written or directed by Chisopher Buskirk.
3
"Republicans want and deserve a speaker with the courage and tenacity of Mr. Nunes — one who supports his troops when they’re under fire."
The editorial board should have removed this from considerations as soon as they read this line...
12
Nunes? He’s a con man. He’s destructive to California and the United States. He is responsible for his memo which was a fraud. He personally is responsible for the redacted Democrats document. He will eventually be persona non grata but like Ryan richer than when he arrived. He makes me puke.
1
Remember when Ryan told Trump: "I am thankful for your exquisite leadership." Oh, dear.
7
Voters did not give Republicans power because they believe in the Republican agenda. Over and over again, when asked specific policy questions, voters prefer Democratic solutions.
8
Naw. He was lousy, granted, but not being in step with the president was his shining part.
6
Why is this (or any) writer permitted to publish assertions such as "Schiff, Democrat of California, made a spurious allegation" with no backing evidence, while contrasting it with "Mr. Nunes was subsequently cleared," which does have a supporting link? Nunes' act of sharing investigation evidence with the White House before sharing it with his own investigative committee was well worth the questions Schiff posed. The situation was investigated in the normal way. Nunes' actions were not found to be illegal. Where's the spuriousness?
12
Mr. Buskirk, don't you realize the President's agenda changes daily? Per today's Times Trump wants to rejoin the Pacific Trade Agreement. And is rushing to finalize NAFTA. How could the Speaker know Trump's agenda when even Trump himself doesn't?
Who knew trade could be so complicated? Or healthcare? Or attacking Syria? Nobody knew! Nobody knew!
9
Anyone who praises Devin Nunes has no credibility with me. Maybe the Speaker just couldn't bring himself to jump on the bus heading for the cliff?
6
The author advocates for the kind of movement towards nationalism and xenophobia that was a component of several ideologies that ended up destroying their nations.
We live in an increasingly dangerous world. Nationalism (versus globalism) and some sort of religious-ethnic-linguistic unity (versus multiculturalism) can result in terrible conflicts.
3
Mr. Buskirk has a strange view of democracy. Amazingly enough Ryan is not a dictator and his will does not always prevail. Ryan’s failure to deliver could have something to do with how unappealing the product he was supposed to deliver was.
Finally, what Buskirk fails to evaluatecproperly is that the Republican Party is now the party of Trump and has no principle other than fealty to Trump. It was a party that believed it had ideas, solutions and principles. But that is so old fashioned. The Republican Party has become like some foreign political parties, simply a vehicle for the “great” man.
2
There's a saying that covers Ryan's political career - all hat and no cattle.
2
He can talk all he wants about wanting to be home with his family, but anyone can see he's just another rat fleeing a ship that's not only sinking, but about to burst into flames.
If the GOP was holding strong in Congress and had at least a partly stable president, there is NO WAY he would give up a position of that kind of power. He could see his kids when they're grown and then tell them all the great things he did.
Instead, he's just doing the backstroke out of there. Enjoy your soccer games and carpools, Mr. Speaker.
2
It's the lack of substance in the Republican party that allowed Paul Ryan to be considered leadership material. He simply said or did nothing that brought a light into his emptiness. His Vice Presidential run made Mike Pence look emotional by comparison.
As for Newt Gingrich being the last effective Speaker? His strong arm tactics set the stage for the current polarization by treating opposition as the enemy. That changes the dynamics to donors not voters and a fractured caucus. The coming blue wave is really about the complete failure of the Republican congress. Had they stood up to Mr. Trump on his more egregious behavior they would not need to retire in such droves. Mr. Ryan failed most of all to protect his team from the twitter trashing president.
Where is Mr. Gingrich now? Still belligerent when he can find a mic but hardly a voice that matters. Mr. Ryan will soon be even less relevant. There is simply no there there.
4
It's clear Mr Buskirk, is a blind Trump follower, he seems to forget that the backward policies of the GOP only serve to fan the flames of bigotry and hatred of anyone or anything that doesn't blindly follow the republican dogma. Mr. Buskirk seems to think that lying and manipulating Devin Nunez, would be a better buzz saw than Ryan. I don't understand the GOPs policy of take from the citizens and give it to those who don't deserve it, or need it for that matter. Mr. Buskirk, doesn't seem to understand that this is government by the people for the people, not a select few.
The idea that "Ryan gave the democrats everything they wanted" as Buskirk said. But in Buskirks small mind, and backward thinking, that is somehow a bad thing, poor republicans benefit too. Like those who support progressive ideals aren't worth the governments time or money (that isn't theirs to deny anyone).
Mr Buskirk believes that government isn't here for the people, its here for the benefit for corporations, to give them license to pollute the air and water, to take public lands and pollute those too. Under some illusion that that those dollars will somehow trickle down to the their constituents. But mountains of evidence says otherwise.
The GOP works to suppress registered voters (mostly of color) but poor whites, who may vote against the GOPs your on your own policy. People like Mr. Buskirk, is why this country is so polarized and why it is where it is today, in a race to the bottom.
1
The modern GOP formula is now cast in stone. First, get elected by promising to curb government excess. Second, accomplish absolutely nothing outside of passing windfall legislation for their cronies. Third, collect pension and begin new career on K street.
3
Must be Ryan got tired of all of this 'winning.'
In the end, all he could do was say no as a legacy. Even disliked Boehner had him beat in getting things done.
2
Ryan is the antithetical, mythological poster child of the Republican Party. Of course there are very smart and credible Republicans but they have had to seek refuge in the progressive media and legitimate, conservative publications where, regardless of ideology, everyone shares in the search and restoration of the truth, law and order. And that cannot come too soon.
1
Paul Ryan raised a lot of money for the GOP. But in allowing or rather not corralling Devin Nunes, not standing up to the racism of Trump, not coming up with a Republican health care plan, etc. he in effect led to his own demise. The minute rumors were leaked about him leaving, the vultures began to circle. It is the way of the GOP. Eat your own before they do anything for the country. He can cheer his tax plan, but most Americans see it for what it was. A gift to the rich. The mantra of the GOP.
1
How sad that "the last effective" leader of the GOP was Newt Gingrich, the bomb-throwing, self-interested, unprincipled disaster who was cheating on his second wife while he was pushing for impeachment of President Clinton for his own sexual indiscretions.
Gingrich codified the politics of character assassination, providing the GOP rank and file a master class in the slimy dirty tricks methods pioneered by Lee Atwater and the rest of Richard Nixon's stooges.
If the GOP is burning to the ground, you can lay some of the blame at Gingrich's feet, because he convinced Republicans that the end justifies the means, and that winning was more important than being ethical. Now we have a morally bankrupt GOP led by a crime family squatting in the office once occupied by Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln.
4
Among several problems with this op-ed is this bit of fiction: "Voters gave Republicans power because they believed that the policies the party promised offered them a better future." Polls suggest that voters chose Trump because they disliked Hillary Clinton and career politicians, not because of policy preferences. Polls show that even many, if not most, Republicans actually disagree with Republican policies such as privatizing Medicare and Social Security. Add to that the fact that many of the voters' policy choices don't add up: Millions of voters want to end or curtail foreign military involvement but many still want to attack Syria in response to its chemical weapons attack. Add to that the tribal motivations for voting preferences and you can see how false it is to claim a mandate for Republican policies.
2
Farcical piece; although I don't agree with Ryan's policy ideas and I'm certainly not sorry to see him go, there's no denying he's been a prolific fundraiser and standard-bearer for Republicans and they will struggle mightily to retain their House majority without him. As for Nunes (and Gingrich for that matter), they are jokes outside of extreme-right circles.
2
But Speaker Ryan is the man who could get infrastructure done (among other things).
1
It is so interesting to see how the Right views this issue. While I agree with some of the points here, mostly about how ineffective Congress is, I don't think I inhabit the author's world.
A couple quick points:
1) the GOP establishment and their base have only social issues (and prejudice against minorities, the poor, liberals, etc.) in common -- other than that, the GOP cares only for the hyper-ideological and moneyed donor class.
2) There is no mandate for Trump. He lost the popular vote. And it the Democrats had chosen a better candidate, or worked harder to get out the vote, we wouldn't ever have had to say the words "Pres. Trump"
3) Paul Ryan is a lot of things, most of which I don't like... but he still compares favorably with Devin Nunes.
3
As you wrote, Clinton received more votes than Trump. Yet you think Dems needed a better candidate.
Why did losing the election while winning three million more votes than Trump make her a bad candidate?
After all, she could have won by five million or ten million more votes and still lost the election, due to the way the electoral college works. Had she gotten ten million more votes than Trump, would you make the same claim?
2
I guess the author has forgotten that Gingrich was the first Speaker ever to receive a House reprimand for an ethics violation. He paid a $300,000 fine and resigned. -- So, so much for the Great Old Days when Newt the last good Speaker of the House.
8
Hallelujah!
Another with an evil agenda (almost) gone. He's served to assist only the wealthiest and has no use, empathy, understanding or caring for those who aren't included in the top 1% Ryan leaves with nothing to show for all the promise the Republican party had in him. Not soon enough in my mind.
6
Devin Nunes? Give me a break. Another flunky who serves as Trump's water boy. Trump needed on-the-fence Republicans and Independents to win the last election. He doesn't have those folks anymore and in addition, he and the GOP have created thousands if not millions of new 18-24 year-old voters who will not vote for the party of the NRA in 2018 or 2020. Ryan doesn't want to face the disgraceful hand over of power this fall and so he, like others, is taking the coward's way out and using his kids as the excuse.
13
Why do we bother to vote if politicians are expected to "obey" the speaker/leader? Why don't the respective parties pay the paychecks then? Why our tax dollars? Who wants any politician to follow Donald Trump & his skewed "me, me" thinking? This country has many. many ignorant voters who think they think. There's a difference between beating a dog and petting a dog. Too many voters in the USA have grievances that are excuses for their own shortcomings. If that sounds like the way Trump speaks...then you'll start to understand how he got a seat at the "big boys" table. Thinking is no longer a requirement in the USA.
8
“Couldn’t deliver?” As a large cog in the contemporary, uniquely anti-U.S./pro 1% GOP initiative of heading-for-the-hills-while-creating-dynastic-future-leadership of this country, he did his job well of making sure Trump’s tax reform became reality. He sacrificed his dignity, his humanity in doing so and unconsciously became fodder for some future satirists (and more importantly, future historians) by saying he was resigning to spend more time with his family. Yes, his family, not our families.
3
I was pleased to read Mr. Buskirk's commentary. His beliefs, and those who believe the same, will drive the nation toward progressive policies. Citizens needed to see what a nation under unbridled conservatism looks like--we have it now, my fellow Americans.
Thank you for your ideology, Mr. Buskirk, which mirrors the inward, selfish, narrow-minded focus of the party Mr. Trump now leads. The Republican Party is close to the end, and you are one of the standard-bearers of its destruction.
10
Interesting that Buskirk lays the blame for the GOP's failures at the feet of Ryan. As if once he is out of the way, the freedom caucus will have clear sailing to enact their agenda - which is what exactly? Buskirk can't tell us because he doesn't know! Nobody does! The right wing has never had a plan to govern - only to oppose and disrupt. They are like guerrilla fighters who, once in power, have no concept of how to be constructive because all they've ever known is how to destroy things.
Those who've hitched their wagon to Trump and the GOP are fools. And they will be sorely disappointed with where this bankrupt party takes them. They're just too stubborn to admit it right now.
7
This rhetoric moves faster than reason. Uniting a party under any figure whose only story is himself has a predictable ending.
That should be Caesar, who was offered the crown and refused it...not Hamlet.... although a Hamlet metaphor- the young princeling who has his kingdom stolen by his gross and lecherous uncle - would serve as well.
3
Thank you!!
Ryan did exactly what his mega-rich owners wanted him to do; he gave a gigantic tax cut to the people who needed it the least and cut the benefits of those who need it the most. It's time for him to cash out and get a lobbyist job like the rest of the Republicans who are smart enough to jump from Trump's sinking ship.
8
He got more out of looking smug than any policies he stood for. Looks were deceiving.
2
Like John Boehner before him, Ryan failed because he was intellectually weak and had no loyalties, other than to his benefits package and coming pension. Devin Nunez is of the same ilk, but he is happy to be impaled on Trump’s Sword of Damocles, that now hangs over the whole country.
1
I appreciate you listing the author's association with something called "American Greatness" at the beginning of the article. It spared me the pain of reading his nonsense.
2
He only delivered the biggest tax reform package in 30 years.
I often tell people that it's not going to work just to get rid of Trump, or Ryan, or any of them. They're just symptoms. Their base needs to feel betrayed or we're just going to get more of the same. Until that happens, they're going to stand behind this nonsense because they think it will get them what they want. Well, it looks like it's finally happening. And to the author: Nunes? Seriously?
1
"What we need is a clean break with the time-markers and careerists who are content being the party of no." Can't we all just agree to be the party of Fox and Friends? All Paulie had to do was tune in. Discipline and trust the agenda! Republicans keep getting scarier.
1
Since many of the speakers since Gingrich were his proteges and either corrupt, incompetent, or both it is reasonable to assume that his "effective leadership", laid the ground for them. He is largely credited with the vicious partisanship that came to define the GOP.
If this is what the author of this article considers American Greatness, the country should probably be quite concerned.
6
Conservative intellectualism? Isn't that an oxymoron?
6
The author overlooks Paul Ryan's greatest strength: the appearance of being a decent guy.
One might ask, why would people who've paid into Social Security support a guy who would take away their Social Security? The easy answer is stupidity, but that's not entirely fair. The answer is, because Paul seems like a good guy. This appearance of decency is exactly what will be needed to take away Social Security and Medicare, or to hand them over to a corporation.
Pulling off this level of chicanery will take someone who has the appearance of being ernest and dignified. So no, another Newt Gingrich won't work because the meanness and arrogance will be on display at every turn. True, the president managed to conceal these things to some degree, but I wouldn't count on lightning striking twice.
Still, finding a suitable "stealth" candidate should not be impossible. For example, someone like Clarence Thomas who doesn't seem to have much sympathy for African Americans.
2
"People who paid into Social Security".... About fifteen years ago, Republican newspeak began to transform the term "Social Security Tax" into the term "Payroll Tax" which now allows them to 1) spend our Social Security Tax payments on anything else--most notably military hardware, and 2) now sqwak about how "entitlements" will cause the deficit to increase to $1 Trillion by 2020.
There is an easy way to pay off the deficit. Charge a one time tax of 25% of all personal and corporate assets in the United States. Never happen, but that's the way to get rid of the national debt and get the country back on a strong financial basis for our future generations. I would gladly contribute 25% of my net worth as long as people like Donald Trump also contributed 25% of theirs.
On what planet does Mr. Buskirk claim residence?
"Republicans need a leader who is in step with the president and his agenda, one who emphasizes pro-citizen immigration policies, pro-worker economic policies and an America First national security policy that is circumspect about foreign military intervention."
This president has a pro-citizen immigration policy? Tell that to any newly-naturalized citizen who cannot now bring an aging parent to his/her country. This president has pro-worker economic policies? Tell that to all the Carrier personnel now pounding pavements in search of jobs. This president has an America First national security policy that is circumspect about foreign military intervention? Tell that to anyone who, like me, is terrified to read the morning news for fear of learning that we're now at war with North Korea, Russia, or even some former ally.
As for commanding respect, perhaps working with a president who cultivates a nodding acquaintance with the nation's Constitution might bring better luck -- especially if said president can keep his flies zipped.
Finally, about those "Voters" who "gave Republicans power because they believed that the policies the party promised offered them a better future:" Mr. Buskirk would do well to recall that those same voters constituted a minority of those casting ballots back in 2016.
5
Intriguing that the writer argues that Paul Ryan's greatest failing was underdelivering. I would argue that the evidence supports that Speaker Ryan's agenda itself was the problem. His greatest achievement, the Republican tax plan, is one of the most unpopular pieces of legislation in modern history. Trump won over primary opponents in part by promising not to cut entitlements for a constituency that increasingly supports social security and public health care. Meanwhile, the tax cuts in Kansas led to a budget crisis, not economic growth. So I ask the writer, is it at all possible that this "ideas man" failed because his ideas are wrong?
5
Oy, Bushkirk! Nunes is your hero? I kept reading, and then you claimed Trump is "pro-worker." I realized that you are a fiction writer.
16
Opinion from the editor of "American Greatness"? How about quoting infowars. Breitbart? The National Stormtrooper? Ugh!
12
Weak and worthless.
2
In retirement perhaps Ryan will find the time to have a "spinal implant" surgery for the spine that he was not born with.
6
Republicans have a leader who crystallize there values and priorities - his name is Donald Trump. He is the logical conclusion of a party catering to the 1%, emphasize family and Christian values and the rule of law only as a sword beating down women, Democrats and minorities without a shred of compassion. There leader is using his megaphone to spread their closet racism and aligns the party with neo-Nazis. This is the GOP with very few exceptions and they found their perfect leader.
4
I feel dirty after having read this editorial. I am no fan of Paul Ryan but extolling the virtues of anti-democratic, dishonest man like Nunes? Laughable.
19
Republicans are panicky that America is about to become a brown nation, a nation that no race will be dominant anymore. Their defense of Trump, a man without any morals, who has brought shame onto America around the world, leaves a bad legacy that would be difficult to clean.
6
Obviously this will not interest Mr. Buskirk, but everything in his litany against Ryan, and ultimately the Democrats, can be explained best by saying "Republican voters have had unrealistic expectations and were promised undeliverable goodies by Republican politicians."
This is not a purely partisan view, it is an objective view of someone who believes we need dissent to have a healthy society. All the sloganeering and hand-waving can win elections, but it cannot solve problems, and worse it distracts from the real issues.
Republicans have been promising a mythological Free Market America where it is always a nostalgic 1950s ambiance. Naturally they have not been able to deliver any of their nonsensical hype. Each time they turn on their own in the short-term - GW Bush went from The Second Coming to the biggest disaster of all time. The Tea Party raged on, achieving next to nothing. Obama was the Great Dictator thrusting and ramming things into their throats according to Fox News, now he is supposedly an indolent, inactive guy who just sleepwalked through 8 years in office neglecting everything.
You can bet your bottom dollar they will be decrying their current Messiah, the Dixiecrat from Manhattan, the Klansman from Queens, the Coal Miner from 5th Avenue, in a few years. Which is all fine, they can have their drama, but at what cost to the American public and next generation???
Grow up you crybabies, pay your bills and pass an actual budget for once!
7
About the only t hing that Buskirk got right is that Paul Ryan has been a fake all along. Other than that he is a Trumper all the way. God spare us any more of these so-called "patriots"!!
8
The article lost me with the praising of Newt Gingrich, the holier-than-thou/have-an-affair on his dying wife speaker, who was the one who started this tremendous political divide in our country. Gingrich wasn't effective, he was horrific. I will agree with the author that Ryan was/is worthless as a politician.
8
Nitpicky, but it wasn't Hamlet who refused the job. It was Julius Caesar. Editor?
2
Trey Gowdy for Speaker of the House! Yeah, that's the ticket.
1
I feel like the gist of the article is this:
"Boy, the food at this place is really terrible."
"Yeah, I know; and such small portions."
3
Buskirk thinks that the Tea Party toxin backed by Ryan was just too weak, too ineffectual, too lacking in principles.
Buskirk much prefers the honest candor and impulsiveness of our insane president.
4
Why would the New York Times stoop to publish political propaganda such as this thoroughly objectionable piece by Mr. Buskirk. The root causes of political dysfunction in the U.S.are long term but Devin Nunes is not a courageous hero and Donald Trump is not a catalyst for any sort of positive change.
9
He wanted to destroy Social Security, Medicare and the VA. That is evil in my view. So as my grandmother used to say, “here’s your hat, what’s your hurry”.
8
Poor Mr. Buskirk, still searching for his perfect right-wing agent of destruction. Shameless.
10
Buskirk is merely venting over Ryan's fecklessness. A pox on both their houses.
5
Comparing Ryan to Moses is a bit much.
6
Mr Buskirk might want to revisit what Charlie Sykes had to say on this matter. It was a clear-headed, thoughtful, forward-thinking analysis of Ryan's departure and Trump's party.
He was right to point out that you were not having champagne to celebrate Ryan's departure, but, instead, Kool-Aid
3
Paul Ryan is only the first of many drowning rats to begin jumping the sinking ship.
5
Nunes? Gingrich? Please!
6
When a stupid idea fails, maybe the solution isn't to take it to a greater extreme.
4
Why no mention of "Iron Stache?"
Editorials like this actually make me feel sorry for Ryan. He's in a party of deeply deluded, ill informed people, like the author, and while Ryan's own view of the world made me want to puke, Buskirk's actually frightens me.
8
Who is this man, Mr. Buskirk? His party IS the rich, the religious right, the hard right intelligentsia, paranoid gun owners, & southern bigots. His party has supported “voodoo economics”, giving my children’s generation an astonishing burden to pay off. His party has been “Goebbels clever”, putting down black people without revealing its intent. His party failed only when it was forced to bring to a visible vote its desire to end SS, Medicare, and ACA.
After 911, his party was the first in American history to give a tax cut for the rich during a major war. So much for “During war we are all Americans!”. For this veteran, that was enough...
3
Oh, yeah, that's what we need, a scallywag like Nunes and a hypocrite as Gingrich. Throw in Cruz, Cotton, Cornyn, Issa, Mica and their Moses Pence and you've got a group that will make us pine for Donald Trump.
2
This commentary is so biased and batty that it almost makes me feel sorry for Paul Ryan!
1
Perhaps, Mr. Buskirk, Mr. Ryan's demonstrated unwillingness to stand up to an autocratic Nazi-loving nutcase (I'm talking about the one in the Oval Office, just to clarify, as at least a few members of Congress in the Republican Party fit that description) disgusted even his own fans.
I would pay good money to know what Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan said to each other behind closed doors and over a couple of stiff drinks about Donald Trump starting ... oh, about the time that Paul Manafort was indicted. As for the rest of us? We have to live with this mess. Thanks, folks. We are very grateful.
3
Stopped reading this once the defense of Nunes began.
4
You can say that again!
2
What a waste of a man. Here is someone who could have been honest enough to tell the emperor and his alt-right fellow travelers that they have no clothes, who had the intelligence and tenacity to strike bargains for the good of the country. But no. Instead he just sold his soul to the devil.
3
You lost me at Newt.
4
I stopped reading when the writer started to praise Devin Nunes. Nunes is one of the few Republicans in Congress who is worse than Ryan. NYT I know you want to publish conservative views but they do have to be plausible and coherent.
6
Another worthless politician, with no back spine, rides into the sunset with a huge retirement, while the poor got the short stick. Hope you go into oblivion and we never hear of you again.
5
Paul Ryan is a Koch puppet so I have no doubt they have other plans for him.
5
I'm all for someone writing their opinion, as long as that opinion has merit, and is based in fact. I don't see that here. What I see, is a republican (which is fine) that has a platform that can be used to agitate and create more us against them rhetoric, instead of finding a middle ground. Republicans want to take from the people, not only in terms of the deductions working class Americans enjoyed, but also from education, healthcare, roads, bridges, etc.
The republican party penalizes blue states that have progressive policies, by shifting money away from them to these poor red states, who's republican run legislatures don't care about their constituents period.
But Paul Ryan, who was a staunch deficit crier during the Obama years, has thrown that idea out the window and is now quitting, because he doesn't want to face the ire from his constituents that is sure to come. For various reasons, the failed repeal of the ACA, the "tax reform" and the 800 billion more debt that will cross the 1 trillion dollar mark by 2020. Ryan was well aware of the effects of this tax bill, neither he nor McConnell, nor any of the GOP drank their own Cool Aid, why, because they knew it was toxic and would poison their ideology.
But the damage is done, so now its time for all those GOPers that are quitting, just before being fired, to scurry back to the rat holes they came from, from the swamps they came from, while laughing all the way to the bank.
4
Looks like he is up a Rock Creek without a paddle to row his way back; ergo, it a good idea to go with the massive flow we have been experiencing.
1
Paul Ryan retires and so the Republican Party continues to implode.
What the GOP has failed to realize is that there are many Republican voters who want to show Trump the door ........ and as soon as possible.
I know quite a few of them. Many of them are now Independents.
Right here in CT. the strong Republican towns voted in 2016 for .........
Drum roll ........ Hillary Clinton.
Well educated, well off, and well-informed voters put common sense ahead of party and did the only sensible thing in the privacy of their voting booths.
Let us encourage correct thinking Republicans to send a message to the GOP by changing their registration to Democrat prior to the election this November.
Or register as an Independent, depending on strength of conviction.
After 2020 register again to whatever party is preferred.
Or become an Independent.
It is all a matter of choice based on prevailing circumstances.
But this time around the upshot is ....... Trump must go.
He is a "cancer on the presidency".
3
At last, something that the right and left can agree on: Paul Ryan is and was a vacuous politician who stands for nothing and fought for nothing during his time as speaker.
The fact that he wasn't extreme enough for Republicans such as Mr Buskirk is almost beside the point.
2
It really took this editorial to put Mr. Ryan in perspective.
I held him up as a bit of a failure for failing to uphold many Republican principles and a lack of moral courage and leadership in general, but after reading Mr. Buskirk's opinion.....
Compared to the ideals presented here of unthinking partisan politics and ignorant populist knee-jerk reactionism without any base of support in logic, reason, statistics or often even basic human compassion, I now know some sympathy for Mr. Ryan and hope he can work with a better class of "conservative" after his retirement.
2
Nothing more than a polished party apparatchik who was built up to be the golden boy with absolutely nothing more than smoke and mirrors. How this guy gives his resignation speech yesterday and praised his tax reform plan that blasts the budget and still being thought of a fiscal conservative/budget hawk. He’s the poster child for everything that’s wrong with the Republican Party. The water boy who wrote this absurd tribute to those republicans and policies that align with our head combover is another part for the bigger problem. Meanwhile, daily shootings, people going bankrupt over medical bills. What did Ryan and the rest of republicans do to help. Nada.
6
"Mr. president send us a balanced budget!." Are one of the many famously hypocritical statements this speaker of the house threw at then president Obama and are emblematic of the lies and con game he presided over during his tenure in the house. He has accomplished his primary legislative objective-- huge tax cuts for his billionaire masters and can now retire to a life of riches they have surely promised him.Notice how "balanced budget" has disappeared from the republican vocabulary overnight. Best leave this sinking ship now when he can try to distance himself from the deficits and the looming financial disaster he and McConnell and Trump have given us. Thanks for nothing and good riddance.
4
Ryan always struck me as all hat and no cattle, a bland, pleasant family man but, otherwise, another politician without much going for him; least of all intellectual distinction. Yet, all his years in Congress turn out to have been quite destructive.
Critics often dwell upon how he quauled before Trump, but I still recall how he rejoiced the day the 2001 Bush tax cuts passed, unsound public policy that demolished any chance that the federal government’s budget could ever be balanced in our lifetime. He rejoiced with a broad grin. Later, he supported Bush’s calamitous Iraq adventure to the hilt, ignoring that it was a multi-trillion dollar debacle entirely funded by borrowing. “Spendthrift” scarcely does it, or him, justice.
He is often described as the best tax policy analyst that conservative Republicans have but, for the life of me, I can’t see it. Under his tutelage at Ways & Means our nation careened from one fiscal crisis to the next and barely missed a second Great Depression. Now, it hurtles towards a debt crisis that will put those others in the shade, crippling it for decades if not forever.
So, now he cuts and runs for home, leaving us holding the bag for all that and his obscene generosity to the Republican donor class to whom he is beholden, saddling us with the political burden of somehow reversing the “Tax Cuts And Jobs Act of 2017” before it wrecks us; precisely what it will do if it isn’t amendedand much of it repealed.
It will wreck us if it stands.
3
This abortion of a tax law, will be repealed and replaced by 2022. The wealthy 1% will go back toward paying their fair share, including I heritage tax.
I got about halfway through this op-ed piece before I realized that it is just downright silly!
It purports to be a conservative's view of why they will not miss Paul Ryan, but makes no comment on how the speaker not only condoned a budget busting spending bill but actually championed it. Fiscal prudence used to be important to the GOP.
Furthermore, it's hard to take Mr. Buskirk's comments about Ryan seriously when they are interlarded with risible references to Trump, as,
"Mr. Trump’s sudden ascendance to power is ... a catalyst for the intellectual and political reformation that is currently underway on the right ..."
Intellectual reformation?! Ha!
And,
"Republicans need a leader who is in step with the president and his agenda ..."
when the president is not in step with himself, and his agenda changes from day today depending on what he just saw on cable TV.
A real conservative would decry speaker Ryan's utter lack of conservative principles, not his failure to support the trainwreck going on in the Oval Office.
6
This is the only Congress person willing to warn us about the enevitable government inability to keep up with our entitlement programs and dare to suggest reform. I believe the NYT just reported that 1% of the US population pays 80% of the taxes.
Chris, since when has the Republican party ever been "pro-worker"? I can't seem to recall one instance.
6
It's good to see Republicans like Mr. Buskirk eating their young.
By all means argue for more and greater purity of tribal loyalty ... and in so doing shrink your appeal to the point where no amount of gerrymandering will help you.
All we need now is for the Democratic old guard to wise up, step aside, and put their support behind candidates who will be acceptable to middle-of-the-road Republicans, Independents and Democrats alike.
4
Ryan's lingering high school student's fascination with Ayn Rand thinking betrayed pathetic shallow intellectual depth which dogged his vaunted reputation as a revolutionary fiscal wunderkind. He turned out to be a charlatan with unworkable ideas and fraulent acumen.
3
I agree with the title of your piece, but Devin Nunes for Speaker of the House? Are you kidding? Nunes is unqualified to even be in Congress.
4
I have to admit that I didn't think it was possible for anything to make me feel compassion towards Mr. Ryan. Who other than Mike Pence has turned his back so completely on the fundamentals of Catholicism under which he was raised? Yet this piece has done so. When someone can say without blinking "Republicans want and deserve a speaker with the courage and tenacity of Mr. Nunes," God save us all. Has there been since Richard Nixon, a more blindly ambitious, dishonest and unscrupulous Congressman from California? Thank you Mr. Buskirk for drawing a clear line in the sand between political sanity and your side of the things.
3
Mr. Buskirk wants Ryan out, and a new, shinier Speaker who is more in-step with Mr. Trump's agenda - which Buskirk lays out as having "pro-citizen immigration policies, pro-worker economic policies and an America First national security policy that is circumspect about foreign military intervention". Aside from how creepy that sounds, I wonder if Mr. Buskirk is aware that the president is not often instep, or consistent, with his own agenda. When Trump changes his mind 3 times a day (via twitter) is the new Speaker to do the same? If Republicans want a Joshua, they need to elect one to the highest office of the land - it isn't your speaker that is lost, Mr. Buskirk - it's your president.
2
I'm just glad that Speaker Ryan wasn't as 'effective' as he could have been. Yay for not furthering the horrid GOP non-agenda. Think about what we could have going on if someone more 'effective' from the alt-right was in that position.
2
So this is what Ryan looks like from the perspective of someone even worse than Ryan. Our writer talks of "American Greatness." How about a little American humility, with the hope that it might get us to American worthiness? Republican control has brought us that low. Call it Bush, Boehner, Ryan or Trump: whatever face you put on the current Republican Party agenda, it is a dishonest failure.
2
Totally agree with the headline. The rest is utter nonsense. Gingrich and Nunes as role models pretty much says it all.
3
why the wonk worshipping at the feet of Ayn Rand?
1
"Republicans want and deserve a speaker with the courage and tenacity of Mr. Nunes..."
Indeed Nunes, Trump's unrepentant House stooge, perhaps the most deeply compromised member of Congress, is exactly what Republican's deserve these days.
3
You missed an opportunity too. To point out that Ryan's devotion to Ayn Randism shows him to be an intellectual lightweight, an adolescent. Fellow traveling libertarians can be praised only for their non-interventionist foreign policy, and Ryan missed that boat too.
2
While I agree with the headline "Good Riddance" Paul Ryan, Mr. Buskirk lost me when he said "Representative Adam Schiff, Democrat of California, made a spurious allegation against Representative Devin Nunes". It's a good example of how conservatives can twist facts to suit their agenda. Rep. Schiff radiates impeccable integrity, and to smear him to defend Nunes says all I want to hear about the author.
Mr. Buskirk also says that the Republicans need a Speaker who more closely aligns with the President's agenda". What agenda? Who is the author trying to kid? The only agenda the President and his Congress offer is whatever the Kochs, the Mercers, and the NRA, to list a few, want.
2
What a hypocrite. He claims to be so successful when it came to passing a massive tax deferment. To every CPA cutting taxes while running a deficit is not a cut but simply a liability being dumped upon the next generation or two. Also, he claims to prove his success by replacing Obamacare with far better coverage for all, while costing less. He supported Trump, so he supported this concept. Again, to every CPA it would take less than 5 seconds to know that that could never happen. And, finally, here is a guy who really has done very little to improve this nation while being well paid and even more important to point out is the fact that he will also receive a very generous retirement from us real taxpayers. All very sad but also very true!
1
Buskirk refers to a spurious allegation made against Devin Nunes, giving a link to show that Nunes was cleared of this charge.
What charge? That Nunes gave classified material to the White House. Much of the rest of this CNN article notes what else Nunes has done: 1) "launched a joint investigation with the House Oversight Committee into the Uranium One deal that was agreed to in 2010 under the Obama administration"; 2) "hammered the FBI and Justice Department for not turning over documents or making witnesses available in response to subpoenas related to the FBI's connection to the Fusion GPS opposition research dossier"; 3) "is still planning to move forward on holding FBI Director Chris Wray and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in contempt of Congress for not complying with the committee's subpoenas"; 4) "accused Obama administration officials of politically motivated 'unmasking,' or the identifying of US officials in documents collected through foreign surveillance."
Nunes has refused to consider seriously any of the charges against Trump but has instead pursued every far-fetched conspiracy and counter-narrative dreamed up by the Right.
The only "courage" and "tenacity" Nunes has shown is in perpetuating all the crazy fantasies conjured up to support President Trump and to breathe air into the Fox News bubble.
I suggest that if he's going to offer such wisdom to Times readers, Buskirk should at least try to get out of his bunker once in awhile.
2
Ryan was always a poser and a fake. He talked a good game but knew nothing which fooled the Republicans who do the same. He spent years mooching off the taxpayers first in college and then in Congress. He can now remain the puppet of the Koch Brothers and be at their beck and call.
5
On Paul Ryan’s intellect (from an earlier columnist's assessment): "He doesn’t have anything more creative in his cranium than stale conservative dogma." This phrase needs repeating and repeating. I've known "conservative thinkers" (too often an oxymoron) since my college days, who get stuck on one or two ideas and never budge, i.e., don't have the readiness or, more likely, the intellectual ability, to engage in debates that challenge those ideas. They used to use tell-tale adjectives that identified their dismissive attitudes -- one adjective I remember in particular was "spurious," as in "anyone else's contrary arguments are unfounded." A similar favorite adjective of late is "binary," implying that "there is a right way and a wrong way, only two choices," and again serving to cut off debate that would challenge their ideas. Just once, I'd like to read something by Paul Ryan that was truly intellectual, examining pros and cons in a sophisticated argument rather than starting with his preformed position and then repeating its virtues ad nauseam, using supporting (and stale) tapes recorded in his head. By the way, I believe that "liberal thinkers" are not the same; by nature, "liberal" means being truly open to opposing viewpoints and arguments in search of what is best policy on a given issue. That's certainly isn't and has not been Paul Ryan.
2
"The predictable response from Democrats will be that Mr. Ryan couldn’t square his principles with the reality of Mr. Trump’s presidency."
Mr. Buskirk, the predictable response from Democrats is to note that Mr. Ryan, like most of his fellow Republicans, have no principles whatsoever.
Why would any thinking person quibble over which reprehensible faction of the current version of conservatism Mr. Ryan is punting for?
4
The USA haslots of problems. Those who paid into Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are taking money out. There are many fewer paying in. The USA has raided the Social Security fund to pay decificts. Now in 10 years the USA has to pay back. But this means raising taxes of some sort by a great deal. Ryan's solution is to cut Social Security, etc. Trump's solution is to declare bankruptcy on a national scale. Good luck youngsters! Good luck oldsters!
2
Mr. Bursick reflects perhaps unintentionally the reason Americans have such disdain for congress. The connection between the congressional games and the wishes and needs of actual voting constituents is next to non-existent.
The political realignment redefining both the left and right? What exactly is that? On the left, there is a grassroots movement against the corruption of politicians and party by 'Big Money' interests? That is indeed genuinely different. On the right? There is certainly turmoil, but bear in mind the Trump lost the popular vote, and much of the republican power was gained not by popular sentiment but through gerrymandering. The reality of republican so-called governance has been made transparent. It's all about the wealthy. That reality will eventually erode even the most ardent Trump supporters over time. And it's not going to persuade independents, who put republicans in power as a reaction to the (correct) perception of democrats as corrupt, to continue voting for republicans. Quite the reverse.
The ironically named Freedom Caucus will have radically smaller numbers of popular support if they become the standard bearer of the republican party. So what exactly is the realignment on the right that Mr. Ryan is running from? A more realistic assessment is that the republican party is having it's swan song. That is happening demographically, and Trump is just the cherry on top. The republican Nero.
6
Perhaps the Speaker failed to see the adoption of his principles realized because those principles were just plain wrong.
7
Ryan was much better for the country and our economy than Nancy Pelosi, but then, he doesn't have as many ultra-rich friends as she does, either. When she showed up in 2006 she immediately doubled the red ink in spending bills passed.
3
Now we have it from the Radical Right what we on the Left have always known: Paul Ryan is the Emperor with no clothes. He is wrapped in the transparent ideology of Ayn Rand, which means that he would be wrong in every important way. His record, as ably reported here, demonstrates that applying false principles inevitably results in failure. Good riddance, indeed. And if present trends continue, the GOP will have to worry about who will be Minority Leader, not Speaker.
10
Might not have won re election.
7
Yeah. What's missing from the GOP Congress' greatness is Devin Nunes for Speaker. Your mind must be like an intricate watch that somebody dropped.
22
I can (and do) read Mr. Buskirk's sophistry in the pages of American Greatness. Since the NYTimes editors have decided to offer him a perch on the op-ed page, they ought to encourage him to make more explicit here the radical agenda he and his fellow Claremonsters promote in other venues. Natural right, anyone?
4
Ryan had good intentions for the GOP, when it was the GOP. However it's now the Trump party and that is nothing like the GOP which was known as the party of Lincoln, so what will this new party be called.
I think that it will be called the Trump Fascist Party or the TFP.
5
>>Voters gave Republicans power because they believed that the policies the party promised offered them a better future...
Sigh. Republicans lost seats in both the House and Senate in 2016. Donald Trump took the presidency with only 46 percent of the vote and help from Russia.
That's not voters giving power to Republicans, no matter how often Republicans say it. It just isn't.
13
Why are you blaming Paul Ryan?
Nobody can actually sell the garbage on your party's manure wagon.
He actually gave it a good try. His pseudo "policy wonk" persona was a pretty decent ruse to conceal the fact that he was a know nothing, snake oil selling charlatan of the first order.
Good luck finding somebody "better".
8
Based on the values Mr. Buskirk seems to espouse and the people he admires as potential leaders in Trump's America, I'd suggest he's looking for a Richard Spencer rather than a Devin Nunes.
8
Ryan in a way is the GOPs Hillary: Bright, forceful, a great hope but utterly incompetent and ineffectual Running healthcare reform for Bill, her vote on Iraq war, her failed effort vs Obama and then Trump).
All too often these media darlings portray such ability (in the media) but believe their press clippings and fail to deliver.
Bye bye Paul. You can join Hillary in the “what might have been” club, and hopefully just disappear.
2
This current crop of Republicans in Congress need to go down the road kicking rocks. They are leaderless, rudderless and have no agenda beyond anarchy. They have lined up behind a dolt of a president who wants to be king and have abdicated their responsibility to the public they serve. They need to be shoveled into the dustbin of history.
9
I liked Ryan a whole lot more when he was just a Private and the guys were trying to save him. Oh, well..........
3
Ryan's constituents know he's not a policy wonk--he's a con man.
7
Let’s just fire all nukes everywhere at once.
1
Mr. Buskirk's vision of the Republican Party has a lot in common with the story of the god, Cronos, who ate his own children as they were born, lest they grow up to overthrow him. The more recent version of this story is called fascism.
6
what planet have you been living on? He was ineffective because he based his view on crank economics and no results. A supposed wonk...who wasn't. Tax cut, deficit increase, repeat......and then complain that spending is the problem. Bye Felecia.
8
Ryan did well! He got a $500000 from the Koch brothers and was a lap dog for the NRA. Guns and greed paid off.
8
First, let's concede that Ryan was successful in one thing: his goal to "reform the nation’s entire fiscal regime" was adopted as tax cuts for corporations and the rich, increased spending for the military, and to offset the deficit, gut entitlement programs. That was included in Ryan's first budget proposal of years ago -- one so draconian most Republicans were loath to put it in writing.
Second, even the suggestion that the House promotes Devin Nunes to any position of responsibility is risible. He wallows in disreputable conspiracy theories and is blind to obvious facts.
Finally, any leader "in step with the president" will be out of touch with most Americas, especially after the election. Odds are six, two and even Donald won't complete his term, and may be prosecuted for serial crimes by a number of U.S. Attorneys.
A minority House leader who sides with a criminal won't be in a position to foster conservative values, if any.
6
I stopped reading this article when the author praised Nunes. How could one take it seriously with that endorsement?
13
Joshua, the leader of perhaps the earliest recorded genocide at Jericho? Yep, that is what the House needs. A blind unquestioning ideologue that will leave no living being alive but his own kind. Well I suppose the people of an empire built upon slavery and genocide and removal of first peoples and is kinda still proud of that history and even today elects a president who inspires those among us who are driven by the desire to remove and replace, may deserve your Joshua to lead the people's house.
And of course with the song, learned almost at birth, exulting the Jericho slaughter of everyone, including those precious unborn babies the right loves even more than the born ones, also gleefully slaughtered, ringing in our ears and unconsciously justifying every journey to the dark side, we would very likely embrace the Joshua figure you suggest with unthinking open arms.
1
Wrong question. It's not about who but what. Policies that favor the few super rich over the vast majority, policies that squander America's standing in the world and destroy the ecosystem as they go, social darwinism that throws the poor, sick children and the elderly under the bus are the problem. Face it, republicanism is really not popular. It only wins because it uses wedge issues like abortion, guns, race and sexual identity to divide rather than unite people. The career of any leader who buys into this obsolete ethos is doomed. It's not the person they need to fix. You can't fix stupid. Its the policy republicans need to fix. It just may be that republicans are too stupid to really figure that out. Thankfully democrats long ago figured that out and that is why they with replace republicans in a big way soon.
I agree with the premise of this article - good riddance Paul Ryan. Otherwise it is truly stupid - the Republican party is heading off of a cliff and hopefully they will be punished for it come election day.
1
"Republicans need a leader in step with the president's agenda."
Fine, then you can all go down the tubes with him, because his agenda isn't popular with a majority of people in America. The People didn't want to lose their healthcare, they wanted the ACA do be improved, like Medicare for all. They want undocumented felons out of the country, not law abiding, tax paying workers. They want fair trade, not trade wars.
And they are tired of the Liar In Chief that's only out for himself and and his rich friends, who can't seem to shut up and do something for the people, rather than wallow in self pity like the spoiled brat that he is.
2
Can't be soon enough. Ryan, and his background organ music, is and always has been a fraud.
4
Devin Nunes is really a coward and a schill for Donald Trump, so of course Republicans have to cast him as the opposite in their doublethink alternative facts universe. Bad enough that a major political party has been twisted to nothing more than an amalgam of bizarre conspiracy theories and outright lies. Speaker Ryan is a narcissistic fraud like most of the rest of his Republican colleagues. Good riddance, indeed.
5
The next speaker will be a Democrat, who cares what the hypocritical Republicans do.
2
"Republicans want and deserve a speaker with the courage and tenacity of Mr. Nunes — one who supports his troops when they’re under fire." What?!!! They want and need another Trump sycophant?!! Really?!!!!!!!!!!!!
2
Wait, hold the phone... the author publishes a journal named "American Greatness" and is standing up for Nunes in this article!?
1
In the first place, anyone who edits and publishes something called "American Greatness" has got insecurity issues.
2
It sounds as if Mr. Buskirk publishes the inmate newsletter at a state mental hospital. His solution to everything is to double down on insanity.
3
Maybe he's passive-aggressive.
This diatribe reinforces what all reasonable people know; the sin in the GOP is not that you don’t serve the best interest of America and Americans, it is that you don’t slavishly serve the interest of the GOP. Paul Ryan is a moosh who served neither country or party; he served Paul Ryan. He toadies to one of the most horrific humans / president and turns a blind eye to atrocities. He is a traitor to America but all the author cared about is his let down of the GOP
1
Devine Nunes? He should be charged with obstruction. The whole party is just a subsidiary of Koch Industries!
5
Devin "under the cloak of darkness" Nunes? You've got to be nuts! If that is the writer's example of an upstanding member of Congress then I've got a reality tv star running for President....oops.
4
Who really wrote this, Colbert? What we have is a totally moral, hypocritical, and inept president and an equally immoral, hypocritical and inept speaker. The last thing this country needs is congruence between them. What we really need is for both to go.
2
He should go back and drive the Oscar Meyer Wienermobile. It’s one of the few real jobs he ever had.
He is a complete fraud. His fairy tale knowledge of the Federal Budget was about as legitimate as Trump being self made.
What a joke!
3
"Spurious allegations" against Nunes? Gingrich, an exception to corrupt/incompetent speakers?
The enemy of my enemy is not always my friend. Ryan and Buskirk are both pathetic.
1
Paul Ryan, the watery eyed granny starver from the subsidiary of Koch Enterprises formerly known as Wisconsin (thank you, Charlie P. Pierce) wasn’t able to institute “entitlement reform” (gut Social Security and Medicare). But when clutched by the spirit of Reaganism (and scourged by the donors’ whip) he was able to deliver a massive tax scam for the benefit of a tiny (0.1%) idiot elite who will once again use the resulting deficits to make the US more uninhabitable for the bulk of its population.
A job well done, bright eyed Paul. You have served the master class well!
3
A rat leaving a sinking ship.
4
Ha Ha Ha
Nothing but Desperation and Scapegoating by a Conservative writer.
Let me give you a hint: You also own Trump, and he is going to fail- big time!
3
Obedience?! To heck with obedience!
I don't vote for representatives to be obedient to the Speaker or anybody else.
I vote for somebody to represent ME.
"the next leader must be someone who commands the respect and obedience of the conference."
Dogs should be obedient.
1
I suggest that you continue paying tribute to the courageous Mr. Nunes in your next column. How about an expose of the notorious Mueller crime family? Or a National Enquirer photo of Whitey Bolger splashing in the surf off Catalina with Loretta Lynch? Rest easy in this, sir: any undecided independent who read our piece today will now lean Democratic.
5
This guy's nuts.
While he is correct with respect to Mr. Ryan's shortcomings, his blaming Mr. Ryan for the failure to pass O-Care repeal, or entitlement reform is ludicrous. Those bills can't pass because there is no consensus within the Republican party. Also no clear ideas. And the American people are dead set against that agenda.
All you need to know about this dude is that he speaks admiringly of Devin ("Dumbo") Nunes, the embarrassment of the House Intelligence Committee chairmanship. NUNES is his ideal of a stand-up guy who backs the troops, even in light of "spurious" allegations by the ranking minority member, proven correct time and again. Ryan's sin is that he's not a lap dog for the head of the co-equal Executive Branch.
Pathetic.
1
Let the feasting begin! Republicans are eating their own.
1
This must be one of those “in the interests of balance” op-ed. I read David and (Bret & Ross, on occasion), but this crank Buskirk? Don’t waste my time.
1
I was going to write something in response to Mr. Buskirk's article but I realized after reading most of the comments that the Times readers were doing such an outstanding job of rebutting this "Editor" that I could relax, read the funnies, work the crytoquip and enjoy my day. Thank you readers for "making my day."
2
Ryan is a man of principle, so naturally you would bid him good riddance.
Sir:
Didn't the National Socialists push the same agenda in 1933? America First? At what price?
After watching Mr. Buskirk get destroyed on the PBS Newshour tonight I'm surprised to see his silly piece here in The Times. Ripping Ryan for not being sufficiently Trumpian is going to be a very hard sell to anyone but the diehard Trump base. When your arch-conservative think tank is somewhat unsubtly named American Greatness, the granularity of your thinking will inevitably be on the asteroid scale.
1
Weak and venal, yes. But not crazy enough for the Hannity/Nat Enquirer crowd. Such was his sin.
105
Christopher Buskirk? Really, NYTimes? This is the best you can do for alternative gibberish? This departing Wisconsin charlatan once proclaimed that American families could now "buy a car or redo their kitchen" with the nearly "$1,000 extra" they'll be seeing from his championed tax "reform." Ryan's praise that Trump showed "exquisite leadership" in scamming the working classes with the tax package is as absurd as Mr. Buskirk equating the words "courage and tenacity" with Devin Nunes.
1
Nunes? An inspiring leader? The author lost me after that.
1
like Mr.Buskirk I have only disdain for Ryan ,who’s main goal in life was to take away entitlements from the Poor, & to weaken or destroy Social Security.So I began to read the Buskirk article & suddenly I found I has been ambushed, when he poured accolades on the likes of Gingrich & Nunes, Two Republican Hacks who put Party before country, & were lovers of Trump.
Buskirk must of hoodwinked the Times editors for them to feature his Conservative hogwash, along side of Blow, Krugman, Friedman, & Bruni.I guess it’s important to know your enemies if you want to defeat them.
2
"Republicans want and deserve a speaker with the courage and tenacity of Mr. Nunes — one who supports his troops when they’re under fire."
Is this a joke? Nunes is a lying, thieving, cheating criminal and should be jailed for his complicit behavior in the Trump (and Republican) mafia.
2
Who is Chris Buskirk and how on earth did his fantastical polemic on the intellectual bankruptcy that is Reaganomics get published in this paper? Our anemic wage growth, crumbling infrastructure, and trillion dollar deficit can all be laid at the door of this backward and illogical ideology and editors are still giving it air time? Why?
1
The Republican rot that started with Reagan is now on display for all - let's just hope someone learns a few lessons from this rotten-to-the-core history.
2
Oh, thank GOD Paul Ryan couldn't enact your Republican racist, pro-1%, immigration-hating plan. There -- I've finally been able to come up with a positive statement about Paul Ryan!
You need to win the majority in the House to pick the next Speaker. Republicans are going down in 2018. The next Speaker will be a Democrat when Ryan leaves Congress - you’re stuck with your lame duck Speaker who has always been lame through the end of this year. When the Democratic House impeachs our mob boss, treasonous President, you can pick Devin Nunes, your hero, as the Minority leader.
1
TL; DR? Ryan is a failure because he’s not as insane and immoral as Trump. (Good luck on finding someone who is, GOP!)
1
Spurious allegation against Nunes? Nunes is lower than a snake belly in a wagon rut.
4
Dear New York Times Editorial Board,
I am astounded at your hate of all things Republican. I voted for Obama twice but I will never vote for a democrat again. The democrat liberal left bother me a whole lot more than anything Trump has done. It's ok to disagree with people but when you hate, hate will come. God Bless.
"The democrat liberal left" is an oxymoron. The Democrats are neoliberals, full stop.
Cthulhu alone is strong enough to be Republican Speaker of the House. He will lead with an iron....tentacle. The Republicans will worshipfully follow.
The author's moral compass is OFF, as evidenced by his praise of the dishonest hypocrite Gingrich and Nunes, who will likely end up in prison.
4
“Republicans want and deserve a speaker with the courage and tenacity of Mr. Nunes — one who supports his troops when they’re under fire.”
Will someone call The Onion? Their missing column has been found at The New York Times.
10
OMG, can we stop with the religious metaphors for politicians?!!! Republicans don't need to find their Moses, Joshua or any other prophet. They need to find their decency.
6
Buskirk is making this much more complicated than it really is. Ryan is a coward: end of story.
What Ryan is doing is what cowards do. All talk but when the going gets rough the cowards all exit stage right, post haste and under Trump the going is clearly getting rougher and rougher by the hour. And Ryan by both his talk and his inaction is largely responsible for putting the GOP in this potentially suicidal position.
So good riddance Mr. Ryan. And please don't come back to the public stage. Take your 80k tax payer paid pension and run before those of us on our 24k or less Social Security entitlements that we paid into for our entire lives finally rise up and eject you and those like you from office.
4
This column will find a good home in my cat's box.
6
Like Nunes? Are you kidding me? An embarrassment of a lapdog to Trump, a man who has ruined the integrity of an entire oversight committee - perhaps forever. Nunes makes Ryan look wonderful - and Ryan is leaving a giant joke, with his deficit talk and trillions in add ons.
3
You had me until Nunes.
Nunes is a fraudulent sycophant to Mr Trump.
That Ryan sidelined him for bad behavior is to his credit.
But, I agree, not much else is.
3
Who is ready?
I hear Kevin Spacey has some free time.
Please go. The sooner the better. Unless and until we have a Speaker and other leadership which can articulate, defend and advance conservative principals, Trump will appear mostly to be out of step. In fact, it is these other goobers.
An interesting analysis. But as a Shakespeare enthusiast, I must correct one factual error. It was Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, not Hamlet, who refused the crown (three times, in fact) even though he desperately wanted it.
2
Thank you New York Times for publishing this piece. As Mr Krugman pointed out last week, the Republican party, and the conservative movement in general, is an intellectual waste land populated by vacuous ideas. Thank you once again, for providing us with a prime example of mr. Krugman's observation.
3
Radical right wing ultra-extremist, Paul Ryan, is attacked from the further ultra-right. Paul Ryan was bag man for the Koch Brothers, driving the getaway car. Paul Ryan stole 2 trillion dollars from the poor, the middle class and the merely rich in America to engorge the obscenely rich. He and his fellow Republicans have exploded the deficit and debt. What a weird editorial. Just what on their scorched earth do "conservatives" conserve?
3
Paul Ryan: proof that if you're white, tall, and good looking -- you can go very far in life without having too many accomplishments to your name.
3
“wunderkind who couldn’t deliver” - precisely and from a Republican!
And just to repeat.....who couldn’t deliver on anything but tax cuts (a 9 year old could deliver tax cuts with GOP majority)
But Dems should not rest easy; there is lots to do:
-showcase policies for middle class
-wait for Mueller to finish before calling for impeachment
-energize voters
-get out the vote
-elevate younger generation of leaders
-drop Pelosi
-drop Pelosi
-drop Pelosi
-drop Pelosi
Please......vote in November
The Peter Principle on steroids.
Pls close the door on your way out
And turn off the lights( on your career!)
Oh please! Ryan is not a failure among Republicans. He's a poster boy. Devoid of ideas, backbone, and integrity. Just like all the rest.
It will be a fine day when the country's changing demographics hasten the departure of all of your ilk, Mr Buskirk. Maybe then the young and the sensible can make this country livable once again. Good riddance, indeed.
4
Maybe you so called thinkers on the right might want to look at facts, history and reality. t rump is the only logical conclusion to 40 years of Reagan, Bush I and bush ii. You have governed, no ruled, by refusing to look at the facts. Our Nation has not risen to the top because of you philosophies and governance.
40 years after the New Deal America was on top of the world; building a solid middle class thanks to the government's G.I. Bill, building infrastructure across the globe (including the interstate highway system), and sending men to the moon.
40 years after Reagan America cannot afford to fill her pot holes, educate and protect her children, or build anything but fiscal deficits. (At least when your party is in power.)
Reagan, McConnell, Ryan, and t rump are perfect examples of the bankruptcy of conservative thought and the republican party.
Unless your leader, not mine, declares martial law and the military goes along with it this November should see the end of republican interference with the governing of our Nation. It can't come soon enough.
5
Paul Ryan is the poster child for corporate America and the very rich. He is the most dangerous man in America if you are working class, poor, old, sick, disabled, or a minority. He will now embark on a lucrative consulting gig for seven plus figures. Any American with a brain always knew he was an "Enemy of the People."
6
Good riddance, Mr. Speaker! Is this the new normal for an acceptable level of journalism in America?
The bitterness of public comments in today's newspapers is cringe worthy, by both writers and readers.
What happened to constructive criticism which at least ends on a positive note?
Good grief.
This guy’s upset because Ryan wasn’t awful enough.
6
OMG, HAVE YOU BEEN PAYING ANY ATTENTION TO WHAT HAS BEEN GOING ON AT 1600 PA AVE?
The only hope for America in the next 2 1/2 years is a congress that will stand up to Mr. Trump and his total incompetence as president. We don’t need another enabler!
1
If only John Bolton were a congressman.
There are so many problems with this analysis. I will address a few here:
“Mr. Trump’s sudden ascendance to power is a symptom of the larger trend and a catalyst for the intellectual and political reformation that is currently underway on the right.”.....
A “symptom of the larger trend?” The president’s approval rating is below 40%. He was not elected by the popular vote (the majority of Americans). This is not indicative of a larger trend.
“Intellectual reformation?” Operating outside of facts is not being intellectual.
“John Boehner was a do-nothing place-holder who now works for a marijuana company.” ...
Although I didn’t agree politically with Boehner, he was a deeply frustrated man who was stymied by the disfunction of his Congress. The fact that he has invested in medical marijuana is irrelevant to his service in government.
“Eric Cantor...was defeated by an underfunded economics professor”...
The author implies here that both low funding levels and high educational achievement are disqualifying. Supports my statement above about “intellectual reformation.”
“Not only did the bill fund Democratic priorities”...
WAIT.....isn’t it the point for both parties to WORK TOGETHER?
“...it made the construction illegal on a stretch...that is home to the federally-owned Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge.”...
A wildlife refuge protects wildlife, including migratory patterns. A wall destroys migratory patterns, and thus does not protect wildlife.
3
Indeed. A charlatan promises to take his bow. A charlatan whose leadership career looks increasingly likely to end at the same time his craven caucus of miscreants, sycophants, and cretins looses their previously ironclad majority in January 2019.
This rambling argument for what makes a proper GOP Speaker leads me to conclude that the only one who could suit Buskirk's ideal in the last several decades has been Newt Gingrich. You know...partisan, without decency, and willfully ignorant. Great essay.
1
Thank goodness Paul Ryan couldn't deliver! And thank goodness he'll be gone soon!
Instead of potential he offered nothing but demented warmed-over ideas cribbed from Ayn Rand. His roadmap for America was never more than a screen for the looting of the US by him and his overlords, plunging the rest of into a Dickensian dystopia.
And as for the writer of this screed: to say that Republicans need the resolute leadership of Devin Nunes has got to be a priceless example of intellectual onanism if ever there was one!
I went to the site this columnist writes for (American Greatness) and tried reading something there to broaden my horizons so to speak. But the column about how the movie The Death of Stalin (very good, btw) compares with how progressives operate in the US was so meandering and imbecilic, that I just had to give up on it three quarters of the way through. Now that I've read several of their writers, I can attest to the fact that American Greatness aspires to gather together many writers of a particular quality. I assume that conservative thought can actually be presented in a more coherent light. The NYT should be more fair and find such sources instead.
Sickening to read all the nonsense putting one spin or another on the latest event. This guy is a mean-spirited phony. We will be better off without him. It is unfortunate that he was able to generate so much misery for as long as he did.
That makes one less coward in the GOP controlled Congress. Let’s hope the blue wave hits Ryan’s district. In the meantime as they say Bye Felicia.
"The predictable response from Democrats will be that Mr. Ryan couldn’t square his principles with the reality of Mr. Trump’s presidency."
No, that's you projecting your pseudo-intellectual article's thesis onto half the country's population. Maybe he's resigning because he’s on a sinking ship and is smart enough to not wait for it to be totally submerged. Or, maybe he really does want to spend time with his actual children - instead of trying to work with a ignorant, impulsive, vengeful, narcissistic child currently reeking havoc on all of the institutions and rules Mr. Ryan has spent his career in?
Do you not feel somewhat embarrassed having your name attached to an article like this? You’ve etched your name in history along-side Donald Trump. Let that sink in for a moment.
1
This is pure cold political calculation. Ryan has concluded that Trump is doomed. If he gets out now, he can avoid taking a stand during the impeachment process, the fight over firing Mueller, or whatever lies ahead. He's banking on Pence serving out the term as a lame duck, vulnerable to a primary challenge from our blue-eyed boy. Two years is plenty of time for voters to forget all about his giveaways to the rich and his complete lack of spine vs. Trump.
What about the push-ups? How many do you think Nancy Pelosi can do? Or that pudgy, pushy Nunes?
Now, that's what American Greatness is all about, Mr. Buskirk. You and the Kochs need to hit the gym because your ideas are incoherent and seem to prove that if you don't use something, in this case your brains, they atrophy.
Good luck with finding the new Newt, whose first order of business will be overseeing the mid-term slaughter of your entire party at every level in every state. Let's see a show of hands for that glorious task!
Oh, well, nice try.
1
"The last effective leader was Newt Gingrich. Since he stepped down in 1999, Republican leadership has been either corrupt or incompetent."
Gingrich was the most corrupt of them all. Don't you remember that he resigned in disgrace. The guy should still be in prison for some of his "effective leadership" shenanigans.
1
Paul Ryan is a privileged white man who lacks all compassion ... unless he’s being asked to defend guys with guns, enlisted and/or freelance. He shares these traits with most other Republican congressmen.
Paul Ryan always smiles for the cameras as if convinced he’s a very pretty boy. In fact, for those of us who appreciate that many Americans, real breathing Americans, rely on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, Ryan exactly resembles a trim rattlesnake with heavy eyelashes.
1
Well, this piece is just more proof of Trey Gowdy's answer to the question posed to him last week: "What do republicans want?"...."Power", he says. Nothing but power..ditto the anti-establishment reactionary right-wingers.
And you've got the sentence structure all wrong: Reagan didn't leave a rich legacy....he left a legacy to the rich which your Dear Leader Trump giddily, greedily embraces.
Don't get me started on Nunes: he is unethical and he lies and he spreads conspiracy theories and he did/is conspiring with the White House and he was saved by the Republican Ethics Committee this time. He should go back to tending farm animals as that's what he is trained to do.
You write for American Greatness. I've read your pieces: you're consistent in your inability to recognize the rot in the republican party (Gingrich as a hero!) but more to the point: Trump is a conman and as "president" he has no agenda except the one that gets him applause and tv coverage and money, money, money, for himself and his crooked kids.
1
Good riddance. If anyone thinks Paul Ryan's has anything to do with anything other than his unlikely reelection, I have a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn. Paul Ryan is a cruel plutocrat who gleefully robbed the struggling to enrich the comfortable, his own people. The republican party is the party of the cruel, the rich, the racist, and so on; if his own constituents finally realized that seniority is not worth the venality, good for them.
1
So he gets to retire at age 48 from politics? Does he take health insurance and a pension? As a public school teacher to retire with 20 years of service I would have to be 55 years old, pay my own health insurance and get 20% of my pay annually, not enough for anyone to retire. Yea, he reformed the fiscal regime ... for his own pocket... he should run-away... he did nothing...he delivered nothing..he should leave the post with nothing...the man had no morals or ethics! No healthcare for Americans but he gets his! Hypocrite.
2
This piece reeks of the modern GOP:
1) they are only good at scorn. Scorn for those in leadership, whether it be Obama or Ryan and
2) loss of reality. The minority of Voters came out in droves, rallied by Hate, racism and the possibility of ridding D.C. Of the misguided politicians with the airs which this piece reeks of. Nunes? What a waste of a suit.
This crackpot lost me when he professed admiration for Devin Nunes and Newt Gingrich.
I agree with the sentiment “good riddance.” As for what the author wants to replace Mr. Ryan, it sounds like something that was introduced to the world in the 1920’s under the name “Feuhrerprinzip.”
Ryan was all about the budget and about repealing the ACA - until he wasn't and couldn't.
His knowledge of economics led him to believe cutting taxes and spending more on the military will lead to smaller budget deficits. Wrong.
His understanding of health care and insurance led him to believe cutting people off from health care, Medicaid, and Medicare (and Social Security, too) would be good for them and good for the economy. Wrong.
As Paul Krugman often pointed out, Paul Ryan is for stupid people an exemplar of what it means to be smart. Wrong.
2
With all the punishment he's put himself through contorting around Trump, you'd think he'd stick around to vote for impeachment.
Instead, I'm sure he's slinking off to bide his time for a Presidential run.
After the headline most of what follows is not necessary. It nearly canonizes Ryan for the right and demonizes him for the far right. Hark! the cannons roar! Ok, time to get back to straightening out the mess left by Gingrich, Ryan, and the rest of the guild-the golden-rich crowd.
1
The writer is correct about Ryan being an empty suit. But Ryan deserves a little credit for not fawning all over Trump as racist and xenophobe. What we are seeing is the departure of Republicans who want to maintain a shred of decency and integrity as their party leader is exposed as an anti-democratic, indecent abomination-sad!
Paul Ryan acted as a venal lackey of a few very wealthy and very odd billionaires. He tried his damndest to put a good face upon stiffing the 99%, but despite having no scruples about it, he lacked the rhetorical powers to put it across. A job no-one of character would accept.
2
I couldn't understand what was going on with this article until I got to this line: "Republicans want and deserve a speaker with the courage and tenacity of Mr. Nunes."
Finally, I understood that the whole thing is pure sarcasm from start to finish. Thanks for the laugh, Mr. Buskirk!
1
Ryan’s main ability is to speak nonsense and non sequiturs with a straight face, larded with unfounded posits of doing good for everyone.
1
Another example of the Times poor policy of giving “equal time” to whack jobs and cranks like this guy. Why can’t the editorial board of the Times identify thoughtful conservatives rather than people like this Bircher who would would turn America into another autocratic failure like Hungary? “American Greatness” indeed!
4
"...spurious allegations against Devin...."? Really? Well, well, well, aren't we the ostrich today. :/
I enjoyed reading a conservative's history of the career of Paul Ryan, then the curtain was pulled back, and the same old dog whistles for a great nation broke through, unrestrained. He had me listening for a while. Sadly, Mr. Buskirk should stick to his history lessons, and the comforts of Made in America pillows. His need for white greatness diminishes us all.
1
Ryan is exactly the kind of guy we need in that position..........all mouth (sometimes), no guts, no glory, do-as-you-are-told. Sometimes reminds me of my childhood. Only his allowance is bigger..........
"[T]he courage and tenacity of Mr. Nunes."
Sort of like citing the military acumen of George Armstrong Custer or the safety features of the Hindenburg.
Mr. Trump's karma ran over Mr. Ryan's dogma.
96
Very neat wordplay - subtle and valid.
4
Ryan has been a failure because his variation, along with other conservatives' positions on nearly all issues, has been a failure. For the past hundred years of history, conservatives have been on the wrong side of nearly every issue. Pro-gun, anti women's voting, anti-desegregation, anti gay rights, etc.
Now that their low-tax economic philosophy has been proven a failure, what leg do they have to stand on?
Ryan is just another right-wing shill for the 1%.
2
Almost all the GOP speakers were involved in scandals and some of them were indicted like Gingrich, Bob Livingston, Hastert and Tom Delay. Boehner is now selling marijuana. Paul Ryan's scandal is lying to American people and cheating the poor and the middle class by writing and passing the TAX SCAM. He gave the biggest tax break to the rich and the corporations and now the deficit is going up like rocket. Moreover, he supported Devin Nunes, a shameless Trump puppet and got caught his hands in cookie jar.
1
Watching his self-justifying announcement yesterday just cemented in many of our minds was a hypocrite Ryan was (and still is). Lauding his accomplishments while knowing that his timidity and lack of courage helped hand the GOP over to the alt-right hard-core xenophobes, misogynists and racists who now control it was a perfect example of his "leadership" style. But historians will get it right and his legacy will not be a proud one.
When the Republicans lose the House and the Senate in November, they can follow Paul Ryan into the wilderness.
The moment Mr. Burskirk decided to hold up Mr. Nunes as a paragon of courage and honesty, he totally lost me!
1
Ryan was not only ineffective as a leader, he was spineless, favouring whatever latest option from others bolstered his requirement to reward those that have the most. Sad excuse for a politician, but remarkably not all that rare.
Remind me, what exactly is the “rich” legacy of Reaganism? Where can I find it? It’s not that I blindly discount any of the man’s accomplishments as a leader, but I just don’t see generations of a positive “legacy” there, especially economically. And Gingrich? Whatever.
1
Oh, he'll be back, you can count on that. His ambitions are much larger than sitting back and cashing the checks that are his part of the loot from the Great Treasury Robbery.
He *needs* an encore. Curiously, unlike most performers, he has a need to wring the last possible drop of applause from the audience before retaking the stage. He apparently hasn't noticed that being that greedy often kills the buzz in the audience, and the encore is flat.
But rest assured, there will be an encore.
Newt Gingrich was who you consider to be the last effective republican leader? This belief in itself clearly explains the slow-motion republican implosion that’s been occurring since his reign. He started the fold your arms, compromise with no-one GOP philosophy that has completely obliterated the House of Representatives ability to govern. You and your ilk are now getting the political party that you have earned, one led by Donald J. Trump. He is a direct symbol of who you are, now clearly revealed to the rest of America. Rising generations have absolutely no tolerance for it. Your party is now entering a twenty year death spiral, a well deserved ride into societal obsolescence.
1
The only reason the Republicans control the house is because of Gerrymandering. The nicest thing you can say about the radical Republican agenda is that it is problematic.
1
The author says: “As the No. 2 on the Romney ticket in 2012, he was supposed to add youth, depth and a key that would unlock coveted Midwestern electoral votes. He didn’t do that, either. It required the New Yorker Donald Trump to pick that lock.”
Yes, indeed. The keys to pick “that lock” were to appeal to their racism, xenophobia, bigotry and misogyny among other vile beliefs. And, oh how easy it was to unlock those votes. We just needed a bigger charlatan than Ryan.
2
It appears Mr. Buskirk is not aware of what's been happening the last 14 months at the very least and more likely the last decade or so. The Republican party is broken. It became a host for the knot of miscreants who really want a transfer of wealth and power upward to a few. What do they think the world will be like when they have everything and everyone else is struggling? These folks driving this thing are a menace to a once decent country. The slogan should be Make America Decent Again. After we're rid of the mental lightweight known as Paul Ryan, Sycophant to the Fictional Economic Policies of author Ayn Rand, then we should run the ideologue, actually the man who is nothing but Trump's running dog, Devin Nunes, out of office and into oblivion.
Ryan sold his soul to Trump because it would help his career. He was a "spineless" leader as a result. In general, Americans and people from all countries in the world despise corruption and leaders who do not have the courage to stand-up for what they believe in.
I feel that the Republican party has exhibited the worst behavior manifested by the wealthy, the greedy, the philanderers, the racists and the naïve/ intellectually challenged. Paul Ryan is not despised only because he did not accomplish his nebbish obsession with eliminating healthcare and social services. He is a spineless swamp creature swept up by the Tea Party's kamikaze attacks on President Obama and the American people. Good riddance is not nearly a strong enough sentiment for the carnage he has enabled.
1
While it's noble that Ryan said he is steeping down to spend more time with his family. For me, it would have been more meaningful if he said "I am steeping down because I have had enough of Trump and the lack of values of the Republican Party.
1
Sounded good, until I got to the lines about Devin Nunes, as clear a political hack as exists. Nunes is an embarrassment to Congress, and clearly Trump's water boy.
How did Nunes, a farmer with no experience in law, foreign policy, the military, or intelligence, come to chair the House Intelligence Committee? Yet another failure for Paul Ryan.
You aren't "troops" nor are you ever "under fire". Perhaps toning down the war rhetoric would help your party actually govern. For once the Republicans actually sound like they don't get what is happening in the electorate. Who knew there were so many people on the far right who didn't know all those awesome right wing ideas that knowledgeable people always understood to be talking points are not actual good policy. Most Republicans used to understand this and used those ideas to cull some angry votes and juice turnout so they could cut taxes and try like Wile Coyote to cut spending on the old and poor. Usually, they saw the boulder coming for their head and retreated and took their cut from donors after the tax cut. But there are now actual living breathing adults who think these policies would work and the people feeling the pain are about to say Nooooooooo!
Mr. Buskirk is so steeped in the alt-fact universe (in the pre-Trump time, we just used the word "delusional), he obviously has no understanding of what most Americans support and don't support. Most Americans do not support Trump's ridiculous wall. Trump managed to exceed a 40% approval after 15 months of approval ratings in the 30s. Nunes obviously has lied and covered up his own involvement in the Trump campaign's friendliness and numerous contacts with Russia weeks before Russia hacked our election. Ryan was spineless in being silent or avoiding the fact that Trump lies pathologically, has obstructed justice, has likely committed treason, and has laundered money and committed fraud throughout his life. That is all aside from the fact that Trump has no morals whatsoever. To wit, Trump is indefensible and people like Buskirk turn verbal somersaults trying to defend and cover for him. Ryan knew he would lose his re-election, so he's stepping down. He at least has no illusions about that. He may also realize a large majority of Americans reject the thoroughly corrupt, hypocritical, destructive and anti-patriotic rightwing of the Republican Party and the party is likely to implode because of it. Buskirk is in for a rude shock.
1
I think of Paul Ryan as the quintessential Republican of our political era. He is a reasonably well spoken individual of average intelligence with a full head of hair. He panders to the Fox/Clear Channel constituency by demonizing the usual bogeymen: unions, academia, and those who want to steal your guns as well as Christmas... Otherwise, he is nothing but an agent for the oligarchy at the end of the day. When he’s gone, the GOP will churn out another Paul Ryan type out.
Just for the record, Ryan was more Richard III than Hamlet.
80
Ryan had no partner either in the White House or in the Senate for the kind of entitlement reform necessary to correct the budget deficit. Busking reminds me of many of the Freedom Caucus members who seemingly can't count votes nor can they add and subtract when it comes to the budget but complained daily about Ryan. While Ryan may be leaving, the eventual cleansing will be of those fantasy conservatives who currently spout self-serving gibberish from safe deep red seats.
This article was mostly extreme right-wing propaganda. Attacking Ryan from the right is no easy task after he helped give the global shareholders $5.5 trillion in tax cuts paid for with $4 trillion in tax increases on blue state workers.
But he is right about one thing. We are in the middle of a massive political realignment, and the previous establishment center is a bad place to be of you want to get elected to public office.
All of the establishment candidates in the 2016 presidential race were crushed, from Jeb to a Her.
Those who are still advocating for Democrats to move to the corporate center need to stop blaming everyone under the sun for Hillary's loss to the least popular presidential candidate in polling history, and realize that voters are no longer buying what centrists are selling.
"Polarized" means the electorate has moved away from the center. Stop wishing that there was a center base that can win elections and pick a side.
The right believes in tax cuts at any expense and wants to end government as we know it.
The left believes we are all in this together and wants to tax the rich to invest in workers and their children, and the infrastructure of a modern country, including renewable energy.
You have to pick a side and advocate for it. Compared to economics, which determines who eats, social issues are a distraction. If the left is able to make the lives of workers better, we will win elections.
If Democrats keep making excuses:
Trump for life.
3
While I agree Paul Ryan’s attitude and ideals align with “Reagan Revolution’s third generation,” Ryan didn’t experience wealth in the ways most of his generation did. After the early death of his father, his family relied on Social Security benefits; the ultimate irony given his relentless drive to privatize social security, repeal Obamacare, and reduce or eliminate other social programs.
Always a hard worker and an analytical - but not deep - thinker, Ryan’s view of the country and the world has always been astonishingly limited by a lack of genuine connection to real people’s lives and problems….though he came from “real people” roots.
Speaking from experience, when you allow a challenging early life to expand who you are, and deepen your empathy and understanding of others, the by-product is…wisdom. Ryan appears to have wanted to “join the club” he wasn’t born into, rather than use his life experience to become a leader who aspires to be not only smart, but empathetic and wise.
Sadly, it seems he is simply a younger version of the old patriarchy now running our government. Even as a lifelong Democrat, I had hoped he would guide his party in a better direction.
8
Well said. And because of this he has short changed himself, his parents, his family and those that elected him. Good riddance
1
Voters "gave Republicans power" because the electoral system in this country disproportionately rewards small states that tend to vote Republican. Republicans lost the popular vote for President by two percent, and lost the popular vote for the Senate by substantially more (granted only 1/3 of the seats were up for an election), yet won control of both. They won 1% more of the popular vote for the House, but won over 10% more seats.
Regarding those election results as voters giving Republicans power because they believe in Republican policies is a stretch. It's unclear to me that Republicans currently have any policy positions beyond tax cuts for the wealthy and whatever Donald Trump tweets on a given day.
10
Is Christopher Buskirk the secret pen name of Steve Bannon? Hmmm...
6
You, sir, are not what America needs to make it great again.
7
The journal "American Greatness" isn't worth the web-space it takes up.
5
Dude - I don't know who you are - but the Republicans are over. You can blame Ryan all you want - but it's all of your fault. Adam Schiff vs Devin Nunes and you side with Nunes? Nice choice - too bad he's the one going to prison, along with the rest of the Trump flunkies.
10
I saw Mr Buskirk interviewed with Charlie Sykes on the PBS Newshour last night. Sykes ate Buskirk’s lunch, with analytical precision fortified with facts drawn from the first 16 month’s of Trump’s administration. Buskirk was a zealot who (as Sykes said) drank Trump’s koolaid of nativism. Judy Woodruff didn’t ask him whom he supported for Ryan’s seat, but I’m guessing it’s the anti Semitic white nationalist the GOP has disavowed.
12
What as silly piece this is. The Speaker of the House has the responsibility to pander to all sorts rather than defend the constitutional order? This is what we have come to in the land where there is no bottom.
4
Short Synopsis: Paul "Gilligan" Ryan has been exposed as a fraud and a failure. Most of us knew this years ago. Paul Krugman has been publicly saying so.
3
The tax cuts bill was a creature of Republican insistence and broad Republican agreement. That Republicans demonstrated hypocrisy en mas, shouldn’t be now bemoaned by the author and blamed on Ryan. The Republican Party wanted tax cuts for their wealthy donors and to pass the bill they had to add a few incentives to bring some Democrats along. This author is so out of touch with reality believing instead of some Trumpian coherence beyond racism and fossil fuels that could sustain our nation into the future. I suggest the author write an article supporting Nunes as Trump’s new running mate in 2020. I think that would make a lot of sense.
3
What a waste of space given to Christopher Buskirk. Here's some helpful advice from my father: It's easy to complain about problems. Don't talk about a problem unless you offer a solution.
So Mr. Buskirk, who do you propose lead Republicans going forward that will solve the very problems created by Republicans?
4
The last effective leader was Newt Gingrich. Since he stepped down in 1999, Republican leadership has been either corrupt or incompetent. LOL Republican leadership and corrupt have gone hand in hand since Ronald Reagan put that loser Oliver North up to front lies for him in the form of "I don't remember even my name, much less the fact that we sold weapons to Iran illegally then gave the money to a brutal, vicious dictator down Latin America. Very funny article today but I recommend you head back to your safe places where lies are welcomed and open eyes do no exist.
7
Paul Ryan is one of those guys that fails up.
Ryan failed as VP candidate to deliver the Midwest
Ryan failed as ways and means chairman because he never delivered a budget that did anything for the American people. Tax cuts for the wealthy and service cuts and infrastructure neglect is psychopathy not leadership
Ryan failed as speaker because he didn’t lead he just capitulated to every demand which is why we now have an additional $2 trillion in debt
Pail Ryan is not a leader and has never shown the willingness to lead even though he has been given numerous opportunities. He is a bought and paid for cowardly, greedy, shill.
6
Wow! Your goodbye sucker punch to Paul Ryan is just amazing and Devin Nunes is the re-incarnation of Theodore Roosevelt, who knew?
3
This essay rings hollow. The conservatives have lost their moral authority and credibility with their full-bellied support of the president's false statements meant to belittle, confuse and manipulate the public. The GOP is now responsible for shredding the health care safety net and for trillion-dollar deficits. All your anti-deficit fervor was a bit lie, wasn't it? All of McConnell's and Ryan's pontificating about fiscal responsibility was a lie. And all of the GOP is a lie right now. All in service of a few billionaires. Pathetic.
7
Ryan is not third generation, he came into office the same time Gingrich did. Who is this writer who can barely write and articulate an argument or at least something persuasive beyond one giant whine?
3
Mr. Speaker, you are a man without a social conscience, you lack integrity and courage; and, at times, something akin to a weasel. My prayers have finally been answered.
2
The author lets Mr. Hastert off the hook as a mere felon. He preyed on children in his previous life.
4
Mr. Ryan, like nearly all of the Republican caucus, is a fraudulent party hack.
As you point out, he has had many opportunities, appearing Zelig-like at many important junctures but ultimately standing for almost nothing.
Not brave enough to be a foil to the most corrupt president this republic has endured and not enough of a patriot to dispense with the reprehensible Devin Nunes as Judiciary Chair, Mr. Ryan will long be forgotten-- though for very different reasons than this author is hallucinating.
5
You've made a gratifyingly accurate summation of what has been transpiring.
But I hope you're wrong about Ryan being forgotten. I console myself during these insane times by envisioning my future grandchildren sitting in their history class with their books open to a page with pictures of those who were traitors to our country during an extremely dangerous and pivotal time. I want Ryan's face and name on that page along with Mitch McConnell's, so that future generations don't forget how dependent our democracy is on our congress's faithful execution of their sworn oaths.
We shouldn't let these people slink away into their dark corners where their legacies can hide from the truth. We should ensure that our hard earned lessons are available to future generations so that they understand that, yes, this can happen in America. Maybe then, rather than being stunned by the shock of it, they can be far better prepared to rectify it.
1
A couple of corrections to Mr. Buskirk’s rabid ramblings:
“The last effective leader was Newt Gingrich.”
You mean the guy who instructed his members to label anyone who disagreed with them a traitor? That’s how this country started becoming so divided in the first place.
“Voters gave Republicans power because they believed that the policies the party promised offered them a better future.”
Actually the Republicans took power via gerrymandering. Democratic Congressional candidates received more votes overall.
7
A republican in step with the president? Oh you mean another lying criminal who is also incompetent and unqualified??
5
All I can say after reading this is... What planet are you living on? Ryan was terrible, a huckster that pretended to great economic expertise and then turned out to know nothing. Defending Nunes, probably the worst partisan offender in congress today makes you look like a crank. Even Ryan saw that. He's leaving because he doesn't want to be around for Shellacking 2.0 that's coming to the Republicans in November. His hope is almost certainly that if he's not leading the congressional party at the time he can rehabilitate himself enough to run against Trump in 2020. The only other option open to him is to lose the election horribly and become relegated to the dunce corner of American politics. Even if he pulled off a small miracle and kept his seat he'd almost certainly be kicked into the long grass as the party fights over what's going wrong and inevitably decides it must be the demoncrats, those evil socialists working to undermine America from within, rather than the racist, sexual harrasser in the White House.
3
The New York Times needs to exercise more care when considering who they publish in the Opinion section of the paper. Rather than an op-ed what you've published is a promotional broadside for the authors wed-site a link to which you've supplied.
4
While his colleagues were putting their heads in the sand, Ryan was busy putting the sand in his head.
3
2018 elections will say, "Good Riddance, Mr. Buskirk" (the author of the opinion) and most any other cheerleader saying "Republicans need a leader who is in step with the president and his agenda". Blue Wave!
3
if things don't work out with the journal "american greatness," i think mr buskirk should consider a new career with dc comics.
4
This piece makes me like Paul Ryan a bit better than I thought I did
1
So according to this column Ryan was not sufficiently far right! Lose all hope ye who enter here. It is hard to accept that there are people in this country who continue to think like this "op-ed contributor". Can he really believe the nonsense he writes? Either way it is very depressing reading.
2
So Paul Ryan woke up one day and realized he had children he thought he should spend more time with? Does any rational person believe that? Know how to tell when Paul Ryan is lying? His lips are moving.
6
Wow, who is this guy? Is this a joke? seriously.
Twisted events turned magical, invented results from the reality, all very reactionary.
American Greatness! When was that?
2
He failed because he wasn't as evil as the author hoped. Newt Gingrich was a good Speaker?
Mr. Buskirk, ignore bottles with "Drink Me" labels.
5
One small step for mankind and one giant step forward the average America. Good riddance indeed!
2
Like many conservative writers, this author's prose is sprinkled with figures of speech connoting a clash of great ideas and movements of profound historical importance. And if only the figures who attained power would do... x, the Reaganite Revolution would shift into 4th gear!
In actuality, the problems with the conservative movement in achieving their long professed goals are much more prosaic.
Poll after poll reflects that the American people want the wealthiest to pay more taxes, not less, they strongly enforced environmental laws, not less, they want Wall St. regulated, they want the US to invest in healthcare and education. They don't like an every-man-for-himself, use-it-up-while-you-can culture.
So, the central underlying schism is between modern conservatives and reality, and no amount of hyperbolic handwringing about tragic figures or missed opportunities for greatness, will alter this fundamental fact.
3
There is a reason why Paul Krugman calls Paul Ryan the flim flam man!
1
PULEEZE.
Of course Paul Ryan delivered: He INVENTED the magic asterisk.
You know, the one that make the following equation true.
2 + 2* = (Anything you want it to be).
Give the guy credit for his accomplishment.
1
So according to Buskirk, who is going to have the Freedom caucus’ back ? Joe Arpaio ? Roy Moore? I’m all for diversity of opinion, but Mr Buskirk seems to have drunk the Kool-aid.
2
Mr. Smiling And Nodding Yuck. A brown nose cadet of the highest order. He’ll go down in anals of history.
3
Devin Nunes, whose picture is posted next to the definition of 'lickspittle' in the dictionary, is "courageous" and a great candidate for speaker? Is the entire GOP now composed of stark raving delusional looneys? Or just tRump serfs?
I agree that Paul Ryan has accomplished nothing,
3
Oh Ryan did deliver, he gave the rich as much money as he could. He did the best he could to destroy government and certainly made many people come to hate government
3
Intellectual reformation happening on the right? Have you ever even heard a conservative talk?
4
wow...anyone who holds up Devin Nunes as a paragon of virtue is seriously misguided.
3
If I wanted to read fact-less, conspiracy-minded rubbish like this essay, I would go to Breitbart. Stop wasting the most valuable newspaper editorial space in the country.
5
Devin Nunes is a moral joke. I stopped reading, at your praise.
3
Good riddance Paul Ryan ! A huckster, con man and Trump enabler. Have we as a nation become so gullible to fall victim to every buffoon and his bag of snake oil ?
Ramesh
3
Whoa-resuscitating Nunes ? Seriously ? Please doing do that -we need Nunes front and center for a Democratic fund raising piñata...but while your at it, why not Corey Lewandowski for the next AG?
2
Good lord, what a misguided editorial. The Republicans need a leader who is more in line with President Trump? How would that be possible-- the man has no coherent policy, or plan, or train of thought. The only way to have a Republic leader more in line with Trump would be to appoint one of Trump's children, or maybe Kushner.
Ryan was a gross sycophant to the richest of rich, and succeeded gloriously in transferring billions of dollars of taxpayer money into their coffers. He is a massive failure of leadership, and will be pilloried in future history books. But he served his masters well, and in a matter of months they will reward him with riches beyond our imaginations.
A horrible man, a terrible leader, and a traitor to his constituents. But he achieved exactly what he set out to do: get rich at the expense of the American people. In that regard, he is a Republican extraordinaire.
4
Did this op-ed just say that Nunes has "tenacity and courage"? My mouth is still hanging open.
4
Wow, where to start? I agree with your statement: "Since he [the newt] stepped down in 1999, Republican leadership has been either corrupt or incompetent." I assume you're using the inclusive 'or', because the vast majority of recent Republicans have been a mixture of corrupt and incompetent. Newt especially, but this rot started long before he blighted our national politics.
I saw Mr. Buskirk tonight opposite the long-time conservative Wisconsin radio host Charlie Sykes on PBS Newshour (that bastion of conservative media). On policy, I disagree with Charlie Sykes probably 95% of the time. Still, these days, seeing an honest, thoughtful conservative is like a breath of fresh air. At this dangerous point in our history, I consider an enemy of my enemy my friend. I'll respectfully disagree with Charlie Sykes later, after we preserve the democracy.
I'm not sure he's aware, but Mr. Buskirk got *owned* in his Newshour performance, by an intelligent true conservative. He should be embarrassed for that and this lame opinion piece. Or was this part of a job application as WH comm director? If that's the case, great job! Many column inches -- check. Blame everyone except Trump and his toadies -- check (although you should have worked in Benghazi somehow). Lots of words like 'leader' and 'leadership', our Dear Leader Trump will love that -- check. Doesn't really make much sense -- don't worry, your audience doesn't know or care.
2
The Cowardly Ryan knows that he will face either a democratic majority after the midterms, or the specter of leading his party to impeach their president. He has neither the integrity nor the courage to do either.
3
1) Delivered Tax Bill for Koch Bros -> Big payout "Private Sector" "Job" awaits for his "service"
2) Running is risky
- If he loses in midterm -> Loss on record
- If he wins midterm -> Would have to vote on upcoming Trump Impeachment hearings -> No-win vote
3) Young(ish) -> After loading up while "privately" employed, can run for something else
4) Needs time to work in soup kitchens getting photographed watching (precleaned) pots and pan, running 5 minute marathons, studying remedial math
1
This commentary is emblematic of the big problem for conservatism. It doesn’t work and its adherents close their eyes to that which they don’t want to see.
Gingrich, the serial adulterer and book scammer was an effective leader? He gutted the House staff and crippled the committee system to consolidate power under the Speaker. If he hadn’t, a feckless leader like Ryan would not have been such a disaster for his party.
And Reaganism? Please! It was under “the Gipper” that the GOP launched its war on the government. All the dysfunction we see today begins there.
Trump is the true heir of Reagan. Conservatism, like Ryan, is just a fraud dressed up in platitudes and lies.
2
Sounds as if the author is another cowardly disciple of Ayn Rand. Stop it with the Saint Reagan garbage already too. He gave us "prosperity" on a credit card and the deficit soared on his watch.
1
Mr. Buskirk,
Trump will go down in flames, and those who still stand by him are either similarly corrupt, or of such tragically partitioned minds that I worry for their sanity (a house divided against itself cannot stand).
"Good riddance," if it ever arrives, will come when this whole rotten lot have faced justice.
2
Is this not an excellent summary of the delusionary Republican fantasies that make that party THE home for cranks and crackpots and assorted losers and conscienceless sociopaths who imagine that Reagan, Gingrich, Trump and even Nunez (!) are heroic figures?
A definitive example of this writer's delusions: "Voters gave Republicans power because they believed that the policies the party promised offered them a better future." The one and only "policy" that Republican politicians hold is to transfer all wealth away from the middle and lower income classes upward to their wealthy patrons. That's it, that's their defining credo. That they merely lie well enough, and demonize the Democrats relentlessly enough, to make their credulous, low-functioning, racist voters believe they are offerred a better future (White Supremacy Now!) is no validation of anything but a genuine doubt that democracy can survive or remotely achieve its ideal, The Common Good.
2
Gingrich? Really? Our body politic has been in a decline ever since this destructive philanderer was in charge. Wasn't he kicked out of his job? You'll have to dig back deeper into the past to find a respectable Republican Speaker of the House. Sad.
2
You lost me at spurious. Seriously, I stopped reading. Waterboy Nunes? Are you serious? The very worst things I've heard about that clown, from Adam Schiff or anyone else, don't even scratch the surface.
1
Sounds like you are advocating that the Republicans need to find another Trump to lead congressional Republicans and to get in step with King Nut. One Trump is enough, thank you very much...
The nation smells better already.
1
The journal American Greatness? Seriously, did no one answer the phone when you called the American Bund?
1
Mr. Ryan has made a great deal of money in his time as a politician. He is worth over 7 million dollars currently and with his book tour, public speaking events he will be rich like Eric Cantor. I am sure by the end of 2019 he will be worth 30 million. I am delighted that he is going away he is no Jack Kemp maybe seniors wont have to worry about him trying to roll back social security, and other entitlement programs that we all need. Maybe he can go visit the minorities who are suffering in his state since he never goes to those zip codes in all the years he has been in office. Mid terms and the end of his tenure are rapidly approaching. There is no room in progressive society for people like him and his fellow spineless GOP followers.
3
To paraphrase Luke Skywalker, everything you just wrote is wrong. Ryan is not nearly as smart as his PR folks have convinced some and Nunes is not the savior perfect for the Speakership. The author needs to get out more it seems.
1
The only thing I agree with in this opinion piece is that we are in a time of political realignment. I don't know how that is going to play out. But to hold up Devin Nunes as a model of probity and veracity undermines any credibility the article tries to achieve. Nice try, NYT, but the emperor on the right not only has no clothes, but he has streaked across the football field wearing a clown mask and trailing paper mache.
1
"Gingrich the last effective speaker"."The courage of Mr Nunes". Good grief Mr Buskirk put your pen down. Your thoughts ring hollow as constructed confusion.
1
"the intellectual and political reformation that is currently underway on the right" !
"one who supports his troops when they’re under fire." !
"need a leader who is in step with the president and his agenda" !
Amazing. Far from being daunted by the mess the Republican Party has made of congress and the country, the writer believes that the solution is an even bigger mess.
Perhaps Ryan quit to get away from crazies like this writer?
Good riddance Paul Ryan. 8 years under Obama, GOP a party of NO. This tax giveaway to wealthy donor patrons will be reversed; now refined CBO estimated trillions of additional debt because of this giveaway. GOP has exposed and confirmed they are a party of narcissistic, in many cases sexual predators and flat out liars that hate the middle class. A day of reconciliation is coming where many GOP representatives will be booted out of office and Ryan would have been one if these. Good riddance to the GOP malevolent dinosaurs.
2
Newt Gingrich! Really? That another locker room juvenile?
2
Please god, let him take McConnel with him!
2
Spurious accusations against Nunes? Please...Ryan’s legacy will include his spineless in allowing Nunes to completely politicize the HIC
1
I knew Tip O’Neil, and Ryan, as he fancies himself, is no Tip O’Neil.
2
Well, good riddance to the Ayn Rand fan boy and all his "let's be nasty to the elderly and the unfortunate", but as for the rest of it, umm... balderdash. Are you really holding Nunes and Gingrich up as examples of something, anything, positive? May I ask in which universe?
1
"The next leader must be someone who commands the ...obedience of the conference."
Last I heard, that's how we define a dictator.
Folks, can we now stop kidding ourselves about the fascist that these Trumpists are working hard to impose? It is not alarmist to say this. It is what is, in fact, happening. And iIt demands action to stop it. Now.
4
I agree with one statement herein: that the Republicans "deserve...Deven Nunez..."as their next speaker. It would be great to see their mendacity completely unmasked by that rampant nutcase.
1
Paul Ryan hates big government and really wants to take away the entitlements that he, himself used to get thru college after his father died when he was young. That is who Paul Ryan is, a self-serving, spineless poser.
3
These comments pretty much tore up this mass of lies. the Reagan legacy? Let buisness alone and everything else will be taken care of.
I simply cannot believe that the New York Times published this article. Giving voice to other points of view should not include putting the ravings of a lunatic on Page One. This piece belongs buried on an alt-right blog next to the ads for aluminum foil hats.
3
One more error in your apologia for Ryan, i.e., your comment regarding wall construction along the "Texas-Mexico border that is home to the federally owned Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge." It is TAXPAYER OWNED and managed by federal government on behalf of the taxpayer owners. Please use the correct vernacular.
2
What a column by a RepubliCON writer! Devin Nunes is a traitor! The US House of Representatives will soon be in Democratic control for at least a generation!
Hmm.... Can we think of a Trumpian nickname for Devin Nunes. I can't think of a two-word alliterative one like, for example, Dipstick Don for the President.
Mr. Hide-in-the-bushes? Devin DoRight?
It doesn't do any good to fight silly drivel with painfully sincere facts and figures, ya gotta get into the spirit of the thing and fight silly drivel with silly drivel.
Ryan’s children someday will come to see what a spineless worm their weekend dad was.
1
Every republic I know is behaving like this author.
The koch owned gop controls the house, the senate, the executive and with usurper neil gorsuch* dishonoring the bench, the judicial branch as well along with state legislatures and governorships yet all the kochists seem to do is whine.
Sorry boys and girls, there are no more branches.
You control 'em all.
So now maybe get something done.
But I am beginning to think republics prefer whining to governing.
That is why the koch owned gop wanted trump to lose.
The koch owned gop is much better at backseat driving.
1
he was a liar and a failure.
his lack of responsibility was epic.
1
Does anyone truly believe he wants to spend more time in his mansion with his wife and family? He's going to take the first job on K Street as a bought and paid for lobbyist, rally not much different than his current job. You and your ilk are a disgrace Ryan, good riddance, you will certainly not be missed.
3
Deficits matter ........... until we are in power ...... then they don't matter ..... voodoo economics!! Spineless and unpatriotic. Bye bye
1
The Flim Flammer jumps ship. A Randian fool
whose departure is a case of addition by subtraction.
A total phoney baloney
Wunderkinder tend to grow up awkwardly. Ryan, caught between Rand and Jesus, between Catholic social teaching and Calvinism. "I was naked and you clothed Me, I was sick and you looked after Me, I was in prison and you visited Me." Really, Mr. Ryan?
An Ayn Rand wannabe in an empty suit. Good riddance to bad rubbish.
4
I thought Trump was that Joshua.
Face the facts America, the bygone days of rich old white guys running everything are done. They can't even rien in the run away spending while controlling every branch of government. New ideas and new faces are the answer. Nunes for speaker? God help America. And this is coming from a middle class old white guy tired of the same old, same old.
Mr. Squeaker.
1
The "courage and tenacity of Devin Nunes"? Seriously?? That tells me all I need to know about this writer.
He's a coward, spineless, overrated business mind who wouldn't stand up to an unfit man who, unfortunately for us all, is president. He's got his legacy. And it ain't good. Run away to Jaynesville, now, Paul. A double good riddance from me.
I am shocked, actually, that he's not staying to make sure he reduces my Social Security. Oh, and thanks, Paul for taking away my small profit from my house. Now I have to pay Capital Gains because of your tax bill that gives away millions to billionaires. He took $8,000 away from me - money I had been counting on when I sell my house. It's gone.
So....triple good riddance to you, Paul Ryan. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.
Coward.
2
Just because Buskirk is one of the few people in this country that still supports Trump and can string a few paragraphs together does not mean he should be given such a lofty platform to spew his bile. The “equal time doctrine” should not apply when the alternative view is completely off the rails. You’re supposed yo be a gatekeeper, NYT! Do better.
Paul Ryan. Biggest. Fake. Ever.
3
Ryan's nonsense about spending time with his family is just that: another lie from a lying liar. Ryan is just another Republican who's allegiance is not to America but to his rich pimps like the Koch Cartel and the Walmart Clan. Ryan was nothing but a young P90X college boy type who offered a smooth, fast talking excuse to us to provide even more profit to the rich with their tax deduction that will eventually blow up the deficit even more. Bye Felica!
1
Thank you very much that the author of this piece, Christopher Buskirk does not hold office.
This guy is a prime example of Republican insanity.
2
Bushkirk, you have it all wrong. Your party is a disaster, pure and simple.
1
Hi!
Ending the editorial in the Hebrew Bible is appropriate, the Good News is just beginning...
ciao!
"Good Riddance, Mr Speaker:" What you think is an honest look at Ryan turns out to hold little minefields of partisan Republican misinformation and propaganda. I stopped reading at the first one about Devin Nunes.
Not sure why the Times published this.
2
Slinking out into the dark night after gorging on illgotten gain isvthe epitome of political weasel.
Apologies to family Mustelidae!
Mr Ryan is going because in the age of a big charlatan like Trump, little charlatans like him have become irelevant.
1
The USA got a coward to lead it's House at the worwst possiblee juncture in it's history.
Just think of what Paul Ryan could have accomplished if he had been honest, cared about the American people, and stopped licking Donald Trump's boots. What a waste!
Excellent. Just excellent.
Ryan is a complete fraud. His wife is a Dem operative. So he sleeps with the enemy. Literally.
1
I guess the Times needed to give voice to an administration supporter from time to time, but please, not too often!!
1
Paul Ryan really does need to go home and spend time with his children. Because right now, they are going to remember him as a spineless simp who couldn’t or wouldn’t stand up to Trump, and who’s brain dead policies ruined America. Good riddance indeed. Enjoy your bratwursts.
Mr. Buskirk is living proof that the New York Times presents a balance of views. Not sure who else thinks Mr. Nunes is worthy of a seat in the House.
Why is this printed in the Times? If I want right wing screeds I'll listen to Fox news.
Good riddance is right! Paul Ryan is a liar, most Republicans are! He came to Congress claiming that he would CUT the budget, balance the budget! He and he alone would CUT the DEFICIT!!!! Right!
He leaves American Tax payers with DEFICIT that will grow by $1 TRILLION every year due to the massive TAX CUTS the GOP gave to their wealthy supporters! The deficit will grow to THIRTEEN TRILLION!
In the meantime, Ryan LIES on CNN yesterday when the interviewer says "tax cuts" ...Ryan insists "tax reform"! Liar...liar!
The "modern" Republican party, the party of Trump, the virtues of which Buskirk extols, is not a conservative party at all. It is a radical party of evil, led by an malignant thug, also characterized correctly by his own Secretary of State as a "moron." Ryan has many flaws and his behavior since November 2016 is reprehensible, but at least he knows the difference between good and evil.
I was interested in a different view of why Ryan has been a failure, and Buskirk almost had me fooled, until he lauded the "courage and tenacity" of Devin Nunes. Those attributes can also be used to describe dictators and charlatans from Genghis Kahn to Vladimir Putin, with Stalin and Hitler in the bargain.
Devin Nunes has no use for Congressional decorum or procedure, because - like most ideologues - he seems interested in ends regardless of the means.
Buskirk doesn't care, and therein lies a danger to democracy from the far right.
326
Don't forget about Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro.
3
I felt exactly the same way when I was reading the article. When I got to that line about Devin Nunes, I realized I was reading a piece written by a tea party crazy. That said, I am no fan of Paul Ryan and am glad to see him go.
26
Devin Nunes, in a sea of mediocrity, sinks to the bottom.
15
This contributor's call for "obedience" tells me all I need to know about where he's coming from.
5
Have you ever considered that maybe the reason a Republican controlled government cannot seem to pass a fully “Republican” menu of wants is because the party, itself, is deeply divided on that menu? And that perhaps the antics of the President and members of Congress (e.g., Nunes), have fractured the resolve of Congress? Yes, Ryan was ineffective. But that is because the party has become ineffective.
1
Rabble; Perfect description of today's Republicans. They resemble a stampeding herd of sheep; bleating, while running aimlessly, lead by the blackest of black sheep ,toward the precipice that is the mid-term elections. That the author offers Devin Nunes as exemplar is but another delusional example of the Party's moral bankruptcy.
8
Mr. Buskirk, the Republican Party you point to and so yearn for, and that Paul Ryan to his credit is walking away from, is one founded on fear. Its symptoms are hatred and anger. As such, it is not a lasting but passing thing. Rather than being in ascendance, it has merely writhed out of some dark corners and shown its shabby, snarling, mangy self to the shock and disgust of the greater portion to which is belongs... like a diseased arm, not known to be so, pulled suddenly from behind one's back. With the right attention, the arm, along with the rest of the body, may be saved. What you write however is the politics, policy and thought of degradation and decline. I find it abhorrent, especially cloaked in the language of greatness, and I resist it here and elsewhere.
5
I was lazy enough to follow the general consensus that this was a smart man, but with whom I disagreed about everything. Since November, as he's come to the fore, to speak about wrecking the ACA, and suckering the country on tax reform, (neither of which the people he represented wanted), I paid attention, and he's not smart at all, no smarter than a dog, bringing his master slippers.
Immorality is inconsistent with intelligence, and Ryan is an utter moral failure.
4
Once again, Mr. Buskirk, you are all about what is best for the GOP not what is best for the country. Exactly what you stated last night on the NPR Newshour. Aren’t there anymore American Patriots in the GOP? How sad for our country.
3
Ahh that last paragraph. "voters gave Republicans power...."... I wish there were a laugh emoji here. No, actually, most of us didn't.
5
Good riddance indeed! Paul Ryan is a gutless hypocrite. As chair of the ways and means committee he railed against Democrats for blowing a hole in the deficit. Then, with Ryan at the helm, he championed a tax bill that brings the deficit to astronomical levels. As Speaker, the most powerful GOP congressman, Ryan could have taken the lead and challenged Trump's off the rails presidency. But he chose to take the cowardly route by remaining silent even though Trump's behavior and decision making is totally antithetical to what Ryan has always claimed to stand for. I thought Boehner was ineffective as Speaker but Ryan makes Boehner look like a rock star. Ryan is largely responsible for creating a sinking ship, and no surprise, he's abandoning that ship.
3
The best Con Men will leave town before their mark ever suspects they’ve been had. My question for Mr. Ryan and the rest of the Conservatives is where are you going to go when you’ve con’ed the entire country?
2
What exactly were/are the positive outcomes of Reaganism that the writer alludes to?
3
Holy moly - I started reading this article thinking that 'the green shoots' of common sense were starting to make an appearance with the conservative right. Boy was I wrong.
2
Really?? Ryan's idea of tax reform was tax cuts for the most wealthy. His idea of entitlement reform was to eliminate entitlements. He's Ayn Rand incarnate even to this day.
216
From a man who used entitlements to go to college, so out of step with reality, so in step with his wealthy brethren and donors. Disgraceful.
18
Yep. Ryan spent his career decrying the nation’s deficit and debt but leaves the situation worse than he found it, reports WaPo. "Deficits have risen from $438 billion in 2015 to a projected $804 billion this year, and are on a path (in less than 2 years) to surpass $1 trillion in 2020 and climb higher from there. The debt held by the public has risen from $13.04 trillion on the day he became speaker (in 2015) to $15.46 trillion now." https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/paul-ryan-apos-fiscal-legacy-21045290...
12
This is what the republican voters seem to think is a good idea, tax breaks for the rich, and corporations. Cuts to education, social safety net, roads, bridges etc. It's mismanagement at it's worst. And who do you think is going to be left holding the bag. This doesn't effect just republican voters, if it did, I would care less, let them live in the nothing for me, all for you world that Paul Ryan and other "leaders" will give them.
He is one miserable, mean human being, with no empathy whatsoever, and no redeeming factors I can find.
I feel for anyone who either lives with him, or has to tolerate him for any period of time.
Good riddance, and may he never be in any position again, that can in any manner, shape, or form, affect the lives of the poor and the middle-class.
3
Paul Ryan's legacy is set in cement, and it will be his shameful lying prostrate for Donald Trump, and doing so after talking tough after the Access Hollywood tape, speaking as if he can confront Trump and is a man of principle only to prove otherwise, and his silence over Devin Nunes's stunning abdication of his Congressional oath of office, his obstruction of justice, and his perversion of being the chair of an investigative committee by doing everything he can, even lying and creating bogus scenarios, to help the very person he's meant to investigate. Ryan, like Trump, proved himself to be a Potemkin leader. All hat, no substance; all talk, no walk.
4
Yeah, repeal and replace, he had nothing decent to offer. Tax bill was everything plus the kitchen sink, no intelligence whatsoever. Total straight up tax heist. Leaves just in time for security net to be dismantled because of deficits. B- bye!
1
I agreed with nothing except the title.
4
Let's be honest. The only reason Ryan and his other tea-party backed associates ever got into office in the first place was for their promises of repealing the ACA. What you fail to mention for these congressmen that flipped their rhetoric is that constituents back home actually liked parts of the ACA, These guys didn't just choose to go back on their word; constantly thinking only of re-election, they bent to what their constituents wanted. I have to say though, at least they are showing some spine for not bending to your Looney Tunes reality. I would take their elitist-catering agenda over the crapshoot of Trumpism any day because at least I know for certain where they stand.
Question mr. buskirk?
What is mr. ryan's and mr. mcconnell's unfunded koch written billionaire tax cut doing to the debt and deficit?
https://www.google.com/amp/s/mobile.nytimes.com/2018/04/09/us/politics/f...
“Voters gave Republicans power because of horrendous gerrymandering and an 18th Century Electoral College.” There, fixed it for ya.
3
Poor example - "the courage and tenacity of Mr. Nunes" is meaningless without even a passing nod to reality and principles. And poor aspirations - fantasizing about a leader "in step with the president and his agenda", since the president has no agenda other than 'notches on the bedpost'.
1
Did we really just compare Paul Ryan and Moses?
In other words ryan is an illusion and a con
and his constituents see right through him
They vote
His donors are not registered in Wisc CD 1 to vote
Give him credit the consummate con man actually read the hand writing on the wall
When it comes to Trump they’ll be taking him out in handcuffs w federal marshals physically subduing him
Good riddance is right. The House led by Ryan (in conjunction with the Senate led by McConnell) has obliterated all positive changes done in the last 50 years. Trump is not the only guilty party for the wholesale damage done to the average American. The GOP congress will go down as the most obstructive, corrupt, hypocritical, self-serving, sanctimonious, do nothing lawmakers in the history of the country. And yet, they are so proud of themselves as they take the money from the NRA and run for the hills.
5
Frankly I gasped in disbelief when Mr. Buskirk wrote that House Republicans need a speaker like Devin Nunes. This man has proven himself willing to stoop to the basest levels to shield President Trump from lawful investigation.
If Mr. Buskirk wants Trump's biggest lackey in charge of the House of Representatives, then he is a Trump supporter first, a Republican second, and a patriot third.
3
Mr. Buskirk works himself up into quite an agitated state, railing from the deck at the ship's officers and crew departing in the night in the last lifeboats. But he deludes himself. This Patna is not making it to port.
Like the author, I'm glad Ryan is going, but I have more than a little trouble with a piece that defends Devin Nunes and longs for the days of Gingrich.
There could have been a worse combination of President and Speaker, had we had a Speaker as myopic, belligerent and impulsive as trump. What we have is the second worst possible combination; trump and a wimp. The morning Ryan resigned trump posts tweets threatening firing missiles at a nuclear power, a sworn enemy of the United States. Ryan said nothing.
2
The author appeared on the PBS NewsHour yesterday. A quote from the transcript:
"I mean, there is not an ounce of blood-and-soil nativism in Donald Trump or in the rest of the party. And that’s just a scandalous and a scurrilous accusation, which we can’t let stand."
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/where-does-paul-ryans-departure-leave-...
1
Donald Trump may not be a true anti-Semite, as he seems to greatly admire Jews but his actions, over decades, point to him being a racist. There is much evidence if ii.
Lest the campaign chants of "build the wall" were not clear enough signs for figures like this author, Buskirk, there were plenty of others indicating that blood and soil nativism was at the core of Trump's 2016 campaign.
I'm no fan of Paul Ryan, but Newt Gingrich has to be a poster boy for corruption.
3
Lol. I was about to say...never mind Lily Quinones already said it all!
1
"...the intellectual and political reformation that is currently underway on the right..."
What reformation is that? Denial of well established science? Fouling our clean air and water? Tax cuts for the wealthy? Trillion dollar deficits? Contempt for people who aren't "like us"? Support for a tyrant-wannabe president?
You must be joking!
4
The current Republican Party is made up largely of people who are undereducated, fiercely religious and pathologically fearful of anyone who isn’t white, They know nothing and believe whatever Fox News tells them. Thankfully, they are outnumbered.
2
Apparently Buskirk lives in a parallel universe. One in which Republicans care about fiscal discipline, instead of tax cuts for billionaires. One in which Newt Gingrich was a great Speaker, instead of a bomb-thrower who was forcibly ejected by his own party. One in which (I'll try to say this with a straight face) Devin Nunes demonstrates "courage and tenacity", instead of being a clumsy, clownish sycophant. One thing I will grant to Buskirk - Trump has realigned the Republican party, in the process demonstrating that much of its base is racist, homophobic, nativist and rather ignorant (which is why so many of its leaders are retiring, unable to stomach what it takes to win elections in today's GOP).
It must be nice, Buskirk's parallel universe. It's probably the place that Trump is making great again. Unlike the universe the rest of us live in, which Trump is destroying with his ham-handed greed and incompetence, and which many Republican leaders can't wait to escape.
4
Good riddance indeed, but not for any of the reasons that were listed.
2
I don't care for Ryan, but this is a nasty piece. Anyone who can actually suggest that Devon Nunes would be a better speaker that Ryan has lost his mind. Good grief these Republicans have gone off the deep end.
4
Mr Buskirk is ranting into the abyss and the sooner that he and his ilk jump in the better. I abhor his position on everything except for the good riddance to Paul Ryan. With that I agree 100% x 100!
3
“Republicans want and deserve a speaker with the courage and tenacity of Mr. Nunes — one who supports his troops when they’re under fire.”
The last thing Congress needs is more people like Nunes, who is a pandering Trump sycophant.
3
This is a somewhat classless kick in the pants to a man who best defines conservatism for me. Ryan was the only one with the guts, and the smarts, to point out what is really dooming this country, miles of red ink as far as the eye can see. Obama and Trump are linked in their commitment to kick the can on debt and entitlements to some other poor soul who will be so deep in the hole he can do nothing. Our moment to address this crisis came, and now left. Did Paul Ryan fail? Perhaps because he spoke the truth, and we weren't ready to listen.
1
i dont know who this guy is, but anyone who admires Nunes and glibly speaks of "pro-citizen, pro-worker" policies has to viewed skeptically.
Nunes is the very definition of a sleazy trump toady, and phrases like "pro-citizen, pro-worker" are mostly used to justify supremacist views and nativist hate.
3
Paul Ryan has been on the dole his whole life. All of us should remind him that we have not only paid for the shirt on his back but for two generations of shirts on Ryan backs.
1
This article is a trifling piece of puffery. But Mr. Ryan is not the beneficiary. It is his damaging and inhumane ideology that is applauded here. I hope Laissez Faire Republicanism suffers Ryan's fate.
1
The Republican Party is ungovernable. When conservatives let the gun nut and religious extremist tail wag the party dog, it has been game over for anyone attempting to restore order and sanity to this ideological asylum. Not that I'm excusing Mr. Ryan, of course. He and his buddy Mitch McConnell in the Senate have done more to destroy democracy as we know it by consistently putting party over country to--somehow, some way--appease the crazies in their midst and for the billionaire donors funding their campaigns for whom winning is everything and the people's will is nothing. How is it that on every significant issue, Americans oppose Republican policy by considerable margins, and yet Ryan and his minions ignore them? Who, might I ask, do the Republicans really represent?
I'd say that Ryan is a coward for not seeking re-election, but the truth is, the country is better off without him.
Ryan was a heartless politician who wanted to ruin Medicare and Social Security. We are very lucky he is leaving before he could destroy millions of peoples lives. Republicans are terrible at governing, they win elections by appealing to the worst in human beings.
2
There is nothing "intellectual" going on with the republican party. They care only about themselves.
1
The decline of the Republican Party into the ideologically hidebound, brain dead, stooge of the plutocracy that it currently is did not begin with Paul Ryan or John Boehner. It began with the ascendency of Ronald Reagan who made intellectual laziness and extreme conservative idolatry respectable and became terminal decrepitude under the cynical and rapacious Newt Gingrich. There was a time when the Republican Party was a party of ideas with intellectual heavyweights like Eisenhower, Taft, Rockefeller, Schultz, Bush Sr, Baker, Scowcroft, Kissinger, and Nixon, but that died a long time ago. Trump is an outsider who became President in spite of not because the Republican Establishment which continues to detest him. Ryan and Trump are but a symptom of a much bigger problem.
Good riddance indeed!This spineless man has been among the chief enablers of the trump regime.
I had great respect for him when he refused to endorse trump but then caved.
While posing as a boy scout he is really just another corrupt puppet dancing to the tune of the Brothers Koch and the billionaires boys club.His greatest offense was to ignore the mendacity of Nunes who clearly should have been removed from the Committee.Don't shed any tears for Ryan he will turn up somewhere well provided for .
Be Nice dont display vitreolic behaviour we detest in republicans Be Respectful of Speaker Ryan He sacrificed part of life to promote his beliefs If we wish taht others be respectful We must set an example Argue ideas dont demean the messengers
One has to wonder just how much of the credibility that has been lent to Ryan over the years comes simply because of his mild manners and boyish looks. The bar is so low for Republican "leaders" at this point that it seems one doesn't have to be proven right about anything at all to be considered a wunderkind. It's hard to believe he ever would have been held in such high esteem if his appearance was different. Aint it wonderful to be a handsome blue-eyed white guy with an education and nothing to offer. We're so predictable in a way, particularly our "conservatives."
good riddance to Ryan; but, also to the radical views of the author. Today's GOP is an Anarchist Party. Show me the model in history where this was successful.
Kinda like Hillary Clinton. Long list of failed policies despite enormous support by the establishment
I must have missed Hillary Clinton’s position as Majority Leader in the Senate. She never served in the House. Pivoting to Hillary Clinton is always the fail safe option for those without credible arguments in defense of the indefensible: aka the Republican Party.
2
Does anyone remember him exaggerating his body fat percentage and the number of mountains he supposedly climbed - both claims thoroughly debunked during the 2012 election. A fraud through and through...
1
"Mr. Ryan took the speaker’s chair later that year after playing Hamlet and claiming implausibly that he didn’t want the job and would accept it only if Republicans thrust it upon him. "
BACK AWAY FROM THAT SHAKESPEARE! And leave our brilliant Hamlet out of it. You mean Malvolio. 12th Night. And if you letter'd enough to know that, it would be a fair analogy, as Ryan would look good in yellow stockings.
2
"If only" and we "...could a been somebody!" isn't going to do anything to address the catastrophe that has been unleashed, not just on our nation, but on the world. Every day the world awaits the next utterly ridiculous attention grabber by the supremely insecure egomaniac at the center. Conservatism, like family values, was just a convenient horse to ride to town. Hypocrisy is the true nature of the beast. For all of these "leaders" to be bailing out after the mess they've created is a mass declaration that the party is indeed over!
"Mr. Trump’s sudden ascendance to power is a symptom of the larger trend "Trump" and "intellectual" in the same sentence?!?!
Isn't that an oxyMORON?
No redemption or absolution for Paul Ryan.
1
I so hope the GOP follows this man's recommendations. Go big on following Trumps ideas GOP. Independents, centrists and leftist democrats will vote against these discredited ideas and sweep them out of control of the House in 2018.
The modern Republicans are a collection of cranks, crackpots and one issue malcontents and as a group, they have become ungovernable. There is always room on the right for more extreme positions and as such there is always a manhood race to see who has the more 'severe' position in their conservatism. But this has nothing to do with governing which also requires compromise - which is a sign of weakness and surrender to the Republicans.
The Republicans will only respect and follow a 'strong man' who possesses the all the negative attributes that description implies.
1
The irony here is seeing the Republican Party tear itself apart from within. We who once thought the Tea Party was extreme can now only hope that Republicans become so crippled by their nonsense and infighting that they cease to be a meaningful political force within a few election cycles. Will we look back on these unproductive years of bad governance as a lost decade? A lost generation?
The tragedy of Paul Ryan is summarized best by his consistent display of spinelessness. A true American tragedy. His complete and utter failure of poor leadership is summed up by his inability to lead and to act with integrity, on anything. He helped deliver tax cuts but thereby increased the deficit to beyond comprehensible numbers. For shame. Go home to your family now and lick your wounds.
1
Retirement at age 48 is impossible for almost all of the people Ryan supposedly represents, no one could afford healthcare or insurance for themselves and their families. Let me guess Ryan is going to get this for free from the US tax payers whom he has worked so hard to deprive of healthcare. Disgusting.
"Reaganism remains a rich legacy"
That's rich.
Paul Ryan is the ultimate Lake Wobegon kid where everyone is above average and grade inflation is rampant. These kids are poor performers who expect unearned praise because they have never had to learn at the school of hard knocks.
Good riddance.
1
What cowards are these GOP senators and representatives leaving the halls of power at a time when their party is sinking into oblivion? They bowed to Trump and welcomed the Tea Party, and stayed long enough to pass an outrageous tax cut, their only accomplishment in a year controlling both Houses and the White House.
Exit, stage far right, now Mr. Ryan, whom pundits sang was a statesman and economic genius, leaving just in time, we can be sure, to join boards of directors and prestigious lobbying firms, to take rightful payouts, not in suitcases of cash, like the old days, but in punched tickets to financial Valhalla. Why not?
Ryan's departure to Wisconsin will give him the time to get together with Scott Walker for barbeques of Kobe beef and lobster while they fantasize over the great ticket they will make in 2020. Those Super Pacs are loyal to their boys .
He had me nodding my head until he extolled the virtues of Nunes, then Gingrich. Then I spit out my coffee. Was this an opinion piece or satire?
Nunes? A leader? The fool fancies impeaching Rosenstein and Wray when no one on earth sees that happening especially considering the events of the past few days with Trump and his lawyer. You'd better get used to the idea of the Democratic wave. That's what is the reality now. Hopefully, Nunes gets tossed, too. Leadership likehis is not what our nation needs.
This started out on track, then the train crashed when the author called Nunes great. I looked to the bottom of the article and see his credentials. A devout Conservative. Emphasis on the Con. As for Ryan, he will be missed. Not! Eddie Munster craved to dismantle Social Security, even though, after he pointed out in his fare the well speech yesterday, his father died when Ryan was young. What he didn't point out, was how he benefitted from Social Security. The hypocrisy of the GOP marches on. Deficit much?
1
For this character to suggest that Gingrich was a successful speaker.. lays bare the effectiveness or veracity of this entire piece. The man was a negatively inspired flame thrower and proven felon, who didn’t resign.. he got thrown out.. justifiably. The republican party, such as it is, has had a slow- slide into chaos and the stench of “obstructionists” has defined every argument they’ve made for the last 15 years. When they weren’t obstructing their own party they were stopping every and any good effort from the Obama years. And were has it gone and what is it left with? Well, you know the sad answer to this one, don’t you! To suggest Loyalty and Joshua... give me a break... code words from the promised land of irrelevancy.
1
If Devin Nunes is THE model for the Republican party, may God help the Republicans! Tenacity? Obtuseness! Leadership? Manipulation of truth. Intelligence? Forgive me, but that model is so flawed that I cannot continue.
Good luck to you guys.
Buskirk is scapegoating Ryan for the policies his whole party gladly embraced.
And while doing so, he is advocating even more of the same. "America First," indeed!
The NYT should be able to do better than giving a platform to this kind of disingenuous passing of the buck.
Apparently, Paul Ryan didn't do enough damage to satisfy Mr. Buskirk. Buskirk has confirmed to everyone that Republicans can be worse.
1
Resist. This is the snake oil Republicans routinely sell. They care, good ol' Reagan, fiscal sanity. As always, the Republicans remain hypocrites who only fend for the nation's wealthiest and corporations. Thus, the "gig" economy.
Good grief. Maybe the writer has some points, but it only underscores one thing. These people should not be in power at all. Their only incentives are to loot the Treasury, reward rich conservatives for supporting them, gut the domestic budget, and play the xenophobe/racist/not-like-us card to the hilt for votes.
They're even terrible at conservatism. We're facing a ludicrously large deficit, guaranteed to get more ludicrously larger as the National Debt and interest rates balloon. Do you realize that at $30 Trillion in debt (probably by 2025) and a returned-to-the-norm 4.5% interest rate, we're going to need $1.3 Trillion per year just to pay the interest on the Debt? And that doesn't even include the $1 Trillion in deficit that the budget already calls for. It looks like nothing more than an attempt to destroy our government, full stop.
This is nuts. We must cut these klepto-"conservatives" out of government in favor of pragmatic practitioners of sensible governance. "Tax and spend" Democrats at least balanced the budget. It beat the heck out of these drunken sailor Loot and Spend Republicans.
Wow, another "journalist" who makes one feel like they've entered the Twilight Zone with his take on things. Ryan is disgusting but trash Nunes? He only did that when it became so obvious that Nunes was trashing his chairmanship, had lost the confidence of the committee and is so close to being a criminal many of us have called it already. Ryan is not that bright. It is good riddance but that's a more genuine good riddance coming from left of center and actually center. Ryan based his economic knowledge on a fun book of fiction we all enjoyed in college and when entering the real world realized it was only a fun fiction when we were completely naive. Good riddance is right, but not because of the far right's disappointments in their pitiful leadership.
1
Paving his way from WI with empty promises he was an opportunist who did nothing for anyone while in Washington. He will be most remembered for his acquiescence to a clueless GOP leadership and POTUS. These politicians who invariably try to excuse themselves with folksy allusions to family do not fool anyone and are an embarrassment not worth dwelling on.
The only thing I agree with is the headline.
Good riddance.
"Equally important, the next leader must be someone who commands the respect and obedience of the conference." I suggest that kind of credibility starts with intellectual honesty, of the kind that doesn't artificially pad budget projections and give false hope through policies that sound nice but aren't grounded in fiscal realities. Many of the growing number of independents in this country became unaffiliated precisely because of the dishonest bait-and-switch game from Republican leaders since GWB and extending through Boehner and Ryan.
Mr. Buskirk, I think you have about right on one point. You clearly know that your Republican President is the leader, heart and soul of your Republican Party.
Paul Ryan has failed your President and your Republican Party. Why don't you just elect a real Republican to serve as Speaker? Surely Devin Nunes can be persuaded to serve.
49
Ryan is not done. Anyone as young as him and as ideologically driven as he is can't quit. He is driven by an insane ideology based on a fiction novel by Ayn Rand. As Leonhardt said today, his only saving grace, and what makes him honest (and evil), is that he truly believes that tax cuts for the rich, and destroying the social safety net will make America great. We haven't seen the last of Paul Ryan.
"Republicans must repay that trust with action."
With friends (in Congress, the White House, and the courts) like these, who needs enemies?
While I agree Ryan is a phony, he was a an enabled phony. Republicanism is phony. As long as Ryan mouthed the party's self-delusions, and carried water for the 1%, he was fine. Reaganism? I had to get out my de-coder,.. do you mean deregulation? The Republicans have no policies beside the massive /tax cuts/deficits/trickle-down drivel that Reaganites championed. It's the party of the wealthy, and that means no long-term vision I see except going back to the 19th century. Ryan is done because the Republicans are done, they are not allowed to think or compromise, two skills required in a democracy. Posturing, threats, nostalgia, sentimentality is what they hone instead. We all know tax havens and access to the gravy train is what counts, ask anybody who isn't into conspiracy theories . Yet Mr Buskirk shows himself to be quite conflicted with his "pro-citizen immigration" ( what is that, exactly?) and my favourite, "pro-worker economic policies" (what, like a living wage?, educational subsidies?, affordable healthcare? you mean socialism!). So maybe there is hope, but cool it with the "Joshua" talk, when we see we are in the promised land, some wealthy politician won't need to tell us.
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Sorry, you lost me when you state that Newt was an effective leader. I think history would dispute your claim.
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What a curious column! At first I assumed Buskirk was-- to use an old Southernism--"just funning." Surely it is all a joke, I thought, because few, even in Georgia, any longer think Gingrich was an effective leader. Only on reading the column a second time, did I realize Buskirk gave himself away two paragraphs after his praise for Devin Nunes where he called Flake, Corker, Ryan, et al., part of the Republican Party's ancien regime.
Only then, on second reading, did I realize Buskirk must fashion himself a modern-day Jean Paul Marat to Nunes' budding Robespierre. If the current turmoil of the Republican Party, is akin to the Jacobins attacks on the Girondists, must we assume that there is a Charlotte Corday lurking by the doorway while Buskirk takes his bath? If so, one wonders who will survive to be Buskirk's Jacques Louis David.
Or has Buskirk intentionally drawn the wrong historical parallel? What if it is not the calamitous motifs of the last year or so of the French Revolution to which we Americans find ourselves politically imprisoned? What if it is not some crazed Charlotte Corday whose knife will point the way to a year of Terror culminating in Thermidor? What if an even darker propaganda is Buskirk's goal here? What if the motif of the knife is from a later historical epoch, and we have a much darker night ahead of us all, one filled with the longest of knives?
5
You're talking over most people's heads (including part of mine) but your metaphor is really wonderful. And I'm scared that you're right.
1
Amen, Amen! Thanks Mr. Buskirk! Hope you write another and MUCH MORE IMPORTANT story when Mitch McConnell finally leaves Washington, and one can only wish, the country.
1
"Republicans want and deserve a speaker with the courage and tenacity of Mr. Nunes "
(Hilarious laugh emoji!)
Please do that! Would be a real knee-slappa' to have a GOP House Speaker who may himself end up indicted for obstruction of justice. He's been running the effort for Trump from his house committee chair.
Ryan was once one of the 'true conservatives', about two GOP generations ago. Since we've had the Neo-Cons and then the TeaParty, who are the Trump party.
The GOP has played a game of rightwing leapfrog since RR took over the party. This last jump to Trump has nearly landed us in the fascist pit.
Just one more jump to say, Bannon/Miller will accomplish that project.
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I'm thinking that there are a lot of Republicans stepping down and not running in the next election because they can see the constitutional Armageddon coming and don't want to be caught up in it. And I agree with Mr. Buskirk, Ryan didn't deliver on so many things like a health care alternative and was noticeably absent for the gun control discussions, and letting Trump lie like a rug everyday. Good riddance.
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Ryan was never truthful in his dealings with the public. He collected social security from his father's account when his dad passed away. He used the money to finish college. He knew first hand how important our social security, our moneys paid in, truly were. Yet, he took the mantle of reagan and continued the slow, but steady, erosion of democracy. He stood with McConnell on the GOP lies against the ACA and was part of the phalanx of destruction of Obama based on McConnell's call, from the night Obama was first elected, "We are against whatever he is for and we are for whatever he is against. It is our (GOP) job to make him a one term president" This is documented by several and in two books. Ryan's pronouncements, his lame power points, were never clear and were never meant to be because they were cover for many lies. He acquired wealth as a congressmen and voted for the tax scam that will relieve him from paying taxes on his wealth. He has done all the damage he can, of course he will retire and sail off with his money. Good Riddance is a kind way to bid him adieu.
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With his efforts to do nothing about climate change Ryan needs to get out there and make an awful lot of money to leave to his kids and grandchildren in the hopes they can survive the coming decades of destruction. $1.50 more in their pay checks won't be enough.
3
It is inevitable. Republicans make a mess and the Democrats clean it up. Then the voting populace quickly forgets who did what, and the process begins anew.
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Bingo!
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"The courage and tenacity" of Nunes? It's more like cluelessness and dishonesty.
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Viewed today as a moderate Republican he was actually a radical extremist intent on destroying Social Security.
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Getting cleared by the House Ethics Committee does not make an allegation "spurious." Continue to hold up Nunes as your model Republican at your own peril.
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The House needs a leader who is in (goose) step with the President and who will seek obedience from its Republican members, really? Obedience, is that what you think of as American Greatness?
Ryan was the stalking horse for the Tea Party and he failed because America is great when it is disobedient. It will remain so under the discordant new "T"-Party.
1
Another right wing fantasy. Republicans have no, and I mean no, conception of the common good and will continue to destroy this country until people wise up. And that includes Goldwater and Reagan. Only Democrats can manage an economy and govern in a diverse nation.
2
Ryan’s departure is certainly welcome as, given his actions, one could never take his so-called principles seriously. The same is true of a pundit whose argument rests on the dim-witted notion that Donald Trump’s ascendancy is a sign of the right’s “intellectual and political reformation.”
3
Mr. Buskirk writes, "Republicans want and deserve a speaker with the courage and tenacity of Mr. Nunes..." Is that the same Devin Nunes who claimed that "executive privilege" prevented his questioning Mike Flynn? The one who authored the cherry-picked Republican Intelligence Committee memo? The one who sneaked into the White House to do the Executive's bidding instead of the Legislative's? There is no evidence that Devin Nunes has ever read the Constitution, let alone that he has any interest in upholding his oath to protect and defend it. One wonders what planet the author lives on when he attributes heroic traits to this to the profoundly anti-democratic representative from California.
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"Voters gave Republicans power because they believed that the policies the party promised offered them a better future."
Nope. Voters gave Republicans power because Trump promised them a whiter future.
Get real.
5
Exactly!
"Respect and obedience" says it all. Right wing doctrine mandates obedience. The concept of a "True Conservative" has no equivalent among liberals. Here is a quaint notion for you Christopher Buskirk. The House Speaker serves the entire House not just his/her own party.
2
Paul Ryan was often called the headliner of the up-and-coming generation of the Republican party and anything from it's conscience to its intelectual avantguard. In fact, not only did he fail to deliver on any of that, he fell short of his own supposed principles and standards, exposing his naked ambition, greed and hypocrisy.
During his tenure, he chided, criticized and outright attacked others for perceived moral failings, but never addressed his own.
Let me be clear, he is hardly the only politician with this nefarious type of pedigree. Still...
He turned a blind eye to the goings on around him, especially when it was convenient and beneficial for his own person and his desire to consolidate, maintain and exert political power and control.
He is one of the architects of the current divisive political and social climate in the US, and the poison, vitriol and divisive (proverbial) bloodletting currently occurring all around.
So it is a bit rich (an understatement) to hear his moans of regret and see the shedding of similarly ill advised crocodile tears.
Good riddance indeed ...
1
Ryan will land as a lobbyist in a dream job of his own making. Self-interest served.
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"The job for House Republicans will be to select a new leader who isn’t just more of the same."
The job of the next "leader" will be to turn out the lights and close the door on a defunct and corrupt party which no longer serves the needs of the country.
3