The tragic figure in all this is House Speaker Paul Ryan. He can hardly stand on the sidelines, nor can he reasonably be expected to withhold his endorsement of the Republican Party’s nominee. Ryan himself noted he’s “the highest-ranking Republican in the country,” a post that comes with “certain duties and responsibilities.” Caught in the middle, Ryan has the unenviable task of trying to cajole Trump into supporting Ryan’s fairly well-articulated—if awkwardly named—reform agenda, “A Better Way.”
But trying to get Trump interested in serious policy reform is like trying to get Vladimir Putin interested in free and fair elections: he has no use for them. That’s why Republican leaders who are willing to jettison their erstwhile conservative principles must go. Even if Trump wins in November, conservatives would be faced with a GOP unmoored from any coherent governing philosophy—and a president who is uninterested in one.
[insert gif of dumpster fire being engulfed by a larger dumpster fire in the process of being catapulted into the sun as its swallowed by a black hole]
Here now: we need to raise this discourse a bit above the ass-launchable-bottle-rocket level
Yes, Ryan, like Sophocles' Oedipus, is a tragic figure, a great man brought down by his hubris, his overweaning pride, his attempt to contravene the will of the gods. Can't wait for the part where he gouges his own eyes out!
Joking aside, Republican leaders and principled conservatives now have a duty to break from the GOP, or at least this version of the GOP, and form a new party—or a new movement within the party, to take it back and transform it.
Well, there's your problem right there: those people don't exist. May as well ask the unicorns to rescue you…
That even the party’s most conservative members are falling in line behind the unorthodox candidate — although, many, like Labrador, who is Latino, denounced Trump’s comments about a Mexican-American judge — should perhaps not come as a surprise. Most of the #NeverTrump movement has been situated in the shrinking centrist pockets of the party. An analysis of elected officials and Trump support by FiveThirtyEight contributor Daniel Nichanian shows that outside of “the most moderate tier of Republicans,” backing of the presumptive nominee is relatively consistent across the rest of the party’s ideological spectrum.
“Support for Trump does dip in the most conservative tier,” Nichanian writes. “But only slightly.”
In actual democracies like ours, we don’t need actual putsches. But political parties must sometimes go through refining fires. Now comes the fire for the GOP. May it burn as long and as hot as it must. The country depends on it.
Yes, yes. Let the word go forth, for now is The Time of the Refining Fires!
![rl2o7qgnkmmfcjelrgk5[1]](http://wonkville.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/rl2o7qgnkmmfcjelrgk51.jpg)
Well, the GOP started well.
Great line.
[insert gif of dumpster fire being engulfed by a larger dumpster fire in the process of being catapulted into the sun as its swallowed by a black hole]
Here now: we need to raise this discourse a bit above the ass-launchable-bottle-rocket level
Yes, Ryan, like Sophocles' Oedipus, is a tragic figure, a great man brought down by his hubris, his overweaning pride, his attempt to contravene the will of the gods. Can't wait for the part where he gouges his own eyes out!
Well, there's your problem right there: those people don't exist. May as well ask the unicorns to rescue you…
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-end-of-a…
In actual democracies like ours, we don’t need actual putsches. But political parties must sometimes go through refining fires. Now comes the fire for the GOP. May it burn as long and as hot as it must. The country depends on it.
Yes, yes. Let the word go forth, for now is The Time of the Refining Fires!
They might be mistaking that for refinery fires.
Taking notes.