Ryan asks conservatives: Don't revolt in 2016

[rangerrebew]

Ryan asks conservatives: Don't revolt in 2016
By Joel Gehrke • 2/3/16 12:17 PM
 
Washington Examiner

House Speaker Paul Ryan kicked off a policy summit at the Heritage Foundation with a clear message for the conservatives who have been his allies over the years but made life hard for former Speaker John Boehner: Please don't revolt, at least not this year.

"The Left would love nothing more, they would love nothing more than for a fragmented conservative movement to stand in a circular firing squad and fire so that progressives can win by default," Ryan said at the 2016 Conservative Policy Summit, hosted by Heritage Action.

Ryan was warmly received at Heritage, but his call for unity included a mild rebuke for the conservatives who have hounded GOP leadership in recent years. He issued it while warning that conservatives may have to ignore some of President Obama's unilateral executive actions, which Ryan described as "distractions" designed to prevent the Republican party from uniting around a conservative agenda.

Ryan urged the Heritage crowd not to "take the bait" when Obama tries to provoke the GOP. In exchange, he promised to spend the next years preparing to push a conservative agenda, including a politically risky plan for entitlement reform, if a Republican wins the presidency in 2017. "I am fine if I lose my seat in 2018 after doing the right thing to save America," Ryan said.


The newly minted House speaker seemed concerned that some activists leaders would thwart that opportunity by channeling their anger over Obama's maneuvers towards Republicans this year.

"We have to be straight with each other and more importantly we have to be straight with the American people," he said. "When voices in the conservative movement demand things that they know we can't achieve with a Democrat in the White House, all it does is depress our base, and in turn help Democrats stay in the White House."

That's the complaint that mainstream Republicans and leadership allies have made about Heritage Action since at least 2013, when the organization backed Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Sen. Ted Cruz, R.-Texas, in an attempt to defund Obamacare that ended unsuccessfully with a government shutdown.

Heritage Action CEO Mike Needham, a thorn in the side of Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, briefly justified such tactics while introducing Ryan. "In recent years, the Republican party has been too often not been the party of ideas, but a party of patronage doling out benefits to constituents and treating conservatives as just one more constituency to be pacified," Needham said.

But then he distinguished Ryan from other GOP leaders. "Going forward must be different. As such I am thrilled to welcome you to our third policy summit and cannot think of a better man to start off the day," he said.

Those comments are a sign of Ryan's early success in cultivating the grassroots leaders since taking over as House speaker, and Ryan returned the favor when thanking Needham for the introduction. "I see a lot of myself in that guy from where I was a couple decades ago in the think tank world," Ryan said.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/ryan-asks-conservatives-dont-revolt-in-2016/article/2582283

[rangerrebew]

Blah, blah, blah.  If Mr. Ryan doesn't want conservatives to revolt, perhaps he should champion their causes and not those of the liberals/progressives.

[Longiron]

After he and the RinoGop screws the country with the Omnibus bill now we are suppose to come together and elect another RINO and hold hands. They win, and we the people lose if we are dumb enough to follow this ass*8***.

[Jazzhead]

Blah, blah, blah.  If Mr. Ryan doesn't want conservatives to revolt, perhaps he should champion their causes and not those of the liberals/progressives.

Or maybe conservatives should think less about their perceived self-interest in partisan warfare, and more about the good of the nation.  A President Clinton would be a disaster for America.   Ryan's right -  it will take unity to defeat her,  and that requires a measure of self-sacrifice, in order to find common ground.   

Even if an appeal to country doesn't work,  then perhaps an appeal to self-interest, rationally defined.   A split conservative movement will have profound consequences even beyond a Clinton victory.   Conservatives will lose ground on all fronts - Congress, the courts, the economy, individual liberty, social issues - if the movement is rent asunder.   Ground that likely never will be regained,  at least in my lifetime. 

As angry as some conservatives have been at the effectiveness at which the Dems have held their positions, utilizing well their weapons of control of the executive and the media,  and the Congressional minority's tools for obstruction,  conservatives stand on the precipice whether they can see it or not.   The GOP already controls Congress,  and there's but one final piece of the puzzle.   An electable conservative who can win the White House and whose coattails can keep our agenda at the forefront of Congress can makes things a whole lot better for all of us. 

Ryan's right.  It is no time for a conservative crack-up.   

[Jazzhead]

After he and the RinoGop screws the country with the Omnibus bill now we are suppose to come together and elect another RINO and hold hands. They win, and we the people lose if we are dumb enough to follow this ass*8***.

The people lose if conservatives are too dumb to unite.