The world looks aghast at the crisis that seems to touch the very fundaments of American politics. The first thing that emerges clearly is a fundamental flaw in the structure which permits the concept of two terms to be the political right of a one term president. It is a modern phenomenon. In the middle of World War II the American public granted an extension to Roosevelt’s primacy. Risking their loss in the middle of the war, he was uniquely chosen to continue for an extra term. The second Clinton presidency was a well-disguised deception. The second Bush presidency was an undisguised disaster. In the second presidency of Obama, taking advantage of the moral weakness of the president, was to emerge the open split between Clinton and Bernie Sanders.
Paul Ryan quotes in his book, ‘The Way Forward’, when he accuses the republicans of “changing the basic social compact in America”:
“Who are these 50 million Americans?” he asked. “Many are somebody’s grandparents…Many are poor children. Some are middle-class families who have children with autism or Down’s syndrome…These are the Americans we’d be telling to fend for themselves.”
Ryan comments “his false attacks were offensive, even by the low standards of discord and servility in Washington DC.” Obama had opened the door wide on a clear socialist challenge that was to split the Democratic Party.
The conflict in the Republican Party emerged as part of the disintegrating political framework in Washington. The infamous Tea Party of the Republicans came to express the bitter discontent of the electorate. So discredited was the Republican party in the eyes of its genuine supporters, that they failed to see – as did everybody else – that the Republican Party would float a populist candidate from the realm of entertainment.
Now in this situation, both parties are offering to the voting public a far from satisfactory choice. At this point people began to ask where Paul Ryan stood. He publicly announced to the press that as things stood he could not endorse Donald Trump. His refusal, while carefully not saying anything against him, could not render him the acclamation he wanted.
At that moment, Paul Ryan revealed his intellectual superiority and emerged. In ‘The Way Forward’, insisting on the unity of the conservative party as it once was, he states his position:
“Going forward the key is to lay out our priorities so that people understand the moves we make – however big or small they may be. A common vision allows us to move forward together in service to our shared goals. In the end we seek the same objective; we want a leaner, smarter government. We want to recover our founding principals. We want to restore prosperity, opportunity and security. We want to free the engines of moral reform and heal our culture.”
Given the inability of Europe to defend its own frontiers against an invasion of millions, and given the English monarchy is devoid of function of purpose let us retain our respect for a great American when a time of crisis has emerged. The title of his book is ‘The Way Forward’.
