gracchusdixit

For nearly 20 years, Paul Ryan has represented Wisconsin’s First Congressional District, one of the safest Republican seats in the country, even in this parlous year, when Democrats have a real chance of retaking control of the House of Representatives.  Nevertheless, Ryan decided several months ago not to run for reelection.  As a result, he will not only give up his seat in Congress at the end of the year but will surrender his office as Speaker of the House, the third most consequential constitutional position in the land.  

Ryan’s decision came as a shock, not only to the Republicans, but to the broader Washington political establishment, and immediately sparked a flurry of speculation.  Did his decision reflect a calculation that his party’s electoral prospects are dismal?  Was it designed to salvage a tattered public reputation?  Or was it, as Ryan himself contends, a purely personal choice, reflecting a desire to “spend more time with his family”?  

Fairly or not, almost no one believes the last explanation, because it is the default excuse of virtually every politician who folds his tent and withdraws from public life before the walls of scandal or electoral defeat come crashing down.

The truth is, we will probably never know what Ryan’s personal motivations actually were.  In the end, however, that doesn’t really matter.  What does matter is Ryan’s public behavior, which, since the election of Donald Trump, has been shameful.  

Like so many of his Republican colleagues in both the House and the Senate, Paul Ryan has done absolutely nothing to rein in the misconduct of a president who behaves like an absolute monarch, trampling on the rule of law, abusing his authority to punish political enemies, and lying non-stop about his crimes.  Ryan has occasionally talked a good game, tut-tutting about Trump’s most offensive vulgarities, but as a practical matter, he has turned a blind eye to the worst of his actions and has actively supported those of his Republican colleagues who have become Trump’s stooges and most vociferous defenders.

Accordingly, the following letter was just sent to Speaker Ryan by registered mail.  I very much doubt that he will condescend to reply.  But if he does, rest assured that I will publish his reply in full.

August 17, 2018

The Honorable Paul Ryan                                                                                                             Speaker of the United States House of Representatives                                                                 H-232 The Capitol                                                                                                                   Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Speaker Ryan:

I am not one of your constituents or a member of your political party, and there are few of your political opinions with which I agree. Nevertheless, you occupy the third highest office in the land and are bound by duty, honor, and your Constitutional obligations to represent the interests of all Americans, including those of us who may disagree with you  Above all else, you are obligated to defend our democratic institutions against assault from any quarter, foreign or domestic.  In fulfilling these obligations, I regret to say, you have failed.

You are by all accounts a decent man, and I have no reason to think otherwise.  But personal decency is not enough to make up for a dereliction of public duty.

You have stayed largely mute in the face of Donald Trump’s abominable conduct, and when not mute, you have hemmed and hawed, declining to condemn a man who is manifestly unfit for office, has consorted with criminals throughout his life, daily tramples on the rule of law, and may well have betrayed our country.

Even worse, you have abetted the corrupt actions of members of your own political party, of men like Bob Goodlatte, Jim Jordan, Trey Gowdy, and Devin Nunes, who have abused their authority and violated their oaths of office for the sole purpose of protecting Donald Trump from the consequences of an entirely legitimate investigation into his misconduct.

You yourself once condemned this man, citing your principles, but somewhere along the way, you appear to have abandoned those principles for reasons that you and you alone must reconcile.  

It is certainly not my place or purpose to judge you.  How you square your behavior with your conscience is your business, not mine.  All I can say is that your publicly stated excuses make no sense.  When you talk, as you recently did, of “avoiding tragedies” and “advancing goals,” the only person you are fooling with such talk is yourself. 

Which unnamed tragedies did you help to avoid?  Did you avoid the tragedy of Muslims being banned from entering the United States because of their religious beliefs?  Did you avoid the tragedy of refugees and asylum seekers being criminalized?  Did you avoid the tragedy of thousands of children being ripped away from their immigrant parents?  Did you avoid the tragedy of our country turning its back on climate science, all the while the planet bakes and burns?  Did you avoid the tragedy of Donald Trump vilifying our staunchest allies, all the while he abased himself and our nation by paying homage to Vladimir Putin?

And which unspoken goals did you advance by condoning, through your silence, the monstrous behavior of the man who now occupies the oval office?  Was one of those goals a tax cut for corporations and the wealthiest of Americans?  Was another the evisceration of health care for the most vulnerable people in our society?  Was still another the privatizing of public education, which has been the crucible of our democracy for more than century?  

Do you truly place so much stock in the libertarian fantasies of Ayn Rand that, in order to realize those fantasies, you are willing to sacrifice the future of our country on the altar of a demented demagogue?

I wish you no personal ill will, Speaker Ryan.  On the contrary, I pity you.  You still have time to save your reputation.  You still have a chance to do the right thing.  If you squander this chance, you will go down in history as the most craven and feckless Speaker of the House in living memory.  You will leave Washington in ignominy and dishonor.  

When you next look into the mirror, Speaker Ryan, ask yourself:  Is this the way I wish to be remembered?