Rep. Ryan is an Ayn Rand libertarian who is working for the Koch brothers to redefine what conservatism is; their golden boy as others have described him. It is pretty obvious the Koch Brothers want this guy to be the standard bearer of conservatism. Most people who pay attention to what is going on in the political arena are well aware the Koch Brothers are longtime libertarians, who were not able to gain traction with their Libertarian Party so they resorted to buying out the Republican Party via the tea party challenge to advance their libertarian agenda.
With the great influx of the Koch brothers money, in this time of 'money rules' political culture, not only do we see conservatism being redefined but also what it means to be a Republican redefined.
Mr. Ryan may believe Trump does not represent the party, but the voters obviously do. I thought it was interesting that Bobby Jindal garnered less than 1 percent of the vote and had to drop out. It was Jindal who said, "We have to quit being the party of stupid. We have to stop fielding these offensive and bizarre candidates." Steven Colbert pointed out that when Jindal dropped out, offensive (Trump) and bizarre (Ben Carson) were in first and second place. The voters are the ones who ultimately will define the party and what it stands for.
My own personal opinion of what the Republican Party represents is a last-ditch effort for the big oil oligarchs, like the Koch brothers, to maintain control of Washington. The Democrats seem to be consolidating the support of the Wall Street oligarchs. Their president has served them well. He handed over a gargantuan sum of taxpayer money to them after his election in 2008, wouldn't let any of them go to jail and managed to repeal the reforms to prevent them from handing over more money in the future, while successfully making it look like it was the Republicans' fault.
Why the Republicans think this president is stupid is beyond me. Bill Moyers, a great champion for social justice, once said he thought President Barack Obama underestimated his opponents. I think the Republicans underestimated and misrepresented the president to their base and Trump is the backlash from their failed political strategy to 'oppose everything Obama' and become the party of obstruction.
It will be interesting to see if Trump's latest bigoted rhetoric will be his undoing, or if it will be just another boost in the polls. A boost in the polls seems unfathomable, but to a Bernie Sanders supporter like myself, I thought calling immigrants "rapist and murderers" would not be something I would ever hear coming from someone campaigning for president. I heard the new leader in the Iowa race (Ted Cruz) say this morning that while he doesn't support the ban on Muslims, he never the less likes Trump. All the Republicans I have asked, "if it came down to Trump or Hillary Clinton who would you vote for?" All of them, to the last person, said Trump. Most of these people are Christians!
I will not vote for any, as Ralph Nader would call them, Corporate Democrat or Corporate Republican. Like I said before, I am a staunch supporter of Sanders who has been a champion for the working class his entire career. Why any voter in this great nation would trust the likes of Trump or Clinton over a man like Sanders is beyond me. In Sanders, we have the opportunity to envision a government who will once again, as stated in the Constitution's preamble, "promote the general welfare" of this great nation rather than promoting the welfare of the oligarchs. To me, and many other Americans like myself, the choice is simple and clear. The media is painting Sanders as someone who is very Clintonesque. That portrayal is betrayal of the public trust. Sanders gets very little press in regard to what is at the heart of his campaign, but he gets ample opportunity to answer questions about Clinton and Trump.
There was a fellow who once said, "Americans have a great thing going, they can have whatever they want, but it does not occur to me that they want much of anything at all." I emphatically agree with this statement. We should want more, rather, we should demand more, more from the press and especially more from our politicians. If the oligarchs that rule this country, both Democrats and Republicans, are allowed to continue down this path of excessive greed at any cost, I'm afraid our heritage as a great nation is the price we ultimately will pay. Who am I trying to kid? We are paying it already.
Regards,
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