CT Blue

Paul Ryan has some advice for his fellow Republicans:

‘‘We need to show that we have better ideas. We need to show that we have real solutions. We need to show that we’re the party of opportunity,’’ said Ryan, the vice presidential nominee in 2012.

His upbeat tone and call for wholesale expansion of the party to include more low-income and racially diverse supporters come as his party struggles to coalesce around a plan to deal with illegal immigrants.

via The Boston Globe

When he's right, he's right. For the moment, let's just talk about low income people. The GOP does have a problem with this group, caused in part by some of their members who truly care about the poor, but have trouble expressing themselves, like the guy who said that we really should just let them wither and die. He tried to explain that he really didn't mean it. He was just trying to say that the poor are only poor because some people are trying to help them, instead of letting them fend for themselves in a world in which the system is rigged against them.

Enter Paul Ryan, who clearly understands that the GOP could use some of the poor people's votes, inasmuch as, try as they might, they can't disenfranchise them all or get them to wither and die, particularly given the fact that we are creating more poor people than we can get to wither, in large part as a result of Republican obstructionism. So, Ryan's offering the poor something more than the chance to fend for themselves in a world in which the system is rigged against them. Based on his policy positions, his prescription for attracting the support of low income voters is to stop unemployment benefits, slash Medicaid, cut taxes on the rich, and cut food stamps. And that's just the start, as he's got social security disability and retirement benefits in his sights as well. Some might say there's not an inch of daylight between Ryan's prescriptions and the current policy of the Republican Party, but they couldn't be more wrong. You see, Ryan is also proposing that the party assure the poor that Republicans care about low income Americans, which makes all the difference. Once the poor folks realize that the Republicans are reducing them to destitution for their own good, they will vote for the party in droves. Or so Ryan believes, which proves not only that he is a man of compassion, but that, contrary to the common slur, he does not believe that he is living in an Ayn Rand novel, for even Rand was not that detached from reality.