It's still Ryan vs. Trump, even without 2016 bid

House Speaker Paul Ryan's 2016 options were never very good.

He could be blamed for stealing the Republican nomination from candidates who had actually earned the votes of millions of GOP primary voters or blamed for refusing to stand up to — and perhaps even enabling — Donald Trump.

By taking a pass on the presidential race, some disappointed conservatives will say Ryan failed to do his part to stop Trump.

Republican leaders haven't exactly covered themselves in glory when it comes to Trumpism, largely ignoring its legitimate grievances in favor of repeating 1980s conservative slogans and relying on its less admirable sentiments more than they'd prefer to admit.

But the argument Ryan has somehow enabled Trump strikes me as more than a little unfair. The House speaker really has spoken up for one strain of modern American conservatism while Trump has (perhaps unwittingly) become the figurehead of another.