House Speaker Paul Ryan has had a tough month. After initially keeping his distance from Donald Trump, he came around to saying he would vote for the Republican nominee. On the same day, Trump made headlines with comments declaring that a judge was unfit, by virtue of his parents' Mexican nationality, to preside over a case involving alleged fraud at Trump University. The comments, which drew fire even from previous Trump endorsers and supporters like Sen. Marco Rubio and Newt Gingrich, surely couldn't have been the sort of message Ryan envisioned for his endorsement day.
But this week Ryan sought to take the narrative back. Billed as the first plank in a six-plank agenda aimed at showing how conservative principles can lead to a more "confident America", the 35-page document outlines ways that Ryan hopes the House of Representatives will be able to push for reforms to programs that too long have made it hard for people to move up out of poverty.
The Speaker's ambitious proposal involves doing a better job measuring outcomes to ensure that programs are actually helping the people they are supposed to help. It also focuses on ensuring incentives are aligned so that people who can work are able to participate in the workforce and lift themselves up.
Ryan's message matters. In a world where many voters – particularly young voters – no longer think that hard work will help you get ahead in America, people are looking for someone to outline how we can all move up in a system that feels rigged against the average person.
For too long, I've walked into focus group after focus group and heard thoughtful voters tell me that they view the Republican Party as uncaring, focused on keeping the rich richer and the poor poorer. I know this is light-years away from why I chose to join the Republican Party. Perhaps most eloquently articulated in Arthur Brooks' The Conservative Heart, the moral case for conservatism and markets as an incredible vehicle for lifting people out of poverty is a powerful one.
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12.27.2024