What Paul Ryan Is Up To

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Paul Ryan will try to be the leading voice of the Republican Party in its attempt to defeat Hillary Clinton in 2016.

His demands on his Republican colleagues are relatively soft, not sharp. He spells out his agenda in a passage insisting on his right to be home with family. “I may not be on the road as often as previous speakers, but I pledge to make up for it with more time communicating our vision, our message.”

With his ideological roots in Ayn Rand and classic conservative philosophers, Ryan thinks of himself as an intellectual dedicated to a counter-revolution against the New Deal and every strand of modern progressive thought. He is a product of rigorous Catholic education. He has largely succeeded in achieving respect from the media and political class, partly because he separates himself from irrational extremism of the ‘Freedom Caucus’. His ability to negotiate a budget deal last year with Democratic Sen. Patty Murray reinforced his reputation for relative sanity.