I just can't get Paul Ryan's words out of my mind. Not his stirring and inspirational speech to the 2012 Republican Convention where he laid out his claim as the Gen X conservative leader we've been waiting for. Yes, it was inspirational to have someone of my generation rise to a national ticket and finally transcend the disastrous Boomers who'd been leading our country down a miserable path.
That Paul Ryan was motivating. And he finally spoke for the issues that mattered to me, and he promised to represent those values on a national stage while fighting for the principles that we of the "Reagan Youth" had come of age embracing with our full, ideological might.
Sadly, it appears, that Paul Ryan is no longer in the room.
The words of Paul Ryan I am now fixating over are from his appearance on CBS News last week, when he declared that some "culture war" issues are really beneath him and not worthy of his valuable attention.
It should be noted that Ryan was asked about Republicans "pushing legislation on banning books," and instead of immediately exposing that disgusting lie by explaining that no one is "banning books" but instead Republicans have judiciously determined that some books are not age appropriate for school libraries (you know... like the porn books that are being forced in the face of 10-year-olds), he let the slanderous lie go and preened about how he's not "that type" of Republican.
RYAN: "Yeah, I’m not a culture war guy. I think it’s really polarizing. Look, on some of these issues I’ll side with the anti-woke crowd, but to me, I’m worried about the debt crisis. I'm worried about the future of our country and China. There are big policy problems that we need to tackle if we want to have a great 21st century for this country. My work at AEI, Notre Dame and my poverty foundation, is all about poverty and upward mobility. You know, what I worry about are the big policy challenges that are going unresolved or made worse by Joe Biden. So that’s why I want to win this election, so we can actually fix these big policy problems. Culture war politics is good primary election politics, it's very divisive, but it's effective politics.
You see, Paul Ryan is the kind of Republican who isn't divisive. He works with his poverty foundation to lift people to upward mobility and to focus on the threat from China. He can't get his hands dirty in the "culture wars."
Wow, must be nice to live in Paul Ryan's world.
Paul Ryan's world is a place where taxation, government spending, and inflation are way more important than children being told that they would be happier if they would take chemical castrating puberty blockers to "change" their sex.
Paul Ryan doesn't live in a world where pornographic manuals detailing homoerotic sex acts with vivid visual aids are introduced to his children at a tax-funded, government school, but we do.
Paul Ryan's world isn't a place where parents are investigated by the FBI as domestic terrorists if they raise their voice at a school board meeting as they try to get their children back into a classroom after an unnecessary, devastating lockdown.
Paul Ryan can't worry himself as a "culture war guy" because his 5-year-olds aren't forced to dance with a drag queen at his local library.
Paul Ryan's world still has "Toy Story" or "Beauty and the Beast" movies for his kids while your kids have Disney content celebrating same-sex marriage and gender non-binary characters.
In Paul Ryan's world, school counselors and educators don't keep secrets of the most intimate, sexual nature with his 5th-graders without the knowledge or consent of Mr. and Mrs. Ryan. Yeah, he doesn't have to worry about what undisclosed sexual tidbit his elementary school teacher has coaxed out of his little girl and kept behind his back.
How wonderful must it be in Paul Ryan's world where he doesn't have to dirty his hands with all those icky, mean-spirited and divisive culture war issues?
How liberating to be Paul Ryan and spend his energies lifting people out of economic poverty while the rest of us try to save our children from moral and cultural poverty.
Does Mr. Ryan think we enjoy engaging in these topics? Does he think we relish the opportunity to petition our school board representatives about outright pornography in our children's school library? Does he think we'd rather focus on preventing genital mutilation rather than fixing what he calls "big policy problems"? Does he think we all high-five each other when we learn about a child who has been secretly transitioned without a parent's knowledge because we've got a new, issue that will be a primary politics gold mine?
What a shameless and despicable insult.
No, Mr. Ryan, it's no fun over here in the culture wars. I envy your ability to dodge the draft and flee to Canada... or Manhattan, I suppose.
We wish we could join you as a conscientious objector. But, the fact is, we didn't start this culture war. We were secretly attacked on our own soil and we were caught flat-footed because high-minded, big-picture Republicans like you were surprised by the enemy. An enemy that was right under your nose all the time.
We didn't start the culture war, and we sure as hell would rather not be fighting it. But if not us, then who?
Clearly, not you.
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