Many articles have been written about the Paul Ryan
disappearing act during the government shutdown. It is odd isn't it that he’s
nowhere to be seen or heard from. What media bubble has he been able to
construct to block reporters out? It’s all so strange.
Ah, but there’s a reason Ryan isn't around; the shutdown was
his doing, and he’s tricked the tea party into taking the hit.
Anyone trust this guy to be our president?
A small local Milwaukee publication the Sheppard Express had
to make what seems to be an obvious call. Everybody else just got caught up in the media
circus:
Americans are rightly outraged that a small group of extreme House Republicans successfully bullied the more rational members of Congress into shutting down the government this week. While we may think these tea partiers are members of the fringe, the sad fact is that one of them is Wisconsin’s own Paul Ryan, the powerful chair of the House budget committee.
Ryan voted along party lines to defund and delay Obamacare
and shut down the government …
So that's how we got here:
…when the Senate passed its own budget resolution, Politico reported recently that Ryan and the rest of the Republican members of the House refused to negotiate with the Senate. They were waiting for a showdown and a shutdown to get their list of tea party demands written into the budget. Ryan has kept a low profile during all of this mess. He had to vote for the shutdown to retain his tea party credibility, but it’s so wildly unpopular with the general public—and Wall Street, the source of a lot of his campaign dollars—that he doesn’t want to be the face of it in the media.
This Paul Ryan is not, nor was ever a leader. He's more like a used car salesman and bad one at that. Just like his requests for stimulus or so-called effort to keep the Janesville GM plant open, it's all "behind the scenes." When the going gets tough, he won't stand with his convictions and feels he has no one to answer to, at least not before political calculations to his advantage have been made. A coward in the purest sense.
ReplyDeletelou -- proclaim what you want about ryan and his ilk -- you are missing the point and so id democurmudgeon.
ReplyDeleteAnd anyone that regularly reads sheppard express knows that it is a entertainment rag that is entirely about selling ads for local bars, strip clubs, and milwaukee's crappy moooooozic scene.
In other words -- it is a hometown booster that occasionally has a short piece on something meaningful (not every edition though!)
It isn't ryan that is the "car salesman" -- it is journal communications, lee enterprises, gannet, and the rest of the Wisconsin right-wing media echo chamber.
Propaganda works -- some need to review history -- it is correct to call out paul ryan.
BUT -- there are any number of others that are waiting to step up to the plate -- all enabled by a compliant corporate media whose owners have decided that these assets are worth more as propaganda vehicles than legitimate channels for public dialog and reasonably truthful information.
My hope is Rob Zerban will bullet point these simple truths and cons into a successful campaign.
ReplyDeleteAnon, I take all establishment media articles/perspectives with a grain of salt. But one thing I won't do when it comes to Paul Ryan or any similar politician is make a case in favor of them by suggesting what I think you just did - that the alternative could be worse because media owners have already decided - all resistance is futile - vote for Paul Ryan.
ReplyDeleteCorrect me if I'm wrong.