PLANK AUGUST 11, 2012
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In modern U.S. history, there has never been a vice-presidential nominee like Paul Ryan. That is to say, Republicans have never before nominated someone for V.P. in hopes that he, and not the would-be President, would define the critical domestic policies of the entire federal government.
The great majority of vice-presidents have been famously insignificant—unless, of course, their boss dies or resigns, and they get to move into the Oval Office. They usually landed on the ticket because they filled some need for demographic, regional, or ideological balance. Then they spend four or eight years in office obeying presidential orders, however trivial, and trying to stay out of trouble.
Dick Cheney was the leading exception to the rule. But, while Cheney was an unusually powerful veep, he never took (at least not in public) a position at odds with those articulated by George W. Bush. The invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, the Patriot Act, even the use of torture on suspected terrorists were all championed, vigorously and unambivalently, by the president he served.
But Ryan would likely be different. Since 2008, he has been hailed, or damned, as the “intellectual leader” of his party. While Romney has spent the past three years bobbing and weaving around his erstwhile moderate positions, Ryan has proudly stood up for a program of privatization and budget cuts embraced by no Republican candidate since Barry Goldwater (whose running mate, the justly forgotten William G. Miller, was the last sitting House member named to a major-party ticket.)
Although Ryan is young enough to be Romney’s son, it is his ideas which thrill the conservative policy wonks. And if Republicans win, it is Ryan’s policies which GOP partisans will demand the new administration push through Congress. So when Romney introduced Ryan today as “the next president of the United States,” it may not have been just a meaningless mistake, caused by the excitement of the occasion. In a the grip of an unconscious fear of being overshadowed by his running mate, Romney may have committed a classic Freudian slip.
Michael Kazin’s latest book is American Dreamers: How the Left Changed a Nation. He teaches history at Georgetown University and is co-editor of Dissent.
5 comments
Despite Romney's acrobatics on policy, he has come out and said things that do not ingratiate him to the middle class, like proper shopping is the solution to an unaffordable education and people of African American Heritage just want free stuff. The Ryan choice is really toxic, as Ryan admits when he limits his medicare vouchers and social security privatization to individuals 55 and under. Of course, Seniors are excluded because they really understand the value of those programs and can't be easily fooled (as Ryan saw in his town hall meetings).
- Nusholtz
August 11, 2012 at 10:55pm
I’m just kind of amazed at what this pick says about Romney’s vision for his Presidency. What kind of nominee picks someone who’ll effectively make himself Romney’s Prime Minister and reduce the actual President to a head of state who welcomes football teams on occasion. He’d be Medvedev to his Putin. There’s a great quote from Robert Caro’s new LBJ book, where someone questions LBJ pushing forward on Civil Rights after JFK’s Assassination, and LBJ said, “Hell, what’s the Presidency for then?” After six years of running for President, this pick makes clear that Romney has no real vision for the office or plan for what he wants to do, because he’s outsourced that job to his #2. If Romney thinks that this is 1932 or 1960 and he’ll be able to exile his Veep to foreign trips and funerals with no power, he has no clue about the Republican House or Conservative Movement’s fealty and infatuation with Ryan. Make no mistake, Ryan will be Romney’s Prime Minister in charge of Domestic Affairs if they should win. That’s just astounding to me, and speaks to a kind of character I want nowhere near the White House.
- Crock1701
August 12, 2012 at 3:09am
This is Bush/Cheney redux. Romney will be the kinder, gentler Prez, while Ryan will be Darth Vader, Destroyer VP. Not long before Bush left office he stood up to Cheney. If Romney gets elected, we'll see if he'll do the same to Ryan. Kazin notes that Cheney never publicly opposed Bush. I doubt that Ryan would challenge Romney in public. But behind the scenes he will be yanking his "boss" further and further to the Right, just like Cheney did Bush.
- magboy47.
August 12, 2012 at 3:12pm
Not sure if Ryan is another Cheney, since I'm not sure he'll be the VP. My sense is GWB became the POTUS as both a reaction the Clinton and having sharper elbows than the Gore campaign. Obama/Biden seem more focused and ready to fight a tougher battle to retain the presidency. While the choice of Ryan may shore up the Tea Party / (hard) Conservative segments of the GOP, his presence on the ticket will be a polarizing factor for the rest of the country. While he seems more capable than Sarah Pallin (which isn't saying much), not sure his choice adds to Romney's luster. It seems more "Hail Mary" than a long considered move. Not even sure it'll move WI into the GOP win column.
- dovpooh
August 12, 2012 at 4:17pm
It's not true that William G. Miller "was the last sitting House member named to a major-party ticket." That was 1964. 20 years later, New York Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro was Walter Mondale's running-mate. They may have lost big, but they were a major-party ticket.
- johnpaulspiro
August 13, 2012 at 8:37am