Ryan’s Common Sense and Admirable Record
August 27, 2012
THE New York Times makes the case today for why Ryan was a good choice. The editorial titled “Paul Ryan’s Social Extremism” is excerpted below.
—– Comments —–
Paul Ryan’s Social Extremism
Mitt Romney, who will be officially nominated this week as the Republican nominee for president, appears to trim his social convictions to the party’s prevailing winds. There is no doubt, however, about where the party’s vice-presidential candidate stands. A long history of social extremism makes Paul Ryan an emblem of the Republican tack to the far right.
Mr. Romney’s choice of Mr. Ryan carried some risks, considering Mr. Ryan’s advocacy of overhauling Medicare, but it has sent the strongest signal of solidarity to those who have made the party unrecognizable to moderates. Strident conservatives had been uneasy with Mr. Romney, but it is the rest of the country that should be nervous about conservatives’ now-enthusiastic acceptance of the Republican ticket.
Mr. Ryan is best known as the face of Republican budget-cutting, though his ideology runs much deeper. For years, he has been a reliable vote against workplace equity for women, opposing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which makes it easier for women to file wage-discrimination lawsuits, and two similar measures.
The full outpouring of hard-right enthusiasm is based, to a large degree, on Mr. Ryan’s sweeping opposition to abortion rights. He has long wanted to ban access to abortion even in the case of rape, the ideology espoused in this year’s Republican platform. (Mr. Romney favors a rape exception.) Mr. Ryan also co-sponsored, along with Representative Todd Akin of Missouri, a bill that would have narrowed the definition of rape to reduce the number of poor women who can get an abortion through Medicaid.
Besides that, he has co-sponsored more than three dozen anti-abortion bills, including measures that would require women to get an ultrasound first, bar abortions after 20 weeks in the District of Columbia and end federal spending for family planning programs. Though he urged Mr. Akin to end his Senate race last week over an offensive remark about “legitimate rape,” Mr. Ryan has actually co-sponsored more of these measures than Mr. Akin.
“I’m as pro-life as a person gets,” he said in 2010. [cont.]
— Comments —-
Lawrence Auster writes:
The Times editorial had me laughing out loud.
Terry Morris writes:
So-judging Ryan’s positions as “extreme right-wing” is very little indication of how far right on the spectrum he actually is. These people who write this tripe are off the charts on the left, and naturally, from their perspective, someone like Ryan appears to be extreme right-wing. But what does that say about people like us?
Laura writes:
Yes, of course, it is laughable what the Times deems as “far right.”
James P. writes:
Ryan must be doing something right if the New York Times hates him. Of course, we should keep in mind that the New York Times can be relied upon to attack the Republican candidates as dangerous, strident, hard-right extremists regardless of their actual beliefs or records. The only way to avoid these labels would be to embrace the Leftist position on everything — in which case the candidates would be Democrats (or might as well be).
Jesse Powell writes:
