True Conservative Or Enemy of the Base?
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Paul Ryan: True Conservative or Enemy of the Base? An analysis of the Relationship between the Tea Party and the GOP Elmar Frederik van Holten (s0951269) Master Thesis: North American Studies Supervisor: Dr. E.F. van de Bilt Word Count: 53.529 September January 31, 2017. 1 You created this PDF from an application that is not licensed to print to novaPDF printer (http://www.novapdf.com) Page intentionally left blank 2 You created this PDF from an application that is not licensed to print to novaPDF printer (http://www.novapdf.com) Table of Content Table of Content ………………………………………………………………………... p. 3 List of Abbreviations……………………………………………………………………. p. 5 Chapter 1: Introduction…………………………………………………………..... p. 6 Chapter 2: The Rise of the Conservative Movement……………………….. p. 16 Introduction……………………………………………………………………… p. 16 Ayn Rand, William F. Buckley and Barry Goldwater: The Reinvention of Conservatism…………………………………………….... p. 17 Nixon and the Silent Majority………………………………………………….. p. 21 Reagan’s Conservative Coalition………………………………………………. p. 22 Post-Reagan Reaganism: The Presidency of George H.W. Bush……………. p. 25 Clinton and the Gingrich Revolutionaries…………………………………….. p. 28 Chapter 3: The Early Years of a Rising Star..................................................... p. 34 Introduction……………………………………………………………………… p. 34 A Moderate District Electing a True Conservative…………………………… p. 35 Ryan’s First Year in Congress…………………………………………………. p. 38 The Rise of Compassionate Conservatism…………………………………….. p. 41 Domestic Politics under a Foreign Policy Administration……………………. p. 45 The Conservative Dream of a Tax Code Overhaul…………………………… p. 46 Privatizing Entitlements: The Fight over Welfare Reform…………………... p. 52 Leaving Office…………………………………………………………………… p. 57 Chapter 4: Understanding the Tea Party……………………………………… p. 58 Introduction……………………………………………………………………… p. 58 A three legged movement: Grassroots Tea Party organizations……………... p. 59 The Movement’s Deep Story…………………………………………………… p. 60 3 You created this PDF from an application that is not licensed to print to novaPDF printer (http://www.novapdf.com) The Original Origin Story……………………………………………………… p. 63 Roving Billionaires……………………………………………………………… p. 65 Right-Wing Media Purveyors………………………………………………….. p. 72 The Tea Party Was Born……………………………………………………….. p. 74 Chapter 5: A Conservative Dream Named Paul Ryan……………………... p. 75 Introduction……………………………………………………………………… p. 75 A Roadmap for America’s Future and the Young Guns……………………... p. 75 A New Kid in Town: The Tea Party in Congress…………………………….. p. 81 The Primaries: Anyone but Romney (?)……………………………………….. p. 84 The Donors and the GOP Nominee.…………………………………………… p. 88 In Search for Momentum…………..…………………………………………… p. 90 Chapter 6: A Conservative Nightmare Called Paul Ryan………………… p. 95 Introduction……………………………………………………………………… p. 95 Evaluating the Disaster…………………………………………………………. p. 96 Immigration Reform and the Conservative Attack……….…………………... p. 99 Another Government Shutdown……………………………………………….. p.106 Republican Obstructionism and the End of John Boehner…………………. p.109 Leading the Party ………………………………………………………………. p.113 Chapter 7: Conclusion………………………………………………………………p.118 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………. p.124 4 You created this PDF from an application that is not licensed to print to novaPDF printer (http://www.novapdf.com) List of Abbreviations AFP Americans for Prosperity AMT Alternative Minimum Tax CSE Citizens for a Sound Economy DACA Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals DC District of Columbia DNC Democratic National Convention GOP Grand Old Party; the Republican Party Gov. Governor NRA National Rifle Association PAC Political Action Committee Rep. Representative RNC Republican National Convention Sen. Senator VP Vice President 5 You created this PDF from an application that is not licensed to print to novaPDF printer (http://www.novapdf.com) Chapter 1: Introduction In 2009, the American political system experienced a minor revolution, when anger about the bailouts and a viral video of CNBC reporter Rick Santelli ranting about the subsidization of “losers”1 by the Obama administration resulted in the rise of a new movement that quickly gained public appreciation as the conservative answer to President Obama. The movement aimed to take control of the Grand Old Party (GOP) and reform her from the ground up. The party had been in bad shape since 2006 and was looking for a new image. With the rise of the Tea Party, the base of the Republican Party was energized and ready to take over America’s political landscape. The following elections, the 2010 midterms, resulted in a major victory for the GOP, and many credited the Tea Party for the 63-seat gain the Republicans enjoyed in the House. Simultaneously with the rise of the Tea Party, a young Representative (Rep.) from Wisconsin was stepping out of the shadows of the Capitol and into the spotlights as one of the GOP’s future leaders. Paul Ryan, by then 39 years old, had been a Congressman since 1999 and had spent most his time working behind the scenes in the Committee of Ways and Means, where he quickly made a name for himself as a conservative “policy wonk”. By 2010, Ryan was branded one of the GOP’s ‘young guns’, together with Eric Cantor and Kevin McCarthy. The party presented the three representatives as the new, more ideologically conservative faces of the Republican Party, and Ryan, Cantor and McCarthy served as mentors for many of the post-2010 GOP representatives. Since 2010, Ryan’s star has continuously risen through the ranks of the GOP, with his nomination as the GOP candidate for vice-president (VP) in 2012 and his election as Speaker of the House of Representatives in 2015 - a position he holds to this day – as the highlights of his career thus far. As his ascent to the GOP leadership continued, his relationship with the Tea Party and the Republican base changed. Celebrated by many on the right in the period between 2010 and 2012, Ryan’s image among conservative quickly changed, and by 2015 he was branded a traitor of the conservative cause and an enemy of the conservative base. 1 “Rick Santelli and the ‘Rant of the year,” Youtube.com, accessed August 12, 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEZB4taSEoA&t=189s. 6 You created this PDF from an application that is not licensed to print to novaPDF printer (http://www.novapdf.com) The story of the relationship between Paul Ryan and the Tea Party is the story of a political party that has been moving further right for decades, through a process that in recent years accelerated greatly by the relentless activism of conservative outside groups pressuring representatives through campaign finance and the threat of primaries. This thesis will use the story of Paul Ryan’s political career in order to understand how the movement has influenced Republican politics. The Paul Ryan - Tea Party relationship is exemplary not just of the relationship between the political leadership of the GOP and its (most) conservative base, but also explains why Washington D.C. was in such an extreme deadlock during most of the Obama presidency and how someone like Donald Trump could have risen as the new face of the conservative movement. The relationship between the Tea Party and the GOP is highly complex. The Tea Party consists almost solely of Republican voters, but while some are GOP members, others are not. Many Tea Party members distrust the GOP leadership and consider them sellouts, therefore preferring political outsiders over the so-called RINO’s (Republican In Name Only). Some Tea Party organizations have close relationships with GOP chapters, but other organizations consider themselves wholly separate from the GOP and, arguing their goal is to further their beliefs rather than to gain political power, refuse even to endorse specific candidates in GOP primaries or general elections. Since neither the party nor the movement is a single entity, one cannot understand the relationship between the movement and the Republican Party as a whole without understanding the relationship between individual components of both. The complexity of the larger political context and the variety of conditions affecting the relationship between individual GOP representatives and the Tea Party renders a study of relationship between the movement and the party at large undesirable. It is for this reason the preferred research methodology for this thesis is a single case study design. A single case study - defined by Yin as “an empirical inquiry about a contemporary phenomenon (e.g. a “case”), set within its real-world context – especially when the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident” 2 – provides the possibility of conducting an in-depth inquiry into the roles and responsibilities Tea Party voters 2 Robert K. Yin, Application of Case Study Research, 3rd Ed. (Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications Ltd., 2012), 4. 7 You created this PDF from an application that is not licensed to print to novaPDF printer (http://www.novapdf.com) expect and demand of their representatives in Washington. It also offers insights into the GOP leadership’s continuous struggle to please this segment of their base, despite their eagerness to do so. The selected case for this thesis is Paul Ryan, a deliberate choice resulting from his increasing prominence within the GOP in the last decade as well as his altered relationship with the Tea Party as his star rose higher. As such, the story of the Ryan - Tea Party relationship is exemplary for the relationship between the movement and