Zombie-Eyed Trump Voters

GOP House Speaker Paul Ryan is fully endorsing Donald Trump, and with Ryan falling in line the Republicans are now totally the party of white supremacy in 2016. Yay!

Back in early May, Ryan became perhaps the highest profile Trump resister who's currently holding elected office when he went on CNN to proclaim that he wasn't "ready" to endorse Trump. Ryan emphasized that, to "bring all wings of the Republican Party together," he thought Trump would have to do two things: embrace conservative values and use rhetoric that would "appeal to all Americans."

But, as Matt Yglesias wrote at the time, this always appeared to be a bluff. Ryan simply didn't have much leverage on the guy who had already won the GOP nomination. Furthermore, Ryan himself needs the party to unify, to better help his House majority win reelection. And reports from a mid-May meeting between Ryan and Trump seemed to signal that the speaker wouldn't hold out too much longer.

So now Ryan has caved. And his rationale, essentially, is to argue that it's he and his House Republicans, not Trump, who would really be setting the policy agenda. Here's Ryan in the op-ed:

Oh, this should be good.

"Donald Trump and I have talked at great length about things such as the proper role of the executive and fundamental principles such as the protection of life. The list of potential Supreme Court nominees he released after our first meeting was very encouraging.

But the House policy agenda has been the main focus of our dialogue. We’ve talked about the common ground this agenda can represent. We’ve discussed how the House can be a driver of policy ideas. We’ve talked about how important these reforms are to saving our country. And we’ve talked about how, by focusing on issues that unite Republicans, we can work together to heal the fissures developed through the primary.

Through these conversations, I feel confident he would help us turn the ideas in this agenda into laws to help improve people’s lives. That’s why I’ll be voting for him this fall.

It’s no secret that he and I have our differences. I won’t pretend otherwise. And when I feel the need to, I’ll continue to speak my mind. But the reality is, on the issues that make up our agenda, we have more common ground than disagreement."

Gosh, does the GOP House agenda include building a giant wall and deporting tens of millions?

It does now, Paul. And you just signed on for all of it.