On Tuesday night, House speaker Paul Ryan gave a surprisingly enthusiastic speech on behalf of Donald Trump, imploring Republicans to give it their all in 2016 and “unify this party” in the interest of achieving “a conservative governing majority.”
Here is an edited version of Ryan’s remarks:
“…Democracy is a series of choices. We Republicans have made our choice. Have we had our arguments this year? Sure, we have. You know what I call those? Signs of life, signs of a party that’s not just going through the motions, not just mouthing new words for the same old stuff….
“Watch the Democratic Party convention next week, that four-day infomercial of politically correct moralizing, and let it be a reminder of all that is at stake in this election.
“You can get through four days of it with a little help from the mute button, but four more years of it?
“…Look, the Obama years are almost over. The Clinton years are way over. 2016 is the year America moves on!
“…Progressives like to talk, like our president, like to talk forever about poverty in America. And if high-sounding talk did any good, we’d have overcome those deep problems long ago. This explains why under the most liberal president we have had so far, poverty in America is worse, especially for our fellow citizens who were promised better and who need it most.
“The result is a record of discarded promises, empty gestures, phony straw-man arguments, reforms put off forever, shady power plays like the one that gave us Obamacare, constitutional limits brushed off as nothing, and all the while dangers in the world downplayed, even as the threats go bolder and come closer.
“It’s the last chapter of an old story. Progressives deliver everything except progress.
“Yet, we know better than most. We know better than to think that Republicans can win only on the failures of Democrats. It still comes down to a contest of ideas, which is really good news, ladies and gentlemen, because when it’s about ideas, that advantage goes to us.
“Against their dreary backdrop of arrogant bureaucracies, pointless mandates, reckless borrowing, willful retreat from the world and all that progressives have in store for us, the Republican party stands as the great enduring alternative party.
“We believe in making government, as Ronald Reagan said, not the distributor of gifts and privilege, but once again the protector of our liberties.
“Let the other party go on making its case for more government control over every aspect of our lives, more taxes to pay, more debt to carry, more rules to follow, more judges who just make it up as they go along. We in this party, we are committed to a federal government that acts again as a servant accountable to the people, following the Constitution, and venturing not one inch beyond the consent of the governed.
“We, we in this party, offer a better way for our country based on fundamentals that go back to the founding generation. We believe in a free society where aspiration and effort can make the difference in every life, where your starting point is not your destiny and where your first chance is not your only chance.
“We offer a better way for America with ideas that actually work, a reformed tax code that rewards free enterprise instead of just enterprising lobbyists, a reformed health-care system that operates by free choice instead of by force and doesn’t leave you answering to cold, clueless bureaucrats, a…renewed commitment to building a 21st century military….
“And you know what? None of this will happen under Hillary Clinton. Only with Donald Trump and Mike Pence do we have a chance at a better way.
“And…last point, let the other party go on and on with its constant dividing up of people, always playing one group against the other as if group identity were everything. In America, aren’t we all supposed to be and see beyond class, see beyond ethnicity or all these other lines drawn to set us apart and lock us into groups?
“…Everyone—everyone—is equal, everyone has a place. No one is written off, because there is worth and goodness in every life.
“Straight from the Declaration of Independence, that is the Republican ideal. And if we won’t defend it, who will?
“So much—so much—that you and I care about, so many things that we stand for, [hang] in the balance in this coming election. Whatever we lack going into this campaign, we should not lack for motivation. In the plainest terms I know, it is all on the line.
“So let’s act that way. Let’s act that way. Let’s use the edge we have because it is still what earns the trust and the votes.
“This year of surprises and dramatic turns can end in the finest possible way when America elects a conservative governing majority. We can do this. We can earn that mandate if we don’t hold anything back, if we never lose sight of the stakes, if we never lose sight of what’s on the table.
“Our candidates will be giving their all. They’ll be giving their utmost. And every one of us has got to go and do the same.
“So what do you say? What do you say? What do you say that we unify this party? What do you say that we unify this party at this crucial moment when unity is everything?
“Let’s take our fight to our opponents, with better ideas! Let’s get on the offensive and let’s stay there! Let’s compete in every part of America and turn out at the polls like every last vote matters, because it will!
“Fellow Republicans, what we have begun here, let’s see this thing through. Let’s win this thing! Let’s show America our best and nothing less!
“Thank you. Thank you and God bless!”
