Ryan had never represented southeast Wisconsin's first congressional district well because he has always chosen Wall Street over Main Street. As such, he has voted for trade deals that have been devastating for workers and communities in a district that has seen factory after factory close. He has voted for Wall Street bailouts while refusing to support basic investments in workers and communities in his district.

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Reprinted from The Nation

Ryan legitimized Trump, and now he's getting what he deserves.

Donald Trump is an ungrateful man.

Instead of thanking House Speaker Paul Ryan for all he has done for his presidential candidacy, the Republican nominee has been taunting his most prominent supporter.

Trump started the week by announcing that he was not ready to endorse Ryan in Wisconsin's August 9 primary: "I like Paul, but these are horrible times for our country. We need very strong leadership. We need very, very strong leadership. And I'm just not quite there yet. I'm not quite there yet."

Seriously? "Not quite there" yet? After all that Paul Ryan has done for the Donald?

That makes no sense.

Of course, Ryan deserves Trump's support. Ryan and Trump deserve each other.

The point here is not to suggest that the speaker merits re-election. He's a miserable excuse for a congressman who thinks about nothing except his own political advancement -- from congressional aide to congressman to House Budget Committee chair to 2012 Republican vice-presidential nominee to House Ways and Means Committee chair to House speaker to 2020 Republican presidential prospect.

Ryan had never represented southeast Wisconsin's first congressional district well because he has always chosen Wall Street over Main Street. As such, he has voted for trade deals that have been devastating for workers and communities in a district that has seen factory after factory close. He has voted for Wall Street bailouts while refusing to support basic investments in workers and communities in his district. And he has proposed speculation schemes that threaten to destroy Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid programs that are vital to his constituents.

Few members of Congress are so worthy of rejection as Paul Ryan -- a point that his angry primary challenger, businessman Paul Nehlen, has made with a renegade campaign that has stirred national attention.

Nehlen is supportive of Trump. But, so, too is Ryan.

Media outlets made a big deal about Ryan's discomfort with Trump last spring. (And Trump is now mimicking Ryan's tortured language from that time.) But Ryan's "caution" was theatrical rather than real.

Ryan's complained about Trump's religious bigotry and anti-immigrant hysterics. But the speaker always pledged to support the Republican nominee for president.

Weeks before the Republican National Convention, Ryan gave his blessing to Trump's candidacy -- as everyone knew he would. This speaker is known for nothing so much as putting party ahead of principle.

Long before he endorsed Trump, however, Ryan enabled the billionaire's candidacy. His mild criticisms of the billionaire combined with promises to support the nominee legitimized Trump in the eyes of GOP primary voters.

So why is Trump complaining about Ryan now?

Trump's reluctance to back Ryan suggests that he is either the most ungrateful presidential contender in American history or that he really is irrational.

Or perhaps he is both.

No matter. Asked whether he would withdraw his endorsement, Ryan announced Thursday that he was sticking with Trump.

Copyright 2016 thenation.com -- distributed by Agence Global

Authors Bio:

John Nichols, a pioneering political blogger, has written the Online Beat since 1999. His posts have been circulated internationally, quoted in numerous books and mentioned in debates on the floor of Congress.


Nichols writes about politics for The Nation magazine as its Washington correspondent. He is a contributing writer for The Progressive and In These Times and the associate editor of the Capital Times, the daily newspaper in Madison, Wisconsin. His articles have appeared in the New York Times, Chicago Tribune and dozens of other newspapers.


Nichols is a frequent guest on radio and television programs as a commentator on politics and media issues. He was featured in Robert Greenwald's documentary, "Outfoxed," and in the documentaries Joan Sekler's "Unprecedented," Matt Kohn's "Call It Democracy" and Robert Pappas' "Orwell Rolls in his Grave." The keynote speaker at the 2004 Congress of the International Federation of Journalists in Athens, Nichols has been a featured presenter at conventions, conferences and public forums on media issues sponsored by the Federal Communications Commission, the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Consumers International, the Future of Music Coalition, the AFL-CIO, the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, the Newspaper Guild [CWA] and dozens of other organizations.


Nichols is the author of the upcoming book The Genius of Impeachment (The New Press), as well as a critically-acclaimed analysis of the Florida recount fight of 2000, Jews for Buchanan (The New Press) and a best-selling biography of Vice President Dick Cheney, Dick: The Man Who is President (The New Press), which has recently been published in French and Arabic. He edited Against the Beast: A Documentary History of American Opposition to Empire (Nation Books), of which historian Howard Zinn said: "At exactly the time when we need it most, John Nichols gives us a special gift--a collection of writings, speeches, poems, and songs from throughout American history--that reminds us that our revulsion to war and empire has a long and noble tradition in this country."


With Robert W. McChesney, Nichols has co-authored the books, It's the Media, Stupid! (Seven Stories), Our Media, Not Theirs (Seven Stories) and Tragedy and Farce: How the American Media Sell Wars, Spin Elections, and Destroy Democracy (The New Press). McChesney and Nichols are the co-founders of Free Press, the nation's media-reform network, which organized the 2003 and 2005 National Conferences on Media Reform.


Of Nichols, author Gore Vidal says: "Of all the giant slayers now afoot in the great American desert, John Nichols's sword is the sharpest."