On Wednesday, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) gave his farewell speech on the floor of Congress. Ryan has come in for incredible levels of criticism over his handling of the House and his off-again, on-again relationship with President Trump — but his farewell speech addressed themes that have run throughout his tenure in the House of Representatives: the lack of seriousness in addressing policy issues, the unwillingness to stare real problems in the face, and the substitution of political partisanship for problem-solving. Ryan was always miscast as Speaker of the House; indeed, he was miscast as a member of Congress in the first place. Congress is a place for bargaining, not for ideas. That is, in and of itself, somewhat tragic. And the obvious tension in Ryan’s career was exposed by the fact that Congress it itself nearly unworkable.
In his farewell address, Ryan focused on a few themes. First, the greatness of America. Ryan stated:
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