It’s a strategy the Republicans used when they beat Eric Cantor in the primary, one of their own but not conservative enough, in 2014. Cantor, House Majority Leader and seemingly unbeatable, was vulnerable in one particular area: immigration reform. And the keyword Tea Party Republicans latched onto was amnesty. Cantor was for it, but voters in his Virginia district were not. Nobody saw it coming when an obscure, bland economics professor from an equally obscure college in his district beat Cantor, quite handily, on that issue alone. Shockwaves reverberated throughout the halls of Congress as Eric Cantor tumbled back to his old banking position in the private sector.
Now in Wisconsin a similar race is shaping up pitting powerful Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, who won his race by 35 percentage points in 2016, with ironworker turned congressional candidate Randy Bryce, a Democrat. Bryce seems to be attacking Ryan broadside with no particular issue as hot button as amnesty, but he is definitely attracting attention. Can he find Ryan’s vulnerabilities? He seems to think so, pointing out Ryan’s lack of visibility in conducting town hall meetings during the Fourth of July recess with the Trumpcare vote pending in the Senate, his advocacy relationship with a very unpopular Donald Trump, and a “mean, mean” (Trump’s words) version of a Republican health care bill, passed in the House under Ryan’s auspices. The First Congressional District in southeastern Wisconsin is generally not happy with Paul Ryan these days.
Randy Bryce, on the other hand, is a perfect foil to Ryan. He is a full time, longtime ironworker, with a mother who has cancer in fear of losing her health insurance with the proposed loss of Obamacare, a single father who is trying to raise his son on a salary that has not seen an increase since the ’08 Great Recession, and who very much dislikes the policies and behavior of Tweeter in Chief Donald Trump. He is articulate and courageous, a salt-of-the-earth blue collar American worker who wants to do his bit to truly make America, and the planet, greater than it presently is.
Personally I intend to do whatever I can to get Randy Bryce elected, knocking over a card that will bring down the House of Cards, and set the Republican Party in disarray. That will include money contributions, making phone calls to voters in his district, and, possibly, moving to Wisconsin. This guy is the real deal, and could very well accomplish the election win of this century, a win that will ultimate topple Donald Trump and his cronies from power.
For we can’t only depend on Robert Mueller’s Russian Hacking investigation to do so. That could very well go beyond 2020 before any definitive charges are filed that could lead to his impeachment or resignation. It took almost three years for Nixon to resign after the Watergate allegations came to the surface. And Trump is a master of deflection, deception, stalling, disingenuousness, and, to use his characterization, fake news. It’s almost certain he colluded with Russia on tampering with the election process, helping to bring him to power, and this will be revealed, but not before Trump digs his claws into his American power base. At the moment, time is on his side, given the slowness of the investigative process around such vital matters.
That’s why ironworker Bryce’s effort to defeat Paul Ryan in 2018 is so important. A Bryce win will shock Trump and his Republican enablers into chaos and dysfunction. It may not immediately effect the composition of Congress in that midterm election year but it will turn the presidency and Congress upside down in 2020. It could return power to the Democrats for years to come.
The founders of our great country envisioned the voters electing ordinary citizens to the House of Representatives, giving them two year terms in the hopes they would serve than return to their trades or professions. They did not anticipate the glut of lawyers and career representatives monopolizing the people’s House as they have. Randy Bryce is an example of what our founders had in mind.
Please, do what you can to help Randy Bryce get elected, and put Paul Ryan (and ultimately Donald Trump) where he belongs: back home “spending more time with his family.”
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