I have always generally agreed with Paul Krugman’s description of Ryan as a flim-flam man, but I hoped that he would use his credibility as a budget cutter with the Freedom Caucus to make the House a little more predictable, constructive, and civil when he became Speaker. No such luck. The shutdown is perfect theme music for his departure.
Ryan’s legacy, in a word, is failure. Like Boehner before him, he never figured out how to get the right under control. His mild words of disapproval in the face of the worst of Trumpism annoyed the man on golf cart, but never caused him to moderate his behavior. His two principal policy initiatives–the border adjustment tax and entitlement “reform”–died ignominiously, to the regret of few. Yes, he did succeed in shepherding a large regressive tax cut through the system, but a reasonably trained seal could have done that, since cutting taxes is one of the few things all Republicans agree on.
Having lost the election, along with everything else, he wouldn’t have been Speaker, anyway. The Republicans in the House will have very little say in how the country is run over the next two years. What will they do with themselves? More on that at a later date.