If the Obama administration plans to leverage the themes of the Occupy Wall Street movement to win re-election in 2012, Wisconsin Republican Rep. Paul Ryan says America is in for a long, hard ride.
During an interview Thursday in Milwaukee, on WTMJ radio’s “The Charlie Sykes Show,” Ryan went after President Barack Obama for attempting to use the “Occupy” movement to his electoral advantage.
“It, to me, seems like they’re going all-in on a class warfare strategy,” Ryan said. “And what seems so ironic to me or hypocritical is I just remember — it seemed like yesterday — that Obama was saying things like, ‘We don’t have red states, blue states. We’re the United States of America; I want to be a uniter, not a divider’; ‘Hope and aspiration.’
“What we’re getting is a commitment to division from the president here. We’re getting basically a strategy to divide, to speak to people as if they’re stuck in some class and they’re stuck in their station in life and the government’s new role is to help cope with it. That is so inherently contrary to what we’re about in this country.”
Ryan acknowledged that emotional appeals would be the Democrats’ stock-in-trade in the coming elections.
“Preying on [the] emotions of fear, resentment, envy and anger, to me, makes America weaker, not stronger,” he said. “But I guess this seems to be the cards they’re going to play this year and next year — because for some reason or another, they think that’s going to help them, and I just don’t see how that does.”
And Ryan’s vice-presidential prospects? He downplayed them, but isn’t ruling anything out.
“I’m not going to shut that possibility down or even get intrigued about it, because to me there is no point in thinking or even speculating about it,” Ryan said. “It’s somebody else’s decision a long way from now.
“I’m so focused on doing my job now. That’s where my emphasis is and so I don’t foreclose any option in the future because it’s not time to think about that stuff.”
Listen:
[ooyala embedCode=”toNHd3MjpL1LwUjSqBcY4TG80jJZ95kt” name=”ooyalaPlayer_3i2un_goq1q86s” width=”640″ height=”360″ /]