Standing before the House of Representatives on Thursday, newly minted Speaker Paul Ryan didn’t mince words.

“Let’s be frank: The House is broken,” the Wisconsin congressman and former vice presidential nominee said. “We are not settling scores. We’re wiping the slate clean.”

Despite his conservative credentials, it’s possible that Ryan’s time as speaker could facilitate more bipartisan cooperation and check the power of the hard-right radicals who pushed out John Boehner — the same radicals that are constantly threatening government shutdowns.

Republicans and Democrats alike have cheered Ryan as a leader who’s likely to clamp down on the hardline conservatives in his party, which is imperative both for the GOP’s future and for this Congress to create any meaningful policies. These hardliners have constantly blocked Democrats and triggered a virtual civil war with moderates in the Republican ranks.

Still, there’s a deep irony in the fact Ryan is now considered a moderate by the hard right. He’s long been a mouthpiece for arch-conservative philosophies that aim to restructure American government. Some of his ideas stem almost directly from controversial figures like Ayn Rand, and it shows — Ryan was hailed by notorious right-wing members like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh as the savior of the Republican Party in 2012.

Ryan’s opposition of paid family leave for American workers, even while demanding time with his own family, is one striking example of the warped hard-right double standard he lives by.

Yet, Ryan does have a past of compromise with Democrats. In 2014, he and former Senate Budget Chair Patty Murray (D-WA) launched a bipartisan proposal to re-examine various federal programs and he negotiated with Democrats to prevent a shutdown in 2013.

Ryan has always been an interesting figure. Before he was sucked deeper into congressional politics and was still tentatively setting groundwork for a 2016 campaign, he and possible Republican presidential nominee Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) were championing George W. Bush’s old favorite term “compassionate conservatism.”

“Compassionate conservatism” was a short-lived party rebranding that tried to emphasize conservative solutions to the crisis facing working-class America. In an era when popular discourse often brands the GOP as lackeys of the rich, it could be a compelling approach — one Democrats could be more receptive to, though it’s too soon to predict much support for Ryan from across the aisle.

Democratic leaders have been reserved about how much they’ll be willing to compromise with Ryan’s policy intentions. After all, this is a guy who made his name promising to slash the percentages that the U.S. taxes its wealthy and big corporations.

Moving forward, there are two fundamental things at stake.

First: the stability and direction of the Republican Party, which has grown increasingly fractured in the half-decade since the Tea Party surge.

Ryan has made it clear he wants to make the House GOP more inclusive and open to dialogue, anticipating criticism from hardliners who repeatedly cursed Boehner for the top-down way he managed his party’s members. Luckily, Ryan seems to have insured himself against the radicals trying to unseat him as they did with Boehner.

Second: Will deadlock with the Democratic minority continue?

If Ryan can get the hard right in line and temper some of his more conservative goals, meaningful compromise with Democrats is definitely possible. But it’s a big “if,” and it might be too much to hope for.

Thomas Beckley-Forest is a sophomore newspaper and online journalism major. His column appears weekly. He can be reached at tjbeckle@syr.edu.

Published on November 3, 2015 at 12:47 am