Paul Ryan tells conservatives: It’s time to "unite the clans"

“To quote William Wallace in Braveheart, we have to unite the clans,” Ryan will say, according to excerpts from the address that his office shared ahead of its 9 a.m. delivery.

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The speech, according to the excerpts, hits many of the same themes that Ryan has repeatedly sought to emphasize — the need for Republicans to rally around a positive vision, the pursuit of a “confident America,” and the twin imperatives of being both realistic and visionary.

But Wednesday’s speech is notable both for its audience — the annual Heritage summit, which helps set the tone for conservative policymaking on Capitol Hill — and for Ryan’s repeated emphasis on rejecting anger as an animating principle for conservatives, which has helped Ryan emerge as a counter to the populism seen on the presidential campaign trail.

In a interview last week with The Blaze, Ryan gave his most explicit repudiation yet of the rhetoric embraced most prominently by Donald Trump: “Anger is not a plan. Anger is not a principle. Anger is not enough. I think as leaders it is our obligation to challenge this energy into a constructive use so we can get a mandate to fix the country’s big problems.”

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