“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.
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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