“We are flirting with various forms of progressivism, and there are Republican forms of progressivism. Teddy Roosevelt was a Republican,” Ryan said. “We have to thoroughly debunk it, repudiate it.”

Indeed, Mark Levin has similarly explained, “What I see developing is not a conservative coalition, but a coalition on the Republican side of big government advocates.”

“The Republican Party now is a party of the progressive Republicans. Theodore Roosevelt… the protectionists, Ross Perot, Pat Buchanan, the No-Growthers,” Levin has said.

Ryan reportedly suggested that the GOP is engaged in the “fight for the soul of our party and for our country” over the issue of international trade.