Here & Now

Paul Ryan Retires from House

Frederica Freyberg:
Now to Washington, D.C. where outgoing First District Congressman House Speaker Paul Ryan bid farewell on Wednesday. He touted his tenure as a time that made great and lasting difference, but he also said the current political times were filled with broken politics.

Paul Ryan:
Outrage has become a brand, and as with anything that gets marketed, it gets scaled up. It becomes more industrialized, more cold, more unfeeling. And that’s the thing. For all the noise, there is actually less passion, less energy. We sort of default to lazy litmus tests and shopworn denunciations. It is just emotional pabulum fed from a trough of outrage. It’s exhausting. It zaps meaning from our politics. And, it discourages good people from pursuing public service.