The clueless, corrupt and cowardly House Republican Caucus has done the impossible. By electing Paul Ryan as Speaker of the House today it has made the Chamber of Commerce Party appear even more beholden to the donor class and out of touch with the middle class base that actually votes for it than it already did, which is no mean feat.

Ryan was elected today by an overwhelming majority of 236 House Republicans. Only 9 conservatives resisted Ryan’s coronation by voting for Daniel Webster, the supposed favorite of the much touted Freedom Caucus, which has now been exposed as an all talk and no action paper tiger. Way to fight the good fight there Freedom Caucus.

On two issues in particular, immigration and trade, the GOP Establishment and its elected officials are most at odds with the base and are clearly doing the bidding of the power elite at the expense of their actual voters, and it is on these two issues that Paul Ryan is a virtual caricature of the Republican lackey carrying water for corporatist fat cats. One must ask, “Was the Monopoly Man not available?” The visual couldn’t be any worse.

Much to the delight of the cheap labor lobby, on immigration Ryan stands out among his peers for his fanatical support of amnesty for illegals and virtual open borders for legal immigration. Unfortunately, the working class stiffs who actually vote for Republicans will have to compete with all this new labor. And on a kinda important side note, such policies also mean the demographic irrelevance of Ryan’s party in the near future, but what significance is the extinction of your party from the national stage when there is cheap labor lobby bidding to be done?

On trade, Ryan is an enthusiastic supporter of the pending Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) managed trade deal. The base recently went into full meltdown mode resisting fast track authority for TPP but The Powers That Be managed to ramrod it through Congress with the help of lickspittle Republicans despite the vociferous objections of the party’s rank and file voters. TPP represents a wonderful opportunity for the GOP to rectify this situation and get right with its base by opposing this globalist boondoggle, but the selection of Ryan ensures the full force of the party’s apparatus will be aligned toward keeping its members in line.

I understand that the dissident House members were not going to get their choice, but if they had hung together they could have obstructed enough to get someone less noxious than Ryan. The fact that The Powers That Be insisted on Ryan despite the obvious perception problem (Are they unaware that the Trump campaign is happening?) suggests that they are either completely oblivious or this was a raw demonstration of muscle flexing.