Ryan Asks Conservatives: Don't Revolt in 2016

House Speaker Paul Ryan kicked off a policy summit at the Heritage Foundation with a clear message for the conservatives who have been his allies over the years but made life hard for former Speaker John Boehner: Please don't revolt, at least not this year.

"The Left would love nothing more, they would love nothing more than for a fragmented conservative movement to stand in a circular firing squad and fire so that progressives can win by default," Ryan said at the 2016 Conservative Policy Summit, hosted by Heritage Action.

Ryan was warmly received at Heritage, but his call for unity included a mild rebuke for the conservatives who have hounded GOP leadership in recent years. He issued it while warning that conservatives may have to ignore some of President Obama's unilateral executive actions, which Ryan described as "distractions" designed to prevent the Republican party from uniting around a conservative agenda.

Ryan urged the Heritage crowd not to "take the bait" when Obama tries to provoke the GOP. In exchange, he promised to spend the next years preparing to push a conservative agenda, including a politically risky plan for entitlement reform, if a Republican wins the presidency in 2017. "I am fine if I lose my seat in 2018 after doing the right thing to save America," Ryan said.

The newly minted House speaker seemed concerned that some activists leaders would thwart that opportunity by channeling their anger over Obama's maneuvers towards Republicans this year.

"We have to be straight with each other and more importantly we have to be straight with the American people," he said. "When voices in the conservative movement demand things that they know we can't achieve with a Democrat in the White House, all it does is depress our base, and in turn help Democrats stay in the White House."

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