After finishing a speech on the lamentable state of American politics, House Speaker Paul Ryan fielded a question from one Capitol Hill intern who said he wouldn’t ask the Wisconsin Republican to “name names” and say specifically whom he was talking about....

But he didn’t have to. Donald Trump, the Republican presidential frontrunner, wasn’t the only target of Ryan’s speech on Wednesday, but he was the primary one.

The 46-year-old Ryan spoke at length from a House hearing room about his concern that politics has drifted away from debates over ideas and attempts to unify the country, and is now debased by personal insults and divisive rhetoric....

“What really bothers me the most about politics is this notion of identity politics,” Ryan said, “that we’re going to win an election by dividing people, that we’re going to win an election by talking to people in ways that divide them and separate them from other people, rather than inspiring people on our common humanity, on our common ideals, on our common culture, on the things that should unify us.”