CHICAGO — Representative Paul Ryan told the nation’s most active Republicans on Friday that criticism of President Obama alone is insufficient to fuel a GOP comeback in this year’s elections or in 2016.
Instead, the Wisconsin congressman told the Republican National Committee, it’s time for the party to put up examples that demonstrate to the nation and previously underrepresented groups in the GOP that it is the party of the future.
‘‘We are in one of those trajectory-making moments where we will determine the kind of country we are going to be for at least a generation,’’ Ryan said during a luncheon on the last day of the group’s summer meeting.
‘‘We need to show that we have better ideas. We need to show that we have real solutions. We need to show that we’re the party of opportunity,’’ said Ryan, the vice presidential nominee in 2012.
His upbeat tone and call for wholesale expansion of the party to include more low-income and racially diverse supporters come as his party struggles to coalesce around a plan to deal with illegal immigrants.
Comprehensive immigration overhaul was a priority in the RNC’s post-2012 report, commissioned by the RNC chairman, Reince Priebus, after presidential nominee Mitt Romney lost to Obama. A sticking point between House Republican leadership and the party’s more conservative House members, immigration stymied the GOP again last week when House Republicans wrangled over how to deal with problems on the southern border.
Ryan praised his colleagues for raising concerns about the Obama administration, including the health care law and problems with the Department of Veterans Affairs. But he cautioned that opposing Obama was not a winning strategy by itself.
‘‘It is not enough for us to simply criticize,’’ he said. ‘‘We must be a proposition party.’’