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 August 11, 2012

Ayn Rand Joins the Ticket
Posted by Jane Mayer<http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/bios/jane_mayer/search?contributorName=Jane%20Mayer>

[image: paul-ryan-light-465.jpg]

With the choice of Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney adds more to the Republican
ticket than youth, vigor, and the possibility of carrying Wisconsin—he also
adds the ghostly presence of the controversial Russian émigré philosopher
and writer Ayn Rand.

Although she died thirty years ago, Rand’s influence appears on the rise on
the right. As my colleague Ryan Lizza noted in his terrific biographical
Profile <http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/08/06/120806fa_fact_lizza>of
Ryan, Rand’s works were an early and important influence on him,
shaping
his thinking as far back as high school. Later, as a Congressman, Ryan not
only tried to get all of the interns in his congressional office to read
Rand’s writing, he also gave copies of her novel “Atlas Shrugged” to his
staff as Christmas presents, as he told the *Weekly Standard* in 2003.

Two years later, in 2005, Ryan paid fealty to Rand in a speech he gave to
the Atlas Society, the Washington-based think tank devoted to keeping
Rand’s “objectivist” philosophy alive. He credited her with inspiring his
interest in public service, saying, “[T]he reason I got involved in public
service, by and large, if I had to credit one thinker, one person, it would
be Ayn Rand. And the fight we are in here, make no mistake about it, is a
fight of individualism versus collectivism.” (One of the trustees of the
Atlas Society, Clifford Asness, the co-founder of AQR Capital Management, a
twenty-billion-dollar hedge fund, is one of the many outspoken Wall Street
financiers who has shifted political sides, denouncing Obama, whom he
supported in 2008, for interfering with capitalism by bailing out Chrysler,
and by imposing tighter financial regulations after the 2008 economic
collapse).

Three years ago, as Tim Mak
reports<http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0812/79612.html>today at
Politico, Ryan described America’s political challenge as coming
straight out of Rand’s work—saying, “what’s unique about what’s happening
today in government, in the world, in America, is that it’s as if we’re
living in an Ayn Rand novel right now. I think Ayn Rand did the best job of
anybody to build a moral case of capitalism, and that morality of
capitalism is under assault.”

More recently, however, Ryan distanced himself from Rand, whose atheism is
something of a philosophical wedge issue on the right, dividing religious
conservatives from free-market libertarians. This year, with his political
profile rising, Ryan stressed not only that he had differences with Rand’s
atheism—a point he had made as far back as 2003—but went so far as to
denounce her whole system of beliefs, describing his early attraction to
her writing as little more than a youthful dalliance. He admitted that he
had “enjoyed her novels,” but, as Mak notes, he stressed that, “I reject
her philosophy. It’s an atheist philosophy. It reduces human interactions
down to mere contracts and it is antithetical to my worldview. If somebody
is going to try to paste a person’s view on epistemology to me, then give
me Thomas Aquinas.”

Ryan’s sidestep from Rand was politically essential. As a Mormon, the last
thing Romney needs is to alienate the Christian Right further by putting an
acolyte of an atheist on the ticket. So it was not surprising that Romney
made a point of stressing Ryan’s Catholicism during his announcement of
Ryan today, introducing him as, “A faithful Catholic” who “believes in the
dignity and worth of every life.”

While Ryan may be distancing himself from Rand now, the Democrats will
surely argue that her views on the virtues of selfishness have left a more
lasting legacy in the policies that he and Romney embrace. In his début
today, Ryan stressed that “We promise equal opportunity—not equal
outcomes”—a philosophy that telegraphed a tough message to those who are
worst off. Ryan also signalled a Rand-like celebration of the winners, and
dismissed complaints from the losers, saying, “We look at one another’s
success with pride, not resentment.” Rand’s language was tougher still. She
used words such as “refuse” and “parasites” to describe the poor, while
celebrating millionaire businessmen as heroes. She abhorred government
social programs, such as Social Security, at least until she reached the
age of eligibility, and reportedly signed on for both its benefits and
those of Medicare.

Ryan won’t be the first Rand fan to grace the Vice-Presidential ticket.
Jack Kemp, who was Ryan’s mentor in politics, also described himself as
influenced by her writing. In some ways, the Romney-Ryan ticket resembles
the Dole-Kemp one, in pairing a Presidential candidate short on charisma
and conservative credentials with a younger, more ideologically fiery
sidekick. Kemp, however, was famously optimistic in his outlook. Ryan has a
sterner countenance. Either way, though, while the G.O.P. may be behind
when it comes to attracting female voters, in picking Ryan, who like Kemp
was deeply influenced by Rand, it has added at least the imprint of an
extra woman to the ticket.

*For more on Romney, Ryan, and the rest of the campaign, bookmark The
Political Scene <http://www.newyorker.com/politics>, our hub for coverage
of the 2012 election. *

*Photograph by Brendan Hoffman/Getty*

**

*______________________________________________*

**

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<https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2F2012%2F08%2F14%2Fopinion%2Fweiss-ryan-rand%2Findex.html&text=Is%20Paul%20Ryan%20for%20or%20against%20Ayn%20Rand%3F&hashtags=cnn>
<http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/14/opinion/weiss-ryan-rand/index.html?hpt=hp_c1#>
<http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/14/opinion/weiss-ryan-rand/index.html?hpt=hp_c1#>
<http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/14/opinion/weiss-ryan-rand/index.html?hpt=hp_c1#>
Is Paul Ryan for or against Ayn Rand?
By *Gary Weiss*, Special to CNN
updated 11:43 AM EDT, Tue August 14, 2012
 [image: Rep. Paul Ryan calls reports of his adherence to Ayn Rand's views
an]
Rep. Paul Ryan calls reports of his adherence to Ayn Rand's views an "urban
legend." But that's not what he said in 2005.

*Editor's note: Gary Weiss's most recent book is "Ayn Rand Nation: The
Hidden Struggle for America's
Soul,"<http://us.macmillan.com/aynrandnation/GaryWeiss>published by
St. Martin's Press. Follow him on Twitter
@gary_weiss <https://twitter.com/gary_weiss>.*

*(CNN)* -- People don't generally care what politicians read. But Rep. Paul
Ryan <http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/11/politics/paul-ryan-profile/index.html>is
different. His fascination with the Russian-born novelist Ayn Rand
could
spell trouble for the GOP's new vice-presidential candidate. It could put
him at odds with the Christian right and the Roman Catholic Church.

It all depends how much you believe that he is in the thrall of Ayn Rand.

Rand (1905-1982) is controversial because of the extremism of her views. In
researching my recent book <http://us.macmillan.com/aynrandnation/GaryWeiss>,
I found that Rand's influence on the Republican Party, which dates back as
far as her endorsement of Wendell Willkie in 1940, has been sharply
growing, largely due to her vise-like hold on the imagination of the tea
party and people like Ryan.

Rand was the author of two best-selling novels, "The Fountainhead" and
"Atlas Shrugged." These books, along with her other novels and essays, set
forth an ideology which she called objectivism. Her books have sold in the
millions and appeal to people ranging from Silicon Valley entrepreneurs to
the rock band Rush. (Rush's lyricist and drummer, Neil Peart, only this
year renounced his interest in
Rand<http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/q-a-neil-peart-on-rushs-new-lp-and-being-a-bleeding-heart-libertarian-20120612>,
three decades after writing the songs her work inspired.)

College students notoriously go through an "Ayn Rand phase" because her
books emphasize self-reliance and breaking away from one's parents. For
most people, it's a kind of literary infatuation. But for a few, Rand
becomes a lifelong passion.

Bennett: Why Paul
Ryan?<http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/13/opinion/bennett-paul-ryan/index.html?hpt=op_t1>

What made her books controversial is not violence or sex, though both
"Fountainhead" and "Atlas" have their share of bodice-ripping, but an
extremist vision of America that celebrated greed and selfishness, rejected
altruism as "evil" and opposed the fundamental tenets of Judeo-Christian
morality. (She was also a militant atheist who favored abortion.)

Paul Ryan says that he read her books as a youth but was not influenced by
her. In April, he gave an interview
<http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/297023/ryan-shrugged-robert-costa>to
National Review in which he repudiated Rand entirely. In the interview, he
called reports of his adherence to Rand's views an "urban legend" and said
that he was more deeply influenced by his Roman Catholic faith and by
Thomas Aquinas.

But that's not the way he was talking in 2005, when he gave a
speech<http://www.atlassociety.org/ele/blog/2012/04/30/paul-ryan-and-ayn-rands-ideas-hot-seat-again>to
the Atlas Society, a group dedicated to promoting Rand's beliefs.

In that speech, Ryan said, "I grew up reading Ayn Rand and it taught me
quite a bit about who I am and what my value systems are and what my
beliefs are. It's inspired me so much that it's required reading in my
office for all my interns and my staff."

He went on to say that "the reason I got involved in public service, by and
large, if I had to credit one thinker, one person, it would be Ayn Rand.
And the fight we are in here, make no mistake about it, is a fight of
individualism versus collectivism."

Avlon: Paul Ryan will shift the campaign
dynamic<http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/11/opinion/avlon-ryan-shift/index.html>

Ryan very succinctly summed up the Randian worldview in those remarks. Rand
painted the world in stark terms, as a struggle between the individual and
the collective.

In "The Fountainhead," which was published in 1943, her hero was an
architect, Howard Roark, who pursued his vision despite opposition from the
media and the architectural establishment. He dislikes money and status and
is solely focused on seeing his vision expressed through his work. He even
allows another architect to take the credit for a public housing project
that he designed. But when the project is not built according to his
wishes, he blows it up.

The book was widely denounced as amoral when it came out, but it had enough
wide appeal that it was adapted into a 1949 movie with Gary Cooper as Roark
and Patricia Neal as his love interest. But the stir that it caused when it
came out was nothing like the explosion of fury that greeted "Atlas
Shrugged" when it was published in 1957. That book advanced her belief that
laissez-faire capitalism, unsullied by government interference or
regulation, was the only moral social system.

Unlike the sometimes impoverished architect in "Fountainhead," the heroes
of "Atlas Shrugged" were millionaires and industrialists, depicted as a
degraded class who had to strike to throw off the yoke of oppression. The
heroes of that book included a noble railroad heiress, Dagny Taggart, and a
struggling steel tycoon, Hank Rearden, but they are overshadowed by a
character who emerges toward the end, John Galt, an inventor who leads the
downtrodden 1% on a strike.

Castellanos: Paul Ryan and Gen X
GOP<http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/11/opinion/castellanos-romney-choice/index.html>

Rand further expounded on her beliefs in essays that were published in her
newsletters, and in anthologies with titles like "The Virtue of
Selfishness" and "Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal." The latter, first
published in 1966, contained three essays by Alan Greenspan, one of which
argued forcefully against all forms of regulation, even building codes.
These essays were published by Rand and reflected her thinking. His
strident essays for that book, which he has never repudiated or withdrawn
from publication, were echoed by his actions in the 1990s as a principal
supporter of financial deregulation in his capacity as chairman of the
Federal Reserve.

In a famous appearance<http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/24/business/economy/24panel.html?_r=1>before
a congressional committee in 2008, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-California,
asked Greenspan, "Do you feel that your ideology pushed you to make
decisions that you wish you had not made?" Greenspan conceded that there
was a "flaw" in his belief system, which was widely
cited<http://www.washingtontimes.com/weblogs/potus-notes/2008/Oct/24/he-found-flaw/>as
a repudiation of Rand, who was his friend for 30 years.

In April 2010, appearing before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, he
denied that he had ever repudiated his ideology. "The flaw in the
system<http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/greenspan-denies-his-handsoff-policy-caused-credit-meltdown-1938659.html>that
I acknowledged was an inability to fully understand the state and
extent of potential risks that were as yet untested," he said.

Granderson: Why America doesn't like Mitt
Romney<http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/14/opinion/granderson-romney-likeability/index.html>

Greenspan didn't mention Rand by name, but in an interview that same month
he was asked if the financial crisis was "an indictment of Ayn Rand and the
view that laissez-faire capitalism can be expected to function properly,
that markets can be trusted to police themselves?" His response: "Not at
all."<http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2010/04/greenspan-financial-crisis-doesnt-indict-ayn-rand-theories/>

Ryan's effort to put daylight between himself and Rand also reeks of
history-rewriting. Certainly the speech he gave before the Atlas Society in
2005, in which he toed the Randian line, was no "urban legend." Ryan is no
atheist, but atheism was at the core of her philosophy, because the
teachings of the Bible simply do not jibe with her belief that selfishness
is moral, greed is good and altruism is evil. It's not surprising that
Ryan's budget plan, which cuts programs for the poor and middle class while
imposing no new taxes on the rich, has been criticized by
some<http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/08/13/paul-ryan-s-catholic-problem.html>in
the Roman Catholic Church.

Paul Ryan can either be an objectivist or a Christian. He can't have it
both ways. He faces a serious problem among Christians, moderate
Republicans and others who dislike Rand's views if his expressions of
support for Rand are believed, rather than his denials.

-- 
Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)
art.deco.studios at gmail.com
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