Ayn Rand vs. Paul Ryan

Much is being made of how Ayn Rand inspired Paul Ryan, much of it by Ryan himself, though since Mitt Romney picked him as his choice for vice president, Ryan has been flip-flipping his way out of his own embrace of Rand, for a variety of reasons. Jennifer Burns, an assistant professor of history at Stanford and the author of Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right, writes in The Times of the absurdity of Ryan’s identification with Rand, not only because of her atheism or her support for abortion rights, and her legendary hatred for Ronald Reagan:

“Rand’s anti-government argument rested on another binary opposition, between “producers” who create wealth and “moochers” who feed off them. This theme has endeared Rand, and Mr. Ryan, to the Tea Party, whose members believe they are the only ones who deserve government aid. Yet when his embrace of Rand drew fire from Catholic leaders, Mr. Ryan reversed course with a speed that would make his running mate, Mitt Romney, proud. “Don’t give me Ayn Rand,” he told National Review earlier this year. “Give me Thomas Aquinas.” He claimed that his austere budget was motivated by the Catholic principle of subsidiarity, which holds that issues should be handled at the most local level possible, rather than Rand’s anti-government views. This retreat to religion would have infuriated Rand, who believed it was impossible to separate government policies from their moral and philosophical underpinnings. Policies motivated by Christian values, which she called “the best kindergarten of communism possible,” were inherently corrupt.”

Maureen Dowd sums up the Rand obsession pretty well as “a state of arrested adolescence, making its disciples feel like heroic teenagers atop a lofty mountain peak,” and notes that “Ryan co-sponsored the Sanctity of Life Act enshrining a fertilized egg with the definition of “personhood” and supported a bill Democrats nicknamed the “Let Women Die Act,” which would have let hospitals that get federal money deny women abortions even in life-threatening circumstances. And Rand would not have approved of Ryan’s votes in the House backing W.’s profligate spending on unwinnable wars, a bank bailout and a Medicare expansion. She would no doubt have been thrilled, however, that under the Ryan budget plan, the megarich Romney would go from paying shamefully as little as possible in taxes to virtually no taxes.”

We’ll be seeing plenty of these contradictions in the next few weeks as Rand could become for Ryan a bit of a crutch in the Jeremiah Wright or Bill Ayres sense. “Modern conservatives,” Burns concludes, “ignore the fundamental principles that animated Rand: personal as well as economic freedom. Her philosophy sprang from her deep belief in the autonomy and independence of each individual. This meant that individuals could not depend on government for retirement savings or medical care. But it also meant that individuals must be free from government interference in their personal lives. Years before Roe v. Wade, Rand called abortion “a moral right which should be left to the sole discretion of the woman involved.” She condemned the military draft and American involvement in Vietnam. She warned against recreational drugs but thought government had no right to ban them. These aspects of Rand do not fit with a political view that weds fiscal and social conservatism. Mr. Ryan’s selection as Mr. Romney’s running mate is the kind of stinging rebuke of the welfare state that Rand hoped to see during her lifetime. But Mr. Ryan is also what she called “a conservative in the worst sense of the word.” As a woman in a man’s world, a Jewish atheist in a country dominated by Christianity and a refugee from a totalitarian state, Rand knew it was not enough to promote individual freedom in the economic realm alone. If Mr. Ryan becomes the next vice president, it wouldn’t be her dream come true, but her nightmare.”

See Also:

• Two White Men Who Like to Cut Things: On Romney’s Nomination of Paul Ryan
• Election Homework: The Goods on Paul Ryan

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