Who is Paul Ryan?

"My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute." Ayn Rand

The name of this blog comes from the novel The Fountainhead written by the late, brilliant Ayn Rand. How to pronounce her first name? She would tell people it rhymed with "swine." She was an agnostic; some call her an atheist. She was a Russian immigrant. She was adamantly pro-choice. She and her husband had an open marriage, each one taking lovers. She enjoyed being the submissive in BDSM play. She said of Ronald Reagan that since he did not support the right to an abortion, he could not be trusted to support any rights. While her followers take her quite seriously, Rand always possessed the ability to poke fun at herself. Is she somewhere out in the great beyond laughing herself silly right now?

The right wing portion of the Republican Party, those who have called themselves the Tea Party, love to quote Rand. In an amazing display of cognitive dissonance, they conveniently disregard everything else about this woman, as they pay homage to her ode to capitalism, Atlas Shrugged.  As a writer myself, I am in awe of Rand's imagination, her command of the English language,  and then of the hard work it must have taken to get it all down on paper. It asks the famous question,"Who is John Galt?"

Atlas Shrugged is a novel. It's a work of fiction, a very long one at that. I have read it, all 645,000 words, give or take a few. Rand was nothing if not verbose. Many of the Tea Party folks talk about it in such a way that makes me think they have not actually read it.  It would not surprise me, because many (most) of these folks are Christians, and that group is notorious for quoting the Bible, without actually reading it, all 728,000 words, give or take a few.

The problem with Mitt Romney, I would think any Tea Partier would agree, is that he is just not conservative enough. I know he has tried to rewrite his history to morph himself into a hard liner, but really the guy is a pretty liberal Republican, what with his pro-choice views and his health care plan. His newly announced running mate, Paul Ryan, helps to make that line much harder. Dick Cheney said he worships the ground Ryan walks on. Enough said?

Ryan himself is trying to rewrite his history, too, downplaying the fact that he has worshipped at the Rand altar for many years. He was at Rand rallies. He gave out copies of Atlas Shrugged as Christmas presents to his workers. He disavows what he calls her atheistic philosophy, which he must do to appease the religious right. If Rand was alive today, she would not give the Tea Party the time of day, yet they swoon over her like a little girl at a Taylor Swift concert.

Ryan and Romney would create a new America, one much scarier than the one in Atlas Shrugged. It would be an America in which the rich white man prevails, crushing everyone under his feet. It would be an America where we worship the almighty dollar to the exclusion of everything else.

Who is John Galt? If you've never read the book, I won't answer that question. But it's fiction. Not reality. Unlike Romney and his new running mate, who if we are not careful, could become our new reality come November. There are other, more important questions. When did the rights of a fetus become more important than the well being of children already born? When did individualism become more important than the common good? When did capitalism become greed?

Who is Paul Ryan?

Susan