10 Shameless Right-Wing Tributes to Ayn Rand That Should Make Any Sane Person Blush

[HarveyDarkey]

As the evangelical Right's influence has declined, conservatives are adhering to another religion -- one based on the scribblings of a sociopath.
August 20, 2010 |

Up until a few years ago, right-wingers who needed to believe in something larger than themselves chose Jesus. But with the evangelicals fading from the Republican coalition, and Obama's social programs making the whole "compassionate conservative" thing suspect, it look like Jesus is out and Ayn Rand is in.

Yes, Ayn Rand, author of big books about noble capitalists who triumph over the masses, and tomes of "philosophy" like The Virtue of Selfishness, in which she beat Gordon Gekko to Greed is Good by decades. Rand always seemed like a good fit for conservatives, but until recently their fandom was a love that dared not speak its name -- either out of fear that the born-agains would be alienated by Rand's atheism, or that literate people would giggle at them.

What happened? The Republican collapse, and the arrival of an activist liberal administration in D.C., set conservatives scrambling for compelling new story lines to sell the public. Jesus, unfortunately, had been rendered inoperative by all the family-values Republicans caught in sex scandals. With Him out of the way, the atheist, market-worshiping Rand was their best bet.

The transition has been seamless. Glenn Beck regards Rand as a prophet. Tea Party people carry her name on signs. Rightbloggers talk, seriously it would seem, about Going Galt -- a phenomenon previously known as "early retirement," but now judged a political act of resistance against the socialism of our moderate Democrat president.

They're the wave of the future, so let's get to know the Randroids. What kind of people are they?

http://www.alternet.org/media/147872/10_shameless_right-wing_tributes_to_ayn_rand_that_should_make_any_sane_person_blush

[Boojatta]

1. Link to a related thread...

Link

[Boojatta]

2. There seems to be a small error in the article.

Like all good conservatives nowadays, Shlaes is a subscriber to the "Going Galt" idea. But, because she is too exalted and well-paid a wingnut to admit affiliation with so common and bloggy an idea, in a 2009 essay on the subject she eschews Galt and uses a different Rand title for her hook: "You get the feeling plenty of Atlases are shrugging these days," she writes, "in part because their tax burden is getting heavier."

Atlas Shrugged is the title of the book that has Galt as a character.

[Warpy]

3. Oh, that is hilarious!

I think he's onto something about how and why the Republicans are dumping poor old Jesus in favor of Rand. Fortunately, I doubt many of them are going to be electable without poor old Jesus, so they're drumming up this "mosque on hallowed ground" nonsense for one last hurrah.

It's just a little too long a time to November, so it's doubtful even that will work. They've pretty much exhausted the 5 minute hate du jour and even their true believers are getting jaded. They won't want to have to make do with last month's frenzy of righteous outrage.

Still, I'd advise plowing through the article to see where the party, redux, will be coming from. It will be pure Rand, although recouched in slightly more pious language.

It should be a lot of fun to watch.

[pnorman]

4. John Gailbraith got it right!

"The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.”

I had to Google to make sure I had the quote exactly right, and here's one of the many 'hits':
http://www.politicalbull.net/conservatives_selfish_arguement.html

[provis99]

5. good article; thanks for the link.

[CACD14]

6. God do I loathe the cult of Rand

nt