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2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumMeet Ron Johnson, the Randiest of the Ayn Rand Republicans
John Nichols on January 29, 2013 - 9:38 AM ET
There is ample evidence to suggest that leading Republican members of the House and Senate are a good deal more familiar with the fiction of Ayn Rand than with the self-evident truths of Thomas Jefferson, James Madison or Abraham Lincoln.
While the movers and shakers in the partys congressional caucuses may struggle with the meaning of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution or the essential premises of the first Republican president, they can quote chapter and verse from the Russian-born writer who William F. Buckley once decried as a purveyor of ideological fabulism with a scorn for charity.
Rands books serve as an ideological touchstone for a new generation of Republican politicians who have built their politics around the writers cold delineation of distinctions between idealized makers and disdained takers.
House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan, the partys 2012 vice-presidential nominee, peppers his remarks with Randian references and once admitted, 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.
Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann employed the Rand lexicon during her 2012 presidential run. California Congressman John Campbell gives interns copies of Rands opus, Atlas Shrugged, while House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, R-California, tweets: Still reading Atlas Shruggedits quite the read.
continue reading:
http://www.thenation.com/blog/172495/meet-ron-johnson-randiest-ayn-rand-republicans
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Meet Ron Johnson, the Randiest of the Ayn Rand Republicans (Original Post)
DonViejo
Jan 2013
OP
MynameisBlarney
(2,979 posts)1. How Randy is he?
Seriously though.
I am sick to death of Ayn Rand and the morons that follow her bullshit.
MrYikes
(720 posts)2. after reading the link,
Johnson sees himself as Hank Reardon, a guy who spent 10 years preparing his steel. Johnson couldn't spend one hour to prepare for the hearing.
I sometimes get so embarrassed knowing that other nations are watching how we conduct our affairs.