The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Ayn Rand On The Liberal And Liberal-Lite Parties In The U.S.

Posted on | November 14, 2011 | 37 Comments

by Smitty

The Tea Partiers are the moderates; everyone to the Left is suicidal.

NPR quotes Ayn Rand:

“Both [GOP and Democrats] today are for socialism, in effect — for controls. And there is no party, there are no voices, to offer an actual pro-capitalist, laissez-faire, economic freedom and individualism,” she said. “That is what this country needs today.”

The Tea Parties are a de facto second party, infiltrating the Liberal-Lite party.  Hence the tepid response to Mitt Romney at the Defending the American Dream Summit, until he mentioned repealing ObamaCare. Lots of applause. “Should have started with that,” he observed.

The Rand quotation comes from a 1959 interview. Since then, we’ve entered an Information Age. The Nanny State was as brutally stupid toward individuals then as it is now. Subsequently, the demographics have worsened, and the people who used to scream at home, clutching their newspapers, are now blogging, commenting, networking, and comparing notes. The Nanny State delenda est. The likelihood of success for the GOP nominee is proportional to the degree (s)he gets it.

via The Future of Capitalism

Category: Politics, Progressivism

Comments

37 Responses to “Ayn Rand On The Liberal And Liberal-Lite Parties In The U.S.”

  1. Joe
    November 14th, 2011 @ 6:34 pm

    Sadly, I think they still have this anti Rand thing over at National Review.  But Ayn Rand would definitely be a tea partier if she were alive today. 

  2. Anonymous
    November 14th, 2011 @ 7:01 pm

    I kinda doubt it.  She was a purist and not into compromise;  the God thing that a lot of Tea Partiers appreciate would really rub her the wrong way.  Note how she reacted to Bill Buckley.

  3. Anonymous
    November 14th, 2011 @ 7:03 pm

    “…the people who used to scream at home, clutching their newspapers, are now blogging, commenting, networking, and comparing notes…”

    Reminds me of my dear old dad, who watched all the pundit TV shows back in the day.  He got very p*ssed off at some politician and shot the TV.  Mom took his gun away.

  4. Marvin McFadin
    November 14th, 2011 @ 7:10 pm

    The was a time when patriotism, self-reliance, strong defense were winning arguments in an election (eg. Reagan).  But just as he lamented and forewarned in his farewell address, if the younger generation is not brought up the principles upon which the nation was founded, then all that was gained would be lost.  Now, look the Occupy Wall Street, Penn State riots, the youth movement for Obama in 2008.

    We lost the war 20 years ago.  Conservatives must fight a revolution, not a holding action.  The Margaret Hoover generation and younger shifted left beneath us.  We must convince that generation they are better off with us than with them.  Then work to make them see that government is power, and power corrupts, hence government is not the solution, but a beast that must be tamed.  Then we need to train public school children with the same thing.

  5. Nigel
    November 14th, 2011 @ 7:11 pm

    In other news, it’s already Monday night and still no Rule-5 roundup. Should we worry ?

  6. Anonymous
    November 14th, 2011 @ 8:01 pm

    Someone told them she was an atheist.

  7. DaveO
    November 14th, 2011 @ 8:10 pm

    Evil doesn’t destroy. It infects then consumes.

  8. Anonymous
    November 14th, 2011 @ 8:17 pm

    Is there anyone who believes ORomney will actually try and repeal it?

  9. richard mcenroe
    November 14th, 2011 @ 8:39 pm

    O hell no.

  10. Anonymous
    November 14th, 2011 @ 9:33 pm

    Depends on the Tea Party.

  11. Anonymous
    November 14th, 2011 @ 9:39 pm

    Well what ever consumed Rule-5 is certainly evil.

  12. smitty
    November 14th, 2011 @ 9:50 pm

    Mitt has said so rather explicitely. It would be a RomneyCare-esque failure not to abort Son of RomneyCare. If I may phrase it that way.

  13. richard mcenroe
    November 14th, 2011 @ 9:56 pm

    Romney says lots of things.

  14. Anonymous
    November 14th, 2011 @ 10:23 pm

    And vice versa. Buckley reviewed Atlas Shrugged in NR, and ever since then NR and the Randites have been persona non grata to each other. Which is really the way it should be between Catholic Traditionalists and Objectivists, when you stop and think about it.

  15. Anonymous
    November 14th, 2011 @ 10:24 pm

    Well, she was. Didn’t like religion whether it was organized or not.

  16. Anonymous
    November 14th, 2011 @ 10:25 pm

    I’m working on it.

  17. Anonymous
    November 14th, 2011 @ 10:26 pm

    Which is why electing conservatives to Congress to keep him honest is so important.

  18. Anonymous
    November 14th, 2011 @ 10:40 pm

    Probably so. I like Rand–a LOT–but she seemed to go after Buckley like a pit bull. Had they worked together against the libs, we might be reading about President Goldwater in our history books.

  19. AngelaTC
    November 15th, 2011 @ 6:59 am

    I don’t think so…..she despised libertarians and conservatives equally. I can’t imagine her embracing their failing attempt at cohesion.

  20. AngelaTC
    November 15th, 2011 @ 7:01 am

    “The God thing” is one of the reasons the TEA Party failed.  The movement was supposed to be about lowering taxes, but when people brought other agendas in, the movement was essentially neutered.  

  21. AngelaTC
    November 15th, 2011 @ 7:06 am

    Is there anyone who believes any Republican will get a repeal through both Houses?    Remember,  they’ve never repealed a single thing the Dems have shoved through.  Every single program that Newt was going to cut under that Contract with America now has a budget that’s at least five times what it was then.  

    The GOP was talking about “reform instead of repeal” before the ink was dry, too.  This is a done deal, IMHO. They’re now just using it as a tool to get themselves elected.

  22. smitty
    November 15th, 2011 @ 8:15 am

    AngelaTC, you’re cute when you’re expressing the wishful thinking of the Left aloud. The Tea Parties went state/local, for example, to return VA to full conservative control with the 2011 election.
    Sure, liberal fascism is dying hard slowly, as seen in Ohio, but the country will be emancipated. As long as the RINOs are identified and flogged, that is.

  23. ThePaganTemple
    November 15th, 2011 @ 8:40 am

    You call that trouncing Kasich took in Ohio “dying hard slowly”? And you’re accusing Angela of “wishful thinking”?

  24. ThePaganTemple
    November 15th, 2011 @ 8:42 am

    It didn’t help the Tea Party at all when the TP’s nutty, crazed uncle Ron escaped from the attic and tried to co-opt the movement by calling himself it’s “father” which he most definitely is not.

  25. ThePaganTemple
    November 15th, 2011 @ 8:51 am

    I wouldn’t put the Penn State riots on the same level of scumbaggedness as the #OWS “movement”. The Penn State riots were a one time thing, and they weren’t based on anything political, it was more anger at the Penn State Administration and Alumni Association, mainly for caving to the media. They thought Paterno was getting a bum rap, that the media was taking the lead in what they saw as unfair abuse leveled at a man they all loved and admired, practically worshiped. That’s all it was and it didn’t go beyond that. #OWS, by contrast, is based on hatred of the entire capitalist system and republican form of government, and resentment of the “rich”.

  26. Bob Belvedere
    November 15th, 2011 @ 8:57 am

    Also, many of The TEA Partiers are not ideological and Ayn was a fierce ideologue – her greatest failing.

  27. Bob Belvedere
    November 15th, 2011 @ 8:57 am

    ‘Failing’????

  28. Bob Belvedere
    November 15th, 2011 @ 9:01 am

    -All school children, public and private.  Many of the private schools are basically Red Schools in the old Marxist sense [Sidwell Friends, anyone?].

    -We must not fight a Revolution.  Revolutions destroy things.  We must seek to Restore the freedoms and liberties bequeathed to us by The Founding Fathers.

  29. Bob Belvedere
    November 15th, 2011 @ 9:04 am

    Can’t believe a word out of the Brylcreem Kid’s mouth, including ‘and’ and ‘the’.

  30. AngelaTC
    November 15th, 2011 @ 9:11 am

    And you’re just adorable when you’re hopefully expressing the wishful thinking that never comes to fruition.    Here’s my take on the TEA Party: I was talking with the head of the county GOP last week, and she was bemoaning the fact that #OWS has a higher approval rating than the TEA Party does these days.  (And before you go all “She’s the establishment!” on me,  let me remind you that I’m a Ron Paul supporter for heaven’s sakes , and she has been nothing but supportive of us and our candidate of choice for 5 years now.   She does an excellent job of uniting the various factions in the party. )  

    The TEA Party in Phoenix has decided that Newt is their candidate of choice for reasons only they can fathom.  In my local TEA Party, Cain is the current favorite despite a lack of any mention of cutting a single dime of government spending, largely because they believe he hates the Muslims and will stop Sharia Law.  

    The social conservatives in Kentucky were aghast when the TEA Party anointed Rand Paul as their candidate,  and a faction even publicly renounced the movement when the leader there gently told them that abortion wasn’t the TEA Party’s issue.

    Sure I see Virginia, but you can’t just gloss over  Ohio like it is an anomaly when it’s likely a foreshadowing:  the governor and the TEA Party won.  Then they did what they said they were going to do in the legislature, but the people suddenly sent that idea packing.  

    Do you have parents?  Ask them about reforming social security, and witness how entrenched the socialism actually is, especially in the block that’s most likely to turn out to vote. For the most part, old people don’t give a damn about anything except their monthly checks.

    And don’t forget to look at the way the GOP drew the new district lines . I haven’t researched it completely, but I do know that in several instances they intentionally turned the districts of the TEA Party candidates blue.  The party would rather have moderate Democrats than small government conservatives in office at this juncture.

    In two years, I”d love to have you smile and remind me of how wrong I was, but I predict that once those newly minted TEA Party representatives get into office, they won’t be able to  reconcile the voters with their ideals.

    If history is any indicator, once the GOP regains any semblance of power, and/or the economy shows any signs of life,  most conservatives will either rabidly support all their decisions in the name of the Party or stop participating all together except on election day.

    And the ruling elite absolutely know that.

  31. McGehee
    November 15th, 2011 @ 9:30 am

    I sometimes wonder if it wouldn’t be simpler to tear it all down and start over from bare ground.

    Format the hard drive and reinstall the OS (the Constitution and Bill of Rights as written), as I’ve said before and gotten rather a favorable response. It may not be revolutionary in the purest sense, but it does involve destruction as a prerequisite to rebuilding.

    Which may be what TPT is getting at.

  32. Tennwriter
    November 15th, 2011 @ 9:59 am

    AngelaTC is exactly wrong. 

    I saw quite some time ago that the Tea Party was not enough, but the fiscon types wanted it to be enough. 

    See, the TP was just the latest iteration or snake shedding its skin.  Before them, we had the Town Halls, and I think a couple others things.  What was needed was the next iteration beyond the Tea Party, b ecause as good as the TP is, it does not have enough muscle to do the job.

    And Angela, your party is calling, from 1855, they’re the Whigs, and they’re pretty sure things will go A-OK if people will just focus on economic issues.

  33. Tennwriter
    November 15th, 2011 @ 10:01 am

    I thought her greatest failing was she was crazy.

  34. Anonymous
    November 15th, 2011 @ 10:25 am

    Well, there’s one heck of a lot you can do to slow it down via executive order. So far, only Rick Perry has said he will do that.

    And what’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander: Angela and her ilk can’t say a word after what Obama’s used EO for.

  35. ThePaganTemple
    November 15th, 2011 @ 12:29 pm

    There’s a difference, in that most of those things had varying levels of popular support, whereas ObumassCare never had popular support and gets more unpopular every day.

  36. Jeff Olstad
    November 15th, 2011 @ 12:57 pm

    It is a nice little article. I love it Ayn Rand is still able to blog almost thirty years after her passing. Before the internet was the internet and before the word Blogging was invented. Nobody saw this internet thing coming. Even Sci-fi missed it. The internet is the most amazing medium for free speech ever created. The internet can be killed. Protect it. 

  37. Anonymous
    November 15th, 2011 @ 7:55 pm

    If voting in a conservative majority into Congress is a Tea Party failure, I can’t wait for the Tea Party to fail epically! Yay!