Ayn Rand and Conservative Politics

If you claim to be a Christian and you follow the philosophy of Ayn Rand, this is for you and it is a challenge, can you justify following an atheist philosophy and still be a Christian?

Weigh these words from the Bible next to the words from Ayn Rand and justify your so-called Christianity

Matthew 25:41-45
⁴¹ “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. ⁴² For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, ⁴³ I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.

⁴⁴ “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

⁴⁵ ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

Ayn Rand, prominent Atheist and author of Atlas Shrugged and Fountainhead is the cultural goddess of the political right. A partial list of the adherents of Ayn Rand’s philosophy includes Rush Limbaugh, Paul Ryan, Rand Paul, Ron Paul, Jim Jordan, Sean Hannity, Alan Greenspan, Steve Moore, John Campbell, Clarence Thomas and many others.

Rep. John Campbell (R-Calif.), gives his interns copies of Ayn Rand's novel "Atlas Shrugged." Campbell told Steve Bensen, of the Washington Monthly that the response to President Obama's economic policies reminded him of what happened in the 51-year-old novel.” The achievers, the people who create all the things that benefit rest of us, are going on strike. I'm seeing, at a small level, a kind of protest from the people who create jobs, the people who create wealth, who are pulling back from their ambitions because they see how they'll be punished for them." Apparently, Rep Campbell knows some people that are “going Galt”

Have you seen someone with a t-shirt with the logo “Going Galt?” Galt is a protagonist and hero in Atlas Shrugged and he withdrew his productive endeavors from society, he didn’t cut back, he went on strike. How many movers and shakers have you seen that withdrew from business? Are there groups of people who are so heavily taxed that they simply withdraw? Show me the evidence.

Campbell sees these actions as a response by the wealthy, the worthy people in Rand’s mind, to the Obama plan to raise their taxes to the level of a 39.6% top rate, the same rate as we had under Clinton when there was a budget surplus and full employment. At the end of the Great Depression, under FDR, the top rate was around 80%. By president Reagan’s first term, it was 50%. Now, it’s 36% and the capital gains tax is a mere 15%. Capital gains is a large part of the income for the wealthiest Americans, just ask Warren Buffet who pays a lower percentage of his income as taxes than the average worker.

In the following texts, the words printed in italics are direct quotes from Ayn Rand. Rand promotes a philosophy of “rational self interest” and “objectivity” as a means of promoting the growth of civilization. Putting yourself first promotes economic efficiency. Any altruism or helping your neighbor has to be based on what is in it for me. This reasoning is behind many of the worst aspects of capitalism. Should I curb pollution now when the benefits go to future generations? Not if that means that I make less money now. Why should my taxes be used to feed the poor when all they are is a bunch of “parasites ?” If I see you being mugged, why should I get involved? I might get hurt and there is no profit in that at all. Welcome to “Objectivity,” and the philosophy of the right wing.

This philosophy leads to nothing less than mass murder. When you deny food to someone that cannot support him or herself, you condemn that person to starvation, but what is in it for me? Democrats have just stopped the Republican spending bill that would cut the Women Infants and Children program, which offers food aid and educational support for low-income mothers and their children, by $868 million, a 13 percent cut from current spending. This Objectivist philosophy holds its own very well when compared to Nazism and the Final Solution, only the worthy survive. If you are unemployed, or handicapped, or otherwise deemed unworthy, you are a parasite , unworthy of any help. Most of us, or at least I hope most of us still support a mixed form of Capitalism which regulates the excesses of Capitalists and provides a safety net for any and all of us in times of need.

In the interview with Mike Wallace, Wallace asked, “You say you do not like the altruism with which we live” . . . “I would say I don’t like, is too weak a word, I consider it evil.”” You are out to destroy, almost every edifice of our contemporary American way of life, our Judeo-Christian religion, our modified, government regulated capitalism, our rule by the majority will, other reviews have said that you scorn churches and the concept of God, are these accurate criticisms?” “Uh yes!”

“Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth”
“Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.”
Obviously Jesus had not read Ayn Rand, I wonder if He would have called the poor parasites, but, this is Conservative philosophy. Throw your Bible away and follow Ayn Rand and you too can be a true Conservative.

Rand promoted a philosophy of “objective reality ” (her words) “reality exists in an objective reality” “man needs a rational morality”. “Man...has to hold reason as an absolute” “his highest moral purpose is the achievement of his own happiness” “Each man must live as an end in himself and follow his own rational self interest.” Wallace; “Christ, every other important moral leader in man’s history has taught us that we should love one another, why is this kind of love, in your mind, immoral?” “it is immoral if it is a love placed above oneself, it is more than immoral, it is impossible!” “You love only, those who deserve it. ” Wallace; “If a man is weak, or a woman is weak, then he is beyond love?” “He certainly does not deserve it” “If a man wants love he should correct his weaknesses” Wallace; “There are very few of us in this world, who by your standards are worthy of love?” “Unfortunately yes, but it is open to everybody, to make themselves worthy of it and that is all my morality offers them.”

From Ayn Rand’s Message to America, in her own words on Conservatives; “They are claiming that freedom, Capitalism and America are based on faith in God. Politically such a claim contradicts the fundamental principles of the United State, in America; religion is a private matter and must not be brought into political issues. Intellectually, to rest one’s case on faith is to concede that reason is on the side of one’s enemies” “The plea to preserve tradition, as such, appeals to the worst elements in man and rejects the best, it appeals to fear, cowardice, conservative self doubt, and rejects creativeness, originality, independence, self reliance.