Republicans Are No Friend to Ayn Rand Mr. Kinsley

Michael Kinsley writes in the Los Angeles Times today that it's time for a third party:

As Romney reinvents himself as a cartoon conservative and Obama seems to be turning into a cartoon liberal, perhaps it's time for a third-party candidate.


Ayn Rand, the favorite author of many geeky teenage boys (who generally grow out of it) and Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan (who didn't), combines an extreme libertarian capitalist message with a high-Soviet-propaganda literary style. This makes parody fairly easy.

Still, it would be hard to top Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential nominee. His Ayn Rand imitation in remarks at a private fundraiser last May, caught on video and posted on the Web by Mother Jones, is pitch-perfect. Romney observes that 47% of Americans don't pay taxes and yet feel that they are victims, entitled to have all their basic needs — housing, food, healthcare — supplied by the government. This nicely captures the contempt that Rand had, and that Romney apparently shares, for those who don't make it to the top of the success ladder.

Mr. Kinsley, you obviously don't know John Galt. To claim Paul Ryan lives under the teachings of Ayn Rand is just silly and proves you didn't do your homework. During the Bush administration over 50,000 new constricting regulations were passed making freedom more limited and tougher to do business in the United States. Paul Ryan's name was a seal of approval on many of these regulations.

In your assessment of Romney himself, you can look at Massachusetts where Romneycare regulated insurance companies and went as far as pushing Catholic Hospitals of Massachusetts to administer abortion pills against their will. I hardly think Ayn Rand would be cheering for the Romney record, espeically when you consider how dependent Romney himself has been on government taking a large bailout to save Bain Capital and the Salt Lake City Olympics.

Perhaps you need to reread Ayn Rand Mr. Kinsley.