Paul Ryan's Parasites: Between his Catholicism and disavowal of Objectivism, Ryan occupies a right-wing middle ground

Opinion: The 1957 novel Atlas Shrugged is a grandiosity in service of an ideology, rather like the Mormon temple in Silver Spring that inspired jokesters to paint ''Surrender Dorothy'' on a nearby pedestrian bridge. Author Ayn Rand's ideology is Objectivism, which makes a virtue of selfishness. William F. Buckley said he had to flog himself to read it. What drew my interest was its influence on Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan. Ryan used to give copies of the novel to his interns for Christmas, which is odd considering Rand's atheism. Now he disavows her influence, despite evidence like a 2009 campaign video in which he says, ''Ayn Rand, more than anyone else, did a fantastic job of explaining the morality of capitalism.'' Ryan enjoys far more affection from Republicans than Mitt Romney. Given his ascendancy, and the straight zeroes on his congressional scorecards from the Human Rights Campaign other than one 2007 vote for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, it behooves us to examine Ryan's ideological source material. ... (more)

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