With Paul Ryan announced as Mitt Romney’s running mate for Vice-President on Saturday, many are speculating about the role that Ryan’s Catholic faith will play out in the election. Ryan’s Catholicism could well be the necessary linchpin in consolidating the GOP’s social conservative segment, a constituency that has offered tepid endorsement of Governor Romney up to this point. Ryan possesses potent social conservative credentials with his strong pro-life record and his defense of traditional marriage. What could give social conservatives concern, however, is Ryan’s sanguine comments and lifelong fascination with the atheist philosopher Ayn Rand. Rand was a proponent of “Objectivism,” a philosophy accused of lacking compassion, being insensitive and condemnatory of the poor.
Ayn Rand, who died in 1982, was a philosopher whose views were popularized in novels such as Atlas Shrugged. A proponent of Objectivism, she insisted on “egoism” and self-interest as guides in governing society. She eschewed charity and emphasized an extreme form of individualism and capitalism, believing in a form of social Darwinism in which the weakest participants in society were to be naturally eradicated.
Read Full Article »