27 | October | 2011 | Existential Ennui

Tags

Ayn Rand, corporate America, GOP, Paul Ryan, wingnuts

Truth is, I sit here at the keyboard browsing through my reader, looking for something to resonate. And the choices are gargantuan. Shall I talk about the GOP talking head, Noelle Nikpour who was “interviewed” by Aasif Mondvi?

She was a hoot, blathering on about how science was suspect because only other scientists could judge another scientists work. “How convenient!” she screeched. Why The American People can tell in their “guts” what science is real and which isn’t.

As Mondvi ridiculed her with ideas about “yeah, how dare another neurosurgeon decide whether your neurosurgeon did a good job on your head”, she nodded vacantly, not getting that she was being made a fool of.

Or, take Mark Rubio. I think he may be poison to whoever turns out to be the GOP nominee. His parents were exiles, who were forced out by Castro, and they family expected to return home to Cuba. What a nice bio that made. Except it wasn’t true. His parents were immigrants (big difference) and left years before Castro took over, and never made any attempt to return. Perfectly acceptable bio, but not one that gets the sympathy juices flowing.

But, today’s winner is Paul Ryan. (What is in the drinking water in Wisconsin?) I picked up on Ryan when the Orange Slush started touting him as the Republican economic genius, who was going to blow the Democrats out of the water with his new plan.

Except it didn’t. Everybody, very quickly realized that Ryan was a shill for big business and that high on his list of targeted programs was medicare and Medicaid and social security. Republicans, individually and then in droves began distancing themselves as little old ladies with blue hair and little old men with belts under their armpits descended upon local Republican congressional offices with canes and walkers waving semi-threateningly about.

And then I learned that Paul Ryan’s hero was Ayn Rand. Ayn Rand of Atlas Shrugged.

So, me, being the curious type, and needing a good excuse to read a bit of fiction, picked up the tomb (over 1,000 pages) and began. Then I skipped to the bio of Rand, and then I realized why she was writing this stupid stuff. Then I read, and read, and read, and, heck I even read the 79 page “speech” given by John Galt.

It’s a silly book. No one could conceivably take it seriously. Except Paul did. In fact, we understand that Ryan required all his staff to read it. It’ is his Maoist version of the “little red book” .

This is nothing new to regular readers of this blog. I’ve written about my long journey through Atlas Shrugged (use the search engine here) and my thoughts about it. Rand was an émigré from Russia, after the Revolution. Her family fared badly at the hands of communism. Her books MUST be read in light of her hatred.

But Paulie thinks that her theories about economics are actually accurate. So he referred in a recent stop at the Heritage Foundation that:

“We’re coming close to a tipping point in America where we might have a net majority of takers versus makers in society and that could become very dangerous if it sets in as a permanent condition.

As anyone who has read Rand knows, these are purely her words. Charles P. Pierce, in his, dare I say, scathing article in Esquire, literally guts Ryan and his thinking. Like Rand herself, Ryan had no philosophical qualms about taking government money, much as he rails against the very programs themselves.

Greg Sargent at the Washington Post, takes apart the entire speech, showing that as usual, the GOP and Ryan in particular deal in falsehood, and the usual politics of convenience. While it plays to the extreme right-wing to claim that Obama and the Democrats are engaging in “class warfare”, quite clearly the American people do not buy it.

I guess what I come away with from Ryan’s speech is that it is but another example of TeaNutz® pandering. Tell the lie, tell it often, and don’t worry. You’re talking to people who are either unable or unwilling to check out the facts. How this is done before a room full of people, albeit fellow-travelers, without bursting into guffaws of giggles is always beyond me. To suggest that Obama is engaging in class warfare and engendering envy, fear, and resentment is to simply restate the manifesto that is the TeaParty. I mean one always figures that back stage there are some winks, smirks, and light rib jabs, at how wonderfully “this will play to our ‘grass-roots’ minions.”

What becomes frightening, is the very thought that Ryan actually believes the stuff he spouts. If he does, then it shows a man who indeed has no common cause with Americans in general, but only with those who have proven themselves worthy of concern–the “Creators” of wealth, the rich. All others, are in Rand’s words, mere fodder to fuel the engine, in other words, the takers.

** Many of these links originate from Constant Comments, written by Constant Weader. If you haven’t been there yet, please do go. He does what I do but in much greater breadth.

***What’s on the stove? A new creation. I call it Fusion Chicken and Corn Chowder. Check it out. Up no later than tomorrow.