Ayn Rand, Libertarians and Glenn Beck
With the introduction of Cap & Trade, ObamaCare and corporate bailouts, you can practically taste the surge of of interest in libertarian ideology in the air. It’s no accident that Tea Parties are springing up everywhere, Ayn Rand is more popular than ever and Glenn Beck’s ratings continue to rise.
This hasn’t gone unnoticed by the Wall Street Journal where Steven Kurutz recently interviewed Ayn Rand biographer Anne C. Heller.
“When Anne C. Heller set out five years ago to write a biography of Ayn Rand, she was intrigued by the fact that though Rand’s novels like “The Fountainhead” continued to sell well, the libertarian writer was barely spoken about. One near-Depression later, however, Rand’s anti-socialist beliefs championing individualism over collectivism are suddenly striking a chord with critics of the government’s recent nationalization of banking and other industries.”
“The Wall Street Journal: Ayn Rand has been invoked at town hall meetings across the country. Why are Rand’s fiercely libertarian ideas — and novels — back in the news?”
“Her sales and reputation bubble along under the radar quite consistently. But certain opinion makers like Glenn Beck rediscovered her because there’s a strange parallelism between her visions in “Atlas Shrugged” and the Obama administration — namely, government taking over private industries. In periods of economic downtown “Atlas Shrugged” strikes a chord in people who are afraid of economic collapse.”
This liberty driven zeitgeist hasn’t escaped Reason Magazine either. A well known Libertarian outlet, Reason is producing a video series on the suddenly increased relevance of Ayn Rand’s work.
Ed Morrissey of Hot Air wrote a great post on this subject today where he tied it all together in this brilliant quote:
“Who would have guessed that the era of Hope and Change would have produced Rand as a counter-cultural phenomenon?”
“Well, perhaps Rand herself would have foreseen it — and in fact she did, in Atlas Shrugged.”
Libertarians and conservatives are old political friends. Although there have been a few bumps in the road over the years, we should all give credit to President Obama for making us more solid than ever.
Maybe that’s what Obama meant when he said he was a “uniter.”
