Ayn Rand got it very very right on capitalism.
She got it dreadfully wrong on social conservatism and God.
She was also a racist and a eugenicist (the two are linked.)
And any “anti-government” type who spends a significant portion of their life living off welfare...well, who has time for hypocrites?
She also nailed the Left so very perfectly, which is why they hated and still hate her so much.
She tried to write into “The Fountainhead” and “Atlas Shrugged” a religious supporting character who would be supporting of the various protagonists.
It was hard for her to get past the ‘why does the morality our decisions matter, if we propose and G-d disposes?’
A morality that could not be measured, could not be judged by man, could not be supported by reason, didn’t work for her.
Others look at religious teachings as good teachings. It is bad to lie, steal and murder, so any G-d that tells you to not lie, steal or murder should be on the same side as the moral people.
There is some hint of redemption when the government drone ‘non-absolute’ dies defending Hank Rearden’s factory, in the mind of Hank Rearden:
“Somewhere, he thought, there was the boy’s mother, who had trembled with protective concern over his groping steps, while teaching him to walk, who had measured his baby formulas with a jeweler’s caution, who had obeyed with a zealot’s fervor the latest words of science on his diet and hygiene, protecting his unhardened body from germs—then had sent him to be turned into a tortured neurotic by the men who taught him that he had no mind and must never attempt to think. Had she fed him tainted refuse, he thought, had she mixed poison into his food, it would have been more kind and less fatal.
He thought of all the living species that train their young in the art of survival, the cats who teach their kittens to hunt, the birds who spend such strident effort on teaching their fledglings to fly—yet man, whose tool of survival is his mind, does not merely fail to teach a child to think, but devotes the child’s education to the purpose of destroying his brain, of convincing him that thought is futile and evil, before he has started to think.
....
Armed with nothing but meaningless phrases, this boy had been thrown to fight for existence, he had hobbled and groped through a brief, doomed effort, he had screamed his indignant, bewildered protest—and had perished in his first attempt to soar on his mangled wings.”
The problem the left has with Ayn Rand is that they cannot stand that an atheist has gone off their Socialism reservation.
That's an understatement if the following quotes attributed to her are true:
An embryo has no rights. Rights do not pertain to a potential, only to an actual being. A child cannot acquire any rights until it is born. The living take precedence over the not-yet-living (or the unborn).
Abortion is a moral right—which should be left to the sole discretion of the woman involved; morally, nothing other than her wish in the matter is to be considered. Who can conceivably have the right to dictate to her what disposition she is to make of the functions of her own body?
The source for that is Frequently Asked Questions About Ayn Rand’s Ideas. And with the caveat that if this clip is not fraudulent, Ayn Rand "Abortion", then as an advocate of killing children, there's a very dark side to her.
The statement by Free Republic founder's enumerating his principles are excellent metrics by which to judge a person's character. The first three of which are:
As a conservative site, Free Republic is pro-God, pro-life, pro-family...
I'm not sure how Ayn Rand measures up to Jim Robinson's core values of authentic Conservatism.