[FredZarguna]

I want you to tell me where in the 1168 pages of text of Atlas Shrugged, or in thousands of other pages of her writings, Ayn Rand ever comes out against a voluntary civil society.

Lee's initial remarks are easily misinterpretable by honest people. All that was needed was the clarification given. The rest is picking a fight with people that we don't need to have.

[Billthedrill]

I doubt seriously if Mr. Rizzuto has ever read the novel with any attention. If by "war on poverty" he means the blessings of liberty preventing government oppression from the suppression of individual achievement, then yes, we've been at it since 1776. That is precisely what Rand claimed. See This Book for a detailed treatment of the subject.

[TigersEye]

They’d have you believe that all the remarkable individuals of the world need in order to reach their potential is the absence of government.

Ronald Reagan certainly thought so. The less the better at any rate.

[Gene Eric]

Mike... Lee is... a great... American!

[fortheDeclaration]

and a little looking out for the other fellow, too.’”

This is where the real attack on Rand is occuring.

Rand was never against charity, she was against 'looking out for the other fellow' being forced on everyone through government force.

[Talisker]

Are the luminaries at the Ayn Rand Institute denying that free enterprise and voluntary association have been the most effective tools in reducing poverty? I suppose that makes them no better than Obama.

Oh please. This article is absurd.

[JoeDetweiler]

Mike Lee ~ “It takes a village.”

[muir_redwoods]

Would you rather live in a country where abortion is legal, 10% of the population uses marijuana, people engage in all kinds of bizarre sexual behavior and the government seeks to control every aspect of your lives backed by 17 trillion in Chinese debt or live in a country where abortion is legal, 10% of the population uses marijuana, people engage in all kinds of bizarre sexual behavior and the government largely leaves you alone and runs on a small balanced budget?

If you honestly believe you can, at this point eliminate abortion, either legal or illegal and eliminate drug use, legal or illegal and eliminate non-heterosexual behavior, legal or illegal, you have formed your opinion in lieu of the obvious experience of the last forty years.

I wish no one used drugs, killed babies or missed the joys of traditional marriage but the world does not bend to my wishes often.

[Misterioso]

2DV troll alert. December 12???

[jdege]

If you actually read Rand, you know that none of her heroes succeeded on their own, they succeeded through voluntary cooperation with others.

The strength of a society is in its voluntary associations.

[fortheDeclaration]

The idealized image of a family sitting around a Thanksgiving table says more about America in one image than Atlas Shrugged was able to say in 1,168 pages of dense text.

The abundance pictured in that picture came from the Capitalist system, which allows freedom of association and private property.

The Puritans almost starved to death because they tried socialism before they tried private property rights.

Take away capitalism and you have each man fighting for the scraps that the Government throws our way.

Those in government today who call themselves conservatives seem very unconcerned with defending private property, but are more concerned with making the welfare state work more efficiently.

[Pelham]

Russell Kirk dismissed libertarians as “chirping sectaries” adding that they and conservatives have nothing in common...

[BfloGuy]

While the Randians rightfully hold individual achievement as the primary building block of prosperity, they seem to think that it occurs in a vacuum defined by the size and scope of government. They’d have you believe that all the remarkable individuals of the world need in order to reach their potential is the absence of government.

What tripe. "Randians" only "seem" to think that to this writer. It is either intentional misinterpretation or outright ignorance of Rand's philosophy. Probably the latter.