As I've been reading about Paul Ryan, I was struck by several aspects of his life story which resonated with my own. We were both just sophomores in high school when our fathers died. We both saved our Social Security survivor benefits to help fund our college educations. We were both beneficiaries of federal and state government support for higher education. We made hamburgers at McDonald's. We were both altar boys and we remain practicing Catholics. And Paul Ryan and I both read Ayn Rand as teenagers and were captivated by her radical individualism.
That, however, is where the similarities end.
Rand's philosophy holds a particular appeal and is especially attractive to the developing adolescent mind. It is self-centered and certain -- traits appreciated by adolescents. And Rand's heroic individualists could be angry and dismissive of others, seeing them as burdensome and obstacles to be overcome on the way to self-fulfillment -- again attitudes quite compatible with adolescent behavior.
While it appears that Ryan never got over his fascination with Ayn Rand, referring to her work in recent years as defining "what my value systems are and what my beliefs are"; I did get over her -- or better put, my mother knocked some sense into me.
At one point in my late teens, after listening to me spouting off about government controlling this or that and infringing on the rights of individuals, my mother sat me down, wagged a finger in my face and reminded me that if it were not for Social Security benefits and the New York State Regent's Scholarships, I wouldn't be able to afford to go to college. "Don't deny to others, what you have benefited from," she said.
My mother, who passed away in 1998, was a devout Catholic and the daughter of Lebanese immigrants who came to the U.S. at the turn of the last century. Her family came to America, like most immigrants, seeking freedom and opportunity. And they found it -- but not without difficulty. They worked tirelessly, overcame hardships, started businesses, and educated their children.
They survived two World Wars and a Great Depression and, as my mother would note, "when the country was suffering and people were in need, Roosevelt knew that it was the role of the government to lend a hand to lift people up and give them a boost."
My mother taught me the immigrant Catholic values of family, community, and service to those less fortunate. She had no patience for "self-indulgence." It is no wonder then, that she reacted so negatively to my short-term embrace of Ayn Rand's "individualism"and Barry Goldwater's Conscience of a Conservative. And she would not tolerate narcissism. Life, she taught, was not about me, it is about us. In the end, she would say, "your life's value would be measured not by what you earned, but by what you did for others." When a person understood that, she believed, they moved from adolescence to adulthood.
So when I hear conservatives talk about "my money" and speaking about government as some evil, alien force, I think about my mother and her generation rescued from the Depression by federal programs that put people back to work and provided a safety net for those most affected by economic dislocation. I think of the millions of families who were able to survive and progress because of Social Security, the GI Bill, Medicare, and more. I also think how much safer and more secure we are because of federal legislation that has cleaned up our air and water, inspects our food and medicine, and regulates our banking system. And I think more recently of the hundreds of thousands of teachers, police and firefighters, and auto and construction workers whose jobs were saved by the action taken by the federal government. And I think of the millions of Americans with "pre-existing conditions" who because of the Affordable Care Act need no longer fear being denied health coverage.
All of this may not be appreciated by conservatives eager to protect "my money." But despite their vain attempts to elevate selfishness and narcissism to a lofty-sounding political philosophy, it remains what it is -- infantile selfishness. My mother would have wagged her finger in their faces and told them "get over yourself. This is not about you, it is about us." And she would be right.
Follow James Zogby on Twitter: www.twitter.com/AAIUSA
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| Obama | Romney | |
|---|---|---|
| Electoral Votes (270 to win) |
332 | 206 |
| Obama | Romney | |
|---|---|---|
| Total | 65,899,660 | 60,932,152 |
| Percent | 51.1% | 47.2% |
| Democrats* | Republicans | |
|---|---|---|
| Current Senate | 53 | 47 |
| Seats gained or lost | +2 | -2 |
| New Total | 55 | 45 |
| Democrats | Republicans | |
|---|---|---|
| Seats won | 201 | 234 |
Tea Party Conservatism: the infintile, selfish idea that you should deny others the very same things you benefited from yourself.
Both Ayn Rand and Paul Ryan have benefited from the same Social Security safety net they don't (or didn't) want to see others enjoy. Where I come from, that's called peeing in the bucket after you've had your fill so no one else can drink.
Thank you, Mr.Zogby for writing this. All voters, all people should read it.
You could probably say it started in earnest in the 60s or 70s when the gold standard was abandoned. Since then the world has seen an explosion of debt and paper money. But the global financial ponzi scheme started falling apart in 2008 and the government's only real choice was to print more money and keep pumping up the bubble. It's a temporary solution at best - the debt hasn't disappeared, it has just shifted to different balance sheets. Every day in the news we read about how Europe is falling apart and European leaders are running around trying disparately to plug the holes in the dam to stop the debt tsunami from engulfing their continent.
I'm not sure what the solution is - there probably isn't one. This has happened so many times throughout human history. And every time people think that we've become smarter and somehow learned how to avoid Great Depressions (and/or World Wars). It's comical really - part of the human condition.
And while I don't disagree that some degree of social spending makes sense for rich-world economies, provided that it is properly financed (which it's not), talking about it now is kind of like rearranging the deck chairs on the titanic.
I didn't take much deep thinking to realize the philosophy of "it's your own damn fault you aren't as awesome and successful as me!!" has many flaws in it.
I was born with the rare 'responsible gene' and have always made good decisions but I am aware that the facts I am white, had married parents, was never hungry, had access to good schools, was never verbally or sexually abused, etc...heavily plays into my "hard earned success" in life.
Government aid becomes an incentive to approach life casually and thoughtlessly, to reproduce profligately, and to avoid responsibility. Growing an expanding underclass fosters a burgeoning government/bureaucracy, which is just fine with politicians and government. More people to control.
We are drowning in social programs, irresponsible adults, and under-parented children (and wars and politicians). More of any of those is far too much. Governments will not be happy until everyone is standing in line a la the old USSR.
Taking pot-shots at Ayn Rand's ideas, some of which may be simplistic, throws the baby out with the bathwater. Extreme conservatives who demand an end to all regulations make the same logical error.
On the other hand, the wealthy and their political sycophants stood by while government abetted the growth of our underclass, so it is only right that the wealthy pay for the result.
You can talk about the noble Ayn Randian philosophy until you're blue in the face, but in reality Romney fled the business he owned, taking the loot, leaving his workers up a creek and leaving their pension for the government to pay. Maybe what he did was legal, but in my book he's just a crook.