Romney and His Ugly Randian Candidacy

    I am wondering if Romney's candidacy may provide about as good an opportunity as may be had to expose the ugliness and wrongheadedness of the Randian worldview upon which that candidacy is based, centered as it is on worship of the presumed "job creator" class whether in particular cases its members create, destroy or outsource jobs. 

    A timely but possibly too mature and adult work that confronts this worldview head-on with one grounded in reality is The Self-Made Myth, and the Truth about How Government Helps Individuals and Businesses Succeed, by Brian Miller and Mike Lapham, published this year.  It features mini-bios of many successful entrepreneurs who, unlike the Romneys and the Donald Trumps of the world, retain the awareness, character and honesty to acknowledge many essential factors beyond their own hard work, commitment, and talent--including specific forms of support made possible by, yes, their government--without which they would not have succeeded. 

    These folks don't whine about their taxes or the regulations they are obliged to comply with as businesspersons.  To the contrary--they view them as necessary to create the foundations for opportunity and prosperity for others as well as themselves.  And because of that, they feel an obligation to support their government so that others can have opportunities they know they are fortunate to have had.  

    I like the book in part because its authors recognize that these sorts of debates, such as they are, are not won on the basis of data and facts, which are inherently abstract and impersonal, but are rather won on the basis of competing narratives of what creates and can spread success.  Is it the heroic efforts of the lone, "self-made" individual typically portrayed as defying his (Rand herself notwithstanding, it's usually a "he" in my experience) government, his fellow citizens, even his culture to emerge triumphant atop the mountain?  Or does necessary hard work and talent almost always require a wide range of factors and support that were provided and built together, over time, by an individuals' fellow citizens?  

    The Randian worldview which appears to have substantial influence in our day--and which forms the core argument, such as it is, for a potential Romney Administration as solving our jobs and economic problems--is wildly wrongheaded.  It is a fraud.  It is also deeply ugly, appealing to self-glorifying, base instincts and fueled by narratives which seek to justify the suffering and misery of Others branded as undeserving.  It appeals to the narcissistic, the vain, and the hopelessly misanthropic elements of society. 

    Heaven help us if majorities fall for the exorbitantly funded efforts to put lipstick on this pig and sell it as public policy.  As much as our Randians really do need to just get over themselves, it's hard to see what might bring that about.  What can cause a person with unimaginable wealth who can afford to surround himself with cyphers to acquire any lasting sense of humility, any broader awareness of life beyond the view from the bubble?  A fall from grace, perhaps?    

    Comments

    I might substitute the word society or culture for government, in that title.


    I agree.  A bit too full-frontal on the pushback, perhaps...


    Mitt Romney - The Randy Candy.


    Good one, q!


    Very well done, Dreamer. Not many of us get out of this life without some lessons and resultant humility. As for Rmoney---pride go-eth before the fall?  I do think there is something deeply psychological about his filling out a host of conflicting disclosure statements which any guy as smart as he is would know ahead of time would come back to haunt him. And he had plenty of time to get rid of off-shore accounts, etc.


    Thanks, oxy--your two excellent recent blog posts on R-money were major prompts for this little piece.  I find it interesting that Romney evidently was not vetted by GOP movers and shakers who one might think would see themselves as having a great deal to lose if ugly stuff were to come out, as it is coming out.  The Cayman Islands and Swiss bank accounts, the Bain issues coming out, the evasiveness, contradictions, and refusal to release his tax returns---not so much making R-money a great Randian posterchild for the masses. 

    I suppose the vetting failures might be taken as possible evidence that some of the GOP grand poobah masters of the universe either weren't counting on defeating Obama, or didn't think they had a better option among the candidates in the race.  Or maybe they just thought they'd be able to get away with it, that no one would give a rip.  Or maybe they tried to, and R-money told them to go screw themselves.  Otherwise, what's happening now would seem to reflect some pretty extreme sloppiness on their parts. 


    Thanks, Dreamer. Heard about Sununu's remarks, and also Glenn Hubbard who was soft-balled on Bloomberg yesterday. Got to thinking if you put all these former Bushies together, it's an OLD crowd. Out of touch might be more descriptive than we think.


    Stray thought. 

    Mitt Romney: Not Ready for Prime Time.

    Who'da thunk?


    This remark could be considered Randian.  Ann Romney has just said (quoting from Huff Post) "we've given all you people need to know (about family finances?).

    Now we most likely know where the buck stops in the Romney Presidency run and the issue of tax returns. This lady is drawing the line. Losing is not as bad as having country club friends, and the gardeners, plus the entire base of the Republican party, screw the pundits also, including Perry, et.al., this has got to stop somewhere,---having all you (little) people know how rich we are, what our income tax rate is.   


    Thks--yes, that is rich, coming from Ann Romney.  The scary thing is that there are so many of our fellow citizens who appear to have bought into the Randian and contemporary GOP overlapping narrative about who and what our country's real enemies are.  Their dominant emotions are pathologically negative, consisting of fear, mistrust, or hatred of large groups of Others--The Media, The Liberals, The Democrats, The Colored People, The Gays and Lesbians, The Immigrants, The Feminazis, The Criminals, The United Nations, The Anti-Gun Crowd, The Bloodsucking Poor People, Foreigners, The Muslims, The Arabs, The French...on and on.  Basically, pretty much everyone perceived as "not me and my kind".   

    It strikes me as a such a cramped, fearful and unappealing kind of existence that it must be extremely difficult to carry on one's daily affairs.


    Right, but I'm not sure about their bubble existence. Sometimes I wonder if I wouldn't like to live like that, comfortably excluding all those who I think are different.  Seems to me, as far as the 1% is concerned, they're pretty happy. Then I see someone I think I can help, and try to do so. Maybe it's a psychological deficit. 


    I was thinking more of folks who are not wealthy but who are drawn to or embrace the Randian/GOP view of the world, folks who don't have nearly the wherewithal to wall themselves off from the unpleasantness, the ugliness, the misery, the decadence, the sheer differentness of these Others, these unworthy Claimants who so stubbornly refuse to be Normal, and American, and all other obviously good and right and true things.     


    Thanks. I got it.


    Three links to items related to the topic of this thread:

    "Executive Excess 2011: The Massive CEO Rewards for Tax Dodging", Sarah Anderson, Chuck Collins, Scott Klinger, Sam Pizzigati, Institute for Policy Studies, August 31, 2011:  

    http://www.ips-dc.org/reports/executive_excess_2011_the_massive_ceo_rewards_for_tax_dodging

     

    "The Business Case Against Overseas Tax Havens", Chuck Collins, The Huffington Post, posted July 20, 2010:

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chuck-collins/the-business-case-against_b_652832.html

     

    "How is Elitist Ayn Rand a Tea Party Hero? The Contradiction Should Concern America", Vladimir Shlapentokh, Christian Science Monitor, October 14, 2010:

    http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2010/1014/How-is-elitist-Ayn-Rand-a-tea-party-hero-The-contradiction-should-concern-America


    Shlapentokh efficiently illuminates the contradictions between Rand and any sort of democratic polity.

    I think what is alluring to people who know they will never live like the giants in her books is that the point of view renders the reader's sensations of isolation and emotional poverty into a virtue expressing strength and self reliance. There is some kind of psychological alchemy involved here.

    The chemistry has a direct influence upon how class identity works. Coded language and knowing nods keeps the thing going.

     


    AD.

    Thanks for the blog and for recommending Miller and Lapham's book.  I look forward to reading it.  In one of my very close circles I come across the Randian view quite a bit, and I have about a gazillion anecdotes.  As just one example, I recently met a very close friend of the "family" who, having heard I was a union attorney and after the inevitable lecture about unions once being important, but now blah, blah, blah lecture, turned to me, looked me in the eye and solemnly declared. . ."Don't you understand Bruce, where would we be without rich people?"  And she was serious, and everyone around her nodded their heads and looked at me as if I had two heads for not understanding this essential truth.

    They come to believe this stuff AD; they really and truly do.  Of course, the reality is that many of them run as, support, and vote for Democrats.  But that's another story, nay saga!

    Hope all is well with you and your family.  So nice to see you blogging.

    Bruce


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