Paul Ryan Vs Jesus Christ

Ryan has admitted-- even bragged-- that it was Ayn Rand's dystopian views of society, which enshrine greed and selfishness, that set him on his quest for political power. Now, as he contemplates a bid for Herb Kohl's soon-to-be-open Senate seat, on what he thinks of as the road to the White House, it's time to examine who Ryan's primary inspiration really was. Today Boehner will be giving the commencement address at Washington's Catholic University of America against the wishes of prominent Catholic scholars, who are livid about the Ryan budget, which they seen as antithetical to the core teachings of Jesus Christ. And it's what Ryan describes as his "cause."

So what's this great cause for which Ryan wants to devote his political life? Unkind critics point to the unprecedented-- at least in Wisconsin politics-- gushers of money Ryan has solicited from the Wall Street sector and detect a correlation between the bribes he takes and the policies he espouses. And since there is nothing that holds his voting record-- huge, unjustifiable bailouts for Wall Street banks coupled with the dismantling of Medicare and unconscionable tax breaks for the richest Americans coupled with privatization of Social Security-- other than obeisance to a garden variety Big Business agenda, this interpretation has become widespread. What people may be missing, however, is a parallel influence on Ryan-- one not unrelated, but not identical either: his devotion to the adolescent philosophy of Ayn Rand: "the virtue of selfishness," a more direct-- if somewhat off-putting to non-beleivers-- description of a philosophy known as "Objectivism." Like Ron Johnson, Wisconsin's new senator and Ron and Rand Paul (as well as Clarence Thomas, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Alan Greenspan), Ryan has embraced Ayn Rand's anti-Christian doctrines as a replacement for religion. Inverted Christianity-- and inverted Marxism-- is the best way to describe a political philosophy that stopped growing somewhere in Ryan's sophomore or junior year of college. If you don't know much about Paul Ryan's political inspiration, watch this short clip about Ayn Rand: