<a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/8123730327/” title=”ryan-on-ayn-rand by dengre.bj, on Flickr”><img src=”http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8325/8123730327_d830372da7.jpg” width=”500″ height=”376″ alt=”ryan-on-ayn-rand”></a>
In an interview with Rolling Stone, President Obama dissed the followers of Ayn Rand:
Have you ever read Ayn Rand?
Sure.What do you think Paul Ryan’s obsession with her work would mean if he were vice president?
Well, you’d have to ask Paul Ryan what that means to him. Ayn Rand is one of those things that a lot of us, when we were 17 or 18 and feeling misunderstood, we’d pick up. Then, as we get older, we realize that a world in which we’re only thinking about ourselves and not thinking about anybody else, in which we’re considering the entire project of developing ourselves as more important than our relationships to other people and making sure that everybody else has opportunity – that that’s a pretty narrow vision. It’s not one that, I think, describes what’s best in America. Unfortunately, it does seem as if sometimes that vision of a “you’re on your own” society has consumed a big chunk of the Republican Party.Of course, that’s not the Republican tradition. I made this point in the first debate. You look at Abraham Lincoln: He very much believed in self-sufficiency and self-reliance. He embodied it – that you work hard and you make it, that your efforts should take you as far as your dreams can take you. But he also understood that there’s some things we do better together. That we make investments in our infrastructure and railroads and canals and land-grant colleges and the National Academy of Sciences, because that provides us all with an opportunity to fulfill our potential, and we’ll all be better off as a consequence. He also had a sense of deep, profound empathy, a sense of the intrinsic worth of every individual, which led him to his opposition to slavery and ultimately to signing the Emancipation Proclamation. That view of life – as one in which we’re all connected, as opposed to all isolated and looking out only for ourselves – that’s a view that has made America great and allowed us to stitch together a sense of national identity out of all these different immigrant groups who have come here in waves throughout our history.
I expect these words will throw the usual suspects into fits of rage and showers of bitter tears.
Meanwhile we have 12 days left to win this thing. What are your plans to GOTV?
How about another Open Thread.
Cheers
lamh35
Gawd-damnit. Somebody really needs to wrap this sumabit(ch Sununnu around Romney’s feck’n neck!
Romney Campaign Chair John Sununu: Colin Powell Endorsed Obama Because He Is Black http://thkpr.gs/R43OJq via @thinkprogress
freelancer
Full on derision. Last night was Trump, today it’s Randians. Bang a gong, get it on!
aimai
I’m working the final four days for Warren here in MA. I get that Obama will win the state handily but we really need her in the Senate. Also: money to the big guy. And lots of it.
aimai
redshirt
I blame Ayn Rand for the breakup of my family. Seriously. Father read Atlas Shrugged, hooked up with a blonde at an office party, and it was down the drain from there. Thanks, Objectivism!
MikeJ
Not quite as pithy as John Rogers, but the knife was sharper.
Villago Delenda Est
Oh, let the pathetic losers rant and rave all they want.
Obama knows how to drive these fucktards bonkers.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
I’m doing the voter protection gig, which OFA keeps pretty separate form GOTV. Or maybe they just want to keep all the lawyers pointed in the same direction. I do my part keeping my personal contacts IRL and on the tubes motivated and prepared with ID appropriate to voting state.
Are you still planning a possible OH meet up? I’m in if the scheduling will work.
Alison
Anyone know if this issue is on the newsstands yet? Want to pick it up for my folks but different mags are so random about the cover date vs the sale dates…
muddy
He’s being generous saying 17 or 18. The kids around my house were given it at school when they were 15, and were quite enthused: “Have you read it?” I said yes, I had, unfortunately. By the time they could drive they thought it was passé. I think 13-15 would be about the right emotional age – “You’re not the boss of me! I’m being oppressed!”
JCT
@Villago Delenda Est:
And he’s been going for it of late — tweaking Trump, dismissing Ayn Rand — I’m liking his vibe the last few days, loose and in control.
Step on their necks, Barack — with both feet.
some guy
a shift on Monday, 2 on Wed, deoing door-to-door early voting GOTV for OFA.
two new polls, one has the Sunshine State at R+1 and one has it as O +2, so getting out the vote is the need. and I have promised not to say President Kill List (to any potential voters, at least.)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@JCT: I don’t know why anyone would willingly submit to a conversation with smarmy prick Brian Williams, or smug, sleazy doofus Jay Leno, but I guess Obama has all of Rachel Maddow’s viewers, and most of Letterman’s. The guy might just know what he’s doing.
TheMightyTrowel
@JCT: Step on their necks, Barack—with both feet
Dude’s got big feet too.
Liberty60
Did phone banking for Obama, calling folks in Nevada.
Cacti
O/T but, well, well, well…
A little Book of Mormon for ya Mittens…
“Woe unto the liar, for he shall be thrust down to hell.”
2 Nephi 9:34
var
Spending too much time on poll sites. This thing is really tight. I want to say Obama is going to win my home state of Virginia but goodlawd its going to be close. Wife’s vote is already in the bank. I’ll show up on election day.
TheMightyTrowel
@Cacti: A little Book of Mormon
Is that anything like the Little Book of Calm?
Cacti
@var:
270 is the only number that matters. Everything else is gravy.
I didn’t think Obama would carry NC or IN back in 2008.
SFAW
@some guy:
Lying libtard. Word on the street is that Soon-to-be-President-Elect Romney is 12 points up in FL, 8 pts up in MI, and can WI and CA be far behind? I think not.
Only 13 more days until I can cast my vote for Romney, and then laugh as you libtards suck on it bigtime.
We don’t need OH, the Kenyan Usurper can have it. We’ve got NY, DC, MA, and the DR, that should bring President Romney to the 575 EV mark.
fleeting expletive
Did anyone watch Nancy Pelosi with Jon Stewart tonight? She was awesome although in her manner. She said something like, the Pope (says/thinks knows, is supposed to know more about having babies than (I do, maybe she didn’t say) mothers, grandmothers, sisters (OK she didn’t say sisters), women or I do (or maybe she didn’t say that, but her voice said that). Dayum, I hope people listened to that, or maybe the transcript is better probably than Pelosi’s speech habits/rabbits.
Spellcheck gave me a hard time about my misspellings of habits and rabbits. I got confused.
some guy
banking votes is the name of the game this week.
ranchandsyrup
Obama took DougJ’s master troll seminar. Looks like it was worth the investment.
scav
@SFAW: Fer sur, the Dominican REPUBLICan will, like totally sew things up. No one in the lieberal cartographic community will acknowledge it though.
SFAW
@scav:
See, what I want to know is: does Rushbo vote in the DR (home of his
loversrentboys), or in whatever geographical state he’s in. (Please note the “geographical” qualifier, since leaving it out invites the inevitable “He’s in a drug-induced haze, that’s his state” comments.)pseudonymous in nc
[ah, wrong thread]
slag
And he hunts vampires.
All this Lincoln talk makes me want to read more Lincoln talk.
SFAW
Oh, almost forgot:
Hey, libtards! RUMOR HAS IT that soon-to-be-President-Elect Romney is surging
into his magic underwearin CA and NY! ! Can MA be far behind? I predict 723 EV for Romney. When that happens, I’ll be here to laugh/spit in your faces!SurRealist
@SFAW:
Ur doin it rong, libtard!
Higgs Boson's Mate
@SFAW:
The hyper-optimistic prophecies of the wingnuts remind me of the answer that the oracle at Delphi gave to Croesus when he asked if he should attack the Persians; “A great empire will be destroyed,” she answered. And so it was.
UrRealist
@SurRealist:
Hey! Stop pretending to be me, libtard!
joel hanes
Progressive Dem and ActBlue/Blue America recommended Rob Zerban is contesting Paul Ryan’s House seat.
It’s beginning to look as if he has a chance.
I donated here.
You could too.
Maybe we can make Paul Ryan lose two races in the same election
Democrat Partisan Asshole
THAT is what we call a shot across the bow.
I have been waiting for years for someone in a position of importance to call out Randism for what it is; bullshit for immature, selfish teenagers.
Obama did it. Thank you, Mr. President.
redshirt
Libtards? What will you do when Mass is not Blue?
SFAW
@Higgs Boson’s Mate:
From your keyboard to FSM’s noodley earlike appendages.
SFAW
@redshirt:
It’s not now. RUMOR ON THE STREET: Scott Brown over Warren by 37 percent!
SFAW
@SFAW:
I will be SO glad when this is all over, and I can stop making fun of that idiot. I can feel brain cells being destroyed by the gazillions, just trying to get myself to “think” like him.
I hope you’re happy, DougJ.
suzanne
Is it surprising that the worst people I know personally are all HUGE Libertarians? Emotionally insecure, self-aggrandizing, shallow, nasty, and devoid of integrity or compassion. The only thing I haven’t figured out is….are the Libertarians because they’re shitty people, or are they shitty people because they’re Libertarians?
But whatever. BWAHAHAHAAHAAAAA.
cosima
@ slag: I got your Lincoln talk — I mentioned this before in a different thread, but maybe it will get more play here:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14721
Speeches & Letters of Abraham Lincoln 1832-1865
gutenberg.org — free!!!!!!! downloads of thousands of amazing books whose copyrights have expired. It’s a wonderful thing that gutenberg.org is doing.
I sent this link to a friend in Scotland who is fascinated by our Civil War. I’ll bet Donald Trump $5 million that this friend in Scotland now knows more about our Civil War than he does. Or I’ll bet Mitt $10,000 that my friend knows more about our Civil War than he does.
Anyway, on the GOTV schedule for me: tomorrow I take little Cosi-mini-me with me to pound streets here in Denver. My husband says he’ll drive people to the polls — “unless they’re voting for Romney, then they can get their own damn ride.”
Cosi-mini-me built a fabulous snowperson in our yard today and gave it an Obama sign to go with our other Obama signs. It’s awesome! Her idea!
hitchhiker
In my fantasy world, there is a camera rolling the next time Sununu and Powell meet.
What. A. Fucking. Imbecile.
Powell can’t be taken at his word, because BLACKBLACKBLACK. Only white people have actual reasons for their choices.
Oh my God, I just ~~
Democrat Partisan Asshole
@cosima: + for Gutenberg. They do great work.
cosima
In reading through the speeches of Lincoln, here’s an interesting snippet:
… And now as to the Dred Scott decision. That decision declares two propositions,—first, that a negro cannot sue in the United States courts; and secondly, that Congress cannot prohibit slavery in the Territories. It was made by a divided court,—dividing differently on the different points. Judge Douglas does not discuss the merits of the decision, and in that respect I shall follow his example, believing I could no more improve on McLean and Curtis than he could on Taney.
He denounces all who question the correctness of that decision, as offering violent resistance to it. But who resists it? Who has, in spite of the decision, declared Dred Scott free, and resisted the authority of his master over him?
Judicial decisions have two uses: first, to absolutely determine the case decided; and secondly, to indicate to the public how other similar cases will be decided when they arise. For the latter use, they are called “precedents” and “authorities.”
We believe as much as Judge Douglas (perhaps more) in obedience to and respect for the judicial department of government. We think its decisions on constitutional questions, when fully settled, should control not only the particular cases decided, but the general policy of the country, subject to be disturbed only by amendments of the Constitution, as provided in that instrument itself. More than this would be revolution. But we think the Dred Scott decision is erroneous. We know the court that made it has often overruled its own decisions, and we shall do what we can to have it overrule this. We offer no resistance to it.
Judicial decisions are of greater or less authority as precedents according to circumstances. That this should be so, accords both with common-sense and the customary understanding of the legal profession.
If this important decision had been made by the unanimous concurrence of the judges, and without any apparent partisan bias, and in accordance with legal public expectation, and with the steady practice of the departments throughout our history, and had been in no part based on assumed historical facts, which are not really true; or if wanting in some of these, it had been before the court more than once, and had there been affirmed and reaffirmed through a course of years,—it then might be, perhaps would be factious, nay, even revolutionary, not to acquiesce in it as a precedent.
But when, as is true, we find it wanting in all these claims to the public confidence, it is not resistance, it is not factious, it is not even disrespectful to treat it as not having yet quite established a settled doctrine for the country.
************
It is simply amazing the parallels that exist between this and so much that is going on today with our Supreme Court and society, President Obama. ETA: The italics for that quote doesn’t seem to be functioning correctly, so hopefully I can make this bit obviously separate.
West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.)
I’ve got a condescending older brother-in-law who came into the family when I was about 25. Rand was his favorite author, and the Bible his favorite book (he must not have known she was an atheist). He insisted I read Rand. I never did and now take a certain (perhaps misplaced) pride in that. I suppose I should read the damn thing (Atlas Shrugged or The Fountainhead) some day, but with so many great books out there, why bother with misanthropic crap?
RaflW
Just did my second GOTV phone bank on the Vote NO faith team working to down the anti-marriage amendment in MN.
Makes me feel some hope when semi-random straight people say “yes, I’ll go door knock on my Saturday morning for 4 hours, sign me up!”
The latest poll, out today, is grounds for a tad of optimism. But we’re a very long way from a real margin of victory. The poll vs. election swing in past states of 7% eats all of this differential, so we’re in the GOTV race now. And this was just one poll. No other has had “no” over 50%. But I’ll take encouragement and have cautious hope…
(And yet, those bastard liars on the Yes side have released their latest, sleaziest ad of the cycle – the “I learned in school a prince can marry a prince!” We knew it was coming, still makes me sick. One of TV the fact checkers dinged it as “false,” “misleading,” and unoriginal.)
RaflW
MN marriage amendment latest poll: Forgot the link.
PS: it contains shitty news on the voter
disenfranchisementoops, ID amendment.hitchhiker
@RaflW:
Thank you so much for making the effort.
Am I crazy, or would it be a good idea for Ds to propose a national ID card which would be free and easy to get and required to vote in 2016?
Can we preempt their insanity by making a reasonable proposal that has plenty of time to be implemented?
CW in LA
@hitchhiker: Whddaya wanna bet the same Rethugs pushing laws requiring a photo ID to vote would regard a national ID card as a sinisterly totalitarian abridgement of our freedoms?
C. Isaac
@hitchhiker: Nope, because a national ID card is the either a totalitarian intrusion into their freedoms or a sign of the end of the world (the mark of the beast). Depends on the flavor of wingnut.
amk
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): Keep up your good work. We are gonna need it. By spadefuls.
amk
@SFAW: wow. that sounds like lying voucherryan’s under 3 minute mile.
amk
@var: wifey is the smarter one. Follow her example and bank it now.
amk
@West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.): Never read her shite. Never will.
Spaghetti Lee
Good. Fuck Ayn Rand. If it was me that would have been the whole interview: “Fuck Ayn Rand.” Cannot stand that piece of shit or her piece of shit books.
YellowJournalism
I like this hit-’em-hard Obama. I hope we get to keep him after the election. I also can’t wait until his second term is over, so he can entirely let loose what he really thinks of Republicans and the media talking heads!
fuckwit
Narcissistic Personality Disorder.
Narcissism is NORMAL in teenagers! That’s the age of “it’s all about me me me!” This is why suicide peaks in teenage years. This is why teenagers can be such insufferable tools. This is why so many teenagers love Ayn Rand– her books are the perfect justification for narcissism.
As noted, John Rogers sums it up best:
Most of us outgrow that. Some take longer than others. I was a libertarian until I became a father. Then I realized, holy shit, it’s NOT JUST ABOUT ME!
And others, like Ryan, RMoney, Shrub, Cheney, and most of the media and pundits and villagers, never do.
As for GOTV: every weekend I’ve been calling to NV and CO, and travelled to NV to knock on doors one weekend (may go back again next weekend if I can afford it).
Another Halocene Human
@suzanne: To be fair, I know a few conservative Christians like that. Psychological research suggests that the doctrine of forgiveness fuels the self-centeredness.
kay
We have 114 canvassing slots to fill over the last 4 days ( that includes election day).
This is in one Ohio county w/ about 15k voters and it’s 45 D/ 55 R.
That isn’t 114 people, because some people will do a whole day, for example, but it does give an idea on how big the job is in this state.
We need all the help we can get :)
mr.peabody
In a just and righteous world, this election would not be close. The eloquence and conviction with which the president speaks is light years ahead of any current, and many past, politicians. Comparisons between him and Romney on matters of character and substance are laughable. Romney has neither.
Can you imagine the words of Obama from RS coming from Romney, or W?(arguing the opposite, of course). No, never in a million years.
Now, if he would only stop talking about the “Grand Bargain”.
Laura
@suzanne: They’re Libertarians because they’re shitty people. Unfortunately my younger brother is ground through a Libertarian phase right now. But he’s 19, we still have hope that he’ll grow out of it.
Hopefully. :(
pkdz
I don’t see how some right wingers believe in Ayn Rand’s philosophy and in the gospel at the same time. I’ve signed up for two slots to GOTV. Hitting lower income neighborhoods in Madison, Wisconsin. Just gave money to Tammy Baldwin.
gelfling545
@fuckwit: I, personally, have never outgrown the one with the orcs.
henrythefifth
@hitchhiker: Isn’t that called a Passport? Semi-kidding.
schrodinger's cat
Actually I have only read Ayn Rand’s Anthem, it didn’t make much sense to me and I tried reading Fountain Head as a teen and could not get past fifty pages and I do remember a lot of other teens in my cohort being fans, especially the guys.
shep
Obama gets what Rand was and was writing about (and what the modern Republican Party represents), a complete lack of normal human empathy: psychopathy.
Robert Anderson
I posted a few days ago that I live in California and me and twenty friends are going to Nevada next week to Get Out the Vote (GOTV) for President Obama! Well, I am happy to report that our group of twenty has now grown to 48 people, and we are in touch with the Obama campaign and everyone is so excited.
So, I repeat: if you live in or near: Ohio, Colorado, Nevada, New Hampshire, Virginia, North Carolina or Florida, please volunteer with President Obama’s reelection campaign.
I did this in 2008 in Nevada, and it was a blast! I am looking forward to helping GOTV again, and I highly recommend anyone who is able to get involved and help President Obama win on November 6th.
bruce lee
I usually do not leave a response, however I
browsed some of the comments here Balloon Juice
...now I try to be amused
@YellowJournalism:
You and me both. In my fantasy, I buy Obama as many beers as it takes to get him to tell me what he really thinks about everything. I know he’ll be funny as hell.
KPRyan
Ayn Rand’s philosophy in a nutshell: “My followers and I do not worship a superstitious entity some call God. No. We worship the $Dollar Sign$.”
Ryan, as an accolyte, obviously worships dollars and their sign as well. This is even more obvious by his constant bragging about his ‘budget’ (aka – his Bible or Holy Book).
How Americans can’t comprehend what is so clearly obvious is just sad.
Dean Booth
I was struck by Obama’s historical reference: Congress was able to pass the bills for the transcontinental railroad and the land grant colleges only after the south seceded.