Will This Election Settle Republicans’ Ayn Rand Debate?
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Nov. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Whoever prevails in today’s election,the 2012 presidential campaign should go down as a referendum onthe long conservative fascination with Ayn Rand, thecontroversial libertarian novelist and philosopher.
Mitt Romney, the Republican candidate and former titan ofprivate equity, embodies Rand’s belief in the moral rectitude offree-market capitalism. A secretly videotaped speech Romney gaveto a private fundraising audience -- in which he asserted that47 percent of Americans were “dependent upon government” -- wasan excellent distillation of this worldview.