Another major article on Rand in the Wall Street Journal

[Bidinotto]

The extraordinary media coverage this week of the golden anniversary of Atlas Shrugged continues today with a second op-ed column in the Wall Street Journal -- this one penned by Brian Doherty, an editor of Reason magazine and author of the recent history of the modern libertarian movement, Radicals for Capitalism (a descriptive label he borrowed from Rand).

Titled "Rand and the Right," Doherty's essay explains why conservatives ought to stop mocking Rand's work and pay closer attention to her principled case for capitalism. Doherty isn't an Objectivist, but as fellow travelers go, he did quite a nice job -- and his piece is a fine companion to David Kelley's tribute to Atlas, published in the Journal's October 10 edition.

Ayn Rand's ideas appear to have reached a tipping point: They are becoming mainstream. That doesn't mean everyone agrees with them; far from it. But it does mean that rather than generating unremitting mockery, they have stood the test of time to become at least a respectable intellectual position -- one to be debated on equal terms with other philosophical alternatives.

[Philip Coates]

Doherty's is a wonderful article and a breakthrough, given where it appears. But I worry about Objectivism and Rand becoming viewed too much as a part of conservatism of of "the Right". I also worry about becoming too dependent on or too targeted at these audiences to the neglect of liberals and moderates and the non-political.

For example, it's great to have prominent religious conservatives (Clarence Thomas, Rush Limbaugh, etc.) and three Republican congressman extolling Rand and her importance re property rights, fiscal conservatism, etc. But I'd feel a lot more comfortable if at least one liberal congressman or judge or columnist or newspaper extolled her advocacy of free speech, civil liberties, abortion rights, etc.

[Philip Coates]

Related to this is libertarianism having been somewhat marginalized and dismissed in recent decades in high level intellectual circles as a movement 'on the Right' or of conservatism.

[Chris Grieb]

Phil; Objectivists can deal with the questions you raise by pointing to Ayn Rand's attacks on the right. They can make the point that she was not a conservative. Objectivists can make the point that Dave Mayer may so well that Objectivists don't regard the South as the good guys in the Civil War.

Edited October 13, 2007 by Chris Grieb