With the 2012 presidential campaign well underway, I thought I’d size up each major contender from my perspective as an Objectivist. As for the President, Democrat Barack Obama, I think Leonard Peikoff is right that he’s an anti-American nihilist. Obama’s been a disaster for America. I took an early interest in his 2008 candidacy, long before his campaign took root, writing in my online column in February 2007 that he was worth watching, and I considered voting for him in this long post, which I amended a few weeks later (see postscript to that post) when I gave my comments a second thought and totally rejected his candidacy.
I think it’s pretty clear, and I’ve stated many times, that religious fundamentalist President George W. Bush and his fellow Republicans for selfless war (Iraq, Afghanistan) and the welfare state (socialized medicine, TARP, bailouts) all but made Barack Obama inevitable and, with conservatives contaminating the Tea Party, the Obama administration’s nonstop assault on capitalism is making the spread of religious totalitarianism more likely, too. In his final public course last year in Las Vegas, which I wrote about here, Dr. Peikoff warned about some of these developments while addressing a cultural hypothesis which is the subject of his forthcoming book.
Here’s my take on the pathetic GOP field, including undeclared but often discussed possible candidates:
Obamney is a term that suits Mitt Romney. The former Massachusetts governor and son of pragmatist Michigan Governor George Romney enacted socialized medicine, a mandatory scheme created by the conservative Heritage Foundation, which was the blueprint for ObamaCare. Dubbed ObamneyCare by an early 2012 opponent, Mormon faith-based Romney’s insistence on defending government-run medicine fits with his agenda for government-controlled private lives, making Mitt Romney unacceptable for advocates for individual rights.
The folksy Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann is the worst of everything. Apparently, Rep. Bachmann believes that America was founded as a Christian theocracy and should become one again, and her views on everything from banning a woman’s right to an abortion to her work as an attorney for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) show that she seeks total government control of people’s lives. As a devout Christian, Bachmann, who campaigned for “born-again” Christian Democrat Jimmy Carter for president in 1976, stalked patients at abortion clinics. Whatever good positions she takes are taken as matters of faith and her entire approach is based on faith, not reason. Her campaign has been accused by CNN anchor Don Lemon of initiation of the use of force during the Iowa campaign, a charge which should be taken seriously, and Rep. Bachmann is the second most dangerous major candidate currently in the race.
Self-described Christian “champion of conservative principles” Rick Perry prays and fasts in the face of the worst economy since the 1930s depression. The Texas governor, a former Democrat who once worked for Al Gore, announced his candidacy for president with a wild-eyed look that suggests a lust for power. He opposes a woman’s right to an abortion, supports a Texas law, later struck down by the state’s Supreme Court, that criminalizes sex between consenting adults, and his first major foray into presidential politics, an utterly improper prayer event that mixed religion and state, is telling. Anti-capitalist former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani (non-candidate) is known chiefly for doing his job during the jihadist attack on September 11, 2001, and saying good things about America, and tough things about our enemies, in its aftermath. Before that, Mayor Giuliani was known for dabbling in fascism as he violated free speech rights and, previously, for crusading against capitalism in New York. He’s also anti-abortion. Sarah Palin (non-candidate) is, politically, a loser, quitter, and opportunist. The Christian conservative once reportedly sought to ban books and imposed a gag order on town departments as a village mayor. She was governor of Alaska for about a year and a half before she quit to be a full-time celebrity after losing by a wide margin in her campaign for the vice-presidency. Sarah Palin, who supported Bush’s bailouts, has since exploited her children and family repeatedly in public, in social media, and on her so-called reality television program, which was cancelled.
Ron Paul, an obstetrician who once ran for president as the nominee of the anarchist Libertarian Party, would stand by while the United States is attacked by jihadist Iran. The Texas congressman, whose son, Rand Paul, is a senator from Kentucky, is an anti-abortion Christian libertarian whom the media repeatedly, erroneously, and maliciously tries to link to Ayn Rand’s philosophy, Objectivism, often through his son (see post here). Rep. Paul opposes any military action by the United States of America under any circumstances, unless the U.S. is physically attacked first. So, for example, Ron Paul would not pre-emptively attack Iran if he had knowledge that Iran was preparing to strike the United States with a nuclear missile. An American city would have to be nuked first before he would even consider striking back. In fact, Rep. Paul stated in a recent Iowa debate that Iran should be free to develop nuclear weapons; he is, practically speaking, pro-Iran. For this reason alone, and because he fraudulently claims to advocate man’s rights and capitalism, he is the most dangerous candidate for president.
Unfortunately, former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson, also a libertarian Republican, comes to the same conclusion as Ron Paul toward Iran; that the jihadist state is not a threat. The rest, including Newt Gingrich, one of the worst and most ineffective speakers of the House of Representatives, because he fraudulently claimed to advance capitalism and instead set it back years, possibly decades, seek more religion in government and/or more government in economics. Gingrich single-handedly sabotaged the 1994 Republican revolution, squandering the biggest electoral repudiation of the welfare state of the 20th century. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is not a candidate, as he proclaims loudly and often, which is good because he supports building a mosque in Manhattan near Ground Zero where jihadists attacked America.
This raises an interesting point; the influence of Islamism or jihadism in American politics and government. Amid various rumors or reports of jihadist or jihadist-allied connections to, or sponsorship of, certain candidates, such as Gov. Christie and Gov. Perry, it is important to remember that we are a nation at war with Islamic totalitarianism and its state sponsors. As an advocate for capitalism and individual rights, I support no one candidate at this stage of the campaign, for the above reasons, though, lacking a secular candidate to run against President Obama, who is destroying the United States of America, I am open to rational arguments. But our crippled country is especially vulnerable to jihadist Moslem infiltration and, just as Communist Soviets infiltrated our highest levels of government in the 20th century, it can happen again. Americans in the press, writing blogs, using social media and in the public should be vigilant about enemies within and this includes the GOP candidates and President Obama, his campaign and his administration. Religious soldiers of God blended into American culture ten years ago next month to launch the worst assault in U.S. history, still unavenged, and, because Bush and Obama failed to crush the enemy, jihadist Islam will almost certainly try to strike from within again. Because every major candidate opposes capitalism and individual rights, and seeks government control of our lives, and because Americans have allowed politicians to bring our nation closer to the brink of dictatorship, we should reject the ways of the past, demand a secular candidate who will roll back Obama’s fascist laws and respect separation of religion and state. And we should treat every candidate with suspicion.
Associated Press reports from Cheyenne, Wyoming, that Western pioneer descendant and former Wyoming U.S. Sen. Malcolm Wallop has died at age 78. The anti-Communist Republican, who served in the Senate for 18 years, is the first elected official to propose space-based missile defense, which became part of the Strategic Defense Initiative.
