What Kind of Capitalists are We? (Ayn Rand vs the Roosevelts)

[demwing]

This election is probably the most important one of our lifetime, extending even beyond our single lives. At least the next two generations will feel the affects of what we do in November, because this year we decide what kind of capitalists we will be, and thus we also decide on what kind of American's we are. That a big fucking deal, Joe Biden. We usually just elect a President. This year we get to write the ending of our next generation of history and economy texts.

Its all because of a religious question, really. In the Bible, God asks Cain if Cain has seen his brother Abel lying around anywhere. Cain knows exactly where Abel is lying (over in the field under some rocks, right where he left him), but petulantly challenges God: "What, do I look like my brother's keeper?" Well, sort of...

The implied answer was that good men ARE their brother's keepers, and bad men...maybe not so much. Still, as clear as it seems to be preached in Christianity, it seems to be infinitely more difficult for Christian to practice. And so we've been having this same basic debate for thousands of years. Do we protect and support the least among us, or do we leave survival only to the most economically fit?

The current version of this debate has been going on for a century, championed on the "brother's keeper" side by both Teddy and Franklin Roosevelt. Teddy championed monopoly busting, corporate regulations, and environmental conservation. Franklin championed a great social safety net.

Both were popular progressives, but the very issues that defined the respective legacies of these two presidents are now being challenged--more so assaulted--in a full frontal attack.

Who's got the gall to take on two American legends? Today, President Obama called out Paul Ryan as the "ideological leader" of the GOP. Ryan, in turn, gets his political and philosophical inspiration from Ayn Rand, author and promoter of the ethical theory of Objectivism, which rejects altruism and embraces "rational self-interest." In short, Ryan and Rand would have us believe that being our brother's keeper is not in our own "rational self interest" and therefore generosity is unethical.

And I bet Greed (for lack of a better word) is good, right guys?

The two Roosevelt Presidencies represent the best of what the Democratic Party and the Republican Party have given America. Paul Ryan and Ayn Rand, favorite prophets of the 1%, represent what the Tea Party wants to give to America - the destruction of corporate regulations and environmental conservation,and of our great social safety net. The destruction of the best principles that both parties have to offer. The Tea Party ( or rather, the 1% elites who--inspired by Ayn Rand's theories on self interest--have hijacked the Tea Party) want us to change what kid of Capitalists we are, and what kind of Americans we are, by changing the way we answer that one question, asked thousands of years ago:

"Am I my brother's keeper?"

[ms liberty]

1. K & R - I like the framing. n/t

[chknltl]

2. I am but...

Can I be my brothers keeper a little less with Paul Ayn Ryan and those like him? It is obvious that they need help but I went to school to understand Anthropology, not sociopathy. Its not like I can offer these guys a buck to buy a clue.

[demwing]

3. I don't think "being your brother's keeper" requires

being your brother's doormat, let alone your brother's economic whipping boy.

[Comrade_McKenzie]

4. I'm not a capitalist... nt

[demwing]

5. Not in your heart maybe

but it would be very difficult to be anything other than some variety of capitalist in America. Do you live in America? I'm told that some people don't, actually.