Ayn Rand wrote an insightful series of articles on the 1972 presidential election and its result. These articles were published in her periodical The Ayn Rand Letter. In order of publication, these articles are "The Dead End,""A Preview,""A Nation's Unity" and "The American Spirit." To my knowledge, none of these articles have been anthologized in the several posthumously published collections of Rand's articles.
It is a shame that these articles are not readily available. The Ayn Rand Letter is not cheap and is generally only purchased by serious students of Rand's thought. More casual or impecunious readers are missing out on a treasure trove of some of her best cultural and social analysis. The above listed articles are excellent examples of why the Ayn Rand Institute needs to get its act together and make all of Rand's work much more accessible to readers, students and researchers.
No short summation will do justice to Ayn Rand's articles on the 1972 election. She did emphatically state her support for the election of Richard Nixon. She did so not because of any special regard for the "pragmatic" (read, unprincipled) Nixon, but because George McGovern was so odious. Besides discussing the dishonest tactics used by the McGovernites to get their candidate nominated at the Democratic convention, Rand recognizes that a historic switch had taken place within the party:
"The real turning point came when the welfare statists switched from economics to physiology: they began to seek a new power base in deliberately fostered racism, the racism of minority groups, then in the hatreds and inferiority complexes of women, of "the young," etc. The significant aspect of this switch was the severing of economic rewards from productive work. Physiology replaced the conditions of employment as the basis of social claims. The demands were no longer for "just compensation," but just for compensation, with no work required." (A Preview, Part II, pp. 100-101. Emphasis in original)
Ayn Rand at her most imaginative could not have envisioned the Left's future policy of virulent anti-white racism and replacement of the American people with "migrants." But, her usual prescience showed with her description of McGovern that word-for-word can be used to describe Bernie Sanders.
Of course, the appearance of socialist shyster Sanders is not the only parallel between the 1972 and 2016 election. 2016 was the Flight 93 election. Eight years of Hillary Clinton in the White House, supported by the GOP turncoats running Congress, would have killed off what was left of the original American legacy. Even voters who viewed Donald Trump as a dangerous political unknown supported him over the sociopath Clinton. In the summer of 1972, Rand made the same argument:
"I am not an admirer of President Nixon, as my readers know. But I urge every able-minded voter, of any race, creed, color, age, sex, or political party, to vote for Nixon - as a matter of national emergency. This is no longer an issue of choosing the lesser of two commensurate evils. The choice is between a flawed candidate representing Western civilization - and the perfect candidate of its primordial enemies." (A Preview, Part III, pg. 110)
Rand was ecstatic over the victory of Richard Nixon mainly because it signified that the American sense of life was not dead. For her, the election meant that the United States was not doomed to continue its downward trajectory. Needless to say, the country was in far more dire straits by 2016. For nearly thirty years the country had been leaderless with "presidents" eager to sell-out the American people at every opportunity. At the end of President Commissar Pen-and-Phone's reign, many Americans had come to understand that their country was being systematically destroyed. Progressives turned to the hard left of Sanders and Clinton who promised to finish the job. Patriotic Americans understood that there was nobody in the Republican Party who could be trusted to change America's course of destruction.
Enter a principled man of action who actually loves America, holds the American people in high regard and doesn't want to "fundamental transform" the nation into a third-world toilet. Donald Trump had been a public figure for four decades prior to the election. His books were best sellers. He is a master builder who can create out of the chaos of the New York real estate business. Until declaring his candidacy, Trump's reputation was that of a successful, "can do," no-nonsense businessman. Even his reality show on business leadership enhanced his reputation.
As Ayn Rand observed forty-five years ago, in the 1972 election campaign the American people responded to each candidates' sense of life and not necessarily to their policies. To some extent, the same was true in 2016. Some responded by voting for the fascist criminal Hilary Clinton who promised more of the same statism and corruption and treason that was destroying the country. Others more discerning, responded to the representative of a classic American type.
"Americans are men of action; they do not indulge in self-pity, and they do not accept passive resignation to suffering. In the face of hardships or misfortune, their automatic response is to act, to fight, to solve the problem - an attitude for which they are so frequently condemned by the mystics of the intellectual "elite" of European barrooms and basements. To confront Americans with the patronizing "kindness" of a combined social worker and small-town Lord of the Manor, is such an impertinence that a landslide defeat is the least McGovern deserves for it." (A Nation's Unity, Part III, pg. 130)
The American people went with the successful "man of action" last November. But, the race was far closer than it should have been. One reason is that for decades academia has been indoctrinating America's children to want and need the "kindness" of overbearing authority. The other prong of the pincer movement against the American sense of life is the mass importation of socialists. The American sense of life has been deeply eroded in the last fifty years; but, it's still here.
Donald Trump is not a pragmatist as many have attempted to smear him. For example, he has held consistent views on trade for the last several decades. One can disagree with his trade policy. But, it is based on a thoughtful application of principles to policy reality. The irony is that many of President Trump's most vociferous critics are themselves dogmatists who are incapable of inductive reasoning or re-evaluating an issue when new facts become available.
Last week President Trump presented a Trifecta on his alleged pragmatism. He went to Utah to roll-back the land grabbing of two predecessors. Both presidents Clinton and Obama nationalized millions of acres of Utah territory at the stroke of their pens dipped in the bile of environmentalists. Trump reversed these acts and returned the land to the state of Utah, “I’ve come to Utah to take a very historic action to reverse federal overreach and restore the rights of this land to your citizens.” When was the last time anyone heard the phase "roll back" in reference to federal acts? Next, President Trump took a step back from the destruction of American national sovereignty by pulling out the United Nation's global compact on refugees.
By far the biggest news of the week was President Trump's announcement that the American embassy in Israel will be moving to Jerusalem. Congress authorized this move in 1995. Since then, "presidents" have been signing waivers every six months in order to prevent the move. On this issue it's clear who the cowardly pragmatists are and who the courageous man of principle is.
I think the American people have fundamentally turned aganist the welfare state and the Left's rabid hatred for their country. Hopefully, there are enough real Americans to vote in a full slate of Making American Great Again candidates into Congress to continue what President Trump has started.
Originally posted here with links: https://militaryreviews.blogsp...
Oh, and #MOGA!