You can learn a lot about people from the company they keep, even if that company is in the form of ghosts on a bookshelf. And yes, when it comes to fiscal policy, Paul Ryan loves Ayn Rand.
The Washington Post has a long, belabored essay on what Rand's philosophies say about Mitt Ryan's new running mate (funny, no one seemed quite this curious about Joe Biden's library). And Dave Weigel at Slate has another, in which he admits that Ryan's quoted Thomas Aquinas as a much bigger influence on his politics. But who wants to talk about some 13th century theologian -- only known as the Church's greatest philosopher -- when Rand is so controversial?
Weigel, for one, thinks the Ryan-Rand connection is so potent, in fact, he writes that "he can no more denounce Rand than he can denounce his own white grandmother."
Cute. Now, Ryan certainly is a Rand devotee. He's said as much. But so are most conservatives, who at least in some part profess an appreciation for Rand's objectivism and her iconic treatise-cum-novel Atlas Shrugged. Whether or not his Randian applications to the economy make for the kinds of nefarious characterological implications that some are suggesting seems a little far-fetched.