2012 Presidential Election

Originally posted by Archaeopteryx
I know, but his economic beliefs fall right in line with hers.

Not really, thats the amazing thing. Most people who say they are followers of Rand don't know the first thing about her. They read her fiction, think she is saying corporations are the most amazing thing and draw ridiculous conclusions.

Her actual stance was more akin to a separation between business and the state the same way there is that separation between state and religion. The idea that the government should be promoting business with special tax rates, subsidies, that it should fight against labor, etc, etc.

Ryan's economic stance is to be pro-business. Rand would disagree with this, it was her major opposition to Reagan.

Originally posted by Oliver North
idea that the government should be promoting business with special tax rates, subsidies, that it should fight against labor, etc, etc.

sorry, this was unclear. Rand was against these things because the government had no right to do it.

Originally posted by Bardock42
Do you really know that though, or do you just say words cause you like words?

I sincerely tried to get through the Fountainhead but it was like a combination of reading Mein Kampf and the last two thirds of the Communist Manifesto in comparitive politics class and watching an Ed Wood movie alone and sober.

I ended up listening to interviews with her, reading about her advocating violence and rape, and basing her protagonists on a convicted serial killer of little girls.

I agree wholeheartedly with Allen Moore's critique in that it really is like any other far right totalitarian belief system except with less focus on social order and creating a very broad "other" to vilify (like Mussolini and the early fascists before Hitler and his ilk gave them a boner for race and Jew hate).

It's all the same male idealization of strength and supposed-self reliance, a view of compassion and empathy as weaknesses, identifying an enemy within society and without (in this case poor people, socialists, communists, liberals), while in instilling within the read that they are among the talented, superior class of talented supermen deserving of society's fealty.

By the way, other than being rich entrepreneurs, has anyone ever noticed that none of Rand's major protagonists are self-made. They're all wealthy heirs?

Anyway, I don't think it's all that hyperbolic to think that the current Democratic idea of getting us out of this mess can best be described as far too little, mismanaged, ill advised, and too late while the Republican and Libertarian ideas seem to mirror Stalin's Holodomor. It's even worse when Democrats try to act like Republicans and give us things like proposed government rating boards for movies, television and music and a senate crime bill that could make graffiti on a government building a capital crime (Both happened a long time ago, but still).

I'm voting for Jill Stein and I honestly think if she were given an equal chance at the debates, Obama would be trailing her by 7%.

So you've read none of her non-fiction?

Originally posted by Darth Jello

By the way, other than being rich entrepreneurs, has anyone ever noticed that none of Rand's major protagonists are self-made. They're all wealthy heirs?

I....what?

Howard Roark and John Galt (the main protagonists) are not heirs, it doesn't go much into their early life, but it is mentioned that they come from non-wealthy backgrounds.

Neither are Gail Wynand, Hank Rearden and Ellis Wyatt.

Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of wrong with her fiction (and with her philosophies), just...you don't seem to know much about it.

debate #1 live now

http://www.youtube.com/user/politics

Democracy Now! is broadcasting the alternative debate-Jill Stein and Rocky Anderson

wow, Romney is attacking like a progressive, which is actually seeming effective.

My drinking game is to take one every time Obama sounds like a Republican... I'm going to be out before 8:30...

Watching it live now, this is some of the best free TV!

Obama needs to punch romney

I don't usually watch political debates, but... does every politician who isn't speaking always cast their eyes downward like Obama is doing?

It's like someone preserved the brains of Reagan and Mussolini and put them in the bodies of an insecure black guy and a bad Reed Richards robot!

I propose Canadian rules! They rename the next debate Barry Vs. Mitty and whoever loses has to do a humiliation!

Originally posted by Darth Jello
It's like someone preserved the brains of Reagan and Mussolini and put them in the bodies of an insecure black guy and a bad Reed Richards robot!

Who are those guys

Romney on the ropes, Obama wins by a knock out!

Originally posted by Colossus-Big C
?

Who are those guys

YouTube video

Obama was too passive for my liking, he's the sitting President, he should be a bear, not a sloth.

Romney once again played the 'if it's a popular topic, I'm for it', regardless of previous stances.

God, I hate Al Sharpton.

Personally I want a president who's slothful. He'll be unlikely to support the erosion of civil liberties if he's too concerned with chilling and having a sweet time.

How long until the "I like Big Bird" memes start.

I don't like being lied and pandered to by politicians. Every time they speak, that's how I feel. So, I'm here to say...VOTE FOR RAPTORBADA!!!!