In my opinion one of the things that has made America successful is altruism. Across the board (left, right, middle) if you ask voters they will agree with the concept of altruism in government. Sacrificing for the greater good. Ayn Rand treats altruism as categorically evil. It seems to me that most people who "love" Ayn Rand have never read a whole book by her.
-The thing is, many of the people who love Ayn Rand have read her books, one such person is the former Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan. He knows what those books represent, he knows that the distain of altruism is at the core of those books, and based on his statements that no author has shaped his views more, Id wager he (like many other devotees) agrees. I think that at some point serious republicans need to recognize that their party has left them. That said, the left is a disaster area too. I realize that this is a cliché thing to say, but what we need is a common sense party. I was sitting at dinner the other night and overheard a woman at the table next to me talking about how her and her husband were "fiscally conservative but socially moderate". That pretty much sums up every single person's view of themselves. Why don't we have a party that represents that?