• • • Wanted: Republican Literature 
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Atheism  |Atlas Shrugged  |Capitalism  |Egoism  |Paul Ryan  |Image  | Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, published in 1957, is often the first overtly political text that a young right-winger picks up. The book presents a nightmare: socialists have taken over, and they keep anyone the least bit creative hamstrung with regulations. America is drooping into decrepitude, so the world’s most brilliant industrialists are going underground in protest. Plutocrat sweethearts Dagny Taggart and Hank Rearden join the movement as the masses clamor for revolution. Will the natural aristocracy assume its rightful place? The message is simple: the world is filled with jealous mediocrities. Be your selfish self and ignore them. Rand’s sentiment is one that many, including America’s president, find adolescent.      View blog reactions