Chris Jepson: The gateway drug to right-wing politics

“When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” – Corinthians 13:11

I am reminded of H.L. Mencken when I think of the wingnuts of the Republican Tea Party. He wrote, “For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.” Tea Party intellectuals (oxymoron?) argue that the one problem confronting America is government itself, and the clear solution is to simply eliminate it. America has any number of problems, but to argue the elimination of government is to really advocate an anarchical surrender. It represents a loss of faith that we as Americans can cooperatively and civilly address the many issues confronting our nation.

The intellectual underpinning of the Tea Party is thin gruel, indeed. Interestingly enough if you Google just that – intellectual underpinning of the Tea Party – up pops numerous links to Ayn Rand and her simplistic philosophy of objectivism. Ayn Rand and her books (“The Fountainhead” and “Atlas Shrugged”) have been described as a “gateway drug to right-wing politics.” I laughed out loud when I read that because that was exactly my experience.

Growing-up in a 1960s Iowa Republican household, it wasn’t much of a stretch—at all—to embrace right-wing politics, to eagerly spew Barry Goldwater’s bromide of “extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.” I embraced Rand’s “The Fountainhead” as illustrative of what I understood rugged American individualism and manhood to be. Take no quarter, give no quarter. I was the quintessential adolescent free spirit, and Ayn Rand’s characterizations of masculinity conformed (informed) to my youthful understandings and desire to be a/the heroic man.

Novelist Anaïs Nin observed, “We do not grow absolutely, chronologically. We grow sometimes in one dimension, and not in another; unevenly. We grow partially. We are relative. We are mature in one realm, childish in another.” I outgrew my fascination, nay love affair, with Ayn Rand by the time I graduated from high school. Life, I was coming to understand, was far too complex for her simplistic, reductionist explanations.

As the 1970s and ’80s unfolded, more and more was being revealed about Ayn Rand’s life that provided explanations for her “limited” perspective. So it was with great pleasure I attended a lecture on Ayn Rand’s life and work this past Monday at the Winter Park University Club. Club member Martha Williamson spoke for nearly an hour before a packed room on the life and impact of Ayn Rand. Williamson was eloquent, insightful, balanced and witty. Her presentation was well received.

I like to promote the Winter Park University Club (WPUC) because I respect the idea of a place that promotes the intellectual pursuit of ideas in a collegial atmosphere. If you’ve a mind that needs/wants exercised, I recommend the WPUC. For membership (friendship) information, call Holly Milton of the University Club at 407-644-6149. It’s affordable. It’s available. It’s an appropriate place to invest your mind and time.

I opened with Corinthians 13:11. To Tea Party Republicans, I recommend you take that verse to heart. We’ve enough raving “ranters” in politics. We need an adult Republican Party that is more than the childish simpletons of your Tea Party wing.

Finally, Ayn Rand asked in “Atlas Shrugged,” “What is man? He's just a collection of chemicals with delusions of grandeur.” That pretty much sums up the author herself.

Jepson is a 27-year resident of Central Florida. He’s fiscally conservative, socially liberal, likes art and embraces diversity of opinion. Reach him at [email protected]