David Brat “Analysis Of The Moral Foundation Of Ayn Rand” – The Truth.
Wow. Conservatives who didn’t like Eric Cantor were so fast to back David Brat they assumed he was a fan of Ayn Rand. The reason, in part, was a paper called “Analysis Of The Moral Foundation Of Ayn Rand” – it was referred to in blog after article, after blog, as the proof that he’s the real conservative deal.
For example, Gawker’s Ally Jones called Brat an ‘Ayn Rand scholar,” and referred to the paper, but did not post it, and then wrote a reference to the so-called “BB&T Moral Foundations Of Capitalism” program, which via her link shows she got from Betsy Woodruff’s equally poorly researched blog post over at The National Review.
If anyone does just a little digging, they find that the “BB&T Moral Foundations Of Capitalism” is ay a number of colleges and while the entrepreneur who’s financed the program, John Allison, is into Ayn Rand, the economics professors who take his grant money to start research programs generally are not.
As one who’s taken 24 economics courses, I can tell you the mention of Ayn Rand is as common as Karl Marx in any reputable program of the study of economic philosophy. But to assume a professors a fan of Ayn Rand solely because his college uses BB&T grant money is really silly. While the program itself was established as part of Allison’s fears of “statism” and “economic decline” there’s no indication that money was pulled away because a professor was critical of capitalism. And, if one reads the paper, its clear David Brat is.
Well, as it turns out, none of those blogs or articles, from Gawker or The National Review, actually linked to a copy of the paper Brat wrote. So I went to the website where it was posted, and figured out that one could be downloaded – but never was.
Stop and think about that.
Not one of the news authors actually bothered to go and try to find and read “Analysis Of The Moral Foundation Of Ayn Rand” to learn what Professor Brat wrote. They just rubber-stamped it based only on its title!
That’s the sad by product of about two decades of decline in per-pupil spending on education at the state and local level, adjusted for inflation. In other words, we have a society that seems to have an aversion to research and critical thinking.
But I digress.
So, I placed it on Scribd, where you can read what I learned: that it was a research proposal that was to compare real World economies with a “randian” idea using data. But Brat wrote that he and his research group expected to find that Capitalism would not be kind to the maintenance of Western families.
Or, to be specific, this:
We should note that Capitalism is not always a positive force. We anticipate that Capitalism has had a negative effect on the family structure in the West, but we shall see.
It’s right there in the document.
The reverse assumption here is that socialist economies are more family friendly.
So much for David Brat, the real conservative.
Brat’s getting away with political murder, and the victims are what I’ve called “couch potato conservatives” who don’t read, or research, but just grab on to anything or anyone that might advance their simple-minded idea of what conservatism is. And all to say “I’m a conservative” – but they don’t know why.
It’s a Southern cultural thing, too. It’s very common to hear a Republican candidate say “as a conservative” as if that’s more important than, for example, job creation or children. It’s done so often I see it as a sickness. They have to be conservative without even thinking about what that means, or why they are that.
It’s just plain nuts.
So all David Brat has to do is the following:
1. Say he’s conservative
2. Quote the Bible.
3. Mention Ronald Reagan (Who, in point of fact, really looks like a Democrat by today’s standards, but don’t confuse folks by showing them why that’s so. Just ask them what his stance on assault weapons was? I’ll bet they don’t know.)
Professor Brat does that, and he’s golden – the new Fox News rock star. And with a Virginia voter turnout of just 12 percent (one out of every 10 people) for the 2014 GOP Primary, making it more likely that passionate conservative wingnut votes count, Brat beats Eric Cantor, and wrecks the GOP establishment.
And all the while masking what he really thinks.
But I digress.
Here’s the paper:
An Analysis of the Moral Foundations in Ayn Rand – David Brat by Zennie Abraham
Stay tuned.