GOP shifts from Lincoln to Rand

By James C. Larew

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Iowa's Republican Party, reflecting national trends, is transforming itself from the Party of Abraham Lincoln to the Party of Ayn Rand.

Lincoln, a prairie lawyer, staked his political career on the proposition that the purpose of government is to provide the necessary things for citizens that they could not attain for themselves.

Rand, a novelist and libertarian philosopher, viewing government as a primary source of evil, sought to minimize its size, thereby allowing powerful private interests, largely through business enterprises, to rule the day.

The corresponding shift in Republican priorities can be seen on many fronts. It is noteworthy that within a month's time of Iowans celebrating the storied career of former Iowa Republican Gov. Robert D. Ray by naming a World Food Prize humanitarian award in his honor, Iowa Republicans also enthralled themselves by inviting Texas Sen. Ted Cruz to keynote important party events. More recently, Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad has invited Congressman Paul Ryan (who, reportedly, requires his congressional staff members to read Ayn Rand novels) as the keynote speaker at the governor's annual birthday-party-fundraiser.

Ray made a lasting mark on our history by proving, as Iowa's governor, that state government agencies, effectively managed, could improve the lives of all - even the least of us, such as vulnerable Hmong refugees, invited from distant shores to settle here. Cruz and Ryan, to date, competing for the mantle as a national leader of the insurgent Tea Party Republicans, have made their mark by devoting themselves to the cause of shutting down our federal government and bringing its beneficial operations to a chaotic standstill.

In the passing Republican era, effective governmental leaders such as Ray were viewed, upon retiring from effective service in elected office, as qualified to lead other critically important private and public institutions - ranging, in his case, from insurance companies to a prestigious private university.

In the New Republican era, politicians such as Cruz and Ryan, unabashedly seeking that Party's nomination for president, and without any proven record of leading any institution whatsoever, demonstrate their supposed qualifications for that office by engaging in demagogic efforts to shut down the federal government itself in a failed attempt to kill Obamacare.

On another, illustrative front, the New Republican shift from Lincoln to Rand can be measured with respect to the party's recent, unfortunate stance against improving America's passenger railroad system. Lincoln's proposition that government efforts could improve the lot of all citizens caused him to devote his political career to investing public funds into a broad assortment of “internal improvements” - what we call “infrastructure” today. That Lincoln successfully inspired Congress to finance the construction of a new transcontinental railroad in the midst of America's most costly and tragic war is one measure of that devotion.

By contrast, in the movie version of Ayn Rand's most famous novel, Atlas Shrugged, there is a scene in which the heroes, having defied great obstacles, including government itself, after marshaling funds from unnamed private and corporate sources, launch the privately owned “John Galt Line,” the fastest high-speed train in history. No doubt, in the world envisioned by Rand and her New Republican admirers, such a privatized passenger rail line could serve those citizens powerful and wealthy enough to have access to its tickets.

Following this vision, leaders of Ayn Rand Republicanism, in Iowa, as in other states, have focused on killing new government-sponsored national passenger railroad initiatives.

In our state, as in others, such as Wisconsin, Ohio and Florida, energized Rand Republicans, with the blessings of Gov. Branstad and his fellow Republican governors, are intentionally terminating or withering with indifference expanded passenger rail plans designed to move our nation's future transportation system in a direction that would provide citizens of all walks of life with increased travel options. These are options that will be enjoyed by citizens in virtually all other modern and rising countries in the world (China would be the most recent, but not only, example) - but will be strangely missing in our own land.

In the brave new era of Ayn Rand Republicanism, the breadth of our political vision may be no wider than the crimped views of the executives and owners of our largest corporations and the money managers of our largest private investment funds.

James C. Larew, an Iowa City attorney, served as then-Gov. Chet Culver's chief legal counsel in 2007. Comments: James.Larew@LarewLawOffice.com