A look at Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney’s VP candidate
By: Joe Makoto 
-Staff Writer-
“Faith, as such, is extremely detrimental to human life: it is the negation of reason.” – Ayn Rand
“I regard charity as a marginal issue. What I am fighting is the idea that charity is a moral duty and a primary virtue.” – Ayn Rand
“I grew up reading Ayn Rand and it taught me quite a bit about who I am and what my value systems are, and what my beliefs are.” – Paul Ryan (2005)
“It’s so important that we go back to our roots to look at Ayn Rand’s vision, her writings, to see what our girding, under-grounding [sic] principles are.” – Paul Ryan (2005)
In this election year, Paul Ryan, widely described as a devout Catholic, has renounced his 2005 self, “I reject [Ayn Rand’s] philosophy,” Ryan told National Review, “It’s an atheist philosophy. It reduces human interactions down to mere contracts and it is antithetical to my worldview.”
Pandering is expected, and genuine changes of mind can happen. However, Rand’s atheism is central to her belief that man, through Aristotelian reasoning, is supreme. Neither is the Catholic view of a personal duty to serve society, especially the vulnerable, incidental. As Paul Ryan knows, that belief has created the largest non-governmental social services network in the United States.
Congressman Ryan looks like Mitt Romney on steroids, infamous for his many stances on abortion depending on his perception of the constituency. Saying one thing when it suited him, then saying another when the political constituency shifts, leaving one wondering what his principles really are.
