I don't believe Ayn Rand saw Christians as dumbed-down altruists, but she concentrated on man's singular interests and reason. I wrote abook called SAVE PEBBLE DROPPERS which did not suggest a strike as much as it did keeping elbow room for creativity and freedom to pursue our inequalities.
Clay Barham

Oh- and Raz- it's not stressed in AS, but she does mention in several places that charity that is being done for the personal reward one gets, either in bartered services or warm fuzzy feelings, is perfectly compatible with enlightened self-interest.

Lifelong Republican. Think the last president I was able to vote for with a relatively clear conscience was Reagan; since then have had to hold my nose and close my eyes before punching the button. I started parting ways with the Republicans back in the Pat Robertson/ Jerry Falwell era, and have done so even more as the Religious Right has pushed social issues to the front. I'm a pro-gun, pro-choice, pro-marriage equality, tree-hugging (literally- I'm a nature worshipper) small-l libertarian with strong Tea Party sympathies, and hate that the RR has tried to hijack the TP.

Originally...politically unaffiliated...then republican...now independant with Tea Party liberatarian leanings. I personally feel both patries have lead us down the wrong path and "politician" has replaced the word "liar" and "thief" in my permanent dictionary...WAITING for someone to prove me wrong.

I am a conservative - through and through. I am a business owner and at 67 still work fifty hours a week and will continue until I enter the great Gulch in the sky. I love what I do. I identify more with Tea Party princilpes than anything else. I feel that two books should be required reading - The Five Thousand Year Leap and of course A S. I m an older dad and I fear for my daughter. She will be armed with opposing informatin and facts when she hits high school and college. No doubt she will grow up to be a striker.

Republican, originally. Realized something was terribly wrong when Newt Gingritch sold the country on some pretty decent principles in order to gain Republican control of congress, then promptly abandoned all of those principles after achieving the easiest ones. The freedom alarm really went off when 9-11 came and went and we went into full on militarism mode, threw out liberty in the name of security, and began stripping away our rights and ignoring all the restrictions imposed on the feds by the Constitution. Began looking for something better after most of the freedom-talking politicians were driven out of the 2008 presidential race. Atlas Shrugged pointed me towards libertarianism, then I placed my membership with the the Libertarian Party. Since then have realized that the Libertarian Party is just another political party, and they water down libertarian principles just to gain acceptance (still better than all the other political parties in the game). Am leaning now towards agorism/voluntaryism.

The ONLY thing that needs to be understood is that it's your decision. Ayn did say that if you wish to give your money away go ahead. I mean if I personally give someone $10 I am doing this for my own pleasure. I don't care why they need it. But, VERY IMPORTANT, I wouldn't give these disgusting republicans a nickel because they're using Ayn's brilliance to manipulate and ultimately control all the wealth. romney, ryan... These worms do not have an original thought in there head. Money is there God, NOT ACHIEVEMENT

Absolutely Conservative. For more information on the political spectrum. Look up the comment I gave someone on this very subject last week titled "Brown: Is progressivism the new communism?"

They confused where socialism and communism were and I explained were political stances fall from Far Left to Far Right.

Politically: without a home. Too young to vote for Reagan but I loved the man. He measurably left the country better than he found it. I voted for him in 2004 because even though he was dead, I think he was still the best man for the job. I have voted Libertarian in the past as well. Politics is tricky because these guys say what you want to hear to get into office, then do what they feel like once they get there.

I am with you on the Libertarians in part. I love the focus of their message on freedom / personal liberty. It saddens me that a great number of people want to use their liberty to get stoned and that's the primary reason they are in the party. Don't tell me otherwise, people. In the college age range, in aggregate, that's their motivation. As they age, their desire for "liberty" goes away along with their desire to get stoned and they find another party. I think a libertarian foreign policy would be a welcome change to the current situation. We have one foreign policy when it comes to the Reps and Dems. Hasn't been a difference between the two since Reagan, and he was an anomaly. You probably fear the Libertarians would be too "wimpy" on foreign policy. We currently have a policy of lying to get into preemptive war, with the president starting it and the congress not declaring it. Let's take the Libertarian foreign policy and fine tune it when we get it! What we're doing now is a disaster.

I think you are completely wrong on Ayn Rand's view of altruism and its potential compatibility with Christianty. Ayn Rand starts from the premise that "There is no God and I'm developing my moral code with my own mind. Now tell me why MUST I help others, absent God telling me to?" You read Matthew 5, and Jesus says even those following the Old Testament didn't have their morality where God wanted it, much less those creating their own "I'm a law unto myself" moral code. The standard to meet is in V48 of that chapter. To the Christian, ones moral code is supposed to be BETTER than what Ayn Rand or anyone else comes up with. Don't be ashamed of that. Make no apologies for it. Don't seek compatibility with it. They sure aren't going to reciprocate around here. As others have mentioned below, Ayn Rand would have been fine if you were charitable as long as you didn't do it for any reason that God would have been happy with.

Classic Liberal, and I have to drag myself to vote, for most of my adult life, for the lesser evil

Whig. In order words, a pragmatist.