Liar, Liar: Has Mitt Romney read "Atlas Shrugged"?

I imagine that he has not.  But I know that his running-mate Paul Ryan has.  And since Ryan has made a personal fetish of the book, at one time setting it above the Bible in his estimation of the moral guidance to be discovered between its covers, I am...disturbed to see that he has not shared with Mitt this Randian "sermon" against, of all things, lying:

"People think that a liar gains a victory over his victim. What I’ve learned is that a lie is an act of self-abdication, because one surrenders one’s reality to the person to whom one lies, making that person one’s master, condemning oneself from then on to faking the sort of reality that person’s view requires to be faked…The man who lies to the world, is the world’s slave from then on…There are no white lies, there is only the blackest of destruction, and a white lie is the blackest of all.” ― Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

[This quote and all others in this diary come from "Quotes About Lying"]

Finding that Ayn Rand could imagine a character who would condemn lying on such pragmatic grounds does not improve my opinion of her book so much as it makes me question Ryan's levels of reading comprehension and loyalty to Mitt.  All those times poor Paul read his favorite book, did he skip this part because "self-abdication" has five syllables? Was he so focused on the bodice-ripping romance between Dagny and Reardon that he missed the character-forming message? How could he have missed so many opportunities in his relationship with Romney to warn his leader, his mentor of the difficulties created by lying?

Since we can never again trust the words of liars—Ayn Rand tells us so—we may never know why Ryan and Romney have failed to take to heart the words of Atlas Shrugged.  What is more important, then, is to educate likely voters, particularly those who believe Mitt Romney gained "a victory" over President Obama in the first debate, that reality is very different.

Romney thinks he made President Obama look like "an obstinate child"?  In fact, Romney made President Obama his "master."  I trust our President will "own" or "pwn" him in the next two presidential debates.

Romney thinks he controlled the first debate and, with it, voters' perceptions of reality?  In fact, he has "surrendered [his] reality" to President Obama and us voters, giving us the power and responsibility to monitor his every word, as if he were on probation and we were his parole officers.

Romney thinks he is a free man, at liberty to say whatever, whenever he wants? In fact, he is "a slave," he serves his lies, and if he is voted this nation's president he will bring upon it "the blackest destruction":  job losses, not gains; social safety nets obliterated, not repaired; women's rights to choice, fair pay, and healthcare all erased; neo-con foreign policy restored.  

Romney's supporters cannot see this reality.  Perhaps they have heard in his lies what they want to hear.  Perhaps they have so personally identified with him that accusations of his lying feel like personal slaps to their faces, like soap shoved in their mouths.  We can lead them to the truth but not force them to see it.  Re-educating them will require patient persistence and an artful arsenal of..."zingers."

“Anything is better than lies and deceit!” ― Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

Yes, Virginia, even an African-American president who thinks that women can make appropriate heath care decisions without unconsensual transvaginal probing.

“But you can't make people listen. They have to come round in their own time, wondering what happened and why the world blew up around them. It can't last.” ― Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

Yes, wing nuts, we'll wait for you to join the 21st century.  We hope you understand that progress in LGBT rights, women's rights, environmental protection, alternative energies, access to health care, job creation, poverty eradication, etc., etc., etc., cannot and will not wait for anyone.  

“I believe in my mask-- The man I made up is me I believe in my dance-- And my destiny” ― Sam Shepard

Good for you, Mitt.  The rest of us need not follow your delusions.

“Those who are capable of tyranny are capable of perjury to sustain it.” ― Lysander Spooner

And vice-versa: In the liar you see a tyrant.  Now, remind me: Are we voting for president or dictator?

“and a charge of lying against someone whom you have always found truthful is a very serious thing; a very serious thing indeed.” ― C.S. Lewis

But a charge of lying against someone who lies—charitably, "flip flops"—continuously is the most necessary thing:  Lies allowed to stand invite "teaching the controversy" and condemn those who believe them to deepest, darkest ignorance.

“Perhaps we have been guilty of some terminological inexactitudes.” ― Winston Churchill

In other words, what you said was "inelegantly stated"?  Oh, Mitt, you're no Winston Churchill!

GOTV, folks.  Seriously.