Ayn Rand, conservatives, libertarians and the National Review

Ed Kilgore has a tremendous post up right now about Ayn Rand,

What I'd like to do as a public service is simply to remind folks tempted to "go Gault" [sic] or to gush ignorantly about the subject in blogs or on Fox that they are flirting with a philosophy that is profoundly and expressly hostile to anything that could remotely be described as "conservative." And before anyone even thinks of offering the "you-don't-have-to-be-a-fascist-to-love-Ezra-Pound's-poetry" defense, it's important to understand that John Galt, Atlas Shrugged, and their creator Ayn Rand represent a remorselessly unified and logical world-view that can't be sliced and diced into bite-sized portions you can take or leave. Galt's speech, in particular, which is the supposed inspiration for all this excited Tea Party chatter, was a painstakingly wrought distillation of Rand's all-encompassing philosophy of Objectivism, which few "conservatives" could stomach, much less endorse. And Rand, if she were alive, would be the first to object to promiscuous use of her words and character, especially by political "conservatives," whom she largely despised as life-hating slaves to an imaginary God, or as unprincipled demagogues little better in practice than all the other "collectivists."

Kilgore proceeds to offer up an incredible list of Rand quotations on the subject of conservatisvism, Republicans, Reagan, the National Review and other subjects. You really should peruse the entire list, its that impressive, but here's my favorite,

Neither I nor "Atlas Shrugged" nor my philosophy has any connection with the so-called "Libertarian" movement. I hold that politics without a consistent philosophical base leads to disaster. The "Libertarian" movement is a random movement of emotional hippies-of-the-right who play at politics without philosophy or consistency.

--Letter to the Editor, The New York Times, August 11, 1976 (subscription only)

Someone should tell Ross Kaminsky, though I'm afraid he might actually cry. My (and I think Kilgore's) point being that these "liberatrian" bloggers are intellectual frauds and juvenile poseurs... and that's on their best day.