The GOP Has More In Common with Ayn Rand Than Christianity
In a land that treasures faith, freedom, and individualism, the GOP proclaims itself as the standard-bearer of Christian values. But beneath this moral banner lies a paradox: a commitment to doctrines that predate Christian compassion, upholding a creed where wealth is virtuous, and sacrifice, even of the vulnerable, is the price of prosperity.
Introduction: A Creed Beyond Compassion
The Republican Party professes allegiance to Christian virtues, positioning itself as the nation’s moral compass. Yet, its policies tell a different story—a commitment not to faith-based compassion but to doctrines rooted in self-interest and selective liberty. This vision, shaped by Ayn Rand’s Objectivism and Social Darwinism, venerates individual gain while sidestepping the ethical imperative to care for society’s weakest.
In reality, the GOP’s approach resembles the pre-Christian values of ancient cultures like the Phoenicians, who made sacrificial offerings to secure their gods’ favor. In those societies, children and the vulnerable were often sacrificed to appease Baal, a god of storms and prosperity. Today’s GOP policies similarly accept suffering and inequality as the cost of freedom, casting aside mercy in favor of an ideology that prizes power and wealth.
Mammon and Objectivism: The Cult of Wealth Over Welfare
Mammon—an emblem of unbridled greed—finds modern expression in GOP policies that elevate wealth over social responsibility. Ayn Rand’s Objectivism, a philosophy embraced by many GOP leaders, champions “rational self-interest” as a moral duty, viewing collective welfare as a hindrance to personal success. The ethos is reflected in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which, according to analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), reduced corporate taxes from 35% to 21%, offering substantial financial relief to the wealthiest Americans while providing marginal benefits to the working and middle class.
Howard Schultz, former CEO of Starbucks, exemplified the effects of such policies. Reporting by Forbes highlighted Schultz’s public support for the tax cuts, which he argued would spur corporate growth. Despite these gains for Starbucks, Forbes pointed out that Schultz faced significant criticism as the company reported record profits while raising prices and resisting wage increases for its workers. Schultz’s endorsement underscores how such tax policies often enrich the wealthy while providing limited relief to average citizens.
House Speaker Mike Johnson’s campaign to dismantle social safety nets, including the Affordable Care Act (ACA), further underscores this prioritization of self-reliance over collective welfare. According to projections by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), repealing the ACA would leave nearly 20 million people without access to affordable healthcare, illustrating the potential human impact of this policy shift.
Baal and the Doctrine of Sacrifice: Freedom’s Price
Baal, the ancient symbol of sacrifice for prosperity, appears in the GOP’s approach to gun control, where the sanctity of individual rights is preserved at the expense of communal safety. In ancient times, Baal demanded offerings, often children, to secure the prosperity of the land. Today, the GOP’s adherence to minimal gun regulation has a similarly tragic cost, with lives sacrificed in the name of freedom.
Data from the Gun Violence Archive reports that over 600 mass shootings took place in 2023 alone. Despite the toll, Republican lawmakers continue to oppose universal background checks and limits on high-capacity magazines. This resistance reflects an ideology where freedom is prioritized, even if it means tolerating preventable violence.
Consider the 2018 Santa Fe High School shooting in Texas, where ten people, mostly students, lost their lives. Despite widespread outrage and calls for legislative change, Texas lawmakers passed a law in 2021 that permitted unlicensed gun owners to carry firearms openly. “What message are we sending?” asked Sandy Phillips, whose daughter, Jessica Ghawi, was killed in the 2012 Aurora theater shooting, in an interview with CNN. “We are telling families like mine that our children’s lives are the acceptable cost of this so-called freedom.”
This selective approach to freedom extends to reproductive rights. After the 2022 reversal of Roe v. Wade, GOP-led states like Texas and Alabama implemented near-total abortion bans. For young women in these states, the inability to access reproductive healthcare represents more than a legal battle—it’s an infringement on their personal freedom. Research by the Guttmacher Institute reveals that abortion restrictions disproportionately impact low-income women who cannot afford to travel out of state, highlighting the social cost of policies framed as “pro-life.”
Social Darwinism: The Merit of Survival
A cornerstone of the GOP’s ideology is Social Darwinism, a framework that rewards survival only to those who “deserve” it. This worldview lacks Christian roots, instead drawing on the belief that only the strongest should thrive, while those who fall behind do so as a result of personal failure. This logic manifests in welfare reforms that impose work requirements on recipients, reducing aid for those deemed “unproductive.”
Arkansas’ work mandates for Medicaid recipients illustrate this approach, impacting thousands of low-income individuals who may struggle to meet eligibility requirements, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. This policy reflects a Social Darwinist mindset, which interprets poverty as a moral failing and success as a sign of worth.
Consider Beulah Garrett, a single mother from Pine Bluff, Arkansas, who lost her Medicaid coverage due to the state’s work requirement policy. “I have two jobs and still can’t keep up,” she told NPR. “I’m doing everything I can, but that wasn’t enough for them.” Garrett’s experience highlights the ethical tension in policies that frame assistance as a privilege rather than a right.
Selective Freedom: Corporate Liberty, Personal Constraint
The GOP’s selective application of freedom reveals a deep-seated allegiance to wealth over individual rights. While the party advocates deregulation and minimal oversight for corporations, it imposes stringent controls over personal liberties—particularly regarding reproductive health, gender identity, and educational content. This selective approach underscores a priority for economic freedom at the cost of individual autonomy, revealing a hierarchy where corporate interests are protected, but personal freedoms are negotiable.
Corporate tax breaks are praised as vital to economic growth, while access to healthcare, gender-affirming care, and reproductive rights face increasing restrictions. When freedom is selectively applied, those who benefit are clear, but those left behind are more so. When freedom exists only for some, is it truly freedom for all?
Conclusion: Mercy or Mammon?
The GOP’s alignment with Ayn Rand’s Objectivism, Social Darwinism, and the symbolic worship of Mammon and Baal reveals a departure from Christian values of compassion and community. In prioritizing wealth and power, the GOP has embraced a worldview that tolerates suffering as a necessary consequence of freedom. This paradox is glaring: a party that claims to represent Christian values has strayed toward pre-Christian doctrines, where wealth is virtue, and sacrifice is acceptable.
For the Republican Party, the measure of success is not found in mercy, but in prosperity. While it proclaims to defend the weak and uphold morality, its policies prioritize wealth over welfare, and self-interest over collective responsibility. In a society that values freedom, what room remains for compassion?
As America grapples with its identity, the costs of a selective freedom—one that favors the strong and dismisses the weak—become impossible to ignore. If wealth is worshipped, and sacrifice becomes the price of prosperity, the nation must ask: What remains of mercy?
Works Cited
- Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. “Potential Consequences of the Taax Cuts and Jobs Act.” cbpp.org, 2021.
- Forbes. “Yes, Starbucks Will Benefit from the Tax Cut—But That’s Just the Point.” forbes.com, 2018.
- Congressional Budget Office. “Health Insurance Coverage: Effects of the Affordable Care Act.” cbo.gov, 2021.
- Gun Violence Archive. “2023 U.S. Mass Shootings Data.” gunviolencearchive.org, 2023.
- Kaiser Family Foundation. “Medicaid Work Requirements in Arkansas.” kff.org, 2023.
- CNN. Interview with Sandy Phillips on Gun Control and Public Safety. cnn.com, 2012.
- Guttmacher Institute. “Impact of Abortion Restrictions on Low-Income Women.” guttmacher.org, 2023.
- NPR. Interview with Beulah Garrett on Medicaid Work Requirements. npr.org, 2023.
