Hoger onderwijs moet cloud afschermen

COLUMN - Hoe kijken Amerikanen in Nederland naar de presidentsverkiezingen aldaar? De komieken van Boom Chicago in Amsterdam werpen hun licht op Obama, Romney en alles daaromheen in een serie gastblogs. Vandaag in aflevering 1: Paul Ryan, zijn liefde voor Ayn Rand en de Tea Party.

The Vice Presidential candidates had their debate last night, but let’s face it: who cared?  We know all we need to know: Biden is a charismatic, straight-talking leader with a mostly unearned reputation for being a bare-chested mix of Nicolas Cage, Hulk Hogan and a bottle of tequila.  Paul Ryan is a small town boy, fitness nut and liar with a reputation for being a wholesome policy genius, but his numbers never seem to add up.  Plus, Ryan is a devotee of Ayn Rand, the author of Atlas Shrugged.

Have you read Atlas Shrugged?  Me neither; life’s too short for 1,200 pages about how the government is evil, job creators would flourish if only they weren’t hampered by moochers, and that everything your parents taught you about how the strong should defend the weak is bull.  But you know who has read it?  All of Paul Ryan’s staffers; it’s required reading for them.  So when Ryan got the nod as VP pick, I went ahead and read the Cliffs Notes.  If Ayn Rand wrote Spiderman, his Uncle Ben would tell young Peter Parker, “With great power comes great profit.”  What about “great responsibility,” Uncle? What about the needy?  “We don’t want to turn the safety net into a hammock that lulls able-bodied people into lives of dependency and complacency.”