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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices

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To: Wharf Rat who wrote (1585620)1/27/2026 9:27:01 PM
From: Maple MAGA 1 Recommendation

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longz

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Ayn Rand did not like the New Deal, I will try and help you understand why.

“The New Deal is the Raw Deal”

Ayn Rand, early political writings (1930s)

“The New Deal is the Raw Deal.”

Context:

Rand used this phrase repeatedly in her early American political commentary. By it, she meant that the New Deal took from productive individuals and redistributed through political force, while disguising the process as compassion.

New Deal as collectivism

For the New Intellectual (1961)

“The New Deal was a massive attempt to solve economic problems by means of political power.”

Meaning:

Rand argued that economic problems cannot be solved by coercion, and that the New Deal replaced voluntary exchange with bureaucratic control.

On rights vs. needs (directly aimed at New Deal philosophy)

The Virtue of Selfishness (1964)

“If some men are entitled to the products of others, then those others are deprived of rights.”

Context:

This was a direct moral rejection of the New Deal’s premise that government may redistribute wealth based on “need.”

On government-created dependence

Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal (1966)

“The New Deal entrenched the notion that need is a claim.”

Meaning:

Rand believed the New Deal permanently shifted American thinking from rights-based citizenship to need-based entitlement.

On FDR’s legacy specifically

Ayn Rand Letter to Senator Barry Goldwater, 1964

“Franklin Roosevelt led the country toward collectivism, not by force, but by moral corruption.”

Context:

Rand thought FDR succeeded because he changed moral language — redefining selfishness as evil and dependency as virtue.

New Deal as moral inversion

For the New Intellectual

“The New Deal did not fail. It succeeded in exactly what it set out to do: the destruction of capitalism’s moral base.”

This is one of her most important critiques — that even where programs “worked,” they worked by undermining liberty.

On emergency powers and permanence

Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal

“Nothing is as permanent as a temporary government program.”

Often quoted today — this was explicitly written in reference to New Deal agencies and controls.

Rand’s core argument, distilled

In Rand’s view, the New Deal:


Replaced individual rights with collective claims

Normalized state intervention in private life

Trained citizens to see government as provider, not protector

Permanently altered American political morality
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