The label doesn't accurately describe either his record or his proposals or the way that he would govern if elected.

Reuters

If you're a liberal who rolls his or her eyes every time you hear someone on the right describe President Obama as an Alinskyite or a Marxist, understand this: That's exactly how libertarians feel when Rep. Paul Ryan, the GOP's vice-presidential candidate, is described as a devoted Randian.

I understand that Ryan has described himself that way. In fact, I mocked him at length for doing so, pointing out that if he were a character in Atlas Shrugged, he would doubtlessly be a villain.

But the comparison keeps getting made.

Says my colleague Robert Wright, "Ryan's Randian attack on America's already meager safety net for the poor stands in stark contrast to the Affordable Care Act's improved access to health care for low-income Americans." But Ryan has never made a Randian attack on America's safety net. He has neither proposed eliminating it nor said that its recipients are morally reprehensible moochers. That isn't to say that he hasn't proposed significant cuts, or that they might not harm poor people. It is only to say that there is no reason to label cuts Randian when neither the reasoning offered for them nor the end results are anything Rand would endorse, consistent with her philosophy, or even a half-hearted attempt to carry out its precepts.