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IT USUALLY BEGINS WITH AYN RAND 269
a mutually agreeable party platform, so many members of the Party
claimed to be working for the ultimate abolition of the state, a position
Rand found irresponsible and absurd. Even worse was that libertarians
had no guiding philosophy, and were proud of it. Rand supported
abolition of the drug laws and the draft, but libertarians went beyond
these positions, celebrating drug culture, draft dodging, and general
rebellion against law and order. This tendency toward chaos had made
Rand’s morality appealing to libertarians who sought boundaries and
guides to their rebellion. Now the Libertarian Party offered the same
kind of structure. Unlike Rand, the Party also offered a positive program
for the future, even a promise of political infl uence. By opposing the
Party so vehemently, Rand undermined her vaunted position among
libertarians.
No longer star-struck teenagers, libertarians were now ready to
challenge Rand’s authority and even her intellectual contribution. A
Libertarian Party organizer, Edward Crane III, responded specifi cally
to Rand’s allegation that the Party existed on “borrowed” ideas. “Sure,
we’ve ‘borrowed’ some of the concepts used by Miss Rand,” wrote Crane.
“But the myth that she invented those ideas should long since have been
dispelled,” he added, citing a number of earlier libertarian writers who
had infl uenced Rand, including Rose Wilder Lane and Isabel Paterson.
Crane surmised that Rand was most troubled because she did not control
the Libertarian Party. Despite his harshness Crane tempered his
criticism, noting in a foreword, “I am a great admirer of Rand and had
mixed emotions about writing the piece. I am inclined to believe that
the Ayn Rand I was writing about is not quite the same Ayn Rand of a
decade ago.” 63 Framing Rand as a new and different person helped ease
the sting. And to some degree it was true: Rand had become increasingly
unpleasant, querulous, and rigid as the years progressed. But libertarians
had also changed. Their worldview, goals, and ambitions had
shifted, as would their intellectual horizons.
Libertarian ambitions were fed by the ascendancy of Rand’s protégé,
Alan Greenspan, to the president’s Council of Economic Advisers.
Anarchists and purists regarded him as a statist sell-out; others wondered
if he would subtly pull the administration in an Objectivist direction.
He and Rand were still close, although they met infrequently.
Greenspan had largely stayed above the fray in 1968 but had not hesitated
to publicly support Rand in her disavowal of Nathan. This action
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