Sen. Ted Cruz takes Ayn Rand to Washington

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) joined Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) a number of times on the Senate floor this Wednesday in Paul’s heroic 13-hour “Mr. Smith” style filibuster of John Brennan’s nomination to head the Central Intelligence Agency.

Among a series of thought-provoking questions on the role of government in a free society, praise of Sen. Paul’s excellent character as a statesman and for the first time in history giving a voice to the “twitterverse” in the US Senate, Sen. Cruz did something you see almost as rarely as an elected official actually fighting for the heart and soul of constitutional government: he brought Ayn Rand to Capitol Hill.

“One of my all time heroes, Ayn Rand, in Atlas Shrugged described how the parasitical class would put into place arbitrary power. Standard-less rules precisely so the productive citizens in the private sector would have to come on bended knee to those in government seeking special dispensation, seeking special favors because that arbitrary and standard-less rule empowers the political class and disempowers the people. I couldn’t help but think about Ayn Rand’s observations.”

Referring to a hearing earlier that day, in which Eric Holder was grilled on whether or not it would be constitutional for the federal government to kill US citizens on US soil, Cruz found himself “thinking of those arbitrary standards Ayn Rand talked about. That if the only protection we the people have against the federal government choosing to take the life of a US citizen on US soil is our trust that they would refrain from doing what is inappropriate rather than the protections of the constitution then I would suggest that our liberty is fragile, indeed.”

Although Cruz may be correct that American liberty is fragile, it is the long awaited arrivals of leaders like him, Mike Lee, and others who stood with Rand Paul on Wednesday that give Americans a powerful sense of hope for the future. And in that future, our liberties are not fragile. They are not weak, nor fleeting. They are robust and long-lasting and will finally reopen the way for the heroic individualism that made America everything it is today, and everything it has the potential of being tomorrow.