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THE EDUCATION OF AYN RAND, 1905–1943
In a season of lackluster candidates, however, Willkie was popular
enough to briefl y unite a powerful faction of Republicans behind
his candidacy. He was championed by the cosmopolitan East Coast
Republicans, who valued his business experience and progressive openness
to involvement in world affairs. Rallying behind Willkie they chose
to overlook the unfortunate reality that only a year before their standard
bearer had been a registered Democrat. This fact outraged the Republican
Old Guard, the Party’s isolationist wing. They saw Willkie as a tool of
eastern moneyed interests who would drag them into the European
war. Willkie thus presided uneasily over a deeply divided party that was
momentarily united by their hunger for victory over Roosevelt.
Characteristically, Rand’s take on Willkie’s campaign was idiosyncratic.
Willkie is remembered for his optimistic internationalism, typifi
ed by his postwar best-seller One World, and his willingness to present
a united front with Roosevelt on aid to Europe during the presidential
campaign. Rand, however, focused almost entirely on Willkie’s defense
of capitalism. To be sure, this was a part of Willkie’s persona. In 1940 he
told a campaign audience, “I’m in business and proud of it. Nobody can
make me soft-pedal any fact in my business career. After all, business is
our way of life, our achievement, our glory.” Rand appreciated how he
framed his opposition to the New Deal as a “very forthright ideological,
intellectual, moral issue.” 40 She saw him as a fellow crusader for individualism.
She also mistakenly believed he was a populist candidate who
was beloved by the masses.
Genial, upbeat, and hopelessly green, Willkie was no match for the
Roosevelt juggernaut. He lacked the killer instinct necessary to unseat
an incumbent running for his third term. Genuinely concerned about
the gathering hostilities in Europe, he acceded to Roosevelt’s entreaty
that he not take a public stance against Lend-Lease, a policy controversial
with isolationists. Deprived of the one substantive issue that might
have contrasted him sharply with Roosevelt, Willkie struggled to defi ne
himself. Instead, with a few broad strokes, Roosevelt painted him as a
tool of big business and the rich.
Such stereotyping did little to discourage Rand; in fact it had the
opposite result. Convinced for the fi rst time that domestic politics truly
mattered, she and Frank signed on with the New York City branch of
the Willkie Club, a network of volunteer organizations that was vital to
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