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WHO IS JOHN GALT? 1957–1968
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strident demands, socialist rhetoric, and street action reminded her all
too much of the Bolsheviks. Objectivists instead sought to protest the
draft through legal means. Rand’s personal lawyer, Henry Mark Holzer,
began representing clients who had been drafted. He and several other
Objectivists organized an antidraft road show that visited several cities,
presenting the Objectivist argument against the draft as a violation of
individual rights. 38
Rand’s opposition to the draft cemented her popularity on campus
and separated her further from conservatives. Increasingly the Vietnam
War was making the differences between libertarians and conservatives
clear. Conservatives saw the war as an important confl ict in the
worldwide struggle against Communism; if anything, they urged that
the war be pursued more vigorously. By contrast, libertarians doubted
the war’s relevancy to U.S. interests, and like Rand they saw the draft
as an unacceptable violation of individual rights. In 1966 several professors
at the University of Chicago called a conference to discuss the
Selective Service System. A number of libertarians, including the economist
Milton Friedman, made principled arguments against the draft.
Rand publicized similar ideas to her student following. One young follower
recalled, “It was not necessary to accept the antiquated bourgeois
baggage of respect for one’s elders, support for an unwinnable war, or
abstention from sex. Instead, liberty could be justifi ed, youthfully and
gloriously, by the triumphant words of John Galt to a mediocre world,
resonating through the campus rebellion: ‘Get the hell out of my way!’ ” 39
Goldwater’s 1964 campaign for president had given Rand her fi rst surge
of popularity among conservative youth. Now her opposition to the
draft created a second rush of enthusiasm for her ideas.
A good index of her popularity came in October 1967, when National
Review featured Rand on its cover, rendered as a stained glass window
complete with dollar sign insignia, under the wry headline “The
Movement to Canonize Ayn Rand.” The article was essentially a hit piece
commissioned by William F. Buckley, who had grown concerned with
Rand’s perennial appeal among young conservatives. Buckley told his
chosen author, M. Stanton Evans, that he wanted a “defi nitive” piece
on Ayn Rand that would “demonstrate to people of commonsense that
her ideological and philosophical presumptions make her an inadequate
mentor.” Whittaker Chambers’s message bore repeating to a new
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