Ada Fisher: Obama Shrugged, the First Four Years
In the new movie, “Atlas Shrugged, Part II,” based on her novel of a similar title, Ayn Ryan makes an interesting proposal that in giving folks “a fair share philosophy,” requiring a redistribution of wealth, the Constitution is side-stepped, capitalism is undermined, liberty lost and individual freedoms compromised. In that world, the government controlled wages, required businesses through government regulations to relinquish patents and property rights andthose who wouldn’t submit were vanquished or just vanished. Intellectual thought is rapidly lost.
The redistribution of wealth is a Marxist philosophy in which government extracts from the rich and gives to the poor or, as the Obama Administration’s redistribution schemes propose, take a bit more from the rich to pay for the government’s interventions into the livelihood of its citizens via stipends or wages bearing no relationship to job requirements in terms of education, rigor and hazard Its treatise is from each according to his ability; to each according to his need. No one fails, and competition which produces profit is termed evil. 
This philosophy embraces the concept that businesses must be inherently evil and didn’t build their enterprises without compromises from all operating in the society or under that government. Capitalism must then be ended as a form of government. Free markets are to be feared and become tightly controlled.
 Watching the presidential and vice presidential debates was not just about Democrats or Republicans. What I saw was two angry, often smiling, shaking their heads and shrugging Democrats who want government to take care of our every need — versus two calmer, more polite Republicans who believe that through individual initiative you can achieve your own dreams when the playing field is level. What was heard was clear confusion about the nation’s role in international affairs and how we must serve ourselves but remain unclear as to what is our responsibility to others.
It was in the ending of “Atlas Shrugged, Part II” that lies the challenge of this nation: 
1. When government takes over and tries to run businesses such as steel, oil or the trains, it does not have the people knowledge with skills necessary to smelt steel, drill oil or even get trains to operate on time. 
2. When government takes from some and gives to others, it creates an angry group of producers who may just stop working and take their talents elsewhere. Do people or governments have the right to commandeer the talents of some in service to others without due compensation? But more importantly, doesn’t such action create disincentives for entrepreneurs, job creators and innovative thinkers who can move us forward? 
3. A people long suppressed will rise up! Will they simply sip tea, pillage and burn or can their direction be determined? The uprising won’t be from the talent of those abused in the name of usury or stealing of their wealth; it is from the benefitted masses who will finally understand that without a class of people termed producers or creators, society is ill served.
This 2012 election is often termed, as have been others, the most important in our lives. This time that thinking may be more right than people appreciate, for two roads diverge into a hazy future where the weight of the world rests on Atlas’ shoulders. His knees will buckle if the economy isn’t fixed and the deficits brought into balance as a prelude to all else.

Dr. Ada M. Fisher is the N.C. Republican National Committee Woman. Her book, “Common Sense Conservative Prescriptions,” is available through Amazon.com. Contact her at P.O. Box 777, Salisbury, NC 28145 or DrFisher@DrAdaMFisher.org.