Republican joy over the selection of Paul Ryan as VP candidate is understandable. After all, Romney has all the charm, tact, integrity and common-man appeal of Thurston Howell III, so the GOP must be relieved to have someone on the ticket who doesn’t need a passport and a private jet to visit his offshore (and tax-free) millions.

Ryan is also intelligent, and after the Palin fiasco of 2008, that is a plus.

Voters owe it to the country to examine Ryan’s history and positions. Ryan authored a budget which would have converted Medicare into a voucher system, putting the health of America’s seniors at the mercy of insurance companies.

He also sponsored a 2005 bill to privatize Social Security. Thankfully, this was too extreme even for the Bush administration.

Imagine the result if Social Security payments were tied to stock market performance after the crash of 2008, a death knell for the U.S. economy, and a literal death sentence for multitudes of elderly and disabled citizens.

Also disturbing is Ryan’s self-professed allegiance to Ayn Rand, a Russian-American philosopher who despised altruism and celebrated selfishness. Rand has become a Republican icon with her rejection of “collectivism,” which modern conservatives equate with Big Government.

Rand’s anti-government views did not prevent her from signing up for Social Security and Medicare when cancer ravaged her health and finances, so hypocrisy was apparently not a moral issue for her.

Rand was also an avowed atheist who said that “faith is the worst curse of mankind,” making Ryan/Rand strange standard-bearers for the party that has claimed a monopoly on Christian values.

Their shared philosophy should be a warning to those who rely on their well-earned social safety net for survival.

Bryan Littleton

Sanford