Ron Johnson Finds Meaning In Rand Novels, Flea Market Statuary

Tea partier Ron Johnson is guided by 18th-century politics, 1950's niche novels and flea market detritus. And who thinks we're not really free anymore, as he tells the story to other Ayn Rand devotees - - except to demean a sitting US Secretary of State who deals with the real world, not the fictional globe on Atlas' shoulders.

Remember - - this is a US Senator we're talking about. They ratify treaties, approve federal budgets, judicial and Supreme Court nominees, but let him explain his fixations as he told them to his fellow Randians:

The story behind that is a friend of mine, Ben Ganther, who’s a small business owner and owner of a construction company, called me up one day. And there was this big old statue on the side of the road for sale and it was Atlas. It had the world - - it was obviously the Atlas Shrugged symbol.

And he said he was thinking about buying it, and I said, yeah, absolutely, I’ll pay for half of it. So he bought it up right away. And because he’s a contractor, put it up in the front of his business on a really nice stand, nice little patio around it, lights - - he puts Christmas lights on it in the wintertime.