Shikha Dalmia on Ayn Rand, Illegal Immigration, and the GOP

Earlier this month was the birthday of Ayn Rand, the controversial philosopher and novelist, who emigrated from the Soviet Union in 1926. Regardless of what one thinks of her ideas, there is no denying that she was a great American. When the American intelligentsia was playing footsie with Soviet communism, Rand unabashedly defended liberty and individual rights. But as Shikha Dalmia explains, this proud naturalized American, who arguably did more than any contemporary figure to restore the faith of Americans in America, might have been hounded out of the country if one of our current crop of Republican presidential hopefuls had been president when she arrived. Why? Because Rand lied and bent every rule to gain entry into the United States.