Rand and the right
As regular readers know I’m not a fan of Rand. (Ironically from a Jew her ideology was very Nazi — only the strong deserve to survive — as is true of many secular people without their knowing it.) That said:

And yet, when it came to Goldwater, Rand wrote something wise that conservatives should contemplate, and return the favor: ‘If he advocates the right political principles for the wrong metaphysical reasons, the contradiction is his problem, not ours.’

Which is why contra the culture-warrior Christians I’ve no problem with Robert Taft’s or Barry Goldwater’s vintage secular conservatism very different to the politicised evangelicals after 1976 and their moral crusades (‘stamp out smut’ and suchlike — didn’t they learn anything from Prohibition?), or why I’d vote for Ron Paul if he were a partnered gay atheist.

(Not the same as the neocons’ secularism — at heart they really are secularists — as they are not really conservatives.)

Because the right political principles don’t produce a Randian Überland but enable the flourishing of all including the church.

My unofficial theological adviser Paul Goings adds:

Catholic moral theology considers varying degrees of cooperation with another’s sins, and this pragmatic system enables catholics to function within the wider human society without the need to resort to practicing complete and uncompromising separation.

Tolerant conservatism by way of St Alphonsus.

From Rational Review.