It’s a case of ideological delusion. Decades of successfully exploiting racism, jingoism, guns and “values” have deluded Republicans into believing that Americans are ready to embrace the radical right’s economic vision of a free market dystopia. That’s the single best explanation for why Romney has chosen Paul Ryan for veep. Romney isn’t politically suicidal. He just doesn’t get it--he doesn’t see how badly he’s hurting himself by going with Ryan. He does’t realize that Americans don’t want to go back to the 1920s.
Democrats should be delighted with the Ryan choice. As a poster boy for free market fundamentalism, he illustrates the right’s reactionary agenda in stark ideological nakedness. If the Democrats know how to play it, Americans are going to learn a lot about Ayn Rand during his election campaign.