I wrote awhile ago about Atlas Shrugged and our current government collapsing under its own weight – See Atlas Shrugged Coming True. I am excited that the movie of Atlas Shrugged is debuting tomorrow, appropriately enough on tax day, April 15, 2011.  You can go to the movie website and “Demand” it for your area. The filmmakers are working hard to distribute the movie to a wider audience and in more theaters. It is the first movie in a planned trilogy, and funny enough, Part One covers about a third of the book.

My original impetus to write about Atlas Shrugged stemmed from an article in the Wall Street Journal. It was called Atlas Shrugged: From Fiction to Fact in 52 Years. It seems to me that it was fact in the 50’s and it is still fact now – the government can’t get out of its own way. The budget crisis continues – especially in the State of California and on the Federal level. With the threatened federal government shut down this past week and the emergency meetings to broker deals and get enough funding for the government to stay open, something in our government structure needs to change.

This morning the editorials, even in our local paper, read this way – Republicans are big spenders, Reagan’s spending rose 108%, Bush’s spending rose (by some other high percentage), it’s their fault the National Debt is in the trillions. I read this with interest because to me, both the republicans and the democrats tax and spend. Both parties spend on pork barrel projects. Both parties put taxes in place to keep up the spending. Both parties put tax cuts in place even with spending in place. Tax cuts come when they need to look good in an election year. These shenanigans all make a nice smoke screen for a deeper issue — the  two party system we have in place doesn’t work. It doesn’t represent the views of the people. Other parties want to get their messages out and heard, and have a seat at the table to solve some of our long-standing problems. Having other parties involved in election debates, not just the running for office, would bring other viewpoints, other suggested solutions to the forefront as well as garnering more votes and maybe a few seats – just look at the Tea Party as an example in the elections last Fall.

Having every congressman and senator read Atlas Shrugged, as suggested in the Wall Street Journal article, is a good  start. And maybe they could watch the movie tomorrow as a quicker start than reading the 1,168 page book! I think I’ll have to put Atlas Shrugged on my summer reading list for a refresher!

Let me know if you go see the movie and what you think of it!