For far too long, those who oppose big-government solutions to racism have been slandered as racists. (Sadly, such attacks are similar to the claims that people who oppose civil-rights-violating national security measures like the Patriot Act are terrorist sympathizers.) Such slander, while entirely inaccurate, is effective in silencing any dissent on the subject of race and government.

In the Sunday New York Times, Adam Kirsch, senior editor at The New Republic, writes a review of a recent biography of Ayn Rand, one of American history’s most iconic figures. In his review, Kirsch includes numerous condemning gobbets he lifts from the pages of Anne Heller’s biography, Ayn Rand and the World She Made. He quotes Heller’s claim that although she is unapologetically critical of Rand’s philosophy and personal behavior, she is “a strong admirer, albeit one with many questions and reservations.”