Few works have shaped conservative self-perception quite like Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. Its impact wasn't just in its philosophical arguments of the dangers of government overreach and the rent seeking class, it was in creating a template for how modern conservatives could view themselves as protagonists in their own epic narrative. Rand’s John Galt was more than a character; he was an archetype that business leaders and conservative thinkers could emotionally inhabit. Post war 20th century conservative American politics is wrapped in Galt's certainty, his unapologetic pursuit of self-interest, and his conviction that his success was self-made. The novel offered them something precious: moral permission to see resistance to misguided social responsibility as an obligation to their highest best purposes.