What the hell?

Paul Ryan? Seriously? What the hell?

When Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney announced his running mate, my first thought was, “Really? This guy?

Ryan has made a career out of trying to strip citizens of social services and personal choices.

Of course, not everyone sees him this way. Conservatives praised Romney’s choice, pointing to Ryan as proof of the candidate’s shrewd confidence; here is a seven-term Wisconsin congressman that serves to galvanize an uber-conservative base.

Certainly Ryan’s admiration of Ayn Rand satisfies Libertarian ideologues. It also highlights his attempt to gut services for anyone who doesn’t fall into the category of Financially Secure Heterosexual White Male.

Ryan is a man who fiercely took to heart Rand’s belief that man “must exist for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself.”

Ryan’s political agenda reveals a disturbing, hardline fiscal ambition that aims to privatize Social Security and replace Medicare with a voucher system. And you thought death panels were scary.

It gets worse. The so-called “Ryan Budget” would double interest rates on student loans and eliminate Pell grants for more than 1 million students. Ryan also opposes same-sex marriage and, in a departure from Rand, supports “personhood” legislation that would criminalize all abortions.

Think this is just another election that comes down to the lesser of two evils? Think again.

Perhaps voters should take a cue from Rand and cast ballots solely in the name of self-interest this November. If they did, those who stand to lose the most—the poor and elderly, college students and women, members of the LGBT community, et al&#mdash;can all but guarantee an epic Romney and Ryan election fail.