Why is there no liberal Ayn Rand? Conservatives have a canon, why don't liberals?

[Spider Jerusalem]

43. Because "liberalism" was the default position for most of the last century

Randian libertarianism and conservatism on the other hand had an air of intellectual insurgency and challenging the established order. The "liberal canon", if there is one, is not so much found in books (although there are plenty of those) as in policies and actions; the abolition of slavery, thePure Food and Drug Act, child labour laws, Social Security, minimum wage, maximum hours, collective bargaining agreements, health and safety regulation, the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts, Medicare, equal opportunity and anti-discrimination laws, and so on. All of these things are the result of the steady onward march of liberalism; the recognition that government has an active role to play in providing equal protection under the law of the rights of citizens, and in providing things like pensions and tax-funded medical care. The "liberal" postion, unlike the conservative one, is not a "cause" so much as it is the steady and incremental recognition of various social changes by government. The conservative position is a rejection of those social changes and a desire to tear down the whole edifice.