Second Verse, Same As The First

I dream of a day where I can write about Ayn Rand with an overall positive tone. Or Perhaps I dream of a day where Ayn Rand can write with a positive tone, or any shade of subtlety. In the first chapter we have so much talk of government intervention it might as well have been about Soviet Russia. I am exaggerating a little bit, of course, but I am just a little hurt that Part Two did not live up to my irrational dreams. For the sake of balanced commentary (or an attempt at it) I must say that I enjoyed the beginning of Part Two, but I think that is because I have a thing for the way Rand introduces characters. I also enjoy the way she introduced new conflicts that are not meant to be some 5-page debate between an objectivist and Nanny State, such as the impact the new shortage of oil has, I think that conflict just felt realistic so I appreciated it a bit more. While we are talking about being realistic, Part Two was so bogged down with blatant arguments that it almost hurt to read, Chapter One started us off as heavy-handed as it could without just being large-font objectivist propaganda. Then again, i guess large font is anti-objectivist, either because it wastes paper or because it babies the readers who refuse to work as hard as the REAL objectivists.
I am going to try to end this with something positive AND content-based at the same time, which is a real struggle for me but thankfully Part Two has given me a few things to be happy about.  First of all, Dagny is finally catching on that there is someone/something forcing all the most objectiv- I mean intelligent and successful people out of business, and because this is an Ayn Rand novel this essentially means they are dead. Due to my lvoe for the John Galt subplot I am ecstatic to see her becoming more aware. More importantly, Rearden stood up against his wife. I hate his wife, I see no reason why he cannot continue to be the Hank Rearden badass we know him to be around his family. Every scene involving his family, if Rearden was behaving the way he did in any other scene (such as the one with Potter) he would have told them all off and he would have been right. Hank may very well be my favorite character, so to see him castrated the way he is at home kills me. When he stood up to Lillian and made her apologize to Dagny I was so proud of him, but then later on Rand tied this back to the way Dagny and Rearden feel about each other (rather than being a growth in Rearden's character) and it killed it for me a little.
I do not know why I expected Part Two to be different from Part One, naivety perhaps. It may very well have been filled with more propaganda than Part One, so in fact it might be worse. Regardless of the absurdity of my expectations I am still disappointed by Part Two. Part of my disappointment comes from knowing what the book could be; Ayn Rand can clearly write well but it is a little hard to see that behind the propaganda being shoved in my face.