Sen. Rand Paul Keynotes Young Americans for Liberty Convention...back >
July 30, 2014 - Sen. Rand Paul's speech was one of the highlights of the opening session of the sixth annual Young Americans for Liberty National Convention, held at the Spectrum Theatre in Arlington. 
Jeff Frazee, executive director of YAL, makes introductory remarks, talking about how far YAL and libertarianism have come.  The first YAL convention in 2009 brought together 60 leaders.
More than 300 student leaders attended the convention.
Sen. Paul spoke of a "leave me alone coalition."  He said that in addition to the Democratic way and the Republican way, there may be a third way.
Following Sen. Paul's speech there was a panel featuring seven members of the Congressional Liberty Caucus (l to r. Reps. Justin Amash, Walter Jones, Mark Sanford, Tim Huelskamp, Tom McClintock, Raul Labrador and Thomas Massie) moderated by Jack Hunter.  They first discussed how they came to hold their libertarian views.  Rep. Labrador said he came to feel that warmongerers had hijacked the Republican Party; described himself as "a conservative with libertarian leanings." Rep. Jones declared that, "The Republican Party is just as co-opted by money as the Democratic Party," and he won healthy applause when he remarked "how stupid our Republican Party is to keep funding the war in Afghanistan."  Rep. Massie predicted that probably another half dozen members of the Liberty Caucus will be elected in November.  Rep. Sanford said that in the years he had been gone from Congress there had been a "quantum leap" in the number of members who believe in the principles of liberty.  The panel went on to discuss other issues including Social Security and NSA metadata programs.
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