The most ambitious time in history to be a Libertarian is now, right now! The most factional, dramatic and energized National Libertarian Convention in history is over. This beautiful weekend brought together a record number of libertarians and approximately one thousand delegates were on the floor. In fact, I am extremely proud to say that I was also on the convention floor making history; all at the meager age of 25. After such a life changing experience I have been moved to write a quick review for the Libertarians who could not attend. First, let me introduce myself to the reader. Then let me summarize my personal experience and attempt to convince you of the fantastic future our party is moving towards; by waving the flag of enthusiasm before the readers eyes.

My name is Ben Brixey. I have been a Libertarian for five years and I am currently the Secretary of my local chapter, the Greene County party, located in Southwest Missouri. I ran for Greene County Presiding Commissioner at 23 years old, in 2014, taking on a college professor overjoyed with the police state. I am currently carrying the flag for United States House of Representatives in the 7th District and without a doubt our party is not going back into the undeserved hiding place. Occupying the dark corner of the media black out precisely due to the fact the millennial generation won't allow it. A generation demanding results, principles, honesty, revelation, impossible effort and wild fire pride! My generation won't allow their voices to be silenced any longer and this convention was filled with new blood; all boiling for their respective candidates!

Fortunately, for all these energized delegates the media was there to catch ever bit of the action. CNN, FOX, MSNBC, CBS, CSPAN, POLITICO, Reason and many other outlets were flying around the giant Orlando convention center. Their job entailed pulling candidates from the endless attention and controversy pouring from Libertarians. The lines for the major candidates were in queue at all times with supporters just waiting to take their selfie picture. This experience was also backed empirically when the chair of the Convention praised the increase from 20 media requests, at the previous convention, to over 225 media requests at this convention.

Austin Petersen had quite a loud minority not willing to bend their principles pertaining to abortion and anti-discrimination law. The all or nothing energy reminded me of my days in the Ron Paul 2012 campaign. Where not a single word of criticism would be tolerated and every positive quality was magnified by the bright stars in their eyes. The Pro-life Caucus is growing in strength and Austin Petersen, including his supporters, will not bend on this important issue. Austin carried several states including his home state of Missouri.

Another candidate named Darryl Perry was the voice of the Radical Caucus who believed that every function the government is doing could be better completed by voluntary cooperation through business or charity. The Radical Caucus believes taking the Non-Aggression Principle to its maximum conclusion, which would eliminate the government in its entirety. This faction was also loud and their call for purity had influence. However, the Radicals did not have quite enough influence to win crucial positions even with carrying his home state of New Hampshire.

Gary Johnson representing the Pro-Choice Caucus eventually won the nomination for president; however, it was not an easy feat. His late pick for vice-president, Bill Weld, caused a massive split among the delegates. Uniting Austin Petersen, Darryl Perry, Marc Feldman, and John McAfee forces. Pushing the presidential and vice presidential vote to a second ballot. Gary's eventual win was spurred on by his credibility, professionalism and honesty; which, touched the delegates who voted for him. Gary's ability to admit his imperfection and his willingness to listen to deeper libertarian values won enough pure Libertarian hearts.

The Final Presidential Debate
​Source: Benjamin T Brixey

Apple has been under fire as of late from various factions in society. Please, as a disclaimer, do not fear the people who often are seeking to protect you. They are usually not the people who are actively looking for persons who believe in freedom. They are often searching for far more important individuals such as terrorists and these protectors deserve our respect. However, given this reality we have every freedom under our laws to actively discredit and show the truth behind the ideas of gaining access to everyone's data. Instead, of attacking people who are simply trying to protect you we need to come up with a better defense. Three points of defense come to mind when defending our freedom to encrypt our personal data.

Clearly privacy is the first concern. Second, our security from foreign governments will be compromised and finally safety from our own unpredictable government will be lost. We don't even have to consider our beloved Constitution, it's majestic history and the reasons our nation rose so quickly; as our founders prophetically stated.

First, we must address the concerns associated with privacy. Our opponents will say that you have nothing to hide, right? Who cares if the government has your data? In fact, I care due to having government documents which show excessive spending in the Greene County Sheriff's office. They were passed down to me as a responsibility long ago. Documents long lost as I was 21 years old, however sometimes secrets are dwelling with candidates. If those secrets don't remain secret their safety, my safety, is in danger. For anyone who doesn't want the government to own and look at your personal photos, opposing this back door should be a no brainier. Our women are already stuck with the degrading TSA. Must we give our naked bodies for safety. I say NO and so should you.

Second, as we see in this video from our Presidential nominee, Mr. McAfee, the fear of having a back door to the iPhone is actually a national security threat. Once this back door is created the information won't just be available to the FBI. As we have seen throughout my short lifetime the data one government contains won't only be available to the enemy, they will put this data on servers quite accessible to anyone. HIllary Clinton is the prime example of just how careless top secret data is handled in our contemporary administration.

Finally, if your personal privacy doesn't matter to you and the ability for foreign enemies to steal your data, later to use it against you, doesn't remove you from the opposition. Then let's appeal to the ultimate fear and the historically repeated offenses perpetrated by governments throughout history on their own citizens.

Let's simply keep our history lesson in the 20th century, or the 1900s. Everyone knows about the Nazi's and their efficient forms of spying on their own citizens. Along with the results of this spying. That's fine, let's move our discussion to the history of China. A beautiful place full of beautiful people, which has gone through some very stressful events since the Communist Revolution.

However, during Mao's regime they didn't need the ease of technology. They had spying in the form of youthful volunteers. These youthful volunteers dwelling in the cities would go to teach the rural peasants how to live more efficiently. Along the way they would extract information from the peasants of China.

First they would hold meetings teaching the Red Book, Mao's book, and those more accepting became spy's. Eventually telling on anybody who opposed the ideas of Communism including their own family. They would then stage humiliation events where the peasants would force confessions from the person accused. Sometimes forcing confessions out of people who benefited from historical family lines, Thier goals were to break the current system of land ownership. They succeeded at their goal and eventually "The Great Leap Forward" would kill millions of peasants in China.

To conclude, what happens if our current officials are as saintly as we assume them to be. We give them all they ask and they dive forever deeper into our lives?

What happens when these trusted people are gone and a regime we don't agree with comes into being. We will have no way to dissent and no way to end a ruthless regime in control of our beloved nation. We will have no freedom left.