2014 ISFLC Highlights

One overarching theme of the 2014 ISFLC was coalition building, with a number of panels focusing on the importance of finding common ground between libertarians and other groups, including leftists, conservatives, and Christians. Check out the following highlights covered by a variety of national media outlets.

Oliver Stone calls President Obama a “Jellyfish”: On February 15th at the 2014 ISFLC, Academy Award-winning director Oliver Stone and journalist Jeremy Scahill headlined the conference with their “Imperial Overreach and the National Security State” panel. They bemoaned the “expanding warfare state” and called out major news outlets and the Democratic party for failing to cover President Obama’s blatant disregard for civil liberties. At one point, Stone called President Obama a jellyfish and said he had a “lack of spine,” inspiring a plethora of media headlines about the event:

  • Washington Post: Oliver Stone calls President Obama a ‘Jellyfish’
  • Fox News: Oliver Stone Rails Against Obama and his MSNBC Defenders
  • Fox News: Oliver Stone calls Obama ‘a weak man’
  • Real Clear Politics: Oliver Stone Rails Against “Weak” Obama, MSNBC Defenders
  • NewsMax: Oliver Stone: Obama is a Weak and Spineless Man
  • The Raw Story: Oliver Stone hammers Obama’s ‘lack of spine’ on military issues: ‘He’s a weak man’
  • Independent Journal Review: Famous Lefty Filmmakers Have Scathing Criticism for Obama and MSNBC Cheerleaders
  • Rare: Oscar nominee Jeremy Scahill blasts MSNBC: “Nothing more than lemmings for the White House”
  • Breitbart: Oliver Stone Blasts ‘Weak’ Obama, Sycophants at MSNBC
  • Mediaite: Oliver Stone and Jeremy Scahill Rail Against Obama and His MSNBC Defenders

SFL Leaders Challenge Oliver Stone on Venezuela: Students for Liberty leaders from Latin America (EsLibertad) were also given the opportunity to challenge Stone’s sympathies for Hugo Chávez and Fidel Castro, highly relevant given the violent responses of the Venezuelan government to student protests then raging in full force. They presented Stone with an open letter calling on Stone to apply his same criticisms of authoritarianism to countries such as Venezuela and Cuba and the back and forth that followed inspired several write-ups.

  • The Daily Beast: Stone: Romancing Chávez
  • PanAm Post: Oliver Stone Doubles Down on Support for Chavista Regime
  • PanAm Post: We Can Achieve the Venezuelan Spring
  • The National Review: Getting to Know Oliver Stone
  • Yahoo! News: Oliver Stone among the Libertarians
STOSSEL at ISFLC: The 2014 ISFLC Friday night taping of the STOSSEL show was as informative and entertaining as ever. John Stossel himself wrote a widely published report on the event in which he detailed the economic and constitutional lessons imparted during the show and praised SFL saying, “Libertarianism grows fastest among the young, and so groups like Students For Liberty give me hope.”
  • Washington Examiner: Students for Liberty conference shows a young approach to libertarianism
  • Reason.com: An Appetite for Freedom Grows on Campus
  • Townhall.com: Students For Liberty

Justin Amash at ISFLC: A panel including Representative Justin Amash (R-Mich.) also received expansive media coverage. Amash’s remarks on the overlap of libertarian and conservative principles were quoted by The Real Conservative and Rare while Watchdog Wire focused on the panel’s emphasis on new media technology and how social media is transforming political dialogue across the globe. As Watchdog‘s Katherine Rodriguez said, “The Libertarian revolution will not be televised- but it will most likely be tweeted, Instagrammed and Facebooked.”

  • The Real Conservative: Rep. Justin Amash: Conservative and libertarian “basically the same philosophy”
  • Rare: Rep. Justin Amash: Conservative and libertarian “basically the same philosophy” 
  • Rare: Rep. Justin Amash: Most Americans are libertarian
  • Watchdog Wire: Freedom is Trending at International Students For Liberty Conference
Christianity and Libertarianism: Two Institute for Faith, Work, & Economics panels on Christianity and libertarianism also received media coverage. One discussed the overlap between the religion and the pro-liberty political philosophy. Panelist Leah Stiles Hughey declared, “Christians actually ought to feel outraged that the redemptive power of charity has been taken from us and given to an unfeeling, coercive state.” In the other session, panelists David Kotter and William R. Thomas discussed whether Ayn Rand’s libertarian hero John Galt was consciously or unconsciously modeled on Jesus Christ.
  • The Christian Post: Ayn Rand’s Libertarian Hero John Galt Was Modeled on Jesus, Christian Panelist Argues
  • The Christian Post: 5 Reasons Christianity and Libertarianism are Compatible, Young Evangelicals Say