Much like we’ve seen Bernie Sanders attract a movement of millennial Democrats, Rand Paul may have created a similar revolution on the other side of the political spectrum during his Twitter Town Hall on Thursday night.
After being banned from the main stage GOP Debate, Rand asked supporters to boycott the debate in an email titled “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.” In that same email, he urged them to instead tune in on Twitter and Periscope to hear him answer questions from those using #RandRally. He chose to speak to millennials on their own turf, social media, and acknowledged that such forums are the new places of public discourse.
“Many of the young people I know…they’re not turning on the television to get their news,” he said, before further explaining that they’re choosing to use the Internet instead.
When asked about his progress in Iowa, Rand showcased his dedication to getting college students interested in and passionate about politics, stating that he’s visited virtually every college campus in the state and that his goal is to get 10,000 college students to vote.
“The GOP decided to exclude the one candidate who seems to be doing well with young voters,” he said. “There are people, many of them with gray hair, who don’t think students and young people will show up to vote, but I know they will.”
In addition to making them feel valued, Rand appealed to young Republicans, many of whom are libertarian-leaning, by speaking out against the War on Drugs, our broken criminal justice system, and the NSA’s spying, while still stressing the benefits of implementing a flat tax, shrinking the government, and sticking to a strict interpretation of the Constitution.
Moreover, he charmed the socially-liberal youth by pleading with the Republican Party to “be more diverse ethnically” and to “be more diverse ideologically,” and at the same time reminded liberty lovers that “government is inverse to liberty,” and that “government is a necessary evil.”
But did Rand’s Twitter Town Hall pay off?
#RandRally was trending on Twitter in less than an hour with over 20K tweets, and his live stream earned over 260,000 likes on Periscope. According to the official Twitter Government account (@gov), he ranked in second place of candidates with the most follower growth since the start of the GOP Debate. The GOP Debate itself even heard chants for Rand when a group of attendees interrupted by shouting “We want Rand!”
You can be banned from the debate stage, but you can’t be banned from the Internet — so it looks like Rand’s revolution will not, in fact, be televised.
