“Give me liberty or give me death.” This inspiring slogan from the American revolutionary period is all the more impressive when we remember that the revolutionaries were not trying to flee a totalitarian dictatorship but were rebelling against one of the freest, most prosperous nations of their age. There is an important insight here — American revolutionaries demanded, in full, the political freedom expressed in the Declaration of Independence as a matter of principle. What was the principle these revolutionaries held so dear and why don’t Americans see it the same way today?

This was the subject of a panel discussion at Ayn Rand Student Conference 2016 featuring Onkar Ghate, Senior Fellow, Ayn Rand Institute; Jason Hill, Honors Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, De Paul University; and Gregory Salmieri, Philosophy Fellow, Anthem Foundation for Objectivist Scholarship. This session was recorded live at the Renaissance Atlanta Midtown Hotel, Atlanta, Georgia, on Sunday, November 6, 2016.