Roy A. Childs, Jr.: Tyranny is Here, and Submission is a Crime!

Roy A. Childs, Jr.

Roy A. Childs, Jr., was an essayist, lecturer, and critic. He first came to prominence in the libertarian movement with his 1969 “Open Letter to Ayn Rand,” and he quickly established himself as a major thinker within the libertarian tradition. Childs edited Libertarian Review from 1977 to 1981 and was a Cato Institute scholar from 1982 to 1984. He wrote and edited hundreds of book reviews for Laissez Faire Books from 1984 until his death in 1992. Some of his essays were collected in Liberty against Power, published by Fox & Wilkes.

Roy A. Childs, Jr., was an essayist, lecturer, and critic. He first came to prominence in the libertarian movement with his 1969 “Open Letter to Ayn Rand,” and he quickly established himself as a major thinker within the libertarian tradition.

Here Childs gives a fiery speech to open the Libertarian Party’s 1979 Presidential Nominating Convention in Los Angeles. He criticizes Democrats and Republicans equally for their respective roles in creating an era of ever larger and more intrusive government, and makes an appeal to the audience for “a new and decent party,” going along with the Convention’s theme that year: “Towards a Three Party System.”