In the land of boom and bust, even the economic winners are looking for a change.

“Our foreign enemies are not going to invade us,” he says, “but I'm concerned about our domestic enemies.” Plenty of heads nod at that one. “There's nobody talking about it except for one candidate, and he happens to be in this room right now!”

There’s time for four questions; the first one is about the proposed mine tax hike. Paul asks to hear it again. He gets the gist: He’d be against it. He’s against the government exploiting people like that.

“Maybe they don’t need to own the land,” he says, “and the people of Nevada need to own the land!”

Paul wraps up and gives reporters a few minutes of Q&A before he hops on a plane for Reno. After hearing so many people talk about it, I want to know where Paul is on mining profits. Should they be taxed at all?

“It’s just like any other corporation,” he says. “The tax should be as low as possible. I want real low taxes. That’s secondary to the problem of the welfare-warfare state. If you want to finance endless welfare, entitlements, and all these wars, you have to find all these gimmicks to finance it.”

His answer is almost drowned out by noise. In a corner of the room, half a dozen twentysomethings from Idaho are screaming his name and shouting, “Five hours! Five hours!”—how long they drove to see him. Paul finally obliges them, walking over to sign some fliers and pose for photos.

His young fans are giddy. They celebrate in the parking lot, even as the sun falls and the temperature drops below 30 degrees. Idaho’s holding its own caucus in a month, on Super Tuesday. They know how to fix it, too.