Theyre wonderful son, cooper, kelley and kelley, pam and nicole, plaintiffs in the case more than 30, you ought to matter. Your relationships matter. Your children matter. I felt like part of we the people. [inaudible conversations] hi, everyone. Thank you so much for coming out this evening. Before he gets started, a few housekeeping notes. If you could take the time now to silence or cell phones, that would be great. You dont have to turn it off. You can follow kramer books on facebook and twitter and its agreement signed for email newsletter if you havent already. A newly redesigned website kramer. Com. We would love for you to visit. You can see all the great events without going on. Melissa is here to talk about her new book, tea party by men which explores the women creating and reading the Tea Party Movement and the greater significance of womens involvement in the tea party and talks about our understanding of female Political Leadership in the future of women in the american right which is fascinating and im so glad melissa is here to share that with us. As a professor of Public Affairs at Washington College where she also chairs the Political Science department. Shes the next attention to religion in american politics in the author four books and we are so glad to have her with us today. Please join me in welcoming Melissa Deckman to kramer books. [applause] thank you to kramer books for having me here tonight. Thank you all for coming. A lot of familiar faces. So many happy to see my friends and porters here. Thank you to my house and sean to support and encouragement for critical to the project. In thank you for anemia parking space because it took us only half an hour to do tonight. I thought what i would do before i talked about the major findings is why i decided to write a book about Tea Party Women. When the tea party first burst onto the political scene in 2009, i was struck by the role women were playing is visible leaders. Women like amy kramer, cofounders of arguably the largest new Tea Party Group to emerge and make it the Tea Party Patriots. Amy beth martin continues to meet that organization. I was also his up by a litany of conservative organizations that emerged in the wake of the tea party. Social media which is more conservative women. I was reading stories in this paper is about womens charting the Tea Party Organizations at the grassroots level. Of course in the tea party first initially emerged in 2009, arguably the largest supporters politically speaking for women. People like Michele Bachmann, former congresswoman from minnesota also started the Tea Party Caucus. And of course the original mama grizzly herself, sarah a lead author linked with the tea party. In my own research i studied for a long time in putting the christian right. In earlier rightwing movements, women have been a part of these moments, but are really more behind the scenes rather than frontend dinner. Excuse me. There have been notable exceptions. The schlafly is the best exception to that. For the shapley is best known for having sat era in the 1970s. One of the women i interviewed for this book is to have an office in the very first thing this woman sighed as Phyllis Schlafly was tea party before there was tea party. Shes absolutely right. If you look at the writing of Phyllis Schlafly today. While conservative women have been active in politics, they havent confronted and are in a way outside the tea party. That is upon to develop. Why are so many women out front. I wanted to know the significance for american politics. Many of you are here, probably follow american politics closely. Since 1980 roughly, women are significantly more like a bad man to vote for democratic candidates. More likely to identify as democrats. What i wanted to determine with nationally speaking are we beginning to see a shift in americas women towards politics. Were they becoming more moderate as opposed to that flaming and that is the two biggest questions than addressing them about. Tonight i thought what i would do is focus on maybe three major points from the book and then open it up to questions that you might have about the project. The first thing i discuss is why when enjoying the tea party and also pay particular attention to the rhetoric a lot of these women use that his gender and nature. One of the fascinating things that cant is the extent to which Tea Party Women were arguing that conservative policies were good for women and families. Then i talk about why it is women have emerged as Leaders Within the tea party ways that they had not earlier conservative movements and in direct contrast to their leadership opportunities in the Republican Partys and last but not least with the rise of women as leaders means for the gender gap in american politics. Before i begin, i want to talk about the methods that i use. I use qualitative and quantitative method to address the question. In 2012 and 2013 i had a sabbatical from Washington College. I spent the year hanging out at tea party events, going to rallies, soaking and poking us may dissertation chair simon introduced me to a book in graduate school that talks about the method of hanging out in learning about political and heirs. I do a lot of observation. During that year i interviewed 29th at this in the tea party for women involved in different conservative organizations about why they decided to become involved in the tea party. I also from a quantitative perspective utilize data from a wonderful Organization Called pr i had. Bobby jones and dan cox, the cofounders with a nonprofit, Nonpartisan Organization dedicated to understanding religion and values and culture in american politics and life. They have wonderful data it really asks consistently a question about whether or not people identified himself as hard of a tea party. I used the question throughout the book and isolating women who consider them elves can compare them to other american women in terms of their politics. So lets talk about the first point. Why is it that women feel compelled to be part of the tea party. The women that i interviewed became active in the tea party for a lot of the same reasons the men became active in the movement. They were fed up with what someone would call connie s. They emerged in the collapse of 2008. They thought government was getting today. They didnt like the response of bailing out wall street. They didnt like the stimulus package. Their vision of what American Government should look like is far more limited in scope covered by some fewer taxes, but also is grounded in a more conservative interpretation of the constitution. Many i spoke with talked about their anger at Establishment Republicans is something we here thought about, but initially when i was doing interviews a few years ago, they thought republicans in washington starting with george w. Bush were republicans in name only. Thus prompted many women to get involved. Ill give you a case in point. One of the women i interviewed for the book is kelley karen berger, a millennial from seattle who started her own blog to the campaign of 2000 that called liberty belle. She also is credited with holding the very First Tea Party in the United States in february 2 2009 before the tea party moniker came to define that movement. She was holding a protest in native seattle to protest the american recovery and reinvestment act which is more commonly known as stimulus package. She gained a lot of National Attention from rightwing media. Michelle malkin has been a longtime conservative columnist, she sat like a been a solidarity with protesters there. Kelley really sort of told me the reason for getting involved at the tea party was because of the financial crisis from the 2008 campaign of Barack Obamas proposals for increasing the size of government. I personally solid candidate obama was saying and not he was a total radical and i couldnt understand why it would not it was a moderate. Not that i like mccain, but this guy is totally far out in left field. What are you thinking . So she would soon after go on to work fulltime for Tea Party Patriots. I heard similar responses that i interviewed us while including diana remark on a tea Party Activist from pennsylvania. She was later hired by a Tea Party Patriot. She got involved because my husband and i were really annoyed with bush in the bailout and mr. Obama comes along with more bailout. I saw that the First Tea Party february 27, 2009 right after rick santellis rant. That essay. Thats what i want to do. I went online and sign up to be the if you recall the supporter from cnbc was on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange protesting essentially, was angry with the obama administrations proposal to help homeowners a link within their payment. From the floor of the exchange, he called for chicago citizens to hold their own tea party. He said basically the obama decision to help delinquent homeowners promote bad behavior arguing Government Policies should reward people who can carry the water instead of drink the water. The rallying cry went i wrote. I wanted to mention it because the santelli rant, a lot of went specifically mentioned that as being vital to why they wanted to become more involved in the tea party. It wasnt just brought economic concerns. What i found interesting when i was reading blogs is for a lot of these women, their gender became an important rationale. Many of them talked about how their roles as mothers galvanize them to become part of the tea party. Another example from whitney neil who at the time of our interview with a National Grassroots coordinator for freedom works, which is a Koch Brothers organization that predates the tea party but a primary libertarian organization. This is what she had to say. For me personally i think about my side and i want him personally responsible, independent. I want him to challenge himself. I do want to live in a world where the government has told him how to be or i can solve your problems because as a mom i would think any mom want their children to go out and make something of themselves, whatever they want to be a not to fall back and say the government has to help me unless absolutely necessary. When i was interviewing Tea Party Women and reading blogs, i began to see motherhood from developing. A lot of these women as mothers were arguing they fell conservative economic policies really were germane to women and mothers. That they talk really quickly about three frames in a talk more in the book. One is what i call the Kitchen Table frame. This is the idea that mother should become involved in conservative economic politics. When they say in their own budget that the federal government should do the same thing. Jenny beth martin who i interviewed still has Tea Party Patriot told me we are the ones in the houses and families who buy the groceries and look for whether or not we need coupons are seen what does make sense when it comes to our own checkbook, we are saying we want government to do the same thing. Women are doing this anyway in their own home. Another mama grizzly theme in the book is what i called the generational framework. A lot of Tea Party Women colin mothers to pressure political leaders to reduce the federal debt because they want to safeguard the next generation. They want to ensure their children and grandchildren have a higher standard of living. Someone was speaking at the susan b. Anthony breakfast and the speech was pretty publicized in the first time the term mama grizzly became introduced into the political lexicon. What she said in a speech where she was warning political leaders to be weary of moms rising up in the tea party to fight against the government. These women are getting involved because they want a better life for their kids, all of our kids. These policies, the fundamental transformation we went about in the campaign. A lot of women very concerned about their kids features that we dont like this road we arrived towards national solvency. Finally, the last motherhood frame related to the other two and lots of ways is the idea we should of limited government because that usurps the role of the family thereby fostering family disintegration. Socially conservative women use this framework quite a bit. I interviewed essay mentioned earlier calling holcombe who is the d. C. Director pushes Phyllis Schlafly is organization. I can see how Government Policies can be detrimental to families. Member for government to grow, families have to shrink. If you protect the family, have mothers and fathers together supporting each other in raising their own children, not only does that when the welfare used, marriage is the solution to poverty in the capital system provides the most opportunity for economic equality. Liberals arent always fighting for equality. We are deeply everyone has quality in the greatest thing they can do to provide equalities keep everyone safe and give economic freedom. The motherhood frame wasnt the only gendered framework i saw his women using news even the tea party. Several Tea Party Women went so far as to insist policies often touted by liberal groups, more social workers ending, having Company Requirements for family or increasing regulations against sex discrimination. All these things for these feminists are actually antifeminist because they believe liberal womens groups are policies that betray the original vision which promoted the idea of women being as equally capable as men. Give you an idea of the framework. I interviewed Amy Joe Clark who along with marion weaver hosted a popular blog called chicks on the right. They also have a radio show by the same name. When we talk about welfare programs, she told me what Many American women must support out of empathy, what women dont hear the messaging is how these programs keep women down. The cyclical things that keeps them dependent on these programs. They dont see how not empowering they are. She went on to draw a clear contrast between liberal womens groups who want these policies and what her groups advocate for. She said we say we are the real feminists and liberals have hijacked the term. Feminism is when youre accountable to yourself. Youre only empowered when when youre responsible accountable and able to take care of yourself. Some women extended the argument to guns. I wasnt going to write about guns in my book. I was on sabbatical from 2012 to 2013. The tragic shooting happened and all of a sudden when i was reading the website, i thought emphasis on gun rights, the idea of protecting and safeguarding the amendment. I was struck with the gendered argument that a lot of women were making about why was important to safeguard rights to bear arms. Some of them had a feminists bag. For some of these women, they made the argument that trying to take away womens right to guns is not empowering an antipaternalistic. This is a good example of that. My program who was writing for smart girl politics take issue with Vice President joe biden. If you recall, he was passed by president obama to spearhead duffers in the senate. That ultimately failed. Biden has told a group of women activists who are progun control their shotguns are just as effective and potentially stopping intruders. This is what smart girl politics had to say. Im getting sick of joe biden in all these people telling me i cant handle a certain caliber or have as many rounds in a magazine. It sounds like honey, that is too much for you where that is too loud for you. Im tired of it and a lot of women who dont agree with us would say where is the outcry. I can make these decisions for myself. I was struck again by this feminist rhetoric. I want to move on and talk about why it is women have emerged as Leaders Within the tea party in ways that differ from earlier conservative movement and also direct comparison to the Republican Party today. The first thing that distinguishes Tea Party Women is that they are simply bringing more resources to the political arena. They have higher levels of education. A lot of work experience. Lots of managerial experiods. This is different from the group Phyllis Schlafly was organizing. Political scientists on a direct link between socioeconomic data and political participation. The more likely you are participate in politics that is oneway Tea Party Women leaders are different. Social media has been really critical. Traditional involvement is very timeconsuming. Its very laborintensive. Social media has reduced the barriers to entry. Especially compared to the Republican Party, the tea party is more appealing because these women are conservative and dubious on the gop in lots of ways. I interviewed Katrina Pearson who hosted the tea party in dallas, texas and if that sounds familiar, you probably see her of thought on tv these days. She started a tea party in texas as their first soiree into tea party politics. She felt the decentralized nature of the tea party holds a lot greater appeal for current serving of women in the Republican Party. Social media is crucial to this as well. Women can be overlooked for this platform in the tea party. It used to be men in the gop are male leaders could take a womans idea of their realm. The social media, women can be attributed to define their own brand and have your ideas heard. You dont have to go through the Good Old Boys Club any longer. Other Tea Party Women who are very highly critical of the Republican Party point to the negative treatment that someone, Michele Bachmann running for Higher Office as evidence the gop is not exactly very welcoming of its women becoming leaders in the party. Others complained the Republican Party is too slow moving into bureaucratic. Jamie beth martin told me you dont have to cut through different layers to become a leader in the tea party compared to the Republican Party. Others will he find the Republican Party establishment to weak kneed and too willing to compromise for their own brand of her liberty activism. The last one i want to talk about is what all this means. We have all these women who are leaders in the tea party who are very outspoken. What does it mean for the rest of america . Do we see the tea party Holding Greater appeal nationally. This is where i turn to data from pri. I am moving from examining Tea Party Theme for this part of the talk cannot leaders, activists to it and lay deacons, if pollster Cato Institute caused the other party. Those who sympathize with the tea party but are not quite as adaptive. Who are Tea Party Women nationally speaking . Youre ever land data from the 20 top American Values survey and at that point in time, pri found 9 of american women said they consider themselves hard at tea party. They are clearly a minority within the population. Twice as Many American women in 2012 identified as republican, but not affiliated with the tea party. So about 72 but not are either independent and democrat. Again, clearly Tea Party Women are a small minority of the population. Demographically, Tea Party Women are overwhelmingly white. They are most likely identified as republicans despite the reservation about the gop although significant chunk or independent. 3 report they are democrat. Not sure what the cognitive dissonance is. I have to report it. In terms of economic status, these women are described as comfortably as a middleclass peers like the less likely to be collegeeducated. The plurality work fulltime, happy they were parttime or fulltime and they are more religious than other american women and tend to be socially conservative. For example, for example, to their is Tea Party Women identify as bornagain christians. Politically speaking you wont be surprised to find there more slightly conservatives and 30 describe themselves as very conservative compared to 50 of republican women and 3 of other american women. The last few points for the most negative attitudes about barack obama by far compared to other women. Even more negative than republican women who are part of the tea party. One area they differ from other republican women is their criticism of the gop. Women who are not part of the tea party seem to be happy with the Republican Party. That is not so with Tea Party Women. They are critical of the Republican Party. My book and i encourage you to buy it, has lots of analysis on how Tea Party Women compared on a shoestring gun control, obamacare, immigration farm, a blaze. The upshot is Tea Party Women not surprisingly are not more conservative than other american women. Economic issues tend to be similar to republican women were generally, but they look very different than other american women. One question i did want to share response to that is very willing. Pri often asked the question on their surveys that i called the American Dream question. To what extent do you agree that children from all income groups have opportunities for success . Most american women are 70 or so, just 38 agree that children from all income groups have opportunities for success. When you go to republican women who dont identify themselves as part of the tea party, half agree with that statement. Among Tea Party Women, 75 say they believe that every child has a chance to get out of poverty or become successful. It fundamentally shows you their worldview and not one question. Many liberals would argue the reason people are back in their income bracket is because of structural barriers. We need the government to write laws for stringent nondiscrimination. More Government Programs to support kids. More government involvement. The Tea Party Women i spoke with, they believe that people can do it on their own. They still believe americans can pull themselves up to their bootstraps. Moreover, government as part of the problem for why people are so dependent on these programs and are less successful. The question chart of shows you the minute that here. The upside upshot is that this time i dont see Many American women are receptive to what the tea party is selling, even though many Tea Party Women have clear rationales for why such politics are good for women and families. Also, another thing somewhat surprising if even among women and the public who identifies tea party, they dont always march in lockstep with Tea Party Leaders and activists. Ill give you two examples. The rightwing Women Leaders philosophically or oppose to raising the minimum wage for establishing a government mandated pay or sick leave policy because they believe the free market should handle these issues. Government regulation basically late to stifle job creation and ultimately policies hurt more than help them and that is their idea, their framework. This view is not shared by Tea Party Women. 50 nationally going back to pri data supporting the minimum wage. They are more conservative, but have said maybe we should increase the minimum wage. 70 actually favor mandating paid leave. I think defining earlier work done by scholars who wrote really the first academic study of the tea party, despite the fact tea Party Activists take issue with the government, they decry socialism, that sort of thing, they actually generally support popular entitlement programs like Social Security and medicare. Fewer americans are inclined to support the tea party, and i dont think its hard to see why. I think most americans view the tea party as very obstructionist. They look at their republican allies in congress who were willing to shut down the government in 2013 over debates about funding obamacare who were basically willing not to raise the debt ceiling in 2011. And the economic sort of impact that that had. And Political Science studies show women especially are turned off by attackoriented rhetoric in politics. So i think that also helps to explain maybe why women are less likely to find the Tea Party Message appealing. And last but not least, ill just say this and close and turn to questions, i think the initial focus of the movement back in 2009 was frustration with wall street, the bailouts and really was many tea Party Activists consciously were trying to, i think, promote conservative Economic Policy more than and avoided social issues. But i think as the tea party has progressed, we see that the tea party moniker has been attached to more controversial social is and cultural issues such as Immigration Reform. And so i think those very cultural concerns are more polarizing in the general public, and i think that has not helped the tea party either in its cause to support tea party values and policies. So im going to stop there and answer some questions about the book. Thank you. [applause] if you have a question, just raise your hand and shout it out, and well ask melissa to repeat the question. Get it started. I hear theres an election going on. [laughter] we might want to talk about that. [inaudible] thats a great question. So not actually somewhat surprisingly, donald trump is just as polarizing in the tea party as he is among the general public. So, obviously, i wrote the book before donald trump was a candidate, but for some Tea Party Women, they are flocking to him. I mentioned Katrina Pierson earlier, the National Spokesperson for trump, and the appeal for trump for these women is that he is antiestablishment. Hes willing to break the rules, and hes willing to sort of shake things up in a way that they feel the Republican Party will never be able to do. I think also with trumps sort of emergence in our political debate in the last year, hes really brought Immigration Reform to the forefront and really sort of renewed, i think, debates about immigration. It wasnt as big of an issue when i interviewed these women in 2012 and 2013, but i have gone back and checked their web sites. Theres lots of antiimmigration language, lots of antimuslim language, and i think for those women they find appeal in trumps message that he wants to make America Great again. Early activists would say we need to take america back. So i think theres definitely some sympathy for some Tea Party Women toward donald trump. Howrvetion having said that, there are some Tea Party Women who believe that he is, essentially, not trustworthy, hes not really, truly authentically conservative. Jenny be beth martin sort of railed against trump at the cpac Convention Last march saying he did not uphold a conservative interpretation of the constitution. So for some tea Party Activists who are really passionately conservative, they feel that hes not be, hes not a true conservative. He really supports a bigger government. Is so you see that split happening among these women as well. They dont uniformly support trump, but i think hillary, of course, will unite them. [laughter] so they will be voting for trump, but again, theres a real split. A lot of tea Party Activists favored ted cruz, and it didnt go theyre still very bitter about the election, and they felt ted cruz was the authentic champion of the tea party cruz, so theyre cause, so theyre mad. Theyre not be really keen on donald trump. But he does have his supporters even in the tea party too. [inaudible] is in a possibility for [inaudible] what do you think the future holds for the tea party. Will it fizzle out, and in what form will it go into the future. Well, i think in a couple ways the tea partys actually been successful, right . If you look how far to the right the Republican Party has come on lots of economic issues, some of the initial rationale for the tea party, reducing the deficit, lowering taxes, thats become Republican Party orthodoxy in lots of ways. So i think thats also part of the way the tea partys become most popular. I think its actually been somewhat successful. And also at the state level. We dont talk about that as much as well, but theyve been very influential in state party politics. However, for some dielard, you know, very conservative diehard activists, they wont be happy until the government is a libertarian vision. I think that theyll the still be involved in politics. We still have to deal as a society with entitlement reform. We have policies we very soon wont be able to pay for, so i think in some respects there will be groups out there who are making arguments for conservative economic policies to deal with those issues. Whether they become, maintain a tea party sort of trademark or a name, im not so sure. I mean, in congress, to take a good example, Michele Bachmann is no longer in congress. The Tea Party Caucus is not doing much. So many conservatives in congress have rebranded as the liberty caucus. Think you see sort of a slight, maybe a divergence from using the tea party name, or per se. But i think therell still be rightwing activism involved in some capacity. Yeah. [inaudible] do you think there will be a [inaudible] yeah. So the question is he talked about how i mentioned there was a divide among tea party elites and tea party in the mass public, women at least with respect to paid family and medical leave and that sort of thing, if thered be a similar divide when it comes to programs geared at children like tanf, right . I would suspect, yes. I dont look at the data in the book, but my hunch would be there would be a divide, especially at programs aimed at children. Entitlement programs are often popular with the general public, so i think you would definitely still see somewhat of a divide. Tea party women are not supportive of social welfare more generally, i think theyd be more conservative than other american women, but i would suspect thered be somewhat of a divide. [inaudible] create space somehow and the interaction with the [inaudible] okay. So this is a question about women as Leaders Within the tea party and sort of if theres space for their leadership, how they interact with male leaders, the extent to which women are leaders. Theres no systematic, i didnt do a systematic overview of every tea party in the u. S. Its a very fluid movement, so some groups that existed a couple of years ago no longer exist be, newer groups pop be up all the time. But in some of the national groups, for example, i mentioned Tea Party Patriots. It was cofounded by two women, and another man cofounded it. Hes no longer with the organization. At the time that i did the interview, five out of the six National Coordinators were women, and this is a group that is not a gender Tea Party Group, just a straightforward tea party organization. My sense is that there are lots of Women Leaders. In fact, they encourage women to get involved in the tea party. In fact, many women that i spoke with pelt it was a far more open felt it was a far more open, hospitable place to become be a leader. In the book i talked about a couple of women who were rebuffered trying to get into the gop. Theyre willing to recognize that sexism exists even among can conservative outlets. So i think for them the tea party allows them, especially with social media, to form groups in ways that they want, to reach out to people. So i think its a very welcoming space in lots of ways. Of course, the irony for many liberal feminists would be, hey, youre rejecting policies that have allowed you to rise as leaders, but at the same time i think that really many of these Tea Party Women find it to be quite a welcoming space. Does that answer your question . Yeah. Im also interested in [inaudible] interactions with the men leaders [inaudible] well, thats a good question. I really, the focus of my own research i really just interviewed women activists. Is so i dont really i cant speak to gender dynamics per se. I, and we should also bear in mind that a lot of women i interviewed didnt give gender rationales as the primary reason that they became involved. But in trying to sort of grow their brand, to kind of reach out to more women, they often embraced motherhood rhetoric or feminist rhetoric as a way, i think, to sort of juxtapose and contrast to liberal womens groups, right . Liberal womens groups like now and others will talk about why its important. When i think about the gun control debate, i think about women as moms talking about why we need more protection. So these rightwing women would say as mothers, i want to protect my children x i should have access to guns because theyre a great equalizer. Some of them argued it was more important for women to have guns than men because theyre physically less strong. Its not that they would primarily, i think, hold those views because they were women, but they sort of extended sort of our ideas of what gender identity means in lots of ways. Yes. [inaudible] oh, great hope for a new third party in american politics. [laughter] people always ask that. You know, the system just designed to be a twoparty system. First of all, even if the tea party formed a third party, i dont think theres enough support for them to be very successful, you know . Im interested to see what happens this year with the libertarian party, right . This might be the year they get to debate. Theyre not going to win, but they might get to debate. Im dubious. The Tea Party Leaders have a love hate relationship with the Republican Party. They dont think its conservative enough. But they also realize they cant get their policies achieved and passed unless they go with the Republican Party. Theyre not going to become democrats, right . So they work really closely to rebrand the gop is into a more conservative party. I think realistically theyre not going to be forming their own third party. Its just the system is set up. I would actually argue at the state level the tea partys been more successful because if you look at in 2010 you had this wave of republicans taking over state legislatures, especially in the south. And so i think the policies that many of these state legislatures are passing in the deep south especially and in the midwest that are republicancontrolled are pretty close to what the tea party was initially arguing for. So i think at the state level theres definitely, theyve been a little bit more successful, i think. [inaudible] in a sense of women becoming more conservative or people becoming more conservative . [inaudible] it could happen. Well, well have to see. I mean, im just interested to see what happens after trump, what the Republican Party actually looks like after the election, you know . Well have to see. [inaudible] Tea Party Women are [inaudible] oh, yeah, i like the libertarians a lot more than [inaudible] theyre doing more for me than yeah. So this is a question about libertarians and Tea Party Women. Some of the women i interviewed definitely identify as libertarian. The problem though for the tea party as a movement is that its also drawn in many socially conservative women. In fact, twothirds of Tea Party Women in the general public are bornagain christians. So for these women, they would never become a libertarian, because libertarians support abortion rights, gay marriage, they want freedom for everybody. So they want a minimal regulatory state in private life as well as in economic concern. So that just would not jive, i think, with a lot of these activists that i interviewed. So there are definitely libertarians in the movement who are women. In fact, a lot of them that i interviewed would sort of eschew the whole gender identity politics. They dont like to go down that road, but it doesnt stop many of them from still making some arguments why their policies are better for women ultimately. But i think, you know, i know that robbie and dan, they did a study in 2013, i think, called in search of libertarians. I think only 8 i still remember this fact 8 of americans are truly libertarian in terms of rejecting government regulation in all areas of life. Its just not a very popular position for most people in this country. If not, thank you so much, melissa. Thank you. Thank you very much. [applause] thank you all for coming. Please come up, say hello, get a book, have it signed. And if you could do us a favor, fold up your chair, place it up against the bookcase [inaudible] lets have another round of applause for melissa. [applause] [inaudible conversations] this is booktv on cspan2, and we want to know whats on your Summer Reading list. Send us your choices. booktv is our twitter handle. 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