It was cofounded by two women and another man, hes no longer with the organization. At the time i did the interview, five out of the six national coordinate beers were women. And coordinators were women. And this is a group that is not a gender tea party group, this is Just Tea Party patriots, sort of a straightforward tea party organization. So my sense of talking to people in the tea party is there are lots of women leaders. In fact, they encourage more women to get involved in the tea party. And, in fact, many women that i spoke with thought that it was a far more open, hospitable place to become a leader than, say, the Republican Party. In the book i talk about a couple of women who had negative experiences trying to get involved in their local gop. They were rebuffed, they actually had sexist treatment. So theyre even willing to recognize that sex doesnt exist even among conservative outlets. So i think for them the tea party is, it 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. I also [inaudible] tea party and if [inaudible] somehow gender [inaudible] thats a good question. I really, the focus of my own research i really just interviewed women activists. So i dont really i cant speak to gender dynamics per se. And i and i should also, we should 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 like now and others who will talk about why its important like when i think about the gun control debate, i think about women as moms talking about why we need more gun controls for protection. These women would say, well, as mothers, i want to protect my children, and i should have access to guns because theyre a great equalizer. Some argued it was more important for women to have guns than men because theyre physically less strong. I can see the point theyre merricking. Its not making. Its not that they would holds those views because they were women, but they sort of extended our ideas of what gender identity means in lots of ways. Yes. [inaudible] great home for a new third party in politics. People always ask that. [laughter] the system is just designed to be a twoparty system. Even if tea party formed a third party, i dont think theres enough support for them to be successful. Im interested to see what happens this year with the lib libertarian party. They might get to debate this year. Theyre not going to win, but they might get to debate. Im dubious that they will form a tea party. The Tea Party Activists and leaders i spoke with have a love hate relationship with the Republican Party. They dont think its conservative enough, but they also realize that they cant get their policies achieved and passed unless they go with the Republican Party. Theyre not going to become democratic, so they work really closely to try to rebrand the gop 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 republican controlled 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 the sense of women becoming more conservative or people becoming [inaudible] [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 this election. You know . Well have to see. [inaudible] oh, yeah, i like the libertarians a lot more than i like the Republican Party. Theyre doing more for me than [inaudible] yeah. So this is a question about libertarians and Tea Party Women. So 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 born again christians. And so for these women, they would never become a libertarian because libertarians support abortion rights, gay marriage. They want freedom for everybody. So they really want a minimal regulatory state in private life as well as in economic concerns. And so that just would not jive, i think, with a lot of these women Tea Party Activists that i interviewed. And so there are, there are definitely libertarians in the movement who are women. In fact, a lot of them that i interviewed would sort of eshoo the whole e statue the whole argument. It doesnt stop them for making the argument why their policies are better for women ultimately. But i think, you know, i know that robbie and dan did a study in 2013, i think, called in search of libertarians. Only 8 i seem to remember this fact 8 of americans are truly libertarian in terms of rejecting Government Intervention in all areas of life. And its just not a very popular position for most people in this country. Thank you so much, melissa. Thank you. Thank you very much. [applause] [inaudible] please come up, say hello, get a book, have it signed, and if you could do us a favor, fold up your chairs, place them against the bookcase [inaudible] lets have intoed another round of applause another round of applause for melissa. [applause] [inaudible conversations] eric ma tax access is next on booktv. His most recent book is if you can keep it the forgotten promise of american liberty. Welcome to socrates in the city, and happy flag day. [applause] i hope i have communicated to you how excited i am that its flag day. Did anybody read what i wrote in todays paper . [applause] yeah. I wrote an oped in the wall street journal today about flag day, and ill be talking about that a little bit later on. But im just really, really excited about that. I want to talk about why that day is important to me. But it is important to me, and it kind of ties into the theme of the book, actually. So im not talking about the book yet. Im introducing myself first, right . Actually, im not going to introduce myself. I did that the last time actually, let me back up. If you dont know what socrates in the city is and a lot of people watching on cspan and facebook have no idea what it is i want to say, first of all, thank you for wrapping up your early bird dinner and hustling to the tv, cspan people. I appreciate that. [laughter] its tough to pull yourself away, Golden Corral has several soups, and i know its tough to pull yourself away, but i appreciate it. [laughter] ive been on cspan before, its okay. They get my humor, its okay. Its okay. But i want to say that this is a socrates in the city event, but its a little bit different for a socrates in the city event. Normally i interview someone, and you can go on youtube. Just go to socratesinthecity socratesinthecity. Com. Weve got tons of videos of me interviewing really extraordinary people. We had i cant even think to have the list, but you go there, we had dick cavett, Malcolm Gladwell right here on this stage, we had cher [laughter] moms maybely, tornadoty fields, hang on. Funny man jack carter, burns and shriver, the comedy team, and burns and allen, and we had steve allen and edie gourmet. We had the gabor sisters, the andrew sisters, the lennon sisters, the smothers brothers. Gosh, i think thats about it. No, we had vladimir nabokov, flip wilson, telly saw valueless, joe nay moth, abbott and costello, that was a cameo. The ritz brothers, Wild Bill Hickok on this stage. I interviewed them all. [laughter] also Charles Darwin [laughter] and the marquee delafayette. He was old. It was tough to get him, he was very, very old. But anyway, so weve had a really eclectic smorgasbord of guests at socrates in the city. Socrates in the city gets its name from socrates. Did you guess . Im greek, so i can pretend that im familiar with greek philosophy, and we picked the name socrates because he said famously the unexamined life is not worth living, and then he blew his brains out in an alley. [laughter] its so sad. So sad. No, socrates said the unexamined life is not worth living. He said it in greek. By the way, amber and seth, youre very late. Please take your seats. If youre my friends and you show up late, i will call you out. [laughter] i have to say that we realize that in new york city people tend to avoid the big subjects, the important things, right . You know, god, whatever can make you squirm, right . Does god exist . What is the nature of reality . The kind of questions that people typically dont get into. So we say its we coffer life, god and other small topics. In other words, everything is fair game at socrates in the city which pretty much means weve had all kinds of different guests on all kinds of different subjects. And i do encourage you go to our web site, cock rah tease socratesinthecity. Com, and last year we did a whole bunch of events in oxford, england, because we thought why dont we take it there. So we did it there. And just really weve had a wonderful time over the years. Before i was interviewing people, we would just have a speech at a podium like this, and weve had a number of wonderful guests do that as well. We i think about six years ago we decided that i would be the guest at socrates in the city. Every six years i am allowed another this. I come out with about a book a year, so i wouldnt do this every year, but when i wrote my bonn hover book in april 2010, i was the speaker, and i introduced myself, and it was very meta, you know . [laughter] kind of messes with your head. It messed with my head, and i was the speaker and the host. So i decided not to do that this time just because its fatiguing. Let me put it that way, its very fatiguing. But six years later ive come up with another book that i actually thought this meets the socrates in the city requirements. Its sort of on the big questions, the sort of stuff that we should all be thinking about probably. Were not going to pretend we have all the answers, but its something we should be thinking about. So we thought it would be appropriate to do this. Now, my publisher, viking, has many representatives here dont raise your hands but they picked this date, june 14th, as the release date. And i thought, did they know that this is flag day . Because i write about flag day in the book, and this day is very, very important to me. And it turns out, they didnt. They just happened to pick june 14th as the day this book should come out. Now, i wouldnt exactly call that a miracle, but its pretty good coincidence, i think. So im really just thrilled. As i said, flag days very important to me, and it sort of is at the center of what happens in the book. So ill talk about that in a moment. Im trying to think about what else i wanted to mention. Im not going to introduce myself, have i mentioned that . Because im not going to. To do that would just be a slap in the face to everyone in the room, because you already know that im me, so im not going to pretend not to be me. A lot of you are here before i start, i just want to say, i am stunned at how many people are here from different parts of the country. If youre not from new york, would you raise your hand . Unbelievable. What a bunch of ruins. Look at em rubes. Look at em. [laughter] its incredible. Im just so thrilled. So many friends from texas, and a number of friends i havent seen in years. Im just so thrilled to see my friends justin, pat, a number of people who just surprised me. Blew my mind. Thank you for coming and sharing this important event with me. I see friends from all around the world, but im not going to mention all your names. But thank you for coming. Okay. Let me turn to the subject at hand. The book that i have just written is called [laughter] is called if you can keep it. So im going to talk for a few minutes about that, and then were going to open it up to q a, all right . Youre going to be q, im going to to be a, and well see what happens. Theres so much that i want to say on the subject of the book. I hardly know where to start, so let me start with title. With the title. If you can keep it. Some people get the reference, other people didnt graduate high school. [laughter] just kidding. I wouldnt have gotten the reference myself. Its once you know something, you feel like, oh, everybody should know that, right . Well, i wouldnt have gotten it. Here is where i get this from. In 1787 Benjamin Franklin was with exiting the Constitutional Convention, Independence Hall in philadelphia. Now, part of the background of everything im going to say is that i didnt know this stuff, right . I got what i would consider a decent education, Public School in danbury, connecticut, went to a good university, but none of these places really seemed to communicate to me a lot of what im going to share with you tonight which, again, forms the backdrop of why i wrote this book and why i feel such a burning passion to communicate these things. But the story is that in 1787, to refresh our memories, things werent going so well for the United States of america. Right . We had, i would say, genuinely miraculously come into existence when you know the details, and i put them in my book, it is a staggering thing. We ought not to have succeeded. It doesnt make much rational sense that washington was able to succeed. The battle of long island, i didnt put that chapter in my book, you can blame my publisher, brian. Where is he . Brian, where are you . Brian, its brians fault. Hes got paper, papers expensive, he couldnt do it. He couldnt pull it off. He doesnt have the juice in the company to pull that off. But in the fiewrchtion i know he will. The point is theres so many miracles that happened that when you put them all together, you say this is remarkable. You dont have to accept it as gods hand but it is nonetheless remarkable when you look at the things that came together to create this nation. At least for me, it was remarkable. I would read these things and say, this is staggering. It really does seem like god had his hand on the creation of this nation. It just doesnt make much rational sense. But, again, you dont have to buy into that. You have to understand that it is remarkable that were here. So 1776, we come into existence rather miraculously. We win the war. But in 1783 when the hostilities cease, what happens . We had the articles of confederation. We have a very weak federal government. Now, the whole point of the United States of america was to have a weak federal government. You know that, right . [applause] im getting applause. The tea party is here. Awesome. [laughter] thats the point of limited government. However, if it is too limited, then you have no government, right . We get this. So youre looking for this incredibly fragile balance. And all of the leaders, the founders, the framers understood it wasnt quite working. So by 1787 they said weve got to go back to the drawing board and figure this out. So they go to Independence Hall in philadelphia. They spent about 100 days. The creation of the constitution itself seems miraculous. And, again, i say seems. Theres nothing, theres no proof here that it was miraculous, but the point is you have to go to the founders themselves and read what they wrote, and they all say that trying to find a compromise between the slave states and the free states, mean maine and georgia, on and on and on, was essentially impossible. It was not working. And they were despairing that this could ever work. Now, imagine the people who werent inside the Constitutional Convention were probably thinking, okay, what are they going to do in there . Are they going to give us some kind of a limited monarchy . I mean, imagine, in the history of world, thered never been a republic like we have, nothing like it. And we forget. We kind of think, oh, its normal. Whats the big deal . The the big deal is it had never existed in the history of the world, okay . So you have these people in this room doing something, and the people outside that room are probably wondering, whats going to happen . Are they going to create some kind of limited monarchy . Whats it going to be . Well, Benjamin Franklin, one of the most secular of all of the founders, exhorted the people in the room to pray. Now, do you realize how bizarre that is . Benjamin franklin was the one to do that . But he exhorted them to pray, and he said that god came to our aid in the formation of this country, why would we doubt that he would help us now . Because they were at an utter impasse. In any case, things worked out, they created a constitution. Many of those who were there actually used the word miraculous. They said it really was simply astounding that this thing worked out. And at the end of this, Benjamin Franklin walks out of the building which is there, you can visit, many of you have probably visited it. He walks out of the building, and a woman, a mrs. Powell of philadelphia, confronts him. Now, hed been in philadelphia for 60 years, since he was 17, so 67 years hed been living in philadelphia. He probably knew everybody, so i can imagine this dowager comes up to him and says, dr. Franklin, what have you give us, a monarchy or a republic . And franklin says, a republic, madam, if you can keep it. Thats where this comes from. If you can keep it, right . [applause] okay. So the thing is its one of those things that maybe you heard it in history class or maybe you didnt, but the point is it really is one of these odd quirks of his