1
00:00:03,279 --> 00:00:06,560
Speaker 1: Welcome to stuff Mom Never told you. From house Supports

2
00:00:06,600 --> 00:00:14,720
Speaker 1: dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Kristin

3
00:00:14,880 --> 00:00:19,560
Speaker 1: and I'm Caroline, and today we are talking about Phillis

4
00:00:19,880 --> 00:00:24,280
Speaker 1: she Laughley. This episode has been a long time coming,

5
00:00:25,360 --> 00:00:32,400
Speaker 1: but ever since she died on September five, we've been

6
00:00:32,479 --> 00:00:36,159
Speaker 1: talking amongst ourselves, Caroline and I about how we should

7
00:00:36,159 --> 00:00:39,280
Speaker 1: do an episode on phillis. We've heard from a number

8
00:00:39,320 --> 00:00:43,000
Speaker 1: of listeners asking whether we're going to do with Phyllis

9
00:00:43,000 --> 00:00:48,600
Speaker 1: sh Laughley episode and how could we not? How could

10
00:00:48,640 --> 00:00:51,920
Speaker 1: we not? Especially after my Twitter response to her passing,

11
00:00:52,200 --> 00:00:56,320
Speaker 1: UM brought men out of the woodwork to tell me

12
00:00:56,400 --> 00:00:59,160
Speaker 1: that I was a monster. So what what? What did

13
00:00:59,160 --> 00:01:04,480
Speaker 1: you tweet? Um? I tweeted a Zendia gift where Zendia

14
00:01:04,680 --> 00:01:12,480
Speaker 1: was just going by and that was it. And conservative

15
00:01:12,520 --> 00:01:17,160
Speaker 1: gentleman did not appreciate that and called me a fat

16
00:01:17,200 --> 00:01:21,440
Speaker 1: feminist monster. Oh no, I called you fat. Wasn't that

17
00:01:21,480 --> 00:01:24,040
Speaker 1: the worst thing a woman can be called? Totally? How

18
00:01:24,080 --> 00:01:27,119
Speaker 1: did you even survive it? I don't know. I don't know.

19
00:01:27,400 --> 00:01:32,240
Speaker 1: Eating even more feminism, eating eating all the feminists. Well,

20
00:01:32,440 --> 00:01:36,959
Speaker 1: it's also apropos to talk about laughlely because in a

21
00:01:37,000 --> 00:01:42,400
Speaker 1: lot of ways. She paved the way for Donald Trump

22
00:01:42,480 --> 00:01:46,959
Speaker 1: being the Republican nominee for president this year. And and

23
00:01:47,360 --> 00:01:51,360
Speaker 1: I would argue that her star was definitely rising at

24
00:01:51,360 --> 00:01:55,640
Speaker 1: the same time that the Republican Party was veering more

25
00:01:55,840 --> 00:02:00,840
Speaker 1: toward the regunification, you know, aligning with the religious right,

26
00:02:01,600 --> 00:02:05,640
Speaker 1: um than uh it previously had been. Yeah, I mean

27
00:02:05,640 --> 00:02:10,799
Speaker 1: that's how she made her name was definitely by essentially

28
00:02:10,880 --> 00:02:16,519
Speaker 1: ushering helping usher what was this fringe right wing group

29
00:02:16,720 --> 00:02:20,000
Speaker 1: of Republicans sort of like we think of the Tea

30
00:02:20,040 --> 00:02:24,959
Speaker 1: Party today into the mainstream because for a long time

31
00:02:25,280 --> 00:02:28,000
Speaker 1: they were just sort of off in the corner, uh

32
00:02:28,040 --> 00:02:31,399
Speaker 1: and not really taken all that seriously. But then, as

33
00:02:31,480 --> 00:02:38,400
Speaker 1: will talk about more, Philish Laughlely showed America that these

34
00:02:38,520 --> 00:02:44,679
Speaker 1: right wing conservatives could win in the polls. But I

35
00:02:44,680 --> 00:02:46,960
Speaker 1: don't want to get to ahead of ourselves. Let's talk

36
00:02:46,960 --> 00:02:49,960
Speaker 1: a little bit more about who this woman is, because

37
00:02:50,480 --> 00:02:53,960
Speaker 1: for I feel like you either absolutely know who she

38
00:02:54,160 --> 00:02:57,720
Speaker 1: is because she's the arch nemesis of second wave feminism,

39
00:02:57,960 --> 00:03:00,440
Speaker 1: or you probably never heard of her. Let's give a

40
00:03:00,480 --> 00:03:05,400
Speaker 1: quick primer of who this Shlafley, who's this Slaughly lady is?

41
00:03:05,560 --> 00:03:08,760
Speaker 1: Who's this dame. Well, I mean, you're right, she's absolutely

42
00:03:09,040 --> 00:03:14,120
Speaker 1: considered one of the most polarizing figures in American public

43
00:03:14,200 --> 00:03:19,120
Speaker 1: political life. And she's basically, I don't know what would

44
00:03:19,240 --> 00:03:24,040
Speaker 1: she's an author, she's a politician to a degree, um,

45
00:03:24,120 --> 00:03:29,360
Speaker 1: and she is best known for her war against the

46
00:03:29,400 --> 00:03:32,320
Speaker 1: Equal Rights Amendment in the nineteen seventies. Yeah, I mean,

47
00:03:32,360 --> 00:03:38,040
Speaker 1: she's a grassroots conservative political organizer who is now considered

48
00:03:38,760 --> 00:03:44,600
Speaker 1: an icon among you know, ultra right wing Republicans, Donald

49
00:03:44,600 --> 00:03:51,200
Speaker 1: Trump included. And we read her obituary in both The

50
00:03:51,240 --> 00:03:55,240
Speaker 1: New York Times, obviously more liberal, some might call it

51
00:03:55,280 --> 00:03:59,880
Speaker 1: the lamestream media. They're Shlapley fans. And then we read

52
00:03:59,880 --> 00:04:04,559
Speaker 1: her oh bit in the National Review, which is ultra conservative,

53
00:04:04,600 --> 00:04:07,200
Speaker 1: of course, and The New York Times described her as

54
00:04:07,320 --> 00:04:12,120
Speaker 1: quote a self described housewife who displayed a moral ferocity

55
00:04:12,160 --> 00:04:18,040
Speaker 1: reminiscent of the axe wielding prohibitionist Carrie Nation. So she's

56
00:04:18,040 --> 00:04:21,880
Speaker 1: a tough cookie, real tough cookie. And then the National

57
00:04:21,920 --> 00:04:28,159
Speaker 1: Review described her, meanwhile, as one of the original happy warriors, funny, gracious,

58
00:04:28,240 --> 00:04:33,600
Speaker 1: and grittier than one might expect. And it's astonishing to

59
00:04:33,960 --> 00:04:40,840
Speaker 1: trace back our political climate today and everything that we

60
00:04:40,920 --> 00:04:45,839
Speaker 1: are now witnessing in terms of Donald Trump's supporters and

61
00:04:45,839 --> 00:04:49,560
Speaker 1: the types of white dudes who came after you on Twitter,

62
00:04:49,680 --> 00:04:53,480
Speaker 1: for instance, And trace that all the way back to

63
00:04:54,839 --> 00:04:59,359
Speaker 1: this woman in the Midwest who in a lot of

64
00:04:59,360 --> 00:05:04,280
Speaker 1: ways started out almost like Hillary Clinton. She was from

65
00:05:04,320 --> 00:05:08,840
Speaker 1: a relatively like working class background, although Hillary Clinton came

66
00:05:08,839 --> 00:05:13,760
Speaker 1: from a well slightly wealthier middle class family. But laughly,

67
00:05:14,440 --> 00:05:17,440
Speaker 1: you know, it was scrappy, and she was smart, and

68
00:05:17,520 --> 00:05:23,160
Speaker 1: she was ambitious, and then you know, the any similarity

69
00:05:23,200 --> 00:05:26,039
Speaker 1: she might have to Hillary Clinton just ends right there. Well, yeah,

70
00:05:26,080 --> 00:05:28,960
Speaker 1: and I mean they both initially supported very Goldwater too

71
00:05:29,480 --> 00:05:32,560
Speaker 1: before before Hills went the other direction. But yeah, and

72
00:05:32,600 --> 00:05:37,720
Speaker 1: I mean you can look at the fact that nowadays

73
00:05:38,000 --> 00:05:42,880
Speaker 1: Catholics and Evangelical Christians work together when they are on

74
00:05:42,920 --> 00:05:46,320
Speaker 1: the right. Um, you can trace that back to Philish

75
00:05:46,400 --> 00:05:51,120
Speaker 1: laughly as well. She was Catholic, um, devoutly Catholic. But

76
00:05:52,080 --> 00:05:54,039
Speaker 1: through and we'll get to this more in a second,

77
00:05:54,120 --> 00:05:57,839
Speaker 1: but like through all of her grassroots efforts, she brought

78
00:05:57,960 --> 00:06:01,960
Speaker 1: more women of different faiths and different denominations into the

79
00:06:02,000 --> 00:06:05,760
Speaker 1: political fold to try to combat this sort of what

80
00:06:05,920 --> 00:06:11,560
Speaker 1: she viewed as you know, liberalization, the downfall of American society.

81
00:06:12,000 --> 00:06:16,039
Speaker 1: And in a lot of ways, she is a difficult woman,

82
00:06:16,320 --> 00:06:20,440
Speaker 1: she summarized, because she's kind of a basket of contradictions,

83
00:06:20,960 --> 00:06:26,000
Speaker 1: because she is this very ambitious, self sufficient woman in

84
00:06:26,040 --> 00:06:29,440
Speaker 1: a lot of ways who said that from the get

85
00:06:29,440 --> 00:06:31,520
Speaker 1: go when she was growing up, she knew that she

86
00:06:31,560 --> 00:06:34,720
Speaker 1: would need to take care of herself. And in her

87
00:06:35,560 --> 00:06:41,880
Speaker 1: political career she was extremely visible. She wrote twenty books.

88
00:06:41,880 --> 00:06:45,760
Speaker 1: I mean, the woman never stopped, and yet publicly she

89
00:06:45,880 --> 00:06:49,520
Speaker 1: always said that she was a housewife first and that

90
00:06:49,640 --> 00:06:53,600
Speaker 1: politics was just a hobby because she has six children

91
00:06:53,640 --> 00:07:00,400
Speaker 1: at home and her husband, Fred Schlasley, is king aventually

92
00:07:01,000 --> 00:07:04,920
Speaker 1: and she does whatever he allows her to do, even

93
00:07:04,960 --> 00:07:08,839
Speaker 1: though like in the same breath she'll also say, you know,

94
00:07:08,880 --> 00:07:12,960
Speaker 1: but I can do whatever I want. Um. And she

95
00:07:13,560 --> 00:07:20,559
Speaker 1: relished starting this organization called stop e r A, which

96
00:07:20,880 --> 00:07:24,600
Speaker 1: was intended to stop the Equal Rights Amendment. Well yeah,

97
00:07:24,640 --> 00:07:29,680
Speaker 1: and stop was actually an acronym for stop taking our Privileges,

98
00:07:31,360 --> 00:07:34,760
Speaker 1: which is when I when I learned about that acronym

99
00:07:35,480 --> 00:07:39,120
Speaker 1: was also my brain exploded a little bit about just

100
00:07:39,200 --> 00:07:44,960
Speaker 1: how how blatant the intention is right there of privileges,

101
00:07:45,000 --> 00:07:47,960
Speaker 1: Stop taking our privileges? Because I mean Philish Laughly would

102
00:07:47,960 --> 00:07:51,000
Speaker 1: be like, yeah, I mean I love white privileges terrific. Yeah.

103
00:07:51,080 --> 00:07:55,840
Speaker 1: I Um. When I was researching her life and and

104
00:07:56,120 --> 00:08:00,280
Speaker 1: activism and politics, my brain just kept collapse thing on

105
00:08:00,320 --> 00:08:07,000
Speaker 1: itself because to me, as a liberal feminist and one

106
00:08:07,000 --> 00:08:11,720
Speaker 1: who cares about having equal rights for people of all backgrounds,

107
00:08:13,160 --> 00:08:15,440
Speaker 1: none of it made sense because I'm like, why would

108
00:08:15,480 --> 00:08:20,240
Speaker 1: you want to stop the e r A when oh

109
00:08:20,240 --> 00:08:22,440
Speaker 1: wait no, but you only want the privileges for you

110
00:08:22,520 --> 00:08:25,800
Speaker 1: and yours. Well, okay, so I was I take back

111
00:08:25,800 --> 00:08:28,760
Speaker 1: what I say that she would say. She would be

112
00:08:28,800 --> 00:08:34,640
Speaker 1: all about her white privilege because what Philish Laughly did

113
00:08:35,920 --> 00:08:39,600
Speaker 1: and Donald Trump does. She would deny that privilege even exists.

114
00:08:39,679 --> 00:08:42,480
Speaker 1: Oh well, sure, in the same way that she denies

115
00:08:42,559 --> 00:08:46,560
Speaker 1: that denied that sexism even exists. Well, privilege in the

116
00:08:46,600 --> 00:08:49,960
Speaker 1: way that we talk about it now and on our podcast.

117
00:08:50,080 --> 00:08:53,880
Speaker 1: But I mean she actively talked about the privileges afforded

118
00:08:53,960 --> 00:08:59,240
Speaker 1: to women, right in the sense of chivalry. Almost right. Yes. So,

119
00:08:59,600 --> 00:09:04,360
Speaker 1: her latest book, A Conservative Case for Trump, came out

120
00:09:04,840 --> 00:09:09,040
Speaker 1: just after her death, and she describes in it Trump

121
00:09:09,120 --> 00:09:13,600
Speaker 1: as a quote old fashioned man grounded in his two

122
00:09:13,640 --> 00:09:17,520
Speaker 1: great priorities hard work and family and a man who

123
00:09:17,559 --> 00:09:23,520
Speaker 1: in other respects has led a remarkably clean life. Okay,

124
00:09:23,760 --> 00:09:26,680
Speaker 1: So I mean this is this is the the viewpoint

125
00:09:26,720 --> 00:09:29,880
Speaker 1: that we're dealing with. This is the kind of choose

126
00:09:29,920 --> 00:09:36,440
Speaker 1: your own reality that Phillish Lavely was able to mold

127
00:09:36,559 --> 00:09:41,679
Speaker 1: into a startling, lee powerful career for herself. And it

128
00:09:41,720 --> 00:09:45,280
Speaker 1: makes sense that right before her death at ninety two

129
00:09:45,360 --> 00:09:51,559
Speaker 1: years old, she came out, uh, stumping for Trump because

130
00:09:51,760 --> 00:09:56,120
Speaker 1: she was all about populism. She was all about demagoguery,

131
00:09:56,360 --> 00:10:00,319
Speaker 1: and she was all about, you know, galvanizing this hyper

132
00:10:00,320 --> 00:10:07,120
Speaker 1: conservative evangelical religious right that has similarly flocked to Trump. Well,

133
00:10:07,200 --> 00:10:11,400
Speaker 1: and regardless of whether you as the politicians she was

134
00:10:11,440 --> 00:10:17,000
Speaker 1: stumping for, were hyper Republican or whatever, she just hated

135
00:10:17,000 --> 00:10:20,200
Speaker 1: the establishment. That's like some of the same rhetoric you

136
00:10:20,360 --> 00:10:23,320
Speaker 1: hear a lot right now, and and she saw Trump

137
00:10:23,360 --> 00:10:28,400
Speaker 1: as an answer to those establishment politics. And she was

138
00:10:28,559 --> 00:10:34,959
Speaker 1: really she harped for decades on kingmakers, the idea of

139
00:10:35,000 --> 00:10:41,200
Speaker 1: like a secret group of rich liberal elite kingmakers who

140
00:10:41,240 --> 00:10:45,679
Speaker 1: sat around appointing politicians around the world. Yeah, I mean,

141
00:10:45,720 --> 00:10:50,719
Speaker 1: because that right there is a core tenant of populism

142
00:10:50,880 --> 00:10:58,200
Speaker 1: where the belief is that almost conspiratorially, that it's just

143
00:10:58,240 --> 00:11:01,200
Speaker 1: a group of power full people who are making all

144
00:11:01,240 --> 00:11:05,559
Speaker 1: the decisions. So power to the people, let's overthrow them.

145
00:11:05,600 --> 00:11:11,160
Speaker 1: And she told Breitbart in January of this year that quote,

146
00:11:11,160 --> 00:11:15,520
Speaker 1: Trump is the only hope to defeat the kingmakers because

147
00:11:15,520 --> 00:11:19,360
Speaker 1: everybody else will fall in line. So I mean she

148
00:11:19,400 --> 00:11:23,400
Speaker 1: really believed in this kingmaker business to her death. And

149
00:11:23,440 --> 00:11:26,240
Speaker 1: I mean that's that's also something to keep in mind

150
00:11:26,280 --> 00:11:28,520
Speaker 1: as we talk about Phillish Laughley. And something that was

151
00:11:30,240 --> 00:11:34,880
Speaker 1: impressed upon me reading about her timeline is how she

152
00:11:35,760 --> 00:11:39,400
Speaker 1: has not changed in her political viewpoints at all. She

153
00:11:39,520 --> 00:11:44,440
Speaker 1: still tells the same anecdotes that she did, you know

154
00:11:44,640 --> 00:11:52,720
Speaker 1: in the sixties. So how did Phillis happen? Um, Well,

155
00:11:52,800 --> 00:11:55,680
Speaker 1: let's give a little bit of biographical background real quick.

156
00:11:55,800 --> 00:12:00,560
Speaker 1: She was born in August nine as phyllis McAlpin's Stewart

157
00:12:01,120 --> 00:12:05,719
Speaker 1: in St. Louis. I did have a moment of concern

158
00:12:05,920 --> 00:12:08,000
Speaker 1: because a lot of my people are from St. Louis,

159
00:12:08,480 --> 00:12:10,720
Speaker 1: and I did wonder, like, oh, she came up in St.

160
00:12:10,760 --> 00:12:13,480
Speaker 1: Louis around the same time as my grandmother. I wonder

161
00:12:13,520 --> 00:12:16,160
Speaker 1: if they were friends. Um. She was the oldest of

162
00:12:16,240 --> 00:12:19,960
Speaker 1: two daughters to o'deal Dodge, who was her mother, and

163
00:12:20,120 --> 00:12:27,640
Speaker 1: John Bruce Stewart. And what's really interesting is that, I mean,

164
00:12:27,640 --> 00:12:30,960
Speaker 1: by all accounts, her mother was also a very hard worker.

165
00:12:31,040 --> 00:12:32,960
Speaker 1: She worked outside the home. She was a teacher with

166
00:12:33,040 --> 00:12:37,960
Speaker 1: two college degrees, and that's not shabby at all for

167
00:12:38,040 --> 00:12:39,760
Speaker 1: a woman who was born at the end of the

168
00:12:39,880 --> 00:12:43,800
Speaker 1: nineteenth century. Her mother not Phillips, right, I mean, and

169
00:12:43,800 --> 00:12:49,319
Speaker 1: and o'deal ended up being the breadwinner because her dad,

170
00:12:49,640 --> 00:12:54,040
Speaker 1: John Bruce Stewart, was a Westinghouse machinist and an industrial

171
00:12:54,040 --> 00:12:57,040
Speaker 1: equipment salesman, and after he lost his job in the

172
00:12:57,080 --> 00:13:02,600
Speaker 1: Great Depression, O'Dell had to become the breadwinner. And she hustled.

173
00:13:02,679 --> 00:13:06,120
Speaker 1: She was a department store saleswoman. She was an elementary

174
00:13:06,160 --> 00:13:09,960
Speaker 1: school teacher and a librarian of a St. Louis art museum.

175
00:13:10,120 --> 00:13:13,160
Speaker 1: And in her spare time, how she had spare time,

176
00:13:13,200 --> 00:13:15,960
Speaker 1: I'm not sure, she wrote a book on the history

177
00:13:16,000 --> 00:13:19,880
Speaker 1: of St. Louis. Yeah. So like the constantly busy work

178
00:13:19,880 --> 00:13:24,880
Speaker 1: work work ethic of Philish Laughley could absolutely be seen

179
00:13:25,000 --> 00:13:28,120
Speaker 1: in her mother as well. Yeah. But and also her

180
00:13:28,120 --> 00:13:31,560
Speaker 1: politics though comes straight from her dad. Her dad was

181
00:13:31,640 --> 00:13:34,880
Speaker 1: seventeen years older than o'deal, which is going to be

182
00:13:34,920 --> 00:13:37,160
Speaker 1: a similar age gap that we'll see in Phillis s

183
00:13:37,240 --> 00:13:42,760
Speaker 1: Laughley's own marriage. And her dad was a staunch Republican who,

184
00:13:42,760 --> 00:13:45,440
Speaker 1: even though they fell on such hard times during the

185
00:13:45,440 --> 00:13:49,320
Speaker 1: Great Depression, he hated FDR and hated the New Deal

186
00:13:49,640 --> 00:13:53,160
Speaker 1: and wanted nothing to do with that. And so from

187
00:13:53,160 --> 00:13:57,840
Speaker 1: a very young age, Phyllis was groomed, you know, to

188
00:13:57,920 --> 00:14:01,720
Speaker 1: be a very conservative or Paul looking Yeah, And I

189
00:14:01,760 --> 00:14:06,320
Speaker 1: think that there's also the emotional aspect of Yes, she

190
00:14:06,440 --> 00:14:11,480
Speaker 1: had a really smart, really hard working, really busy mother,

191
00:14:12,360 --> 00:14:15,080
Speaker 1: but she also grew up in addition to hearing her

192
00:14:15,120 --> 00:14:18,880
Speaker 1: father rail against the New Deal, heard her mother being

193
00:14:18,920 --> 00:14:22,520
Speaker 1: filled with regret at having to work those jobs. Her

194
00:14:22,560 --> 00:14:25,240
Speaker 1: mother wanted to stay home with the kids and the

195
00:14:25,320 --> 00:14:27,120
Speaker 1: house and do the cooking and all of that stuff

196
00:14:27,160 --> 00:14:31,040
Speaker 1: and be the traditional housewife. And so she's being raised

197
00:14:31,120 --> 00:14:36,040
Speaker 1: with these ideas about traditional family and traditional politics. And

198
00:14:36,080 --> 00:14:39,840
Speaker 1: because of their financial situation at home, Phillis realized that

199
00:14:39,920 --> 00:14:43,120
Speaker 1: she was going to have to make her own way.

200
00:14:43,280 --> 00:14:45,760
Speaker 1: It's not like her parents could just pay for her

201
00:14:45,760 --> 00:14:49,600
Speaker 1: to go to college, and so she worked really hard.

202
00:14:49,720 --> 00:14:51,880
Speaker 1: She was always at the top of her class, and

203
00:14:52,040 --> 00:14:57,880
Speaker 1: in she received her bachelor's degree from Washington University, and

204
00:14:58,000 --> 00:15:01,520
Speaker 1: in a maker's interview, she talks about how she paid

205
00:15:01,520 --> 00:15:05,480
Speaker 1: her way through college by working. She says forty eight

206
00:15:05,480 --> 00:15:08,960
Speaker 1: hours a week as a night shift gunner testing thirty

207
00:15:09,000 --> 00:15:12,840
Speaker 1: and fifty caliber ammunition at a St. Louis munitions plant.

208
00:15:13,080 --> 00:15:16,920
Speaker 1: And that is absolutely true. I mean, she not only tested,

209
00:15:17,320 --> 00:15:22,440
Speaker 1: uh these guns, she would also um like document their

210
00:15:22,520 --> 00:15:25,520
Speaker 1: trajectories and do all of this stuff, which seems like

211
00:15:25,680 --> 00:15:32,040
Speaker 1: again very appropriate, uh resume item for someone who ended

212
00:15:32,120 --> 00:15:36,160
Speaker 1: up leading right wing Republicans. Well, I mean, but also

213
00:15:36,320 --> 00:15:40,320
Speaker 1: one thing we skipped over is that she graduated at nineteen, right,

214
00:15:41,200 --> 00:15:44,560
Speaker 1: she finished college in three years and graduated at nineteen

215
00:15:44,720 --> 00:15:47,720
Speaker 1: like some people don't even enter college until nineteen like

216
00:15:48,280 --> 00:15:52,880
Speaker 1: she was. I mean, this woman was so driven and

217
00:15:53,080 --> 00:15:57,840
Speaker 1: was from the outset not going to let anything stand

218
00:15:57,840 --> 00:16:03,040
Speaker 1: in her way. But at this point she doesn't necessarily

219
00:16:03,080 --> 00:16:08,520
Speaker 1: want to go into politics. She ends up in receiving

220
00:16:08,520 --> 00:16:13,200
Speaker 1: her master's degree in political science from Radcliffe, which was

221
00:16:13,720 --> 00:16:17,960
Speaker 1: the sister university to Harvard at the time, because while

222
00:16:18,360 --> 00:16:23,440
Speaker 1: Harvard had started letting some women from Radcliffe take colleges

223
00:16:23,560 --> 00:16:27,840
Speaker 1: with the Harvard men. Uh, they wouldn't fully allow women

224
00:16:27,920 --> 00:16:31,960
Speaker 1: to the school. And apparently she ended up in policy

225
00:16:32,760 --> 00:16:37,920
Speaker 1: because it was one of the only things that she

226
00:16:37,960 --> 00:16:41,440
Speaker 1: could study and do it at Harvard, so she could

227
00:16:41,480 --> 00:16:44,000
Speaker 1: do it in those mixed gender classrooms, because it meant

228
00:16:44,000 --> 00:16:46,560
Speaker 1: a lot to her to go to Harvard not Radcliffe.

229
00:16:46,600 --> 00:16:49,840
Speaker 1: And if you listen to any interviews with her, whenever

230
00:16:49,960 --> 00:16:53,160
Speaker 1: she talks about her master's scree, she loves talking about,

231
00:16:53,320 --> 00:16:57,200
Speaker 1: you know, her bootstrapping of her education. And she always

232
00:16:57,200 --> 00:17:01,480
Speaker 1: says she went to Harvard, but in act her degrees

233
00:17:01,600 --> 00:17:05,760
Speaker 1: from Radcliffe. And I realized that that's kind of a

234
00:17:05,840 --> 00:17:10,720
Speaker 1: minor detail, but I think it still says a lot

235
00:17:11,119 --> 00:17:17,440
Speaker 1: about how she sort of just her reality to fit

236
00:17:18,240 --> 00:17:24,560
Speaker 1: this concept of a sexism free world that needs no feminism, because,

237
00:17:24,600 --> 00:17:29,760
Speaker 1: as she would tell, you know, audiences usually of filled

238
00:17:29,760 --> 00:17:33,359
Speaker 1: with women. Well, when I went to school, there was

239
00:17:33,400 --> 00:17:36,280
Speaker 1: no sexism. I had no trouble getting into college. I

240
00:17:36,320 --> 00:17:38,440
Speaker 1: was able to study alongside the boys. I want to

241
00:17:38,440 --> 00:17:40,240
Speaker 1: know what these feminists were talking about, and it was

242
00:17:42,320 --> 00:17:45,720
Speaker 1: my blood pressure. Um and yeah, and and just as

243
00:17:45,760 --> 00:17:48,640
Speaker 1: she didn't necessarily set out to be a Polysi major,

244
00:17:48,760 --> 00:17:51,000
Speaker 1: she also did not set out to be a hyper

245
00:17:51,080 --> 00:17:54,920
Speaker 1: conservative right wing Republican either. She was pretty moderate, but

246
00:17:55,359 --> 00:18:02,560
Speaker 1: she quickly shifted more conservative after her She did face barriers,

247
00:18:03,200 --> 00:18:07,920
Speaker 1: and she would not admit necessarily that they were barriers,

248
00:18:09,040 --> 00:18:11,760
Speaker 1: but used it more to illustrate that she was able

249
00:18:11,800 --> 00:18:14,760
Speaker 1: to sort of shift course as needed and find her

250
00:18:15,600 --> 00:18:20,280
Speaker 1: niche that allowed her to, I don't know, gain power,

251
00:18:20,400 --> 00:18:23,359
Speaker 1: to really become Phillis. Well, yeah, that definitely gain power

252
00:18:23,480 --> 00:18:32,080
Speaker 1: for sure. And her post college career path also hints

253
00:18:32,280 --> 00:18:38,040
Speaker 1: as to why she has so much animosity toward big government.

254
00:18:38,160 --> 00:18:44,280
Speaker 1: Because after she graduates from matriculates from Radcliffe, you know,

255
00:18:44,359 --> 00:18:48,280
Speaker 1: the war is ending and a lot of jobs are

256
00:18:48,320 --> 00:18:52,080
Speaker 1: being reserved, specifically for veterans, most of whom are men.

257
00:18:52,640 --> 00:18:56,320
Speaker 1: So Phillis wants to get a job in the federal government.

258
00:18:56,400 --> 00:18:58,439
Speaker 1: She's like, I want to work on policy. This is

259
00:18:58,480 --> 00:19:01,639
Speaker 1: my thing, and I got really into this POLSI class

260
00:19:01,680 --> 00:19:03,800
Speaker 1: work and I'm good at it. She graduated at the

261
00:19:03,800 --> 00:19:06,760
Speaker 1: top of her class, but she couldn't find a job

262
00:19:06,800 --> 00:19:11,040
Speaker 1: in the federal government because they were like, noop, oh,

263
00:19:11,200 --> 00:19:16,119
Speaker 1: we got to save these for veterans. So big Brother

264
00:19:16,160 --> 00:19:19,840
Speaker 1: didn't allow Phillis to fulfill her dream, so she ends

265
00:19:19,920 --> 00:19:24,200
Speaker 1: up at the far more conservative think tank, private think

266
00:19:24,240 --> 00:19:28,080
Speaker 1: tank of the American Enterprise Institute. So I mean, it's

267
00:19:28,520 --> 00:19:33,080
Speaker 1: it's incredible to see all of these signposts along the way. Yeah,

268
00:19:33,119 --> 00:19:37,119
Speaker 1: but like here's me, you know, ghost Caroline, who's not

269
00:19:37,160 --> 00:19:40,560
Speaker 1: alive yet. Like no, but Phillis, look at what you

270
00:19:40,640 --> 00:19:44,880
Speaker 1: can fight. You can fight sexism that prevents women from

271
00:19:44,880 --> 00:19:48,760
Speaker 1: going to the schools and getting the jobs they want.

272
00:19:49,119 --> 00:19:52,520
Speaker 1: But she wouldn't blame not getting that federal government job

273
00:19:52,680 --> 00:19:56,240
Speaker 1: on sexism because they weren't telling her you couldn't get

274
00:19:56,240 --> 00:19:58,200
Speaker 1: it because you're a woman. You couldn't get it because

275
00:19:58,200 --> 00:20:03,280
Speaker 1: you're not a veteran. So her ire would be pointed

276
00:20:03,320 --> 00:20:11,919
Speaker 1: toward the government. Okay, Well, in she marries fred Fred Laughlely,

277
00:20:12,320 --> 00:20:16,359
Speaker 1: who is a devoutly Catholic and politically active lawyer. And

278
00:20:16,760 --> 00:20:21,639
Speaker 1: what I what made me stop in my tracks is

279
00:20:21,680 --> 00:20:25,679
Speaker 1: a line about her wedding vows. And this is a

280
00:20:25,720 --> 00:20:29,720
Speaker 1: line that would be very much at home in an

281
00:20:29,800 --> 00:20:35,159
Speaker 1: article about some uh you know, devout feminist getting married,

282
00:20:35,200 --> 00:20:39,399
Speaker 1: perhaps in the New York Times. Uh they write in

283
00:20:39,440 --> 00:20:43,080
Speaker 1: the New York Times. At the ceremony, Mrs Laughley said

284
00:20:43,400 --> 00:20:48,280
Speaker 1: she did not promise to obey only to cherish. And

285
00:20:48,320 --> 00:20:53,040
Speaker 1: that does not sound much like what she would say

286
00:20:53,119 --> 00:20:57,159
Speaker 1: in her nineteen seventies anti e er A campaign. It

287
00:20:57,240 --> 00:21:02,520
Speaker 1: was all about obeying Fred because she was a good housewife.

288
00:21:03,480 --> 00:21:07,680
Speaker 1: And so this, this this little bone that we keep

289
00:21:07,680 --> 00:21:11,680
Speaker 1: picking at is the same bone that feminists have picked

290
00:21:11,800 --> 00:21:19,680
Speaker 1: for decades because they say phyllis philly laugh she laugh laugh,

291
00:21:19,720 --> 00:21:23,600
Speaker 1: Oh girl like piece laughs. You you are so active

292
00:21:23,680 --> 00:21:29,120
Speaker 1: and driven on behalf of yourself basically and making sure

293
00:21:29,160 --> 00:21:33,320
Speaker 1: that you get the opportunities that you want. But what

294
00:21:33,440 --> 00:21:38,920
Speaker 1: about all of the other women who does that sound like? Though?

295
00:21:40,600 --> 00:21:45,920
Speaker 1: Who has similarly intense hair? You know? I mean Donald

296
00:21:45,960 --> 00:21:49,159
Speaker 1: Trump does a very as a very similar approach to this,

297
00:21:49,359 --> 00:21:56,040
Speaker 1: where your your reality is moves with the wind, whatever

298
00:21:56,480 --> 00:21:58,880
Speaker 1: you know best serves you at that time and will

299
00:21:58,920 --> 00:22:03,000
Speaker 1: most elevate you than than that's truth. That's your fact,

300
00:22:03,400 --> 00:22:09,879
Speaker 1: whether it is actually fact or not. And uh, she

301
00:22:10,160 --> 00:22:15,200
Speaker 1: though peace laugh is essentially coated in teflon. And it's

302
00:22:15,240 --> 00:22:19,640
Speaker 1: kind of incredible to see how she does just constantly

303
00:22:20,320 --> 00:22:25,119
Speaker 1: deflect any criticism, and it seems like she she enjoys

304
00:22:25,920 --> 00:22:30,080
Speaker 1: receiving this criticism. I mean she's a total troll. Oh yeah,

305
00:22:30,359 --> 00:22:32,520
Speaker 1: just a let it like run off of her. She

306
00:22:32,600 --> 00:22:35,239
Speaker 1: once said, she told the New York Times, actually in

307
00:22:35,640 --> 00:22:40,320
Speaker 1: two thousand six, in the scale of liberal sins, hypocrisy

308
00:22:40,440 --> 00:22:43,679
Speaker 1: is the greatest. And they've always considered me a hypocrite.

309
00:22:44,359 --> 00:22:47,879
Speaker 1: And I'm going to say how she defends herself by saying,

310
00:22:47,960 --> 00:22:51,480
Speaker 1: you know, I never told women that they shouldn't or

311
00:22:51,600 --> 00:22:56,240
Speaker 1: couldn't work outside the home. Quote. I simply didn't believe

312
00:22:56,280 --> 00:23:01,200
Speaker 1: we needed a constitutional amendment to protect to women's rights.

313
00:23:04,119 --> 00:23:09,840
Speaker 1: But did did she not advocate for housewives? Being that

314
00:23:09,960 --> 00:23:15,480
Speaker 1: being the reality, Well, she certainly advocated for housewives, but

315
00:23:15,760 --> 00:23:17,800
Speaker 1: she would continually say, well, I'm not telling you you

316
00:23:17,920 --> 00:23:21,000
Speaker 1: have to be a housewive. I'm just saying that we

317
00:23:21,040 --> 00:23:26,480
Speaker 1: don't need to devalue housewives, and that feminists are trying

318
00:23:26,520 --> 00:23:32,399
Speaker 1: to undercut and destroy the role of housewives. Even though,

319
00:23:32,480 --> 00:23:35,240
Speaker 1: and this is a whole other podcast unto itself, Caroline,

320
00:23:35,520 --> 00:23:39,440
Speaker 1: even though right before old Phyllis sunk her clause into

321
00:23:39,480 --> 00:23:43,239
Speaker 1: the Equal Rights Amendment, a woman and I'm forgetting her

322
00:23:43,359 --> 00:23:46,720
Speaker 1: name right now because I've really worked up A woman

323
00:23:46,800 --> 00:23:52,159
Speaker 1: from the National Organization for Women started this like relatively

324
00:23:52,240 --> 00:23:59,320
Speaker 1: successful outreach, feminist outreach two housewives and divorced women who

325
00:23:59,359 --> 00:24:04,199
Speaker 1: suddenly found themselves, you know, not really knowing how to

326
00:24:05,119 --> 00:24:07,800
Speaker 1: support themselves or not really know how to how to

327
00:24:07,880 --> 00:24:12,800
Speaker 1: grapple with their personal politics and their domestic situation. So

328
00:24:12,840 --> 00:24:15,560
Speaker 1: it's like, so that's another myth you know, she just

329
00:24:15,640 --> 00:24:18,960
Speaker 1: kind of makes up this mythology as she goes Well,

330
00:24:19,080 --> 00:24:23,520
Speaker 1: mythology that's still repeated. Definitely. Yeah, that feminists want to

331
00:24:23,560 --> 00:24:26,600
Speaker 1: destroy the home and destroy the family. Hi, I know

332
00:24:27,080 --> 00:24:31,160
Speaker 1: many a feminist who has her own family and children

333
00:24:31,280 --> 00:24:34,960
Speaker 1: even and washes the dishes. I mean, like the idea,

334
00:24:35,160 --> 00:24:37,160
Speaker 1: and you know, of course that's a silly thing to say,

335
00:24:37,240 --> 00:24:42,120
Speaker 1: but my point being that, like the idea that feminists

336
00:24:42,480 --> 00:24:47,320
Speaker 1: are as like a monolithic army, are trying to destroy

337
00:24:47,840 --> 00:24:53,240
Speaker 1: the family and the home. I mean, it's it's insane,

338
00:24:53,600 --> 00:24:57,280
Speaker 1: but it's clearly an effective tactic. It's clearly effective rhetoric.

339
00:24:57,400 --> 00:25:00,159
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, because it's all about stoking fear, you know,

340
00:25:00,280 --> 00:25:02,480
Speaker 1: that is that's really the name of the game with

341
00:25:02,520 --> 00:25:08,119
Speaker 1: all of this. And in she's just twenty seven years

342
00:25:08,119 --> 00:25:12,199
Speaker 1: old when her political aspirations get a kick in the

343
00:25:12,240 --> 00:25:18,200
Speaker 1: pants because a group of Republicans, local Republicans come over

344
00:25:18,720 --> 00:25:21,320
Speaker 1: to her in Fred's house to come over to the chefts,

345
00:25:21,920 --> 00:25:27,160
Speaker 1: and they encourage Fred to run for Congress. Say there's

346
00:25:27,200 --> 00:25:30,400
Speaker 1: an open seat, and they're like Fred, you're the guy,

347
00:25:30,600 --> 00:25:33,600
Speaker 1: you should do it. And Fred's like, listen, I'm not

348
00:25:33,720 --> 00:25:38,959
Speaker 1: really interested. And as the story goes, at one point,

349
00:25:39,440 --> 00:25:44,920
Speaker 1: one of these gentlemen jokingly says, hey, Phillis, you should run,

350
00:25:45,440 --> 00:25:48,960
Speaker 1: and Phillis is like, okay, damn straight, I should run.

351
00:25:50,680 --> 00:25:53,800
Speaker 1: And she's off from there. I mean, she really sees

352
00:25:53,920 --> 00:26:00,000
Speaker 1: is this opportunity and she runs and wins the primary,

353
00:26:00,040 --> 00:26:03,960
Speaker 1: which was huge, but of course she loses in the

354
00:26:03,960 --> 00:26:08,920
Speaker 1: general election. Yeah, she was in a really democratic area,

355
00:26:09,560 --> 00:26:12,359
Speaker 1: way more liberal, and I think she was against an

356
00:26:12,359 --> 00:26:16,760
Speaker 1: incumbent too. Yeah she's yeah, she was, And we read

357
00:26:16,800 --> 00:26:20,600
Speaker 1: that by the end of that race, her opponent, her

358
00:26:20,640 --> 00:26:24,720
Speaker 1: Democratic opponent, was so livid with the rhetoric she used

359
00:26:24,760 --> 00:26:28,359
Speaker 1: about him being this liberal monster that he would not

360
00:26:28,480 --> 00:26:33,440
Speaker 1: even shake her hand. He was so mad at the

361
00:26:33,480 --> 00:26:36,479
Speaker 1: stuff that she had stirred up about him. And she

362
00:26:36,560 --> 00:26:43,399
Speaker 1: wasn't even yet thirty already stirring that political pot. And

363
00:26:43,440 --> 00:26:45,320
Speaker 1: one thing that's really interesting though, is we were reading

364
00:26:45,359 --> 00:26:48,600
Speaker 1: about how her rhetoric and the way that she positioned

365
00:26:48,640 --> 00:26:53,240
Speaker 1: herself as a woman in politics really sort of echoed, uh,

366
00:26:53,960 --> 00:26:58,880
Speaker 1: the suffragists and women in the progressive era who were

367
00:26:58,960 --> 00:27:02,680
Speaker 1: in women's club lubs, part of the women's club movement,

368
00:27:02,720 --> 00:27:06,040
Speaker 1: because you know, remember back then women didn't have the vote,

369
00:27:06,760 --> 00:27:11,399
Speaker 1: so if they wanted to agitate and be activists for

370
00:27:11,520 --> 00:27:15,120
Speaker 1: any causes and help women in any way each other,

371
00:27:15,560 --> 00:27:18,480
Speaker 1: they had to join these clubs and and banned together

372
00:27:18,720 --> 00:27:22,080
Speaker 1: for things like I don't know, like daycare, um or

373
00:27:22,200 --> 00:27:26,360
Speaker 1: other other causes that could potentially help families in their communities.

374
00:27:27,200 --> 00:27:31,159
Speaker 1: And so uh, one thing that she had in common

375
00:27:31,240 --> 00:27:34,919
Speaker 1: with those early women who were being political even if

376
00:27:34,920 --> 00:27:37,720
Speaker 1: they could not be in politics, was that she positioned

377
00:27:37,720 --> 00:27:41,800
Speaker 1: herself as a woman who would clean up the dirty

378
00:27:41,880 --> 00:27:45,439
Speaker 1: mess of politics, and it needed cleaning up because it

379
00:27:45,520 --> 00:27:49,200
Speaker 1: was run by men. And so here she is positioning

380
00:27:49,240 --> 00:27:53,400
Speaker 1: herself as I'm a woman, and therefore, with my natural

381
00:27:53,640 --> 00:27:59,520
Speaker 1: womanly abilities, um, I'll be a better candidate for you, right,

382
00:27:59,600 --> 00:28:03,800
Speaker 1: Because that was a suffragist argument of why we should

383
00:28:04,000 --> 00:28:10,639
Speaker 1: have um voting rights and political involvement because of the

384
00:28:10,680 --> 00:28:15,479
Speaker 1: domesticity Victorian era idea of woman as the moral center

385
00:28:15,560 --> 00:28:18,760
Speaker 1: of the home, so let's let the moral compasses and

386
00:28:18,840 --> 00:28:22,840
Speaker 1: their vaginas come into the political process, fellas, so we

387
00:28:22,880 --> 00:28:25,920
Speaker 1: can clean up after you. Um. We also have to

388
00:28:25,960 --> 00:28:31,520
Speaker 1: remember too that she was fiercely anti communist and extremely

389
00:28:31,600 --> 00:28:35,280
Speaker 1: hawkish on foreign policy, to the point that she was

390
00:28:35,760 --> 00:28:41,880
Speaker 1: like Joe McCarthy level and maybe even more so anti communists.

391
00:28:41,920 --> 00:28:48,120
Speaker 1: And that's really where her focus, um resided for a

392
00:28:48,160 --> 00:28:52,040
Speaker 1: long time, well before she sets her sights on the

393
00:28:52,080 --> 00:28:54,680
Speaker 1: e r A. And even after that defeat though in

394
00:28:54,800 --> 00:28:59,040
Speaker 1: n she gets right up and keeps going. You can

395
00:28:59,040 --> 00:29:01,720
Speaker 1: tell that this kind of lit a fire for her

396
00:29:01,760 --> 00:29:05,720
Speaker 1: because she starts stumping around Illinois on behalf of the

397
00:29:05,800 --> 00:29:09,120
Speaker 1: Daughters of the American Revolution that she remained super active in,

398
00:29:09,800 --> 00:29:13,640
Speaker 1: and from nineteen fifty six to nineteen sixty four she

399
00:29:13,800 --> 00:29:17,400
Speaker 1: was president of the Illinois Federation of Republican Women. So

400
00:29:17,440 --> 00:29:23,000
Speaker 1: you can see her starting to gradually rise through these

401
00:29:23,120 --> 00:29:26,520
Speaker 1: organizational ranks. But now we're also seeing her diverted off

402
00:29:26,760 --> 00:29:29,920
Speaker 1: sort of to the women's auxiliary side of things. And

403
00:29:29,960 --> 00:29:32,360
Speaker 1: in the meantime, in nineteen fifty eight, she and Fred

404
00:29:32,440 --> 00:29:35,760
Speaker 1: started the Cardinal Minds Venti Foundation, which was named for

405
00:29:35,800 --> 00:29:38,680
Speaker 1: the Roman Catholic leader who had been tortured and imprisoned

406
00:29:38,720 --> 00:29:43,640
Speaker 1: by Hungarian communists in an effort to educate Catholics on

407
00:29:43,680 --> 00:29:47,000
Speaker 1: the dangers of communism, and she and Fred were hyper

408
00:29:47,040 --> 00:29:52,120
Speaker 1: focused on international communism, less so on the threat of

409
00:29:52,240 --> 00:29:56,560
Speaker 1: Red's in America like McCarthy was. And a lot of

410
00:29:56,560 --> 00:29:58,440
Speaker 1: that stems from the fact that she had been so

411
00:29:58,600 --> 00:30:03,680
Speaker 1: heavily focused on foreign policy and foreign politics in college.

412
00:30:04,280 --> 00:30:08,760
Speaker 1: And soon after that she gets a platform. In nineteen

413
00:30:08,880 --> 00:30:12,560
Speaker 1: sixty two, she hosted a fifteen minute radio show on

414
00:30:12,720 --> 00:30:17,600
Speaker 1: national security called America Wake Up, and it was carried

415
00:30:17,600 --> 00:30:21,800
Speaker 1: by Illinois stations, so she was like a lady Bill

416
00:30:21,840 --> 00:30:28,320
Speaker 1: O'Reilly in the radio days almost And the same year,

417
00:30:29,000 --> 00:30:35,360
Speaker 1: her religious conservatism really ignites further following the Supreme Court

418
00:30:35,440 --> 00:30:40,360
Speaker 1: decision prohibiting state sponsored prayer in public schools, which is

419
00:30:40,640 --> 00:30:45,400
Speaker 1: still a massive lightning rod for religious conservatives obviously. Yeah,

420
00:30:45,520 --> 00:30:47,640
Speaker 1: I mean it's almost like she's just kind of gathering

421
00:30:47,760 --> 00:30:50,960
Speaker 1: up all of her platforms, you know, in the in

422
00:30:51,000 --> 00:30:54,480
Speaker 1: the fifties and sixties, and then in nineteen sixty four,

423
00:30:55,000 --> 00:30:58,520
Speaker 1: Phillis Is star takes off. Yeah. She referred would refer

424
00:30:58,640 --> 00:31:02,440
Speaker 1: to this later as her most productive year of her

425
00:31:02,480 --> 00:31:07,040
Speaker 1: life period and that's saying a lot considering you know,

426
00:31:07,120 --> 00:31:08,920
Speaker 1: like we said, by the age of twenty seven, she

427
00:31:09,040 --> 00:31:12,960
Speaker 1: was already hyper political, so so what more could Phillis

428
00:31:13,000 --> 00:31:16,840
Speaker 1: be doing? Well. She was talking to The New York

429
00:31:16,840 --> 00:31:21,960
Speaker 1: Times is Gina Bellefonte about how in nineteen sixty four

430
00:31:22,320 --> 00:31:26,200
Speaker 1: she was, as we mentioned, president of the Illinois Federation

431
00:31:26,320 --> 00:31:31,920
Speaker 1: of Republican Women. She went to the Republican Convention, and

432
00:31:32,000 --> 00:31:35,720
Speaker 1: she was also stumping on behalf of a Republican candidate

433
00:31:35,880 --> 00:31:43,800
Speaker 1: for presidential nomination, Barry Goldwater. And Goldwater made his name

434
00:31:44,320 --> 00:31:48,560
Speaker 1: really by voting against the Civil Rights Act because it

435
00:31:48,720 --> 00:31:51,200
Speaker 1: was desegregation at the time that was freaking all the

436
00:31:51,200 --> 00:31:55,280
Speaker 1: conservative white people out. And finally here comes Barry Goldwater,

437
00:31:55,320 --> 00:31:59,400
Speaker 1: who's like, you know what, folks, I'll take a stand

438
00:31:59,480 --> 00:32:06,400
Speaker 1: against this. And Phillis was like, big old you, my dude.

439
00:32:07,320 --> 00:32:10,240
Speaker 1: And she wrote this book more of a pamphlet really.

440
00:32:10,360 --> 00:32:13,520
Speaker 1: She wrote this book, though, called a Choice not an Echo,

441
00:32:13,680 --> 00:32:17,480
Speaker 1: about how Barry Goldwater is the dude that you gotta

442
00:32:17,640 --> 00:32:22,600
Speaker 1: put all of your Republicans support behind, and also how

443
00:32:22,640 --> 00:32:27,720
Speaker 1: he's the only person who can effectively combat that international

444
00:32:27,840 --> 00:32:31,880
Speaker 1: communist threat. She self publishes this book and as she

445
00:32:32,480 --> 00:32:36,200
Speaker 1: will brag for the rest of her life. She always

446
00:32:36,200 --> 00:32:40,480
Speaker 1: says that she sold three million copies out of her garage. Um.

447
00:32:40,520 --> 00:32:44,320
Speaker 1: And whether or not that number is accurate, it is.

448
00:32:44,880 --> 00:32:53,160
Speaker 1: It definitely galvanized this group of similarly white, religious conservative

449
00:32:53,160 --> 00:32:59,720
Speaker 1: Republicans and particularly Republican women. Yes, and it helped launch

450
00:33:00,200 --> 00:33:03,520
Speaker 1: Barry Goldwater into the presidential race. He got the Republican

451
00:33:03,560 --> 00:33:10,760
Speaker 1: nomination to run unsuccessfully against Democrat LBJ And Um, you know,

452
00:33:11,080 --> 00:33:13,640
Speaker 1: I was curious about what was in the book. Is

453
00:33:13,640 --> 00:33:15,920
Speaker 1: it a biography of him? Is it some sort of

454
00:33:16,000 --> 00:33:21,880
Speaker 1: inspirational tract of literature talking about Barry Goldwater's background? While

455
00:33:21,920 --> 00:33:28,120
Speaker 1: according to Elizabeth Culbert's uh not a Fan characterization from

456
00:33:28,120 --> 00:33:32,440
Speaker 1: two thousand five, she wrote that a choice not an

457
00:33:32,480 --> 00:33:37,080
Speaker 1: echo was a mixture of fact sensational accusations, common sensical truths,

458
00:33:37,080 --> 00:33:40,640
Speaker 1: and elaborate conspiracy theories that is brought together in a

459
00:33:40,680 --> 00:33:46,840
Speaker 1: compelling but evidently bogus narrative. But it's a narrative that

460
00:33:47,160 --> 00:33:53,400
Speaker 1: still uh still remains today because it poses these very

461
00:33:53,560 --> 00:33:59,600
Speaker 1: conspiratorial questions. Um, that still stoked a lot of angst

462
00:34:00,160 --> 00:34:02,480
Speaker 1: um among a lot of people, you know, on either

463
00:34:02,600 --> 00:34:07,600
Speaker 1: side of the political spectrum really um. At the beginning

464
00:34:07,760 --> 00:34:10,560
Speaker 1: of the book, A Choice on an Echo, she bullets

465
00:34:10,600 --> 00:34:13,959
Speaker 1: out these questions for readers to think about of who

466
00:34:14,040 --> 00:34:18,640
Speaker 1: really picks the president, because, according to Peach Laugh, it's

467
00:34:18,640 --> 00:34:22,439
Speaker 1: a secret cabal of powerful white dudes. She also asks,

468
00:34:22,440 --> 00:34:27,080
Speaker 1: how are political conventions stolen? Who are the secret kingmakers?

469
00:34:27,120 --> 00:34:32,279
Speaker 1: And how do hidden persuaders and propaganda gimmicks influence politics.

470
00:34:32,719 --> 00:34:37,640
Speaker 1: I mean, if you think that the whole lamestream media, uh,

471
00:34:38,040 --> 00:34:42,640
Speaker 1: Fox News, hatred of the New York Times, etcetera is

472
00:34:42,680 --> 00:34:45,239
Speaker 1: a new thing, no, no, no, no. Peach Laugh in

473
00:34:45,640 --> 00:34:48,880
Speaker 1: A Choice not an Echo was calling out all of

474
00:34:48,920 --> 00:34:54,920
Speaker 1: those newspapers, including the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Yeah, as being

475
00:34:55,160 --> 00:35:01,040
Speaker 1: in on this group of kingmakers, Okay, and they would

476
00:35:01,120 --> 00:35:08,120
Speaker 1: selectively report on the party knowing full well, I guess

477
00:35:08,239 --> 00:35:12,280
Speaker 1: that you know who was really pulling the strings. And

478
00:35:12,400 --> 00:35:16,240
Speaker 1: that's kind of at the core of this right wing

479
00:35:16,440 --> 00:35:19,520
Speaker 1: populism of saying, you know what, they are these thirty

480
00:35:19,640 --> 00:35:22,840
Speaker 1: secret meetings going on, and they just they're going to

481
00:35:23,000 --> 00:35:27,760
Speaker 1: turn our country into assess pool pool of of secular

482
00:35:28,360 --> 00:35:32,879
Speaker 1: welfare nonsense. If they haven't already because of a new deal,

483
00:35:33,040 --> 00:35:35,560
Speaker 1: you know, they're already terrified about the new deal. If

484
00:35:35,560 --> 00:35:38,319
Speaker 1: you and I take the podcast on tour anytime soon,

485
00:35:38,440 --> 00:35:41,000
Speaker 1: it should just be called what did you say, se

486
00:35:41,080 --> 00:35:46,279
Speaker 1: secular nonsense, secular cesspool of nonsense. But I mean, in

487
00:35:46,280 --> 00:35:49,560
Speaker 1: this in this election cycle, we've heard similar refrains from

488
00:35:49,600 --> 00:35:52,040
Speaker 1: the left, you know, so like there are plenty of

489
00:35:52,120 --> 00:35:56,799
Speaker 1: people who are as fed up as as Peach laugh

490
00:35:56,920 --> 00:36:00,880
Speaker 1: about kingmakers in the establishment right as fed up, and

491
00:36:00,920 --> 00:36:08,080
Speaker 1: also as borderline and slash full blown conspiratorial. Um. But

492
00:36:08,160 --> 00:36:10,400
Speaker 1: something else that jumped out to me in a choice

493
00:36:10,440 --> 00:36:13,399
Speaker 1: on an Echo is how she laughly describes herself, how

494
00:36:13,440 --> 00:36:16,560
Speaker 1: she kind of lays out her author credibility at the

495
00:36:16,560 --> 00:36:19,440
Speaker 1: beginning of the book, and she says that she's devoted

496
00:36:19,680 --> 00:36:25,080
Speaker 1: thousands of hours to the Republican Party, which is probably true, um.

497
00:36:25,120 --> 00:36:27,880
Speaker 1: And she talks about how she did this at a

498
00:36:27,920 --> 00:36:32,960
Speaker 1: great sacrifice to her family because she has six kids,

499
00:36:33,560 --> 00:36:35,759
Speaker 1: and although she's still at the point I don't think

500
00:36:35,760 --> 00:36:39,080
Speaker 1: she has six yet, she's still having babies, um, but

501
00:36:39,160 --> 00:36:43,600
Speaker 1: she's on her way to six. And this is in

502
00:36:43,719 --> 00:36:48,080
Speaker 1: direct contrast to what she'll be saying in the seventies,

503
00:36:48,680 --> 00:36:51,480
Speaker 1: where there is no sacrifice all of a sudden It's

504
00:36:51,520 --> 00:36:54,759
Speaker 1: just what she did just as a hobby. It was

505
00:36:54,800 --> 00:36:57,320
Speaker 1: just easy for me. I don't worry. I still managed

506
00:36:57,360 --> 00:37:00,000
Speaker 1: to be a fabulous housewife and mother. Did we am

507
00:37:00,040 --> 00:37:04,200
Speaker 1: ploy of full time housekeeper? Yes, but she always bragged

508
00:37:04,280 --> 00:37:08,200
Speaker 1: that they did not employ a nanny, right, and that

509
00:37:08,360 --> 00:37:11,239
Speaker 1: she him schooled each of her six children until they

510
00:37:11,239 --> 00:37:14,239
Speaker 1: were seven, and that she breastfed all of them. Yeah,

511
00:37:14,640 --> 00:37:17,759
Speaker 1: which I'm surprised she even said the word breast She didn't.

512
00:37:17,760 --> 00:37:21,839
Speaker 1: Maybe she just pointed to her boobs and winked at

513
00:37:21,840 --> 00:37:27,720
Speaker 1: her kids. These Yeah, it is Uh. That was something

514
00:37:27,960 --> 00:37:31,359
Speaker 1: else that comes up in pretty much every profile of her.

515
00:37:31,600 --> 00:37:35,880
Speaker 1: And she breastfed her six children, like okay, okay, what

516
00:37:36,360 --> 00:37:39,920
Speaker 1: you know, But that's part of her whole perfect housewife

517
00:37:39,960 --> 00:37:45,640
Speaker 1: image that she cultivated. But even though a choice on

518
00:37:45,680 --> 00:37:50,759
Speaker 1: an echo was very successful in getting very Goldwater to

519
00:37:50,840 --> 00:37:54,880
Speaker 1: be that year's Donald Trump essentially um and it was

520
00:37:55,000 --> 00:38:01,120
Speaker 1: very successful for spotlighting the potential influence of Philish laugh

521
00:38:01,239 --> 00:38:10,239
Speaker 1: lely because Goldwater lost so starkly to lb J the

522
00:38:10,320 --> 00:38:16,520
Speaker 1: GOP establishment hashtag dudes, we're like, you know what, uh,

523
00:38:16,640 --> 00:38:20,160
Speaker 1: your white right wing ultra conservative movement stuff like stay

524
00:38:20,160 --> 00:38:24,200
Speaker 1: in the corner, like obviously you're not going to help

525
00:38:24,840 --> 00:38:26,839
Speaker 1: the party as a whole, so we're gonna steer things

526
00:38:27,200 --> 00:38:30,960
Speaker 1: back more moderate and peace Laugh like, we're not going

527
00:38:31,000 --> 00:38:35,279
Speaker 1: to give you like a position or anything because you're

528
00:38:35,280 --> 00:38:38,000
Speaker 1: a woman, So just keep doing your your woman ing thing.

529
00:38:38,360 --> 00:38:42,279
Speaker 1: So she did really get like the sexiest shaft from

530
00:38:42,320 --> 00:38:47,080
Speaker 1: the GOP, not surprisingly, So you're saying that schlaugh got

531
00:38:47,080 --> 00:38:50,080
Speaker 1: the shaft. Yes, she laugh got the shaft, but then

532
00:38:50,080 --> 00:38:53,400
Speaker 1: Slap would turn around and shaft us. Oh yeah, in

533
00:38:53,400 --> 00:38:56,240
Speaker 1: the seventies. But we're not even there. We're not even

534
00:38:56,360 --> 00:39:01,160
Speaker 1: there yet, because that's the thing. Most people recollection of

535
00:39:01,200 --> 00:39:04,360
Speaker 1: Philish laughly just starts with the E R A. But

536
00:39:04,440 --> 00:39:06,239
Speaker 1: you got to know all this stuff leading up to

537
00:39:06,360 --> 00:39:11,440
Speaker 1: it to make it all makes sense. So what's happened?

538
00:39:12,520 --> 00:39:20,120
Speaker 1: What what has happened? So peace Laugh has gotten snubbed? Essentially,

539
00:39:20,600 --> 00:39:25,800
Speaker 1: she ran for presidency of the National Federation of Republican Women,

540
00:39:25,920 --> 00:39:29,239
Speaker 1: because you know, she had been running a state level organization.

541
00:39:29,680 --> 00:39:32,920
Speaker 1: She went for the national position and they were like,

542
00:39:33,440 --> 00:39:36,680
Speaker 1: nau girl, you wrote that book in your garage, good

543
00:39:36,719 --> 00:39:41,840
Speaker 1: for you, but your candidate loss. So no, and that

544
00:39:41,960 --> 00:39:44,759
Speaker 1: was a huge burn for her. Oh yeah, that was

545
00:39:44,800 --> 00:39:49,520
Speaker 1: a huge burn. And she manages though to pull a

546
00:39:49,600 --> 00:39:52,960
Speaker 1: lot of the women in the National Federation of Republican

547
00:39:53,000 --> 00:39:57,560
Speaker 1: Women away to support her because she starts publishing in

548
00:39:57,640 --> 00:40:03,879
Speaker 1: nineteen seven this weekly news letter, the Shlafley Report UM,

549
00:40:03,960 --> 00:40:08,960
Speaker 1: and it started out with just about three thousand subscribers,

550
00:40:09,000 --> 00:40:10,879
Speaker 1: and a lot of those were women that she had

551
00:40:10,920 --> 00:40:15,120
Speaker 1: met in this UM National Federation of Republican Women UM,

552
00:40:15,160 --> 00:40:18,520
Speaker 1: as well as women from her other organization that she

553
00:40:18,560 --> 00:40:22,560
Speaker 1: had been leading UM. But as we'll talk about in

554
00:40:22,560 --> 00:40:25,399
Speaker 1: the second half of the podcast, she does pull some

555
00:40:25,520 --> 00:40:31,120
Speaker 1: amazing political and religious based maneuvering to massively raise the

556
00:40:31,320 --> 00:40:36,560
Speaker 1: number of subscribers. Yeah, and just in the background politically,

557
00:40:37,239 --> 00:40:40,719
Speaker 1: we got to mention that in nineteen sixties six, even

558
00:40:40,719 --> 00:40:46,879
Speaker 1: though just two years earlier, hyper conservative racist Barry Goldwater,

559
00:40:47,440 --> 00:40:51,080
Speaker 1: you know, lost so famously to lb J, but that

560
00:40:51,239 --> 00:40:56,840
Speaker 1: year you start to see conservative Republicans winning some significant

561
00:40:56,920 --> 00:41:03,680
Speaker 1: congressional and gubernatorial races, include outing one Ronald Reagan becoming

562
00:41:03,719 --> 00:41:08,920
Speaker 1: governor of California. So sh Laughley, you know, launching her

563
00:41:08,920 --> 00:41:13,520
Speaker 1: newsletter the next year is really banking on the rise

564
00:41:13,880 --> 00:41:19,160
Speaker 1: of this conservative movement, which up until then had had

565
00:41:19,160 --> 00:41:23,080
Speaker 1: been this kind of niche pocket of people. Um, but

566
00:41:23,200 --> 00:41:27,240
Speaker 1: she's starting to see it mainstream because really just because

567
00:41:27,320 --> 00:41:30,560
Speaker 1: like white people were getting really scared about black people

568
00:41:30,600 --> 00:41:35,800
Speaker 1: and feminists. Um. And three years after Peace laugh launches

569
00:41:35,960 --> 00:41:41,680
Speaker 1: this Shlaughley Report, she runs for Congress again and fails again.

570
00:41:42,920 --> 00:41:47,040
Speaker 1: But despite her faltering start, Phyllis is about to bust

571
00:41:47,080 --> 00:41:50,719
Speaker 1: out and never look back. That's right, and we're going

572
00:41:50,760 --> 00:41:52,799
Speaker 1: to talk about that when we come right back from

573
00:41:52,800 --> 00:42:06,480
Speaker 1: a quick break. So in the early seventies, even though

574
00:42:06,719 --> 00:42:13,040
Speaker 1: the Equal Rights Amendment had been around for about fifty years, um,

575
00:42:13,080 --> 00:42:16,279
Speaker 1: she really claims she wasn't aware of it. Um, she

576
00:42:16,320 --> 00:42:19,879
Speaker 1: didn't was not aware of any massive movement behind it.

577
00:42:20,239 --> 00:42:24,719
Speaker 1: And it wasn't until she says, a friend says, hey,

578
00:42:24,760 --> 00:42:27,000
Speaker 1: you should check out this whole e r A thing.

579
00:42:27,160 --> 00:42:29,919
Speaker 1: You might be interested in it. That she reads it

580
00:42:30,360 --> 00:42:33,960
Speaker 1: and like all of the light bulbs go off above

581
00:42:34,000 --> 00:42:39,040
Speaker 1: her head and she says, uh ha, here is the enemy.

582
00:42:39,320 --> 00:42:41,920
Speaker 1: And for those of you not familiar with the e

583
00:42:42,080 --> 00:42:46,360
Speaker 1: r A as, I really wasn't until doing research for

584
00:42:46,400 --> 00:42:49,360
Speaker 1: stuff I've never told you. It was first introduced in

585
00:42:51,040 --> 00:42:54,759
Speaker 1: by Alice Paul at the Seneca Falls Convention, and the

586
00:42:54,800 --> 00:42:57,880
Speaker 1: e R A which would have been the seven Amendment

587
00:42:58,080 --> 00:43:01,960
Speaker 1: if it had gone through. It's very simple in its language.

588
00:43:02,040 --> 00:43:05,680
Speaker 1: It just states equality of rights under the law shall

589
00:43:05,719 --> 00:43:09,200
Speaker 1: not be denied or abridged by the United States or

590
00:43:09,200 --> 00:43:13,080
Speaker 1: by any state on account of sex. So essentially, it

591
00:43:13,120 --> 00:43:17,640
Speaker 1: would render gender based discrimination illegal on a federal or

592
00:43:17,719 --> 00:43:22,799
Speaker 1: state level across the board. Um and people today say

593
00:43:22,840 --> 00:43:27,719
Speaker 1: that if the r A had been passed and had

594
00:43:27,760 --> 00:43:32,600
Speaker 1: been ratified, I should say that all of the cobbling

595
00:43:32,640 --> 00:43:37,080
Speaker 1: together that women have to do today between Title nine

596
00:43:37,760 --> 00:43:41,000
Speaker 1: and other state laws and stuff like that, there would

597
00:43:41,000 --> 00:43:44,319
Speaker 1: not be any of this maneuvering around that we would

598
00:43:44,360 --> 00:43:48,120
Speaker 1: have to do in light of gender based or sexual

599
00:43:48,520 --> 00:43:52,600
Speaker 1: discrimination because the e r A would have just, in

600
00:43:52,800 --> 00:43:57,760
Speaker 1: very simple language, accounted for all of that. But pH

601
00:43:57,840 --> 00:44:02,440
Speaker 1: laugh was not gonna let that happen, even though the

602
00:44:02,440 --> 00:44:06,360
Speaker 1: area was widely supported, like across the aisle by Democrats

603
00:44:06,400 --> 00:44:09,520
Speaker 1: and Republicans alike, Yeah, women, men, everybody's like yeah, sure

604
00:44:09,560 --> 00:44:13,320
Speaker 1: of course. Even George Wallace from Alabama, who was about

605
00:44:13,360 --> 00:44:18,960
Speaker 1: as racist as they come, was chill with the r A. Yeah.

606
00:44:20,000 --> 00:44:22,520
Speaker 1: I know, well, because I think a lot of people

607
00:44:23,320 --> 00:44:27,719
Speaker 1: saw it as like, well, we already have language in

608
00:44:27,760 --> 00:44:31,719
Speaker 1: these other various laws and amendments that you know, we

609
00:44:31,760 --> 00:44:35,640
Speaker 1: shouldn't discriminate against women, Like sure, why not throw this

610
00:44:35,760 --> 00:44:38,839
Speaker 1: on the pile. I think it was seen as as

611
00:44:38,920 --> 00:44:43,719
Speaker 1: kind of not toothless, but just like acceptable, give this

612
00:44:43,800 --> 00:44:47,479
Speaker 1: to the lady. Yeah, let them, let them have it. Well,

613
00:44:47,520 --> 00:44:49,840
Speaker 1: you know who was not having it was all p

614
00:44:50,080 --> 00:44:54,080
Speaker 1: schlaugh And in nineteen seventy two she writes about it

615
00:44:54,160 --> 00:44:57,000
Speaker 1: in the Schlaughly Report dedicates a whole issue too, and

616
00:44:57,160 --> 00:45:02,520
Speaker 1: in fact, and this is what star the anti feminist

617
00:45:02,680 --> 00:45:06,799
Speaker 1: campaign against the e r A. And boy did she

618
00:45:06,920 --> 00:45:12,920
Speaker 1: have some ideas about what that simple sentence really meant.

619
00:45:13,120 --> 00:45:15,880
Speaker 1: Oh god, oh god. Yeah, she said that the e

620
00:45:16,080 --> 00:45:20,080
Speaker 1: r A was going to eliminate sex segregated public restrooms.

621
00:45:21,680 --> 00:45:24,960
Speaker 1: We still hear that panic today, don't. It's going to

622
00:45:25,080 --> 00:45:29,160
Speaker 1: force women into the draft. Wasn't that just in the news.

623
00:45:29,719 --> 00:45:34,719
Speaker 1: It's going to dissolve sex crime laws. Yeah, I got

624
00:45:34,719 --> 00:45:39,759
Speaker 1: nothing up. It's going to remove men's financial responsibilities to

625
00:45:39,840 --> 00:45:45,439
Speaker 1: be breadwinners or the payers of child support. More women

626
00:45:45,440 --> 00:45:51,840
Speaker 1: are becoming breadwinners these days. And she basically considered women

627
00:45:51,960 --> 00:45:54,719
Speaker 1: as we as we touched on earlier in the episode,

628
00:45:55,320 --> 00:46:00,000
Speaker 1: she basically considered women to be this privileged, protected class

629
00:46:00,080 --> 00:46:03,040
Speaker 1: who would lose those privileges and protections if the e

630
00:46:03,200 --> 00:46:05,640
Speaker 1: r A went through. And that's why my brain was

631
00:46:05,719 --> 00:46:08,640
Speaker 1: just collapsing last night as I was researching this stuff,

632
00:46:08,640 --> 00:46:12,879
Speaker 1: because it's like, well, no, but if we if we're

633
00:46:13,360 --> 00:46:17,799
Speaker 1: protected under the law through the e r A in

634
00:46:17,880 --> 00:46:20,680
Speaker 1: the way that the e r A spells out, we

635
00:46:20,719 --> 00:46:23,560
Speaker 1: won't have to worry about these so called privileges and

636
00:46:23,600 --> 00:46:28,520
Speaker 1: protections and what I would call benevolent sexism. Oh yeah,

637
00:46:28,560 --> 00:46:31,520
Speaker 1: but if you aren't stoking worry and fear, how are

638
00:46:31,520 --> 00:46:34,800
Speaker 1: you going to start this movement? How's peach laugh gonna

639
00:46:35,719 --> 00:46:39,560
Speaker 1: galvanize her gals and galvanized the gals she does, because

640
00:46:39,640 --> 00:46:43,600
Speaker 1: the subscriptions to her newsletter shoot up from about three

641
00:46:43,680 --> 00:46:47,480
Speaker 1: thousand to thirty five thousand thanks to all of this

642
00:46:47,600 --> 00:46:51,120
Speaker 1: fear stoking that she does not only among women like herself,

643
00:46:51,160 --> 00:46:54,960
Speaker 1: you know, good Catholic housewives, but also among the evangelical

644
00:46:55,080 --> 00:46:59,640
Speaker 1: Christian housewives like ladies, ladies, ladies like we have a

645
00:46:59,719 --> 00:47:03,920
Speaker 1: lot to worry about in terms of losing those cushy

646
00:47:04,000 --> 00:47:07,840
Speaker 1: lives that we know. And this is something that I

647
00:47:08,480 --> 00:47:11,640
Speaker 1: read all the time and stuff I've never told you.

648
00:47:11,640 --> 00:47:18,759
Speaker 1: YouTube comments from men's rights activisty trolls who claim a

649
00:47:19,040 --> 00:47:24,600
Speaker 1: feminists are just victimizing themselves because in peace laughs terms

650
00:47:24,640 --> 00:47:27,640
Speaker 1: like your privileged class, people check you out for dinner,

651
00:47:27,760 --> 00:47:32,239
Speaker 1: you get discounts, happy hours, and you know you have

652
00:47:32,360 --> 00:47:35,480
Speaker 1: an affirmative action, You get whatever you want. If you

653
00:47:35,600 --> 00:47:39,200
Speaker 1: paid me equally, then maybe I wouldn't need a discount

654
00:47:39,320 --> 00:47:45,319
Speaker 1: exactly for your happy hour. Um. And this the thing is,

655
00:47:45,320 --> 00:47:47,320
Speaker 1: though she's starting this, she kind of is starting it

656
00:47:47,360 --> 00:47:50,120
Speaker 1: out of her garage. She's writing her own newsletter. She's

657
00:47:50,160 --> 00:47:54,640
Speaker 1: sending it out. It's very grass rootsy, and that becomes

658
00:47:55,000 --> 00:47:59,960
Speaker 1: really the source of her political influence and that's her brain.

659
00:48:00,040 --> 00:48:02,200
Speaker 1: And yeah, oh yeah, it's totally her brand. The peace

660
00:48:02,280 --> 00:48:05,040
Speaker 1: Laft brand is all about the grassroots. She has this

661
00:48:05,120 --> 00:48:11,760
Speaker 1: newsletter base largely comprised of fellow conservative housewives, and once

662
00:48:11,840 --> 00:48:17,560
Speaker 1: she stirs them up, they start fundraising, They start sending

663
00:48:17,560 --> 00:48:22,200
Speaker 1: out mailers, they start hosting anti e r A press conferences,

664
00:48:22,719 --> 00:48:28,880
Speaker 1: and importantly lobbying their state legislatures. They would go carrying

665
00:48:29,120 --> 00:48:34,240
Speaker 1: loaves of homemade banana bread and apple loaves and things

666
00:48:34,280 --> 00:48:37,920
Speaker 1: like that, little goodies and deliver them to all of

667
00:48:37,960 --> 00:48:40,200
Speaker 1: the politicians who are going to vote on the e

668
00:48:40,440 --> 00:48:44,000
Speaker 1: r A that day and say, oh, we don't, we

669
00:48:44,000 --> 00:48:49,040
Speaker 1: don't need that. Good, So have a little apricot. What

670
00:48:49,160 --> 00:48:51,759
Speaker 1: was in the bread? Did they put something in it?

671
00:48:53,920 --> 00:48:58,280
Speaker 1: Drugging their legislators. And then Phillis teams up with North

672
00:48:58,280 --> 00:49:04,520
Speaker 1: Carolina Democratic Senator Sam Irvin no relation in the past

673
00:49:04,520 --> 00:49:08,279
Speaker 1: couple of generations at least um who opposed the e

674
00:49:08,520 --> 00:49:13,400
Speaker 1: r A. And this allows her whole stop e r

675
00:49:13,440 --> 00:49:17,200
Speaker 1: A movement to cross party lines. Yeah. Um. And keep

676
00:49:17,239 --> 00:49:21,560
Speaker 1: in mind too that in three, just a year after

677
00:49:22,760 --> 00:49:26,279
Speaker 1: she Lafley starts going after the e r A, Roe v.

678
00:49:26,480 --> 00:49:31,359
Speaker 1: Wade happens, and so this is of course stirring up

679
00:49:31,400 --> 00:49:37,160
Speaker 1: even more angst among conservatives. So then in nineteen we

680
00:49:37,320 --> 00:49:43,320
Speaker 1: see her take her success with developing this stop r

681
00:49:43,400 --> 00:49:51,200
Speaker 1: A group and transitioning it into the Eagle Forum. And

682
00:49:51,280 --> 00:49:57,520
Speaker 1: this is essentially the women's auxiliary of the conservative right

683
00:49:57,640 --> 00:50:02,200
Speaker 1: wing UH contingent of the Republican Party at the time.

684
00:50:02,760 --> 00:50:07,240
Speaker 1: UM and the Ego Forum, which was twenty thousand strong

685
00:50:07,480 --> 00:50:16,440
Speaker 1: in nineteen lobbied politically lobbied four Conservatism alongside sister groups

686
00:50:16,480 --> 00:50:22,120
Speaker 1: like how Happiness of women and aware, which stood for

687
00:50:22,320 --> 00:50:28,840
Speaker 1: American women, are richly endowed. Phyllis is beside herself, although

688
00:50:28,960 --> 00:50:30,600
Speaker 1: I don't know if you could describe someone who is

689
00:50:30,680 --> 00:50:33,960
Speaker 1: as cool, calm and collected as Phillis as ever beside

690
00:50:34,000 --> 00:50:37,080
Speaker 1: herself because she's very calculating. She knows what she's doing. Yeah,

691
00:50:37,200 --> 00:50:41,000
Speaker 1: oh for sure. And so her major beef, though, with

692
00:50:41,680 --> 00:50:47,359
Speaker 1: the growing contingent of feminists in the US, is all

693
00:50:47,400 --> 00:50:50,719
Speaker 1: about how they are messing with the natural order of things.

694
00:50:50,760 --> 00:50:53,520
Speaker 1: It goes back to her assertion that feminists are trying

695
00:50:53,560 --> 00:51:00,040
Speaker 1: to destroy the family. Yeah. So she wrote one of

696
00:51:00,160 --> 00:51:06,319
Speaker 1: many columns in which she says feminism is incompatible with

697
00:51:06,400 --> 00:51:10,360
Speaker 1: human nature. The premise of the feminists is that God

698
00:51:10,480 --> 00:51:13,960
Speaker 1: goofed in making us two different sexes, and that our

699
00:51:14,080 --> 00:51:18,080
Speaker 1: laws should remedy his mistake mistake. And I guess, okay,

700
00:51:18,120 --> 00:51:20,520
Speaker 1: I'm gonna make this a little personal for a second. Like,

701
00:51:20,880 --> 00:51:24,480
Speaker 1: I guess that's why so many of her arguments and

702
00:51:24,560 --> 00:51:26,880
Speaker 1: similar arguments don't make sense to me, because I am

703
00:51:26,920 --> 00:51:31,360
Speaker 1: not a person who is religious or uh has God

704
00:51:31,600 --> 00:51:36,200
Speaker 1: as a former very inappropriate boss of mind set um

705
00:51:36,239 --> 00:51:40,480
Speaker 1: to me one time. Uh So, like things like that

706
00:51:40,560 --> 00:51:43,400
Speaker 1: don't make sense to me saying that there is a

707
00:51:43,520 --> 00:51:48,200
Speaker 1: natural order in the way that the biological sexes have

708
00:51:48,360 --> 00:51:52,440
Speaker 1: to be or the genders have to be. Yeah, and

709
00:51:52,680 --> 00:51:55,800
Speaker 1: I'm sitting here across from you not surprised at all,

710
00:51:55,880 --> 00:52:00,120
Speaker 1: because a large part of my childhood was spent in

711
00:52:00,280 --> 00:52:07,640
Speaker 1: evangelical churches, and while the pastors weren't railing against feminism

712
00:52:07,800 --> 00:52:14,719
Speaker 1: every Sunday, there was definitely concerned, particularly over the homosexual agenda,

713
00:52:15,080 --> 00:52:20,960
Speaker 1: because that definitely violated in quotes nature. And so that's

714
00:52:21,000 --> 00:52:27,000
Speaker 1: like a whole other aspect of right wing activism and

715
00:52:27,080 --> 00:52:31,839
Speaker 1: pushes behind their their politics that that I simply, as

716
00:52:31,880 --> 00:52:34,520
Speaker 1: a person on the left, do not have because I

717
00:52:34,600 --> 00:52:37,200
Speaker 1: just it's not part of my worldview, but it was.

718
00:52:37,640 --> 00:52:42,080
Speaker 1: It's so shaped hers. Oh, definitely, I mean, and and

719
00:52:42,160 --> 00:52:47,680
Speaker 1: part of that too is attached to her uh familiar

720
00:52:47,680 --> 00:52:54,520
Speaker 1: distaste for East Coast elitists and liberals and um. One

721
00:52:54,560 --> 00:52:56,719
Speaker 1: thing that she really goes on and on about in

722
00:52:56,840 --> 00:53:00,080
Speaker 1: a choice on an Echo is how Barry Goldwater or

723
00:53:00,239 --> 00:53:02,400
Speaker 1: is the person that you should vote for because he

724
00:53:02,440 --> 00:53:08,560
Speaker 1: has simple ideas, simple solutions, whereas LBJ and all these

725
00:53:08,600 --> 00:53:14,879
Speaker 1: liberal democrats, they just have these convoluted theories and bureaucratic structures,

726
00:53:14,920 --> 00:53:20,000
Speaker 1: and they just want to muck everything up, whereas you know,

727
00:53:20,120 --> 00:53:24,520
Speaker 1: it's just it's just nature, it's just man and wife,

728
00:53:24,800 --> 00:53:27,480
Speaker 1: it's this and that. You know, it's a very black

729
00:53:27,520 --> 00:53:31,360
Speaker 1: and white worldview. And that's it's a similar thing that

730
00:53:31,440 --> 00:53:37,520
Speaker 1: we see today where there is this distaste among right wing,

731
00:53:38,040 --> 00:53:45,759
Speaker 1: right wing conservatives for non simplistic answers because that challenges

732
00:53:45,920 --> 00:53:49,480
Speaker 1: their worldview in a terrifying way. And I mean, I

733
00:53:49,560 --> 00:53:53,160
Speaker 1: also say this from the perspective of, you know, being

734
00:53:53,239 --> 00:53:56,319
Speaker 1: very cognizant even at a young age, of how a

735
00:53:56,360 --> 00:53:59,680
Speaker 1: lot of the rhetoric, political rhetoric that I heard in

736
00:54:00,000 --> 00:54:06,120
Speaker 1: conservative churches, um that my parents attended was just so

737
00:54:06,320 --> 00:54:09,960
Speaker 1: fear stoking. You could feel it in the room, you know,

738
00:54:10,280 --> 00:54:16,319
Speaker 1: and it was powerful enough to get Slaughly where she

739
00:54:16,440 --> 00:54:20,080
Speaker 1: wanted to go. And in addition to her argument about

740
00:54:20,120 --> 00:54:25,560
Speaker 1: feminism being incompatible with human nature, she also kind of

741
00:54:25,600 --> 00:54:30,960
Speaker 1: suggested that feminism was out to replace husbands with government

742
00:54:31,040 --> 00:54:36,399
Speaker 1: big brother. Right, So look at you, dumb feminist. You're

743
00:54:36,440 --> 00:54:39,120
Speaker 1: just trying to get rid of the home, get rid

744
00:54:39,120 --> 00:54:42,320
Speaker 1: of the family structure, get rid of the husband who

745
00:54:42,520 --> 00:54:45,719
Speaker 1: can provide for you. They can be the breadwinners if

746
00:54:45,719 --> 00:54:48,200
Speaker 1: you just let them. But instead you want to get

747
00:54:48,280 --> 00:54:51,120
Speaker 1: rid of all that and have the government give to you,

748
00:54:51,280 --> 00:54:54,719
Speaker 1: have the government be your breadwinner and your husband and

749
00:54:55,120 --> 00:54:59,359
Speaker 1: accept welfare and public assistance and things like that. And

750
00:54:59,520 --> 00:55:03,440
Speaker 1: it doesn't this sound like frustrated just out of college

751
00:55:03,840 --> 00:55:07,240
Speaker 1: Phillis who can't get a job in the government because

752
00:55:07,320 --> 00:55:12,040
Speaker 1: big brother has saved all the other jobs for other brothers.

753
00:55:12,160 --> 00:55:15,440
Speaker 1: Essentially um and and the way she puts it, though

754
00:55:15,640 --> 00:55:18,759
Speaker 1: in one column it might have been the same that

755
00:55:18,840 --> 00:55:24,560
Speaker 1: same column from she she got. She uses sarcasm in

756
00:55:24,680 --> 00:55:28,800
Speaker 1: rhetorical questions a lot, so she sneers need a job,

757
00:55:29,160 --> 00:55:32,640
Speaker 1: Big brother will get you an affirmative action quota position.

758
00:55:33,040 --> 00:55:36,720
Speaker 1: You don't meet the physical requirements, big brother will gender

759
00:55:36,840 --> 00:55:39,320
Speaker 1: norm the test results and give you a high score.

760
00:55:39,840 --> 00:55:43,399
Speaker 1: Not satisfied with your salary, the Comparable Worth Commission will

761
00:55:43,440 --> 00:55:45,759
Speaker 1: order your employer to give you a raise. And if

762
00:55:45,800 --> 00:55:49,080
Speaker 1: you want a promotion, the Glass Ceiling Commission will force

763
00:55:49,120 --> 00:55:52,040
Speaker 1: your employer to give it to you. So it's just

764
00:55:52,280 --> 00:55:56,799
Speaker 1: this idea that we are making up these problems. And

765
00:55:56,880 --> 00:55:59,800
Speaker 1: through this group of kingmakers, we you know, the government

766
00:55:59,840 --> 00:56:07,600
Speaker 1: the establishes these committees that just uh, you know, give magically,

767
00:56:07,640 --> 00:56:11,200
Speaker 1: give women raises. Well, I mean, all of her rhetorical

768
00:56:11,239 --> 00:56:15,799
Speaker 1: questions there go back to her emphatic assertion that there

769
00:56:15,880 --> 00:56:18,800
Speaker 1: is no such thing as this patriarchy that oppresses women,

770
00:56:19,360 --> 00:56:23,120
Speaker 1: that women are not oppressed, And then her assertions are

771
00:56:23,160 --> 00:56:29,719
Speaker 1: directly tied to today's conversations around women are making themselves victims. Well,

772
00:56:29,800 --> 00:56:33,040
Speaker 1: and this next quote about how she describes the relationship

773
00:56:33,080 --> 00:56:37,120
Speaker 1: between feminism and the federal government is so reminiscent of

774
00:56:37,160 --> 00:56:41,560
Speaker 1: what you hear today among women against feminism and or

775
00:56:41,680 --> 00:56:44,600
Speaker 1: anti feminists, whichever way you want to put it. Where

776
00:56:44,640 --> 00:56:48,040
Speaker 1: she says, our societal policy should be to let women

777
00:56:48,080 --> 00:56:51,239
Speaker 1: make their own decisions about marriage and career without the

778
00:56:51,280 --> 00:56:58,520
Speaker 1: interference of taxpayer funded gender equity federal busybodies. Well, so

779
00:56:58,600 --> 00:57:01,560
Speaker 1: she's trying to have both at the same time. You know,

780
00:57:01,680 --> 00:57:06,960
Speaker 1: she's trying to to say that we don't need feminism,

781
00:57:07,000 --> 00:57:10,439
Speaker 1: but you know, not because you know, we don't want

782
00:57:10,480 --> 00:57:13,080
Speaker 1: the best for women, but just because we don't think

783
00:57:13,080 --> 00:57:15,400
Speaker 1: that anyone should be telling women what to do. So

784
00:57:15,520 --> 00:57:18,240
Speaker 1: isn't feminism telling women what to do? And so that's

785
00:57:18,280 --> 00:57:23,000
Speaker 1: why you know, women shouldn't be for feminism, and yes

786
00:57:23,080 --> 00:57:28,000
Speaker 1: it does make you, and I do mean you and

787
00:57:28,080 --> 00:57:32,160
Speaker 1: myself want to slowly bang our heads against the desk.

788
00:57:32,760 --> 00:57:37,200
Speaker 1: And ditto Betty for Dan and many other you know,

789
00:57:37,280 --> 00:57:41,560
Speaker 1: sec away feminists of the day. Oh Betty, Yeah. Teflon

790
00:57:41,760 --> 00:57:47,160
Speaker 1: Phillis managed to infuriate frequent debate opponent Betty for Dan

791
00:57:47,280 --> 00:57:52,720
Speaker 1: to the point where Betty told her that she should

792
00:57:52,760 --> 00:57:58,600
Speaker 1: burn at the steak. Yeah. And Phillis, the troll, loved it.

793
00:57:59,400 --> 00:58:01,800
Speaker 1: Loved it, oh yeah, because she was like, oh, I'm

794
00:58:01,840 --> 00:58:04,400
Speaker 1: so glad you said that, because it just goes to

795
00:58:04,560 --> 00:58:09,280
Speaker 1: show how nasty you feminists are. And of course Laughly

796
00:58:09,480 --> 00:58:14,240
Speaker 1: had her opinions about Betty for Dan as well. She said,

797
00:58:14,280 --> 00:58:18,560
Speaker 1: I reject all her ideology. She said, I reject all

798
00:58:18,560 --> 00:58:22,160
Speaker 1: her ideology, most of it based on the absurd notion

799
00:58:22,320 --> 00:58:25,920
Speaker 1: that the home is a comfortable concentration camp and that

800
00:58:26,000 --> 00:58:30,880
Speaker 1: the suburban housewife is oppressed by her husband and by society.

801
00:58:30,960 --> 00:58:35,640
Speaker 1: And she loved calling feminists fat, ugly and unlikable, which

802
00:58:35,680 --> 00:58:39,760
Speaker 1: again I'm telling you, like reading about peace, laugh is

803
00:58:40,160 --> 00:58:43,120
Speaker 1: just kind of like reading about Donald Trump in a

804
00:58:43,120 --> 00:58:46,280
Speaker 1: lot of ways. The reality TV shows. Yeah, it goes

805
00:58:46,400 --> 00:58:49,960
Speaker 1: back to my college sociology class in which we were

806
00:58:50,000 --> 00:58:53,040
Speaker 1: talking about feminism, and a fellow student of mine, and

807
00:58:53,080 --> 00:58:54,920
Speaker 1: I've told this stur on the podcast before, but a

808
00:58:54,960 --> 00:58:59,080
Speaker 1: fellow classmate UM raised her hand and basically said, but

809
00:58:59,160 --> 00:59:02,880
Speaker 1: if we like men and want to get married, shouldn't

810
00:59:02,880 --> 00:59:05,000
Speaker 1: we not agree with any of this stuff? And it's

811
00:59:05,040 --> 00:59:10,479
Speaker 1: like that wooshing sound is the point completely going over

812
00:59:10,560 --> 00:59:15,240
Speaker 1: your head, Um, Because yeah, like the worst thing to

813
00:59:15,440 --> 00:59:19,800
Speaker 1: some people is to be considered or just called fat

814
00:59:19,920 --> 00:59:23,240
Speaker 1: or ugly or unlikable. Oh and definitely, you know, if

815
00:59:23,240 --> 00:59:27,360
Speaker 1: we're talking about the seventies, you know, our society is

816
00:59:27,360 --> 00:59:29,320
Speaker 1: still I would not say is woke, but it was

817
00:59:29,360 --> 00:59:35,439
Speaker 1: certainly less woke in the seventies. Um. But as much

818
00:59:35,440 --> 00:59:38,520
Speaker 1: as I really hate to keep quoting Philish laughly, because

819
00:59:39,360 --> 00:59:43,520
Speaker 1: it's never a pleasant thing that you will have to say,

820
00:59:44,120 --> 00:59:47,360
Speaker 1: I do think it's worth highlighting a few of her

821
00:59:48,160 --> 00:59:54,200
Speaker 1: positions on feminist issues. Yeah, she didn't think that marital

822
00:59:54,280 --> 00:59:57,560
Speaker 1: rape was a thing. She said, by getting married, the

823
00:59:57,560 --> 01:00:00,160
Speaker 1: woman has consented to sex, and I don't think you

824
01:00:00,160 --> 01:00:06,080
Speaker 1: can call it rape. On sexual harassment, Uh, no, big surprise.

825
01:00:06,400 --> 01:00:10,120
Speaker 1: She hated Anita Hill, and she just thought that that

826
01:00:10,200 --> 01:00:14,680
Speaker 1: woman was just ranking that honorable Clarence Thomas over the

827
01:00:14,720 --> 01:00:17,680
Speaker 1: calls unnecessarily because she's a feminist and was just sad

828
01:00:17,720 --> 01:00:20,280
Speaker 1: that he wouldn't take her out on a date. So,

829
01:00:20,360 --> 01:00:25,840
Speaker 1: on sexual harassment, Shlapley said, quote, non criminal sexual harassment

830
01:00:25,880 --> 01:00:28,520
Speaker 1: on the job is not a problem for the virtuous

831
01:00:28,600 --> 01:00:33,080
Speaker 1: woman except in the rarest of cases. Yeah, so insert

832
01:00:33,280 --> 01:00:37,920
Speaker 1: victim blaming here. Well, if you're a virtuous woman, you

833
01:00:37,920 --> 01:00:42,320
Speaker 1: should have nothing to worry about. What were you wearing exactly? Uh?

834
01:00:42,360 --> 01:00:46,720
Speaker 1: And uh domestic violence. Uh. She said that when marriages

835
01:00:46,760 --> 01:00:50,840
Speaker 1: are broken by false allegations of domestic violence, US taxpayers

836
01:00:50,920 --> 01:00:53,880
Speaker 1: fork up and estimated twenty billion a year to support

837
01:00:53,960 --> 01:00:56,720
Speaker 1: the resulting single parent, welfare dependent families. And I'm like,

838
01:00:57,160 --> 01:01:05,200
Speaker 1: that's your concern, Like a woman who falsely accuses a

839
01:01:05,280 --> 01:01:09,760
Speaker 1: man of domestic violence and then is single as a result,

840
01:01:10,040 --> 01:01:12,800
Speaker 1: Because then who's going to have to pay for that,

841
01:01:12,960 --> 01:01:17,000
Speaker 1: big brother, the taxpayers. You know, we're we're having to

842
01:01:17,120 --> 01:01:21,720
Speaker 1: fund this welfare state. And really, I mean pointing out

843
01:01:22,080 --> 01:01:25,600
Speaker 1: her horrific stances on these kinds of issues is to

844
01:01:26,440 --> 01:01:32,640
Speaker 1: illustrate how she was not just responsible for stopping the

845
01:01:32,840 --> 01:01:35,520
Speaker 1: r A and its tracks, which she and stop the

846
01:01:35,640 --> 01:01:40,320
Speaker 1: r A and the Eagle Forum absolutely did, but also

847
01:01:40,720 --> 01:01:48,520
Speaker 1: in essentially building what is today the ultra right wing

848
01:01:49,200 --> 01:01:54,320
Speaker 1: policy platform. It's as if she wrote the script for

849
01:01:54,480 --> 01:01:59,560
Speaker 1: women to continue to be demeaned and not believed when

850
01:01:59,560 --> 01:02:02,600
Speaker 1: it comes to some of these awful issues. Right. But

851
01:02:02,640 --> 01:02:06,600
Speaker 1: I mean these are but these are like political platforms. Now.

852
01:02:07,080 --> 01:02:09,120
Speaker 1: You know if you turn on if you spend some

853
01:02:09,160 --> 01:02:12,000
Speaker 1: time on Brightbart News, Actually, don't spend some time on

854
01:02:12,040 --> 01:02:15,200
Speaker 1: Brightbart News, and you'll see all of these similar things

855
01:02:15,240 --> 01:02:17,800
Speaker 1: going on. Ps. A bright Bart guy was one of

856
01:02:17,800 --> 01:02:21,600
Speaker 1: the men who came after me on Twitter. Oh really,

857
01:02:22,040 --> 01:02:28,840
Speaker 1: a bright Bart reporter. Oh, I'm not surprised. I'm not surprised. Um.

858
01:02:28,880 --> 01:02:37,600
Speaker 1: But in we see another contradiction to her career housewife

859
01:02:37,640 --> 01:02:41,200
Speaker 1: claim because she goes to law school. I mean and

860
01:02:41,280 --> 01:02:43,280
Speaker 1: in a way like if she were anyone else, you

861
01:02:43,320 --> 01:02:45,680
Speaker 1: and I would be like good for her mother of six.

862
01:02:46,160 --> 01:02:48,800
Speaker 1: After the kids grow up, she goes back to law school.

863
01:02:48,800 --> 01:02:50,880
Speaker 1: And that's what she argues, like, well, I waited until

864
01:02:51,160 --> 01:02:53,120
Speaker 1: my children were grown they could take care of themselves.

865
01:02:53,160 --> 01:02:54,560
Speaker 1: I had breastfed all of them. Did I tell you

866
01:02:54,600 --> 01:02:58,520
Speaker 1: I breastfed all of them? I really did? Um? And

867
01:02:59,440 --> 01:03:02,880
Speaker 1: she completely sir law degree at Washington University. When she

868
01:03:02,960 --> 01:03:05,800
Speaker 1: goes to take the bar, her public profile was already

869
01:03:05,880 --> 01:03:10,200
Speaker 1: like significant enough that she took it in a disguise.

870
01:03:10,280 --> 01:03:12,240
Speaker 1: She wore a black wig in order to take her

871
01:03:12,240 --> 01:03:15,040
Speaker 1: exam and she passed it well. And her husband, you know,

872
01:03:15,080 --> 01:03:17,000
Speaker 1: and this is another anecdote that she would tell over

873
01:03:17,040 --> 01:03:19,160
Speaker 1: and over again over the years that her husband at

874
01:03:19,160 --> 01:03:21,960
Speaker 1: first did not want her to go to law school

875
01:03:22,400 --> 01:03:25,280
Speaker 1: and didn't understand why she felt the need to UM,

876
01:03:25,480 --> 01:03:30,040
Speaker 1: and then so she withdrew her application to law school,

877
01:03:30,320 --> 01:03:32,160
Speaker 1: and then a couple of weeks later he changed his mind.

878
01:03:32,200 --> 01:03:34,800
Speaker 1: And it's like, you know what, it would actually having

879
01:03:34,840 --> 01:03:36,920
Speaker 1: a law background would actually help with a lot of

880
01:03:36,920 --> 01:03:40,520
Speaker 1: the public policy work. And uh e r a fights

881
01:03:40,560 --> 01:03:43,840
Speaker 1: that you do well. And I mean, her relationship with

882
01:03:43,880 --> 01:03:48,160
Speaker 1: Fred is really fascinating and something that I wish we

883
01:03:48,240 --> 01:03:50,480
Speaker 1: knew more about, because I think that's one of the

884
01:03:50,480 --> 01:03:56,480
Speaker 1: most frustrating things about UM reading up on Phyllis is

885
01:03:56,520 --> 01:03:59,320
Speaker 1: that you know that you're not learning about the real Phyllis.

886
01:03:59,680 --> 01:04:01,680
Speaker 1: You know that their stuff going on in the background.

887
01:04:01,840 --> 01:04:06,840
Speaker 1: Because this is an image that she cultivated for political purposes,

888
01:04:07,280 --> 01:04:12,960
Speaker 1: whereas before she has this shift um against feminism in

889
01:04:13,000 --> 01:04:18,200
Speaker 1: the nineteen seventies. She talks about how during her early

890
01:04:18,280 --> 01:04:23,320
Speaker 1: marriage with Fred, like they would stay up until all

891
01:04:23,360 --> 01:04:27,840
Speaker 1: hours just brainstorming and talking politics, like they courted each other,

892
01:04:28,240 --> 01:04:32,960
Speaker 1: but through through letters, mailing each other, poetry, and essentially

893
01:04:33,000 --> 01:04:37,080
Speaker 1: like many policy briefs, there were like a couple of walks,

894
01:04:38,200 --> 01:04:42,120
Speaker 1: but she played it all down in order to conform

895
01:04:42,520 --> 01:04:47,280
Speaker 1: to a more palatable, interesting, submissive image that would fit

896
01:04:47,400 --> 01:04:51,240
Speaker 1: into which also sounds very house of cards, yeah, which

897
01:04:51,280 --> 01:04:55,800
Speaker 1: fit into this mold, you know, that could then elevate

898
01:04:55,840 --> 01:04:59,760
Speaker 1: her um to the platform that she ended up having,

899
01:05:00,160 --> 01:05:06,560
Speaker 1: which in nineteen eighty she used her influence to successfully

900
01:05:06,640 --> 01:05:12,480
Speaker 1: negotiate with the GOP to remove its pro e r

901
01:05:12,520 --> 01:05:14,840
Speaker 1: A platform plank. And this is when we finally see

902
01:05:14,840 --> 01:05:17,920
Speaker 1: the Republican Party, which previously had a lot of the

903
01:05:18,120 --> 01:05:20,800
Speaker 1: r A supporters in it, It wasn't as conservative as

904
01:05:20,840 --> 01:05:24,040
Speaker 1: it is today by long shot. We finally see them

905
01:05:25,400 --> 01:05:31,919
Speaker 1: turning that corner as Reagan is about to take over. Exactly, yeah, exactly.

906
01:05:32,120 --> 01:05:41,120
Speaker 1: And June two, Phillis holds a party because the congressional

907
01:05:41,160 --> 01:05:44,080
Speaker 1: deadline for states to ratify the e r A expires

908
01:05:44,120 --> 01:05:48,240
Speaker 1: and they were what three states short of ratification, and

909
01:05:48,480 --> 01:05:52,160
Speaker 1: so from there she's like cool, box checked. Done. Now

910
01:05:52,240 --> 01:05:56,040
Speaker 1: let's make sure that we hinder the fight for lgbt

911
01:05:56,200 --> 01:06:00,120
Speaker 1: Q rights, for welfare, and for reproductive rights, which of

912
01:06:00,120 --> 01:06:03,760
Speaker 1: course she had been harping on throughout her anti e

913
01:06:04,000 --> 01:06:05,840
Speaker 1: r A camp, even as she has a gay son.

914
01:06:06,560 --> 01:06:10,600
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, her gay son was outed. I'm not a

915
01:06:10,600 --> 01:06:14,720
Speaker 1: fan of people outing people at all. Um. I understand

916
01:06:14,960 --> 01:06:19,520
Speaker 1: the attraction to wanting to out Philish Lafley's son, um.

917
01:06:19,680 --> 01:06:23,800
Speaker 1: But yeah, one of her sons who lived at least

918
01:06:23,800 --> 01:06:25,600
Speaker 1: like at the time it was reported he was still

919
01:06:25,840 --> 01:06:31,080
Speaker 1: living with Fred and Phillis and was still, you know,

920
01:06:31,200 --> 01:06:36,240
Speaker 1: dedicated to the conservative cause. And Phillis kind of had

921
01:06:36,280 --> 01:06:40,120
Speaker 1: to hedge her love for her child and her versus

922
01:06:40,160 --> 01:06:45,640
Speaker 1: her hatred for homosexuals and their agenda. Oh yes, the

923
01:06:45,680 --> 01:06:51,680
Speaker 1: homosexual agenda, Yeah, which I just imagined, like, you know,

924
01:06:52,360 --> 01:06:53,800
Speaker 1: you can buy it at off a steep and I

925
01:06:53,840 --> 01:06:58,000
Speaker 1: think it smoothie. Yeah, they now have an app agenda.

926
01:06:58,160 --> 01:07:01,120
Speaker 1: You can just have it on your phone like a calendar. Perfect.

927
01:07:01,760 --> 01:07:05,840
Speaker 1: It's really colorful. And she would continue though throughout the

928
01:07:05,880 --> 01:07:10,400
Speaker 1: rest of her life to maintain that women were that

929
01:07:10,720 --> 01:07:17,960
Speaker 1: privileged class, and she offered advice on NPR in two women, saying,

930
01:07:18,040 --> 01:07:23,800
Speaker 1: just remember American women are so fortunate, Oh yeah, and

931
01:07:23,840 --> 01:07:25,560
Speaker 1: I mean yeah, I mean, I guess relatively in the

932
01:07:25,600 --> 01:07:31,280
Speaker 1: grand scheme of global privileges. Well, her version of fortunate

933
01:07:31,920 --> 01:07:36,200
Speaker 1: is that she always praises men right after she says

934
01:07:36,280 --> 01:07:38,840
Speaker 1: that we're so fortunate because we have all these brilliant

935
01:07:38,880 --> 01:07:43,800
Speaker 1: men who invented all of this brilliant technology that allowed

936
01:07:43,920 --> 01:07:48,800
Speaker 1: us to easily wash our clothes, and we got disposable diapers,

937
01:07:48,920 --> 01:07:52,520
Speaker 1: and you have all these conveniences that I didn't have

938
01:07:52,680 --> 01:07:56,840
Speaker 1: growing up, and so comparatively, women are just so fortunate

939
01:07:56,880 --> 01:07:59,720
Speaker 1: and you just need to remember them and don't victimize yourself.

940
01:08:00,200 --> 01:08:03,800
Speaker 1: And a few years earlier, to The New York Times,

941
01:08:03,800 --> 01:08:06,800
Speaker 1: she had said, feminism has changed the way women think,

942
01:08:07,120 --> 01:08:09,240
Speaker 1: and it's changed the way men think. But the trouble

943
01:08:09,400 --> 01:08:12,040
Speaker 1: is it hasn't changed the attitude of babies at all.

944
01:08:12,440 --> 01:08:15,040
Speaker 1: And so that, of course is hearkening to her whole

945
01:08:15,360 --> 01:08:21,519
Speaker 1: feminism violates the laws of nature, like babies no better babies, boy,

946
01:08:21,560 --> 01:08:27,679
Speaker 1: babies know that they should be little baby breadwinners, babies

947
01:08:27,720 --> 01:08:32,720
Speaker 1: knowing on some bread um and the funny thing that

948
01:08:32,840 --> 01:08:34,800
Speaker 1: you know, if you haven't picked up on the theme

949
01:08:34,840 --> 01:08:39,000
Speaker 1: of this episode yet, The funny thing that former now

950
01:08:39,160 --> 01:08:44,760
Speaker 1: president Karen Dacrowe pointed out in nine one was that

951
01:08:45,000 --> 01:08:48,559
Speaker 1: no matter the words that came out of Philish Lapley's mouth,

952
01:08:49,840 --> 01:08:55,280
Speaker 1: she was a liberated woman. And as dacrow says, she

953
01:08:55,439 --> 01:08:58,000
Speaker 1: sets out to do something and she does it. To me,

954
01:08:58,080 --> 01:09:04,519
Speaker 1: that's liberation. Oh yeah, and she also spotted the gender

955
01:09:04,560 --> 01:09:11,400
Speaker 1: inequalities that feminism still seeks to uproot. UM. At one point,

956
01:09:11,439 --> 01:09:16,400
Speaker 1: in response to that really harsh blow that she took

957
01:09:16,560 --> 01:09:21,040
Speaker 1: in nine seven when she lost her bid for the

958
01:09:21,120 --> 01:09:27,200
Speaker 1: National Federation of Republican Women presidency UM, she said, quote,

959
01:09:27,439 --> 01:09:30,080
Speaker 1: the Republican Party is carried on the shoulders of the

960
01:09:30,080 --> 01:09:33,160
Speaker 1: women who do the work in the precincts, ringing doorbells,

961
01:09:33,160 --> 01:09:37,799
Speaker 1: distributing literature, and doing all the tiresome, repetitious campaign tasks.

962
01:09:38,320 --> 01:09:40,840
Speaker 1: Many men in the party frankly want to keep the

963
01:09:40,840 --> 01:09:43,439
Speaker 1: women doing the menial work. Like, if that is not

964
01:09:45,439 --> 01:09:50,559
Speaker 1: something that should then be followed via a statement of

965
01:09:50,920 --> 01:09:54,479
Speaker 1: feminist support, I don't know what is. And that's the

966
01:09:54,520 --> 01:10:00,120
Speaker 1: confounding thing about Phillip. She she encountered sexism. And you no,

967
01:10:00,320 --> 01:10:02,599
Speaker 1: she knew it was sexism because she's calling it out

968
01:10:03,000 --> 01:10:06,040
Speaker 1: right there, recognizing that here are the women in the

969
01:10:06,040 --> 01:10:10,639
Speaker 1: trenches doing all of us grassroots organizing that ultimately has

970
01:10:10,880 --> 01:10:18,280
Speaker 1: revolutionized American political culture. Look at Donald Trump today. And

971
01:10:18,360 --> 01:10:21,479
Speaker 1: yet she's saying, but you know, the dudes don't want

972
01:10:21,520 --> 01:10:23,200
Speaker 1: to acknowledge it. They just want to keep us in

973
01:10:23,200 --> 01:10:27,000
Speaker 1: the corner. Yeah. Phyllis is far from stupid. Woman is

974
01:10:27,120 --> 01:10:32,240
Speaker 1: not dumb. She's incredibly brilliant and incredibly driven, and she

975
01:10:32,520 --> 01:10:37,479
Speaker 1: is just driven down a different path. Yeah, I mean,

976
01:10:37,600 --> 01:10:41,920
Speaker 1: And and the moral of the story is a remember

977
01:10:41,960 --> 01:10:45,599
Speaker 1: that women are not a monolith, right, Smart women are

978
01:10:45,600 --> 01:10:50,360
Speaker 1: not a monolith, you know. And also, as she always

979
01:10:50,400 --> 01:10:54,759
Speaker 1: likes to say, they never took me seriously, Like everyone

980
01:10:54,800 --> 01:10:57,519
Speaker 1: always underestimated her when she was starting out in her

981
01:10:58,320 --> 01:11:01,000
Speaker 1: A Choice not an Echo era, when she was just

982
01:11:01,080 --> 01:11:03,759
Speaker 1: on the fringes with this, you know, this little group

983
01:11:04,560 --> 01:11:08,840
Speaker 1: of ultra conservative and she was like, you know, they

984
01:11:08,840 --> 01:11:12,720
Speaker 1: didn't see what was coming. And she's she's proud of that,

985
01:11:12,880 --> 01:11:16,280
Speaker 1: you know, because she she kind of put one over

986
01:11:16,360 --> 01:11:19,680
Speaker 1: on us because we were we were so quick too.

987
01:11:19,920 --> 01:11:24,040
Speaker 1: I think liberals were so quick to write off all

988
01:11:24,040 --> 01:11:28,160
Speaker 1: of a sudden this who's this housewife? And look what

989
01:11:28,280 --> 01:11:32,519
Speaker 1: she did. She was a wolf and housewife clothing who,

990
01:11:32,680 --> 01:11:38,000
Speaker 1: like you said, completely changed American politics. And I think

991
01:11:38,040 --> 01:11:41,639
Speaker 1: the final words we have to leave on our Philish

992
01:11:41,720 --> 01:11:45,920
Speaker 1: Laughley talking to Maker saying I always thought I could

993
01:11:45,920 --> 01:11:51,040
Speaker 1: do whatever I wanted to do. What's the problem? And

994
01:11:51,520 --> 01:11:54,559
Speaker 1: the what's the problem? Essentially she's asking that to society

995
01:11:54,560 --> 01:11:57,679
Speaker 1: of like, where where's the sexism? And that I could

996
01:11:57,680 --> 01:12:01,000
Speaker 1: do what I wanted to do? And she did. And

997
01:12:01,320 --> 01:12:06,799
Speaker 1: I think it behooves us to not underestimate the ripple

998
01:12:06,840 --> 01:12:11,200
Speaker 1: effect that this woman is still having and we'll continue

999
01:12:11,240 --> 01:12:17,000
Speaker 1: to have so listeners, Caroline, by the way, is I

1000
01:12:17,040 --> 01:12:21,599
Speaker 1: think it's going to have to recover from from this episode? Um?

1001
01:12:21,640 --> 01:12:24,760
Speaker 1: Because she's a lot to she's a lot to fathom, UM,

1002
01:12:24,800 --> 01:12:28,080
Speaker 1: and she's a she's disappointing, really, I mean she's she's

1003
01:12:28,080 --> 01:12:31,479
Speaker 1: a terribly disappointing woman to read about. UM. If you're

1004
01:12:31,520 --> 01:12:34,519
Speaker 1: sitting where we are, so now, listeners, we want to

1005
01:12:34,560 --> 01:12:37,200
Speaker 1: hear from you. What do you think about Philish Laughley,

1006
01:12:37,800 --> 01:12:43,479
Speaker 1: her influence and her connection to Donald Trump today? And

1007
01:12:43,520 --> 01:12:50,040
Speaker 1: can we ever undo the damage done by Philish Laughley. Honestly,

1008
01:12:50,080 --> 01:12:52,559
Speaker 1: I think the answer is no. But listeners, perhaps you

1009
01:12:52,600 --> 01:12:55,160
Speaker 1: are less cynical than I. Let us know your thoughts. Mom.

1010
01:12:55,280 --> 01:12:58,519
Speaker 1: Stuff at how Stuff Works dot com is our email address.

1011
01:12:58,600 --> 01:13:01,879
Speaker 1: You can also tweet us at stuff podcast or messages

1012
01:13:02,000 --> 01:13:04,600
Speaker 1: on Facebook. And we've got a couple of messages to

1013
01:13:04,680 --> 01:13:07,040
Speaker 1: share with you when we come right back from a

1014
01:13:07,120 --> 01:13:15,599
Speaker 1: quick break and now back to the show. All right,

1015
01:13:16,360 --> 01:13:19,720
Speaker 1: Um well, I have a letter here from Kim in

1016
01:13:19,800 --> 01:13:24,080
Speaker 1: response to our Minstrel Cup episode. Um. She says, I

1017
01:13:24,120 --> 01:13:26,800
Speaker 1: started using the Keeper in two thousand after hearing about

1018
01:13:26,840 --> 01:13:30,120
Speaker 1: it from a coworker in the United States Coast Guard

1019
01:13:30,960 --> 01:13:34,160
Speaker 1: serving on ships. It was difficult to use pads and tampons,

1020
01:13:34,160 --> 01:13:37,320
Speaker 1: as four hour watches did not lend themselves to products

1021
01:13:37,400 --> 01:13:39,920
Speaker 1: lasting more than three or so hours and not being

1022
01:13:39,960 --> 01:13:42,759
Speaker 1: able to use the restroom in that time. The Keeper

1023
01:13:42,880 --> 01:13:46,160
Speaker 1: was a lifesaver, no pun intended. I had times when

1024
01:13:46,200 --> 01:13:49,080
Speaker 1: I would be on watch for up to twelve hours,

1025
01:13:49,160 --> 01:13:51,520
Speaker 1: and not having to worry about an accident was beneficial.

1026
01:13:51,920 --> 01:13:54,600
Speaker 1: I made sure to talk with every woman who was

1027
01:13:54,640 --> 01:13:58,120
Speaker 1: assigned about this wonderful product. It was easy to get

1028
01:13:58,120 --> 01:14:00,720
Speaker 1: over the quick factor after a few times and not

1029
01:14:00,760 --> 01:14:03,799
Speaker 1: having to carry extra products that up to twelve hours

1030
01:14:03,840 --> 01:14:08,639
Speaker 1: window is the selling point. I used the latex brown

1031
01:14:08,840 --> 01:14:12,200
Speaker 1: version and mine lasted ten years. I replaced it with

1032
01:14:12,240 --> 01:14:15,599
Speaker 1: a silicon version, which, ironically, again no pun intended, turned

1033
01:14:15,640 --> 01:14:19,960
Speaker 1: a similar shade of brown from the blood staining. Anyway,

1034
01:14:20,040 --> 01:14:22,880
Speaker 1: I love the podcast. I've learned so much and laughed

1035
01:14:22,880 --> 01:14:26,000
Speaker 1: even more. Keep up the awesome staffs work well. Thanks

1036
01:14:26,080 --> 01:14:28,639
Speaker 1: Kim so is that why the keeper is brown? Maybe

1037
01:14:28,680 --> 01:14:32,439
Speaker 1: I still maintained it should just be read well. I

1038
01:14:32,520 --> 01:14:35,840
Speaker 1: have a menstrual cup letter to read from Allison, who

1039
01:14:35,880 --> 01:14:38,960
Speaker 1: wrote I was so excited to hear your recent podcast

1040
01:14:39,000 --> 01:14:41,599
Speaker 1: on menstrul cups and was fascinated to hear their long

1041
01:14:41,680 --> 01:14:45,080
Speaker 1: and storied history. I was so disappointed, however, at the

1042
01:14:45,120 --> 01:14:48,600
Speaker 1: comments you received when you posted an article on Facebook

1043
01:14:48,800 --> 01:14:52,040
Speaker 1: about the reasons menstrual cups aren't more popular. There were

1044
01:14:52,080 --> 01:14:55,960
Speaker 1: countless comments, many for men like gross you. I didn't

1045
01:14:55,960 --> 01:14:58,240
Speaker 1: need to see that, and I can think of a

1046
01:14:58,280 --> 01:15:01,760
Speaker 1: lot more than four reasons. No thanks. That made me

1047
01:15:01,840 --> 01:15:04,040
Speaker 1: realize we haven't really come all that far from the

1048
01:15:04,120 --> 01:15:07,360
Speaker 1: days of the red tents. Women's bodies are still seen

1049
01:15:07,400 --> 01:15:10,800
Speaker 1: as dirty, which just makes me sad, and not to

1050
01:15:10,840 --> 01:15:14,360
Speaker 1: get too hyperbolic, but my cup has changed my life.

1051
01:15:14,760 --> 01:15:17,479
Speaker 1: I initially chose a cup for both environmental reasons and

1052
01:15:17,520 --> 01:15:21,160
Speaker 1: practical reasons. I'm a swimmer and swim instructor, and tampons

1053
01:15:21,160 --> 01:15:23,439
Speaker 1: are just not always the best choice for long sessions

1054
01:15:23,479 --> 01:15:27,360
Speaker 1: in the pool. I have Endometrios's with severe cramping and

1055
01:15:27,439 --> 01:15:31,680
Speaker 1: was pleasantly surprised to find the cup actually lessened my

1056
01:15:31,800 --> 01:15:35,439
Speaker 1: cramping pretty significantly. I'm not sure why exactly, but my

1057
01:15:35,520 --> 01:15:37,479
Speaker 1: theory has something to do with the way the cervix

1058
01:15:37,560 --> 01:15:40,680
Speaker 1: is positioned while the cup is inserted. To anyone who

1059
01:15:40,680 --> 01:15:42,920
Speaker 1: has tried to cup and not found them to be ideal,

1060
01:15:43,200 --> 01:15:46,760
Speaker 1: please don't give up. The first cup I tried was

1061
01:15:47,080 --> 01:15:50,840
Speaker 1: too large and too firm, causing painful pressure on both

1062
01:15:50,840 --> 01:15:54,439
Speaker 1: my bladder and my cervix. I did some research before

1063
01:15:54,439 --> 01:15:58,240
Speaker 1: I bought my second one, and it's now seriously a

1064
01:15:58,360 --> 01:16:01,639
Speaker 1: perfect solution to another is painful time of the month

1065
01:16:01,720 --> 01:16:06,479
Speaker 1: for me. Well thanks for the info, Allison, and yeah,

1066
01:16:06,520 --> 01:16:11,160
Speaker 1: it is always disappointing to see people on social media

1067
01:16:11,600 --> 01:16:16,120
Speaker 1: act like children over something that is a natural bodily function.

1068
01:16:17,360 --> 01:16:19,599
Speaker 1: So listeners, we'd love to hear from you Mom. Stuff

1069
01:16:19,600 --> 01:16:21,839
Speaker 1: at how stuff works dot com is our email address

1070
01:16:21,880 --> 01:16:23,720
Speaker 1: and for links to all of our social media as

1071
01:16:23,720 --> 01:16:26,040
Speaker 1: well as all of our blogs, videos and podcasts with

1072
01:16:26,080 --> 01:16:28,800
Speaker 1: our sources so you can learn even more. If you

1073
01:16:28,920 --> 01:16:32,519
Speaker 1: dare about Philish Lapley, head on over to stuff Mom

1074
01:16:32,560 --> 01:16:39,040
Speaker 1: Never Told You dot com for more on this and

1075
01:16:39,080 --> 01:16:41,599
Speaker 1: thousands of other topics. Does it how stuff works dot

1076
01:16:41,680 --> 01:16:49,600
Speaker 1: com