you can get to us by freeway or by major roads, there is plenty of parking. enjoy the bars of the rnc and enjoy a great week. >> what kind of events do you have year-round? >> we have a large festival on labor day weekend that takes over, 150 art vendors here on broadway. we have a large christmas celebration that is over 35 years old where we light a tree. then we have a quarter gallery night milwaukee wide, we have a large concentration of galleries here. that is happening this weekend, friday and saturday. always check our website, historicthirdward.org, we have a lot going on there. >> thank you. announcer: coming up, vice president, heav is campaigning in fayetteville, north carolina. we will have live coverage just before two here on, on c-span,

c-span now, our free mobile video app, and c-span.org. >> and we are back live in milwaukee, at the sight of the republican national commission and on your screen is that martin lashley eagles. he was the deputy policy director of the rnc platform committee. ed martin, tell us about your group. that is a mouthful. guest: thanks. thanks for having me on. i have another reason to encourage my children watch c-span. i love watching and -- the eagles, when phyllis was alive she called her followers eagles. she used eagle form as the name. there was a famous $45 million

series on fx with cate blanchett called mrs. america. we wanted to say we want phyllis schlafly. she's an iconic figure. she was a great conservative. she was one of the really smart early organizers of how to operate in the political sphere. we are conservative on principles of policies but we pride ourselves, the phyllis schlafly eagles on knowing how politics works. if you want to put it in politics, that is what the phyllis schlafly eagles do. at the convention sprinkled throughout the delegations are phyllis schlafly eagles who are making a difference in politics in their home states. host: ed martin, what is the importance of having a party platform? does anybody read them? guest: when bob dole did not like it 15 or 20 years ago he

said nobody will read that thing. there's that conversation to be had about what it means and how people relate to it. for the conservative party, a sense of a blinken wrote the platform. -- abe lincoln wrote the platform. he was active in 1856 writing the first platform. it matters to say what you are doing and care about. a lot of us, not everyone but everyone in the republican party believe words matter. many of us are men and women of the book, of the scriptures. when you put into paper and write in words what you stand for and what you are intending to be about, it matters. both parties have done this now in our political history. in america, phyllis used to teach you study where you are. we have two major parties. each parties has contrasting positions and policies and preferences. therefore politicians. other parts of the world you

will see 5, 6, 7 parties with a different take on things. there platform i change. it's important. we care a lot about it. do enough people read it and study it and think about it? probably not. one reason we took the approach we did was because we were encouraged by the president and others in the party to make this one more accessible, more readable. something people could understand better and try to make that clearer. that's a challenge. words matter. it's important to us. host: during her career phyllis schlafly was well known as being pro-life. how does this year's platform treat abortion? guest: you are right. phyllis was well known for a lot of things. in the first 25 years of her life she was the most respected commentator, lay commentator on the strategic balance. she came out of the 1940's

married with a degree from harvard. she knew the threat -- she was catholic. the threat was communists. until the e.r.a. fight she was not a recognized profamily or pro-life fighter although she was. she was next read on the soviets and what they were doing. she was a hard-line hawk to stand up to them because she recognized communism. she pivoted after the fall of the soviet union to china because of communism. russian corruption is terrible. what is worse is world communism and the chinese. when she became more active in the political parties on the life issue was after roe v. wade, a pivotal moment for people that believe in pro-life and oppose abortion. i should note she went to every convention either as a delegate or involved in a significant way from 1952 through 2016. she was a delegate in 2016. we don't think there is anyone with that span.

martin blackwell, the great virginia national committee man is here again. he's close. she really cared about the life. she wrote a book about her experience called "how the republican party became pro-life." it was about fighting for the platform and the words mattering and making sure the words were strong. this year i tell people we went from 35,000 words in the last platform to 5000. everybody lost words. israel was mentioned 19 times in the 2020 platform. it is mentioned once with israel. the pro-life platform plank got smaller. i think it is very strong. especially after roe v. wade, it lays out a vision of how we have to move forward. if you recall, it is principles and policies and how politics fits in. in this case there is a lot to be done at the states.

there are some aspects of pro-life that will be done federally, mostly having to do with regulatory decisions that joe biden has made about abortion drugs. i think it's a great pro-life plank. i fed up leisure going around to state delegations talking about it. host: ed martin, you have to know politics. has abortion and the supreme court decision hurt the republicans in the last two cycles? guest: i think that is conventional wisdom among pollsters but i disagree. i think it created an extraordinary opportunity that many of us in the pro-life movement may not have been completely ready for. for 50 years we were saying roe v. wade was poorly decided. it really didn't make sense. there's a man named clark foresight who said americans united for life. wrote an extra in every book, when the notes from the supreme court justices from the roe v. wade decision where published. he wrote a book about how they

really made it up. they made at the trimester framework. the notes show that. clark wrote this book. many thought eventually roe v. wade will be reversed. as president trump said, liberal commentators, people who regularly said it was a bad decision. we want abortion available. we don't want a decision that is so poorly constructed and has created such a framework. dobbs happened faster than many expected. the pro-life movement had to move quickly to try to say we spent 50 years opposing the decision. how do we now talk about our issues? that's been a real challenge. i don't think anyone should be surprised by that. the best of those people in the movement with the best vision have said we are going to focus more on serving the mother. before there is a baby there is a woman, a mother. in many ways that's been a shift you are seeing. we might have lost some elections because people can

sometimes demagogue the abortion issue. what we have to do and this is what president trump challenged us to do and continues to do is build a consensus on life. on affirming life. j.d. vance, when his mother is in the crowd and you talk about human suffering and how we have to get through what's going on, everybody feels that. sometimes it is dramatic and your son as a vp candidate. the life movement had to adjust. we are not fighting about a legal framework. we are talking about how to promote life and has been the biggest challenge. we may have paid a price because the last election they were able to use the issue. i think in the long run people will be open to what the life argument is and hopefully will build more people who consider themselves pro-life. host: ed martin is our guest, president of the phyllis schlafly eagles. he was deputy policy director for the rnc platform committee. 202 is the area code.

(202) 748-8000 for democrats. (202) 748-8001, republicans. independents, (202) 748-8002. we will take your calls in a minute. we want to show you video from 2003. here is phyllis schlafly on c-span. [video] >> feminism is not defined editing law -- in any law. if you want to define yourself as a feminist, you can do that. the majority of women do not want to call themselves a feminist. you have to ask, is this a person who believes that the right to abortion is the number one women's right? that is true of most of the people who call themselves feminists. it is hard for me to respect a group that thinks that is the most important factor when you talk about women's rights. you can call yourself whatever you want, but i think the feminist ideology is based on

the notion that american women are oppressed and mistreated. we live in a patriarchal male dominated society that has been unfair to women. that maybe women have been treated like blacks in this country. that is total nonsense. then you find them in their effort to try to de -masculate meant. title ix. it was perfectly fine to make sure the women had equal opportunity in colleges. now it is being used simply to abolish wrestling teams and the other teams where males outperform women. in the clinton administration the radical feminist took over. that is what is being used for today. it's a shame to abolish wrestling teams. you need to realize the feminists are doing that because that, anything that -- they

don't want anything that allows meant outperform women. host: ed martin, title ix is back in the news today, isn't it? guest: it sure is. phyllis -- thank you for letting me hear her and see her. she was a wonderful speaker and writer. title ix is huge. that whole e.r.a. fight, she talked about how the fact that if you passed the e.r.a. men can go and women's bathrooms. you will have into military combat. she talked about those issues. title ix is a huge one. joe biden said title ix, we will use that to force communities and states and local schools to act in the ways we want on a preference, transgender and others. that is a huge topic. one of the great eagles, kimberly fletcher who started moms for america, and one of the other great organizers tiffany justice from moms for liberty are both out here this week. they are talking about title ix and parental control.

we have gone from protecting health information to saying parents can't know. governor newsom said parents will not be allowed to know when their underaged children are doing things that have to do with their gender and their decisions on who they are. this is the kind of insanity that phyllis talked about that we did not expect. it is definitely back. in our platform that's a big issue. the platform focused on common sense. it also focused on the forgotten men and women. when the feminist fight for abortion, and they are a small percentage in america and loud, most women are saying i'm just try to figure how to get my kids through school and to be smart and have a chance to go forward. that is who we are talking to and that is who president trump challenged. host: let's take some calls. heather in bismarck, north dakota. republican line. caller: thank you for letting me

speak. i'm kind of outraged from what i'm hearing as far as talking with the issues of abortion and the things going on in the country. my full name is heather meyer. when it comes to illegal aliens coming over the border, i will be blunt. i had an illegal alien coming to my home in january and rape me in my own home. when i went to the police department they laughed at me. they told me i deserved it because i was flirting. that was outrageous. he was a canadian. he didn't belong in our country. he was here on an expired work visa. when i got a restraining order, he fled. somewhat and the police department tipped him off and he fled. host: i'm sorry for your experience. we will leave it there. ed martin, in a generic sense can you address how the republican platform addresses immigration? guest: well, thank you on