really terrific people. >> we've been talking with kate buford, author of this new book, "native american son: the life and sporting legend of jim thorpe." stood up next on book tv, fox's local commentator margaret hoover argues that the republican party has the opportunity to redefine and strengthen itself by attracting the millennial generation. this is about an hour. ..

>> who she is and what she is in the middle of accomplishing in her vibrant life. so some facts important for you to know. she is, of course, the great granddaughter of herbert hoover, the 31st president of the united states. she has worked on two presidential campaigns, one white house with president bush 43 and on capitol hillment -- hill. she appears weekly as, i bet, everybody in this audience knows as a political commentator on fox news. she is known as a cultural warrior. on bill o'reilly's "the factor," one of the top rated cable tv shows in history. in addition to being on the board of overseers for the hoover institution at stanford, she's also on the board of the herbert hoover presidential library association. finally, she is here today with her husband, john avlon, of "newsweek" and the daily beast among others, including cnn, as

well as her parents, andrew and jeannie hoover. and andrew, of course, is herbert hoover's brand son. we'd like to welcome you all here today. [applause] okay. among her many goals in life, i am sure, two are key at present. both, as i noted before, align quite well with the kinds of things that we care about here at the reagan foundation. the first involves something i'll call brand relevance. if you are a follower of the reagan foundation ally prayer, our mission and what we stand for, you can't help but have notice inside these past couple of years that we have bent over backwards to burnish the image and the legacy of ronald reagan, the reagan brand, into the minds of americans. we've taken the opportunity of this centennial to reach many

millions of americans and remind them not just what ronald reagan was as a man, but more importantly, what it is he stood for. so i'm here to report the reagan brand's in great shape. the most recent gallup surveys reveal that ronald reagan's the most admired president among all americans. [applause] now, margaret, too, is on a mission. she faces a different but a related brand challenge. she has set a course to build and then where it needs it repair the brand of the republican party itself. while i will let margaret tell you why and how she believes this is possible, suffice it to say that she brings to the table ideas and through her name and through her reach the ability to attract many newcomers to the republican brand like few that have come before her. now, the second comparison

before i introduce her i'd like to make between the mission of the reagan foundation and i shall call it the mission of margaret is to attract young people to our respective causes like never before. here at the reagan foundation we have an overwhelming interest in attracting young people, particularly those who were either not even alive when president reagan was president, or certainly old enough to vote for him to an understanding of who he was and why his ideas were important. without this knowledge there is little chance that they will strive to emulate him. we've taken special care during the centennial to bring youth into all that we've done from planning to organizing and involving. margaret's similar task, one that rings forth in her book, involves the single-minded focus of engaging youth, the millennial generation as she'll tell you, 50 million strong into the hopefully welcome arm arms of the republican party.

she knows without them there is no future for the republican party, and she urges us all to do manager about it. so -- to do something about it. so, ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming margaret hoover. [applause] >> wonderful. thank you. an incredible honor to be here today at the ronald reagan presidential library foundation, and, um, foundation. ours is the herbert hoover presidential library association. thank you, john, for the very generous introduction. the subtitle of my book is "how a new generation of conservatives can save the republican party." now, some of you may wonder if this is a bit alarmist. what, after all, needs to be

saved? the republicans, after all, in 2010 had an historic election, came to washington and in a very short period of time have managed to change the course of the policies, especially the fiscal policies in washington. so in the context of our recent successes some, maybe even my father, might wonder if i'm being a bit alarmist in my subtitle. and what i would say is this is not at all alarmist. there's a real sense of urgency and purpose behind this that john touched on. and my book is intended to be a real warning because the republican party is at risk of losing an entire generation of americans to democratic and independent voter rolls for the rest of their lives. these 30 and unders which i call the millennials, others have called them generation we,

generation y. they're all the same. they're 30 and unders, they were born at the end of the reagan era through the beginning of the clinton presidency. they are the largest generation in america be. in 2008 there were 50 million that were eligible to vote. conservative estimates now have them at 80 million. they were, there are 17 million more millennials than there are baby boomers, 27 million more millennials than there are generation x, and we all know they're not republicans. they're overwhelmingly not republicans. they represented 18% of the vote in 2008. they are anticipated to be as much as a quarter of the election -- a quarter of the electorate in 2012. and they voted in 2010 -- or in 2008 overwhelmingly for barack obama two to one.

62% voted for barack obama, 32% for john mccain. now, the reason this is urgent is because partisan identity takes on the characteristics of cement over time. it starts off, and after they clear certain barriers it begins to so solidify. so after three presidential elections cycles, their partisan identity, basically, solidifies. they voted for john kerry in 2004, they voted for barack obama in 2008. this means that republicans have roughly 16 months to make inroads into this generation before we lose them for the rest of their lives. so this is troubling to me. not just because i'm a republican, but because i believe that the ideas of the conservative movement and the ideas of the republican party actually have offered better solutions to the issues that are most important to this generation and the issues that effect them most directly.

now, the title of my book, not the subtitle, the title, "american individualism," is a reference to my great grandfather, herbert hoover, and and a guiding principle that he set forth almost 90 years ago in which i believe captures the spirit of the millennial generation in surprising ways. and i'm going to go into this in a minute, but i want to tell you a little bit about my own background first besides just the headliner biography that i am the great granddaughter of herbert hoover. i because of this, of course, have always been a proud republican. but i've also had my own journey. since the beginning of as far as i can remember, i've been a student of herbert hoover, of his life, of his legacy, but also of the american conservative movement. i never knew my great grandfather. he passed away 13 years before i was born. but my upbringing was informed by stories of him, his wit, his

wisdom, his philosophy of government. and it was also peppered with visits to the herbert hoover presidential library which is in west branch, iowa, which is where he was born. but also to the hoover institution at stanford university in northern california which he calls his proudest legacy. i also, you know, grew up with some of these stories that are common in presidential families really only two generations down. my dad has these fabulous story about how he learned to make a flank with his toy soldiers because a guy with five soldiers on his shoulder -- five stars on his shoulder told him to do it. herbert hoover lived on the 31st floor of the waldorf-astoria. so these influences had an impact on me going up. but despite that experience, those set of experiences i

really shied away from politics or participating in any sort of politics as i was growing up or in my early adulthood. i didn't intern for a local representative, i didn't pursue jobs in politics in the summers in washington d.c. i didn't major in political science. instead i was actually quite inspired by my great grandfather's life trajectory which took him abroad this his early years. so i studied spanish language literature in college. i also was inspired by my great grandmother who learned mandarin chinese. and so i studied mandarin chinese. and lived abroad and studied abroad in bolivia and in mexico and in china and also my first job out of college when i graduated from university was in taipei, taiwan. and i worked for a taiwanese law firm.

i was a research assistant and an editor and studied mandarin chinese at night. but my first full day in taipei when i arrived there after graduating from college was september 11, 2001. and on that day and the weeks that followed i realized i wanted nothing more than to be back in the united states where the deepest expression of patriotism was stirring here in our country. and being on the other side of the globe when that was happening here at home had a profound effect on me. all of us stayed up nights watching television, watching the 24-hour news cycle which really began then, and i, you know, it was 12 hours different in taiwan, so i stayed up at night watching cnn, you know, as late as i could stay up. the reason i watched cnn is because fox news wasn't available in taipei at that time. [laughter] and i was, i was so inspired by

president george bush's words and his leadership as he rallied the country and also of rudy giuliani's. and the expressions of patriotism that were everywhere across the country and that especially rallied youth to patriotism in a way that i hadn't seen yet in my life inspired me to want to come back, to want to be part of the functioning of our democracy. and be i thought it would be an incredible honor to come back to the united states and work for president bush. and so after a year in taiwan i found my way home, i volunteer inside my home state of colorado for a senate race, wayne allard, and i got very lucky. i went to washington, and i found a job working for -- i didn't find a job, i was lucky enough to be hired by a brand new republican from miami who desperately needed a spanish speaker in his washington office. and then had the opportunity to join president bush's

re-election campaign in july of 2003, and a year later i received a white house appointment in 2004 where i worked for roughly two years. and then in 2006 i had the opportunity to come to new york city which is where i live now, and the opportunity was to work for rudy giuliani on his presidential campaign. so during the course of my time working for president bush i sensed a mounting animusty and distancing -- animosity and distancing of my peer group from the republican party. and i noticed this not only in '04 and not only in '06, but -- well, you couldn't miss it in '08. poll numbers showed the electorate completely turned

away from the republican party. now, for the record, i'm completely accustomed to being in the minority of my peer group when it comes to politics. i sort of joke that as a hoover i'm sort of cut out for it. when you grow up related to the most vilified president in 20th century history who my history books taught me caused the great depression, who ap history books to this day say he did nothing to solve it. and i know this for a fact because duke blackwood brilliantly e-mailed because his daughter had an ap u.s. history essay she had to write, and it was about herbert hoover not doing anything to solve the great depression. and the director and myself managed to help her get an a on her the test and educate her teacher about what herbert hoover actually did during the great depression. but what has been interesting to me to see and, you know, in my

position you develop a thick skin, you learn to question the conventional narratives, you learn to think independently. these were the greatest gifts i got from herbert hoover. but what's been interesting to me is that the narrative has gotten worse in my lifetime. democrats have always brought hoover out as the whipping boy for economic hard times. every presidential election cycle. but now republicans are doing it. mitt romney is talking about barack obama's hoovervilles. and rush limbaugh has even said the economy is so bad we won't reelect barack hoover obama. now, i can't sort of put that out there without just doing a small defense. i mean, this was a man, herbert hoover, who his contemporaries called the great humanitarian. his biographers say he probably -- they estimate that just shy of a billion lives were saved because of his efforts at famine relief. he was really the pioneer of the

modern ngo. he was the master of emergencies. the 1927 mississippi river flood which was, basically, the equivalent of a modern day katrina which displaced 1.5 million americans, he as secretary of commerce went to the mississippi river valley and was able to coordinate with local, all the local leadership of the time to get tent cities and vaccinations and education and portable water all to these cities. but it was all paid for by private funds. so this was, he was an incredible hero, and one of the -- the first, i would say, disciples of the conservative movement. and republicans have really forgotten that we have a great hero in herbert with hoover. back to millennials. some say that we just can't get the youth vote.

some say that they cite winston churchill when they start voting with their pocketbooks, they'll, you know, they'll come around. if they're not a liberal when they're 20, they don't have a heart. if they're not a conservative by the time they're 40, they don't have a brain. and this would be great if it were true. but it ignores our best history. and our best history was set by ronald reagan. ronald reagan brought an entire generation of youth into the republican party. this was the reagan revolution. he won the youth vote in 1980, he won it decisively by 20 points in the 1984. it's just simply not true that republicans won't vote -- or that youth won't vote for republicans. and even the very first millennials when they came to the polls, the first millennials that were eligible to vote in 2000 split their ticket evenly between al gore and george bush. i think it's fair to say that

because youth don't have as much experience as older generations their political views are formed as much by the failures that they have known in their lifetime as they are by any vision that is espoused by a particular politician. and i think reagan was aided by the failures of the carter administration. but he also was able to communicate conservativism so beautifully that an entire generation rallied to this vision. and i think that's also what barack obama was able to do. the youth, they first started breaking from the republican party in '04 because they believed john kerry's mantra that the iraq war was the wrong time in the wrong place. and in 2005 the failures of the federal government and the government to really respond to hurricane katrina also affected them as well as the scandals in 2006 in the house of

representatives. and i think it was republican brand damage that drove youth away from the republican party as much as really the soaring rhetoric of barack obama that captured, i think, what is the ethos of the millennial generation which is the desire to rise above partisanship, the air peel to service -- appeal to service and the resolve that government could work again. one more thing about the challenge facing republicans. we need youth especially because the republican party hasn't just shrunk in the youth category over the last ten years, it has also shrunk in almost every other category that's been polled. in 26 categories -- economic, religious, ethnic -- 26 categories that gallup polled republican identification shrunk in 25, and can we remain the same in the only one, and that

one other group which was weekly churchgoers. so i think we're a far away from the permanent majority we were seeking, but i think we have an opportunity to come around to win back more than just millennials. because i think that the message of this book and the way to reach millennials will also reach with a broader portion of the electorate. so what my book is, it's an attempt the characterize the millennial generation; who they are, what makes them tick, what's exciting to them, what they think about government. and it's also, you know, an attempt to communicate conservative ideas to this generation so we can connect to them. what i try to do is i try to describe issues where they're already there in terms of the ideas that we're espousing in the conservative movement, and we just need to connect the dots. but what i'm also trying to do is on issues where they're not there, how do we make the case

to them? so this book is a road map, and whoever our candidate is, i hope, will look to it because i try to crystallize. i had a professor of political science from san jose state university last night monitoring a group i did in san francisco, and he thought i characterized millennials quite well. of course, this is -- he was admittedly very liberal, as you can imagine, he was the chair of the department. but he deals with millennials in and out every day, and he thought that i characterized them well. the truth is we have an enormous opportunity because there's a very, very good sign that millennials have been disappointed by barack obama. they didn't turn out nearly in the networks in 2010 as we thought -- as they were expected to. even in the previous off year election cycle in 2006 they turned out in greater numbers. and barack obama's approval rating is down 18 percentage points in this group since january of 2009 when he took office. now, let's be very clear, it's still high in this group.

but down 18 percentage points says something. so who are the millennials? there are basically three things you need to know about millennials that are a little counterintuitive for republicans and conservatives. the first is that they have a positive view of government. i'm going the read a statement -- to read a statement. think about how you would answer this, agree or disagree. when something is run by the government, it is usually managed inefficiently and wastefully. [laughter] >> [inaudible] [laughter] >> only 42% of millennials agree with that statement. so said differently, 58% of them think that the government is good at running things. okay. so that's what we're working with. [laughter] you know, this is not to say that they think government should grow.

it's not to say that they should take -- that they believe government should have, you know, a greater role in the lives of individuals. they just don't think it's evil. they think it should work. so, unfortunately, reagan's government is the problem line isn't going to resonate with this generation. and incidentally, while millennials have a very good view of reagan to the extent that they're aware of him and be the reagan foundation has done an incredible job of promoting reagan to this generation, they don't have the same visceral gut reaction when the republican party invokes reagan the way people who -- my parents' generation and older do because they simply didn't experience him firsthand. incidentally, the hoover library's going to take a few pages from your book on promoting the brand of ronald reagan for herbert hoover.

secondly, their politics is pragmatic, not ideological. 40% of them call themselves moderate, 29% liberal, 29% conservative. they simply don't buy into rigid ideology. and i think this is how barack obama's rhetoric appealed to them. remember, he was not for red states or blue states, he was for the united states of america. and the youth loved this. and he was also for making government work again. and they loved this. this is, this is the government can work part. the third thing that you should know is that they are, the millennials, they are the least traditional american generation in american history. they adhere least to traditional family structure. more have been raised in single-parent households. they are the least religious generation. they are the least affiliated with organized religion. only a quarter of them identity

with an organized religion. however, 67% of them say they pray every day. so they believe in god, they have values, they call themselves spiritual, but they don't identify with organized religion. as much as previous generations. and they also have the fewest hang-ups about sexual orientation of any generation. this is a generation where a majority believe in same-sex \. same-sex marriage. so given sort of these guidelines how do we, as republicans and conservatives, connect to them and sell our message especially in 2012 which is our next big opportunity to make our case to the millennials and to the american people? i think what we need to do is look at the issues that are most important to the country right now. and that is, quite obviously, if you're paying attention to the debates in washington right now

we all know we're talking about spending, debt, deficits, entitlement reforms, and we're talking about jobs. this generation is 37% unemployed or underemployed. this is the highest share amongst this age group in three decades. now, while 55% of them still like president obama personally, they can see that his policies have been tried, and viscerally they can see that they haven't worked. unemployment has gone up. they know this in their own lives. many of them are still on their parents' or on their friends' sofas. i think as republicans we can say his policies were tried and failed, but we need to make sure we don't demonize him personally because this generation, they still like him. so we have to make a pragmatic case, not an ideological one and not a personal one. also every time we talk about spending we should be talking

about how the spending in washington is generational theft. we these to connect the dots specifically to them. it's their fiscal future that we're talking about right here. they're the ones who are going to have to pay for it. every single dollar that washington is spending me and the people younger than me are going to have to pay it back with interest. and that is on us. that is our fiscal future, that is our economic prosperity that is being robbed. and and i think republicans when we have the chance in 2012 can make a very strong case that it is the republican party who took the bold decisions and took the bold political decisions to represent really what hope and change is and not politics as moral in washington. another issue area where i think millennials are already there in terms of what republican policies represent and we just

need to make the case is education. the my eleven l y'all generation -- millennial generation, here's another data point about them. they are the most diverse generation in american history. they are 40% non-white, 20% of them have at least one immigrant parent. it's the promise of america and the promise of american individualism that everyone will have an equal opportunity to rise above the circumstances of their birth. based on their own skills and talents and that they will have a good education in order to do that. that's just something we decided a long time ago, that the government will provide a good education. but that 30% of millennials aren't graduating from high school, and the majority of those, that 30%, they are disproportionately black and hispanic. and 50 years after the brown v. board of education that there is, basically, still a

segregated school system based on good zip codes and bad zip codes. the wealthy zip codes and the less, the poorer zip codes. this to fends the sensibilities of this generation, and you know it because they're the ones that have flocked to the charter school movement, to the kip schools. they're the ones who are staffing teach for america. they get that there is a systemic problem in our education system. and the reality is we all know this. you and i know this here. but the democratic party is simply incapable of handling this. they can't because their hands are tied because of the teachers' unions, and they were not able to address these problems. and millennials are starting to understand it especially with movies like "waiting for superman." heck, even the center left in this country is starting to understand, oh, the teachers' unions. wow, they're kind of standing in the way. they're looking out for teachers' interests, not students' interests. the fact that $40 million was poured into the 2010 election

cycle by teachers' unions tells you everything you need to know. and the real reforms that are happening in education are happening in states that have republican governors and republican legislatures. chris christie, i didn't even feel like i needed to say the state because we all know chris christie. and in michigan, rick snyder, new republican governor of michigan just passed sweeping reforms that are going to effect every kid in the school system in detroit. this is just something, to me, that the millennials get implicitly, and i think we just need to start, start really screaming it from mountaintops when we have the next opportunity which will be in the next presidential election cycle. the other issue that always ranks highly are with millennials is the environment. and i argue in my book that we need to make a very strong case for a conservative environmentalism. incidentally, the republican

party has a pretty good history with environmentalism; teddy roosevelt, richard nixon. i think that we can talk about climate change, and we can acknowledge that climate change is happening, but it's also an inexact science. we know that the cover of "newsweek" in 1975 showed that the globe was going to freeze over. we can acknowledge and talk about it in if a reasonable way -- in a reasonable way without embracing the left's solutions which would levy enormous tax burdens on the middle class for energy consumption. we can end -- and frankly, they would only reduce the carbon emissions in the united states by a minimal amount over the next 100 years without even touching india and china. so i think the deal with conservative environmentalism is to put forth an agenda that says the government has an important role in protecting the environment, but it cannot and it should not be trusted to

deliver a low carbon energy-independent future. this has to come from individuals working together and driven by the realities of the marketplace. i talk about a couple other issues in the book which i'm happy to do more in q&a. i talk about a new republican feminism. there is a wonderful new crop of women leaders in the republican party that the national scene hasn't necessarily taken note of. i mean, we've seen michele bachmann, and we've seen sarah palin, but there are three new republican governors thanks to 2010. one is susana martinez who's a hispanic woman of a border state, new mexico. now, you all are close by, so you probably know this. but in new york they have no idea. [laughter] i also talk about social issues a bit in the book and how it relates to this generation and the legacy of the republican party. i also talk about immigration. now, immigration is one where, you know, we're going to have to

work a little harder. they may not be there already. we're, i think, on fiscal issues and education they're basically there. they get it. we just need to connect the dots. i think we need to do a better job on immigration. i think we need to do a better job with islamist supremacy which was the war on terror which is now the overseas contingency operation. [laughter] and also making the case for american exceptionalism. because this is the first generation in american history that doesn't subscribe to american individualism. but i think, i think we can make the case for it by explaining where the hang-up is. because basically think that american individualism means that americans are better than everyone else and that americans can go it alone. and that is not what it means. it is not an expression of american jingoism. it's an expression of the exceptionalism and the brilliance of this system in america that allows individuals to become the best they can be, better than anywhere else on

earth. and it's not because i'm better than any other young woman who is born in any other country. but our system because it protects my liberties allows me in most cases to become more. back to the title, "american individualism." when i began to think about how to connect conservative ideas to the next generation, i found what i was looking for close to home. and i realized as i was going through my great grandfather's book, "american individualism," that herbert hoover actually embodies the ideals of the millennial generation 80 years before the first millennials were born. herbert hoover was a technologist. this generation has come of aim with the -- with the internet -- of age with the internet. herbert hoover, too, lived in a

technology age. radio waves, he was the first individual to appear on television. he was at the fore front of new mining technologies, and he learned them in the heart of the silicon valley at stanford university, 100 years before the silicon valley came to embody technology in this new age for the millennial generation. he was a globalist. he circumnavigated the globe five times by steamship before the advent of aviation. he lived and worked on four continents, visited six. this generation, too, is globally oriented because of the internet. they care a lot about public service. millennials, the highest percentage of them have -- 83% of them say they have volunteered at least once in the last year. they value service. not necessarily political service, but community service and service to others. herbert hoover, of course, was

considered the great humanitarian, dedicated his life to service, said it was the most meaningful thing he could is serve his fellow mankind. and the last thing they have in common is that they believe that government can work. they believe that government can be part of the solution, and they want government to work. herbert hoover also believed that government could be a partner. he didn't believe the government was evil. his term as secretary of commerce was really defined by streamlining and standardizing the modern economy. you know, many people don't know this, but the reason we get eggs in half dozens and dozens, the reason milk is pasteurized and comes in quarts and liters, the reason bricks are all the same size and tires of cars are the same size and bed sheets are standardized is because they weren't before herbert hoover. and as an engineer he decided if you standardize things, then you can streamline the modern

economy, you can make it way more efficient. and so he believed that government shouldn't control industry, but it could help industry be more efficient for the sake of increasing the standard of living and, frankly, the productivity of the modern economy. in 1922 herbert hoover wrote this book called "american individualism." he had lived abroad for roughly 20 years, and his experience had been one of hands-on experience with the political revolutions that were sweeping the globe in the early 20th century. he had had a first row, you know, front row seat in china's boxer rebellion. he had been one of the last 200 foreigners to escape from china on a german mail boat. then he was involved deeply in russia during the bolshevik revolution where he watched the bolsheviks destroy his mining properties and ceramics factories, and he watched the

rise of a belligerent germ think in europe -- germany in europe where he took a firsthand role in bringing food relief to belgium and saving eight million belgians from starvation. he became concerned when he returned to the united states that these his ms, these fads, these political ideologies that were sweeping the world -- fascism, communism, socialism -- might be tried on for size in america. that we might experiment with these ideas. and it wasn't, you know, an abstract fear. the socialist party of america in the presidential elections in the late teens at one point garnered as much as 6% in the popular election. so he wanted to try to characterize what the american system was and why it worked in order to inoculate it from trying on these isms of europe. and he called the american system american individualism. it was special because it was centered around the individual,

and it harbored and protected the ideal of a quality of opportunity. not equality of outcomes, but equality of opportunity. and he knew that his story wouldn't be able to happen anywhere else in the world. he was born in west branch, iowa, a frontier town. he was the first president, incidentally, born west of the mississippi. he was orphaned when he was 9 years old. he was sent west to live with relatives he hardly knew, started his career in manual labor and rose to the greatest heights of success as an international businessman. toward the end of his triumphant campaign in 1928 he gave a speech called "rugged individualism." now, this speech was basically a campaign distillation of the ideas of american individualism. and he talked about how america had a choice of two futures in 1928. america had a choice of sticking with the american system of

individualism. i'm going to actually read the quote. he said, a choice between the american system of rugged individualism and the european philosophy of die meticly opposed doctrines; doctrines of paternalism and state socialism where every step of bureaucratizing of the business of our country poisons liberalism. free speech, free assembly and equality of opportunity, this is not the road to more liberty, but to less liberty. now, i am struck by how relevant that is to our modern debates. these are the themes that we hear in the tea party rallies. this is the choice of two futures that paul ryan talks about when he talks about the path to prosperity. i think if we make the case, the next generation, the millennial

generation -- if given the choice of these two futures -- will choose the american system, herbert hoover's american individualism. and for as fractured as the conservative movement can be, and we all know that it can be fractured, i have a book, a chapter in my book called conservative tribalism because the conservative movement is a very diverse family. there are neoconservatives, there are paleoconservatives, there are -- my dad toasted at my wedding, western conservatives. [laughter] there are goldwater conservatives, there are libertarian conservatives. we have all these different kind of conservatives, and the genius of ronald reagan in my view is that he was able to bring harmony to the cacophony of voices within the conservative movement and unite us ask focus us -- and focus us on what we had in common, not what divided us. and he was able to provide a cohesive fusionism. and it was really aided by the

coalition's unified interest in defeating communism. and he made all of the different factions realize that if we focus on what we have in common, defeating communism, we will get there. but it was if you are 80% my ally, you are not 20% my enemy. and the 11th commandment helped also. i think we need to invoke this aspect of reagan today. if we focus on the challenge and the choice we have before us in 2012, this choice of two futures, and if we focus on the fiscal responsibility, growing the economy, getting jobs back to the american people and we channel the essence of american individualism, i think this will create a new fusionism that will connect to the next generation l unite the various tribes of conservativism and attract a new generation to the republican party.

ultimately, my book was a culmination of a quest that i undertook in search of a republican-rooted philosophy that will appeal to a broad section of americans including millennials. that a major source of my inspiration proved to be a book written almost 100 years ago by my great grandfather may be surprising, but i think that millennials will be surprised to discover fresh thinking and new ideas within the republican party. and in these sources find the hope and the change that they've been waiting for. thank you very much. [applause] thanks. wow, stop it. [applause]

>> um, margaret's been kind enough to agree to answer about ten minutes of questions. so if any of you have a question, if you could just raise your hand. we have people in the aisles who can bring a microphone to you if you could speak into the microphone. that would be great. right here. >> ms. hoover? >> stay seated. >> no, that's all right. my knee just went out. [laughter] i'm of that generation now. [laughter] you mentioned the genius of ronald reagan being able to bring the cacophony of voices together in the republican party. as i see the candidates today running for the republican party, i don't see any genius. i don't detect any genius among this group that has that same ability. do you? >> where's our ronald reagan? [laughter] i think the republican field is still immature. i think it is broadening.

i don't think everybody who will ultimately be in the race is in yet, and what i hope is that whoever the candidate is really takes the ideas and the characterizations of this generation that i've, that i've tried to crystallize in my book to heart. because i hope, i hope that our reagan emerges. we all do. >> yes. right over here. >> with as you were -- as you were elaborating about the youth and i think that point was very well taken that there's a lot of youth out there that are lost and have no idea what's going on in politics. i'm thinking two people that the republican party ought to embrace because they have the charisma to reach out to those people that you're addressing, and that's marco rubio and bobby jindal.

those two people -- i'm sure there's more out there, but those two people, to me, probably have the ability to reach that very group that you're talking about. >> i absolutely agree with you. but there's more than just them. i think paul ryan is remarkable. nobody can explain the intricacies of the completely boring budget policy in a absolutely understandable and accessible way. and paul ryan is also one of those people who when he talks about it, he's not deeply ideological. he's very pragmatic, and you understand. and i think he, also, can connect to the next generation. couldn't agree with you more about marco rubio. i've been a fan of bobby jindal -- one of my first political donations was a $200 check. that was when i was working in the politics in washington and not making any money, and i gave bobby jindal a $200 check when he was running for congress. so i couldn't agree with you more. we also have a slew of fresh faces. i mean, we have nikki haley, we

have susana martinez, we have brian sandoval. you may not have heard of these folks. nikki haley, of course s the republican governor of south carolina, susana martinez is a hispanic woman, governor of new mexico, and brian sandoval, a new republican hispanic governor. so i think we have in 2010 we have elected a new slate that they'll be getting their stripes, they'll be getting wise and cutting their political teeth, and they will be ready in 2016. i think, i hope that we're able to -- i still think some folks may come to the table in 2012. and i still think because of the disappointment with barack obama and with the reality of the reality of the situation with the economy and the fact that so many of them are unemployed, i think we have even if we don't have a ronald reagan, i think we have a real chance of making a case and making inroads with this generation. >> right here.

>> i just wanted to say i was at your grandfather's library, and it was beautiful, and i never realized what a wonderful man he was until i visited it. but my question is do you think that the tea party might divide the republican party as ross perot did in '92? >> today is a particularly good day the ask that question because there are specific kissisms that are happening right now in washington that certainly threaten that fate. and be i general -- and i genuinely hope not. i genuinely hope that the folks who were -- the 87 -- it is remarkable to me that 87 republicans came to washington, and in a year we've been able to shift the direction that the country is going in terms of spending. and i am a huge fan of the tea party because without the tea party this wouldn't have happened. [applause]

and i certainly hope that we can look at our successes, and we can also realize that we need to get over the finish line. because we don't have the bully pulpit of the presidency. and we will probably lose the communications battle if we allow the government to default. and i think we can consider it an enormous win that we've been able to get to this point. and it's a first step in really correcting the fiscal course for the next generation. >> right over here. >> thank you for visiting. i'm curious if there's any candidates or not candidates, but anyone in the party that's being talked about that hasn't stepped forward as a candidate that you might consider a possibility? >> we, i have lots of young friends who joke we have fantasy

candidates. [laughter] and be maybe our fantasy candidates will come to the forefront. i, personally, i love paul ryan. i think paul ryan really embodies the future of the republican party. chris christie also does. so does marco rubio. i mean, we talked a lot about them. but i personally hope that paul ryan will come forward. >> [inaudible] >> rick perry, rick perry has a wonderful story to tell about what he's done in texas. i think the flirtation with rick perry also represents wanting in the republican field. that i think it's also an expression that many folks, maybe like yourselves, simply aren't comfortable with the field of candidates as it is now. and, you know, we hope the rest of you who are thinking about getting in will hear us loud and clear. [laughter] please, get in. the republican party needs you. >> back here to to the left. >> yes, thank you for enlightening us on the

millennials today, we appreciate that, the background on that was actually very helpful. but my question to you is and, first, i just wanted to state that i'm a proud what i call reagan republican because my first be vote was 1980 when i was 18 years old, and i voted for him twice. and that really is a commentary on our youth today because they're not going to the polls, and that's something you really didn't speak to. and my question, i guess, to you is to ask you what is it that the republican party can do to attract them to the polls? >> well, it's true they're not going to the polls for republicans, but they are going to the polls. they were 18% of the electorate in 2008, and if they turn out in the same -- look, there were 50 million of them who were eligible to vote and half of them, actually slightly more than half of them turned out. so, i mean, that's proportionate to the voting electorate. about half of the electorate shows up. so in terms of that demographic,

they're represented proportionally. slightly even better. so they're voting. they're just not voting republican. and what i think we need to do is read my book -- [laughter] [applause] and then, and then make the case. and we're going to have an opportunity. look, they may not be tuned in right now, they may be tuned in to the extent that they watch it on stewart or stephen colbert or bill maher, but they will give the next president a fair hearing. and that is our window of opportunity to make the case. and we need to make it along the lines that i've outlined. and i think that they'll hear us. i genuinely believe; but we've got to try, and that's the other thing. i mean, half the battle is showing up, right? we've got to make an effort. we've got to be where they are which is online, and i are say the republican party at least in the last few years realize we got creamed by technology by the democrats. i mean, they had facebook involve inside their campaign, and they were involved in online

advocacy, and they were engaging youth. i still, i mean, i signed up for fun. i was at the dnc convention for fox news, and i signed up because you could text this thing, and president obama would text you and say thanks for being here. i still get texts from president obama. i'm not getting texts from the rnc. i should be getting texts there the rnc. but we knew that we got creamed, and we've done some things to change it. every republican member of congress has a twitter account, and they're tweeting that they just voted on this or that or met with such and such constituent. step in the right direction. and my hope is this will really coalesce once we have a candidate because parties are redefined in the context of candidacies. so once we have a candidate, it is my sincere hope that there will be an honest effort to reach out and connect to this next generation because we can make inroads, and we've got to. we have this window to do it. >> we have time for one last question.

>> yes. thank you, ms. hoover. i'm a public schoolteacher, and i teach junior high and high school kids. and you've already lost that upcoming generation because they hear, and i heard it today, the constant attack on teachers' unions which are made of their teachers, and they know how hard we are working because it's their chance for better future. but constantly the republican party tends to vilify their teachers and educators, and the kids pick this up. and every time we try to advocate for our students, we're constantly being somehow selfish or we're not, we're trying not to be accountable. and i've seen over the years the destruction of public education, and as a public school educator i care about my kids -- >> of course you do. >> and i don't influence them. these kids are sharp. they see it. and unless the republican party and all politicians, i don't

care what party you are, sit there and support us, this generation's going to be totally apolitical. >> i say this in my book and be i, perhaps, should have said it in my remarks, america's teachers are america's heros. and ms. laura bush, i think, did this brilliantly. she was a teacher herself, and she really put the focus on how important teachers are for our country and how their service to the country is invaluable. so thank you for teaching. and the republican party is not vilifying teachers. let's be very clear. i mean, teachers are the heros. this is not about teachers. this is about the systems that have been corrupted that look out for the interests of teachers more than the interests of students. [applause] and that is -- [applause]

and that is -- when you say we need to support teachers, i agree that we need to support teachers. but the question is, do we support teachers by throwing more money at a system that absolutely proportionally if you compare the amount of money that we have put into the public school system compared to all the other oecd countries who rank in the top 25 and the amount of money they're throwing in theirs, do we continue to throw money in a system that is broken, or do we find a way to support teachers in a way that actually reforms the system so that students are getting a better education, they're getting more attention in the classroom? if this is maybe -- this is maybe a philosophical difference between us. but i think when we look at what we've been doing, it's not been working. and be i think we have a real opportunity to make serious reforms. i think ten-year reform, collective bargaining reform with the teachers' unions are

absolutely necessary, and i think we're going to see real results in michigan which just passed all three of those, and then we can talk. [applause] >> we are about out of time, but i just want to on behalf of the foundation say thank you so much, margaret, for coming. you're just terrific. >> thank you, john. [applause] thank you very much. >> you can find out more by visiting the author's web site, margarethoover.com. >> what are you reading this summer? be booktv wants to know.

>> tell us what you're reading this summer. send us a tweet at booktv. here are the nonfiction bestsellers as of july 28th according to indiebound.org. ..