in 1977, doonsberry cartoonist placed one of his characters in a debate with phyllis schafly and as schafly speaks to the crowd, joany thinks, hey, phyllis your sheet is showing. these representations of schafly as a feminist and part of a right wing organized deball took a more sinister turn when opponents suggested that violence was the best way to stop schafly. activist florence kennedy appeared on the radio and denounced schafly as a pigocrat and exclaimed, i do not understand why people do not hit her in the mouth. when asked about the,, she explained, i don't think phyllis schafly should be damaged seriously but instead of debating her, people should slap. now we come to our final set of questions we began this talk with. what were the ramifications of this debate and how did the e.r.a. debate transform american politics? perhaps what is most striking about the defeat of e.r.a. in 1982 was that it was so long expected. in the struggle against feminism, schafly and her followers concluded that america faced an enemy within that threatened the traditional order of a christian based soci