PHYLLIS SCHLAFLY Still seeking the conservative choice, not an echo A WASHINGTON TIMES ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT Schlafly at 90: Still comforting the afflicted conservative, and afflicting the comfortable Republican BY CHERYL WETZSTEIN even worse, she declares. THE Washington TIMES “These judges think they can do any- thing, and they are trying to make law and “I’ve had a fun life.” really run the country, and make all these So says Phyllis Schlafly, the prolific important decisions,” she says. There are writer, speaker and conservative thinker exceptions, like the “brave judge” who re- who, at age 90, is still fighting to com- cently wrote the 120-page opinion blocking fort the afflicted conservative while -af “Obama’s crooked amnesty” program for flicting the comfortable. Especially the illegal immigrants, but “that’s out of line” kingmakers. with the “supremacists,” she adds. She’s not done yet, either. In 2012 she covered the “very impor- Mrs. Schlafly, the author of 25 books, tant” religious freedom issue in her book still writes a weekly column, radio com- “No Higher Power: Obama’s War on Reli- mentaries and a monthly newsletter, “The gious Freedom.” Phyllis Schlafly Report,” on current affairs. That, in turn, dovetails into the white- Asked in a recent interview what it hot social issue of gay rights, she says. will take to see President Ronald Reagan’s “I have said and thought from beginning “morning in America” again, she replies that [the] first goal of the gay rights move- instantly with the candor that is her hall- ment was not marriage — their first goal mark: “A change in the administration, for was to shut up everybody that disagreed starters.” with them, and accuse them of discrimina- But then there will be a lot of hard work tion,” Mrs. Schlafly says. disincentivizing welfare, re-incentivizing Their two big arguments have been marriage and tackling the many forces — that they have been discriminated against, feminism, family courts, gay rights — that and there’s an inevitability to their claims, are undermining America’s “mom-and- she says. pop” family culture and the powerful In fact, however, “there hasn’t been a benefits it brings, she warns. “What [President] Obama has done to our country large-scale movement of the people to [gay The nuclear family — i.e., mother and is hard to believe, it’s so bad. He has taken us into marriage],” Mrs. Schlafly says. Instead, in father, with father as provider — “is an most states with gay marriage, the changes economic entity that can support itself, a different kind of country ... he wants to bring were “not adopted by the people, they were and did support itself and built the greatest adopted by a supremacist judge.” middle class in the history of the world,” us down to the level of all the other countries.” Mrs. Schlafly takes pride in her lead- says Mrs. Schlafly, the founder of Eagle ership in the 10-year battle to block state Forum. because it showed them the game plan, “When I wrote the new [version of] ‘A ratification of the Equal Rights Amend- Reviving a strong, self-sufficient family inspired them to go for a goal and to stick Choice Not an Echo,’ basically I predicted ment passed by Congress in 1972, arguing T culture is the only way out of the nation’s together afterwards,” she said. Jeb [Bush] would be the candidate,” she it would allow women to be drafted into en M financial mess, she says. “A Choice Not an Echo” galvanized sup- says, referring to the son of the man the the military and give federal government “The social issues are the reason for port for Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater, a Establishment Republicans heavily backed “enormous new powers to reinterpret upple the big, unbalanced budget and enormous conservative, free enterprise, Republican over California Gov. Ronald Reagan in 1980. every law that makes a distinction based on s spending,” she said, recalling one statistical “choice,” not the “echo” of a liberal, big- “One of the funniest things to watch” gender, such as those related to marriage, G n I estimate that President Lyndon Johnson’s government Democrat. recently was former Republican presi- divorce and alimony.” s TI “War on Poverty” has now “cost more than Goldwater lost by a landslide to incum- dential candidate Mitt Romney’s effort to But her other major legacy is “making all the wars our country ever fought.” bent President Lyndon B. Johnson, but the return as a 2016 candidate, she says. “That the Republican Party pro-life.” dver events of 1964 sowed the seeds for “our a When fathers aren’t in the home, she wasn’t in the [Establishment] plan at all,” Republicans were pro-abortion under says, women and children look to “Big reward in 1980 with the election of Ronald she chuckles. “They had to get rid of him President Richard Nixon since, in the 1970s, es Brother Government” and its costly wel- Reagan,” Mrs. Schlafly says proudly. as they didn’t want their people divided.” people were worried that “we were run- TIM n fare programs. Mrs. Schlafly, whose work will be hon- Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has sev- ning out of food on the earth” and needed So, to cut the budget, “you’ve got to ored Wednesday night at the Paul Weyrich eral “fatal liabilities,” she wrote in 2014, population control, she said. Now the party GTO n restore the family,” says Mrs. Schlafly, who Awards dinner that kicks off the annual “such as the Bush name and his vehement is so pro-life, “you can hardly run for office HI is widowed after 44 years of marriage and Conservative Political Action Conference, support of the Common Core takeover of as a Republican without at least saying AS has six children and 14 grandchildren. updated her seminal book in 2014, offering our schools.” you’re pro-life,” she boasts. W a THE WASHINGTON TIMES THE WASHINGTON Mrs. Schlafly famously crashed Re- her always-succinct reviews of the politi- “If conservatives want to nominate a Mrs. Schlafly fought for pro-life po- | publican boardrooms and backrooms in cal conventions since 1968, and even some real conservative, they must get busy now.” sitions in Republican Party platforms, 1964 when she self-published a brisk little thoughts about 2016. Now the “big factor of money” is mak- beginning with the first convention after paperback called “A Choice Not an Echo.” The kingmakers of old have given way ing a huge difference in candidate selec- the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling legalizing “I sold 3.5 million copies out of my to the Republican Establishment, she says, tion, she tells The Times. abortion. Since 1984 the Republican plat- garage,” she told The Washington Times. but “it’s the same thing: The “big money “I know that Jeb Bush is having a form has said that “the unborn child, as an The book exposed and named “king- crowd” is trying to dictate who will be the $100,000-a-plate dinner. That is so much individual, has a fundamental right to life.” makers” who were picking Republican can- nominee and control the Republican Party. money I can hardly understand it.” Noting that half of the millennial gen- didates and propelling them forward with Still, the stakes for the next presidential Pick a favorite conservative subject — eration is pro-life, she says, “I’d like to think the help of paid political workers, media election have “never been higher,” she activist judges, religious freedom battles, it [was due to] all our good work, but it’s cheerleaders and “propaganda blitzes” adds. military superiority and family breakdown the pictures, the ultrasounds. that made a credulous public believe the “What [President] Obama has done to — and Mrs. Schlafly has probably written “I didn’t see any ultrasound when I was anointed candidate was there by public our country is hard to believe, it’s so bad. a book about it. having babies,” she says. But today, “even a Wednesday • February 25 • 2015 • February Wednesday acclaim. He has taken us into a different kind of Activist judges — like those in her 2006 4th grader can tell that’s a baby.” The book was “the major thing that country … he wants to bring us down to book, “The Supremacists: The Tyranny of 2 invented the conservative movement, the level of all the other countries.” Judges and How to Stop It” — have gotten The Phyllis Schlafly Way “Longevity plus consistency equals great leadership.” By Ed Martin very day, year after year, Phyl- lis Schlafly leads her Eagle Forum and, by extension, “the conservative movement.” Trusted for her judgment and instincts, Phyllis is a go-to leader for conservatives in and out of Epublic life. Already this year, she is play- ing a key role in the 2016 presidential election with her updated book A Choice Not An Echo which describes how the fight is yet again between the “kingmak- ers” and the conservative grassroots. On the national scene since 1952 (fighting for Taft over Eisenhower!) and a prominent founder of the conservative movement since 1964 (Goldwater), Phyllis has been in the middle of nearly every American policy conversation: from education to defense to the economy and especially the family and our values (ERA). Her many books and thousands of speeches appear the work of a work-a-holic con- servative, but they are just a small part 120 strong). Phyllis even completed framed arguments. She once told me name-calling or even to question mo- of Phyllis Schlafly’s work. Consider this law school and was admitted to the Bar that she never engages except on the tives.