Phyllis Schlafly Turns 90 Today

American Thinker ^ | August 15, 2014 | Jeff Lipkes

[jazusamo]

Very few individuals who were not politicians or generals have had a major impact on American political history. Phyllis Schlafly is one of the exceptions. Twice. In 1964, she helped launch the grass-roots conservative movement that flourishes today, transformed by the internet, and in 1972 she inaugurated what came to be called “social conservatism.”

More than any other individual, she was responsible for the nomination of Barry Goldwater, and thus, indirectly, Ronald Reagan. And virtually single-handedly, she defeated the so-called Equal Rights Amendment.

Schlafly was born 90 years ago today in St. Louis, the daughter of John and Odile Stewart. Her father was a machinist who was unemployed through most of the Great Depression. But the Stewarts were not Democrats. “We left the party under Grover Cleveland,” Schlafly says. Her mother worked as a librarian and teacher to support the family, and Schlafly put herself through college (Washington University, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa) working in a munitions plant during the war, test-firing .30 and .50 caliber rifles and machine guns 48 hours a week.

Her becoming a political activist was entirely fortuitous, she says. She had married attorney Fred Schlafly and the couple had moved across the Mississippi to Alton, Illinois. In 1952, some local Republican leaders came to their home to invite Fred to run for Congressman. The district was heavily Democratic, Fred’s practice was flourishing, and he was not interested. They turned to his wife. Phyllis agreed.

Female candidates were a novelty in those days, and she was invited to address the state Republican convention. She gave a dynamic speech to the 10,000 delegates sweltering in the unairconditioned Armory in Springfield, and received a lot of media attention. Schlafly lost the race in November, but was hooked on politics.

[Bob Ireland]

***Who Killed the Family***

We have a case right now in Florida: a mother let her three children [ages 7-10, I believe] play in the park while she went food shopping... she is in jail charged with a felony - child neglect I think. I am so mad I have nearly had a coronary!

People say I am a liar - AND I DON'T CARE! - but at seven years of age I was put on a bus in Kansas City and traveled to Nashville where I had to walk a block or so to another bus terminal and get a bus for Crossville, Tennessee - with luggage.

Subsequently my mother moved to Florida and I sometimes traveled from Crossville to Nashville and then to Orlando... and back to Rocky Top! I got to know one Greyhound driver - E.D. Harris - and he got to know me: quite well!.

Admittedly it was a different time.