Meet the 'indispensable' conservative woman

Richard Viguerie, the conservative who pioneered direct mail campaigns and impacted the movement significantly, says Phyllis Schlafly was the "Horatio at the bridge … an army of one … our general" during times when Americans really needed leadership on family and foreign policy issues.

"There was a period of time, after the Goldwater loss, through the second half of the '60s, through most of the '70s, we didn't have the leadership we've got now," Viguerie told WND.

"And Phyllis was Horatio at the bridge. She was an army of one. She was our general that was out there showing us we could go head to head, toe to toe with the establishment and beat them," he said. "She has been an indispensable leader of the conservative movement. The conservative movement may not exist to the level it does today without the leadership of Phyllis Schlafly."

His comments came on the heels of the announcement about the release of Schlafly's latest project, a book, "Who Killed the American Family," which was released September 23.

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At the same time, Brent Bozell, founder of the Media Research Center, said the entire movement "would have collapsed 30 years ago" without her.

Schlafly turned 90 in August and still is actively fighting for her beliefs, making speeches and writing. She's known, among other things, for her intense opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

"The ERA never became part of the Constitution because of the leadership of one person, Phyllis Schlafly," Viguerie said.

"I jokingly refer to myself sometimes as Double-0 Three, which means I've been active at the national level of the conservative movement longer than every living national conservative except for two others. Double-0 Two is Dr. Lee Edwards, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation. And Double-1 One is the grand lady of the conservative movement, Phyllis Schlafly."

Attacked, debased, maligned and vilified: This foundational institution is fighting for its life. Order Phyllis Schlafly's brand new book, "Who Killed the American Family?"

She is, he said, "going as hard and strong as she ever has. I bump into her regularly at meetings all over the country. She is just as engaged as she's ever been."

Viguerie, himself a lifelong activist and now chairman of ConservativeHQ.com, recently released his own "Takeover: The 100-Year War for the Soul of the GOP and How Conservatives Can Finally Win It."

He outlines the work he believes needs to be done for conservatives to rise again as a power across the nation.

On Schlafly, he said she's more than most people believe.

"She's certainly a major leader in the family [issues arena], those public policy issues. But she's also exceedingly knowledgeable. She's a lawyer. She's written extensively about the Supreme Court, the judicial system and foreign policy is an area of her expertise. She's a Renaissance person."

Bozell said she's "been 'true north' for the conservative movement, who's been a guiding light for conservative leaders, who has been a force of nature behind the scenes."

Schlafly has been active in the movement since 1946, when she took a research job with the American Enterprise Institute and managed Republican Claude Bakewell’s successful campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1952, as a member of the Illinois delegation to the Republican National Convention, she endorsed conservative icon Robert A. Taft for president.

But it was in 1964, with the publication of her book "A Choice, Not an Echo," that Schlafly vaulted into the pantheon of national conservative leaders. She has written 21 more books, authored a syndicated weekly newspaper column, founded the conservative interest group Eagle Forum, and published a monthly newsletter.

Present-day conservative leaders also recognize Schlafly's contributions to the conservative movement over the years. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., praised Schlafly for refusing to bow to feminists and other liberals.

"Phyllis is the epitome of how to stand up to feminists and how to stand up to leftist ideology," Bachmann said. "Phyllis was willing to be everything feminists wished they were, decades before feminists figured out they needed to be independent women in their own right. Phyllis was already there."

She continued, "As a woman of debate taking on her counterparts on college campuses, hundreds of campuses across the United States, she served as a role model, but she also entered the marketplace of ideas better armed than any opponent that she ever had. Pity the person who would be opposite Phyllis Schlafly in a debate."

Feminists are to blame for the family's demise, Schlafly writes. And another killer of the American family in Schlafly's eyes is no-fault divorce, which she refers to as "unilateral divorce." Women initiate two-thirds of all divorces, according to Schlafly, because they know they will usually get full custody of their children and a steady stream of child-support money from their ex-husbands.

"Wives who had tired of marriage and its obligations discovered that they could divorce with or without any reason, keep the kids and most of their ex-husbands' income, and live a life free from marriage obligations," she wrote.

Schlafly also writes about the tyranny of family courts, which she believes deny countless children access to their fathers through unnecessary restraining orders. She blasts family court judges for overruling the wishes of parents.

"[F]amily courts cling to the idea that a judge can act as a philosopher-king and decide what is in the best interest of a child," she writes. "This cannot be done without punishing parents and others for acts that are not contrary to any laws, rules, regulations, or policies that are written anywhere."

The book also includes is a lengthy discussion on the perverse incentives in the tax code and welfare state that discourage stable families. Schlafly reiterated this point during a recent interview with WND.

"The welfare system is giving handouts to promote women having children without husbands," she said. "If they don't have husbands, they're going to look to Big Brother government, and we don't want Big Brother government to be supporting our families."

Schlafly had some harsh words for the parenting "experts," such as psychiatrists, judges, and social workers, who claim to know a child's "best interests" better than the child's parents do.

"It used to be that when a mom had a ten-year-old boy who was 'a bundle of uncontained energy,' the dad would teach him to play football or work on the farm to burn up that energy and make a man out of him. But now our society has convinced this mom to kick out her husband, drug the boy, and let him get fat and lazy," she writes.

Schlafly has been active in the movement since 1946, when she took a research job with the American Enterprise Institute and managed Republican Claude Bakewell’s successful campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1952, as a member of the Illinois delegation to the Republican National Convention, she endorsed conservative icon Robert A. Taft for president.

Attacked, debased, maligned and vilified: This foundational institution is fighting for its life. Order Phyllis Schlafly's brand new book, "Who Killed the American Family?"