Phyllis Schlafly: History Shows Grassroots Can Defeat Establishment on Amnesty

Phyllis Schlafly: History Shows Grassroots Can Defeat Establishment on Amnesty

Appearing on Breitbart News Saturday live from CPAC, conservative icon Phyllis Schlafly said that the amnesty fight that pits the grassroots versus the Republican establishment is similar same battles in the past. she said that there are more tools now that the grassroots can use to again topple the establishment.

Speaking to co-hosts Breitbart News Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon, Breitbart News President and CEO Larry Solov, and Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow, Schlafly, who founded the Eagle Forum, reminded listeners that when she started her campaign against the Equal Rights Amendment, only two people in Congress were against it while the media, Hollywood, and the Republican establishment were all for it. 

She said the amendment was a fraud that pretended to give benefits to women when it did not and merely just put “sex” into the Constitution. She noted she had to fight in an era where there were no Rush Limbaughs, the Internet, or even fax machines.

“All we had was the telephone, flyers, and the Phyllis Schlafly Reports,” she said. 

Solov said that Schlafly’s story is a testament “to an amazing thing about this country, that one person with enough dedication and passion and commitment can change a country.” 

“We just kept winning and we kept knocking it down,” she said. “We beat ’em all. That was fun.”

Schafly said that any movement needs a leader and, “I just raised the flag and said ‘we’re marching.'” She encouraged listeners to do the same in their communities with many more tools at their disposal. 

Schlafly, who spoke on amnesty at the Uninvited II national security forum that Breitbart News hosted on Thursday, said she was vilified: “They tried to act like I didn’t know anything.

On the 50th anniversary of her monumental book A Choice, Not an Echo, Schalfly said that today’s establishment Republicans are “the country club Republicans who think they know better than the rest of us when they really don’t.”

“It was a fight of the grassroots against the establishment. It’s the same fight,” she said. Schlafly mentioned how the grassroots nominated Barry Goldwater, defeated the Equal Rights Amendment, and nominated Ronald Reagan. 

She said the amnesty fight puts the grassroots that know that millions of illegal immigrants receiving amnesty will keep wages low against the big-business interests and that the the grassroots can win again. 

She also said she was “very disappointed” that pro-life issues, defense issues, and more issues concerning immigration were not discussed at CPAC.

When asked how she still has so much energy, Schlafly said that since “God gave us this wonderful country that is better than anybody else’s,” she decided to make politics her lifetime hobby because it “requires the support of ordinary people to be active in the process.” Schlafly said America is unique and exceptional, and Americans should not be afraid to tout those values. 

Bannon said that one of the great untold stories is “how one woman stood up against the Equal Rights Amendment and defeated it” and called Schlafly “a conservative warrior and a lion of the conservative movement.”

Breitbart News Saturday can be heard every week from 10 AM to 1 PM EST.

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