Monday, July 30, 2012

#347: Phyllis Schlafly


The item that spawned Andy Schlafly is known for “defending […]the real rights of women. A woman should have the right to be in the home as a wife and mother.” She is the founder and head of the extremist rightwing, creationist, antivaxx, dominionist group the Eagle Forum (this one on the connection between nazism and the welfare state, is particularly pertinent), and described by her neighbor as “an exponent of an extreme right-wing philosophy – a propagandist who deals in emotion and personalities where it is not necessary to establish facts or prove charges.”

Schlafly’s work was pivotal in the victory of the “pro-family” movement over the Equal Rights Amendment, which according to her would have led to “homosexual schoolteachers and unisex bathrooms” as well as many other ills. For instance, she laments the loss of “real men” who went to war to save damsels in distress, men like the draft dodging wife beater John Wayne.

Schlafly, the heroine of the Values Voter Debate, is a published author of nine books, three-time candidate for the U.S. Congress, a full-time law student at Washington University in St. Louis, editor of a monthly newsletter, a twice-a-week syndicated newspaper columnist, regular speaker at anti-liberal rallies, and employs a full-time housekeeper to take care of her mansion – in other words, she follows her anti-emancipatory arguments and consistently claims that women should stay at home as the Bible requires, by setting a splendid example. Like her son Andy, Phyllis generally use “liberal” and “feminist” pejoratively, usually in connection with things she doesn’t like but haven’t really thought about and is pathologically clueless about (for instance this or this). Like her offspring, Phyllis is also an avid conspiracy theorist. In her book “A Choice, Not An Echo” she claimed that a liberal conspiracy of “kingmakers” led by the Bilderberg group had control over the Republican Party presidential nominating process and kept real conservatives from getting the nomination. She still peddles some predictable conspiracy theories. She is, of course, also a creationist, and claims that she is persecuted for it (yes, it is backed up by the most outrageous lies, as expected); her writings on creationism have been endorsed by Jack Kemp and David Horowitz, among others.

The reputation of Washington University in St. Louis was forever tarnished in 2008 when some babbling idiots decided it was appropriate to award Phyllis Schlafly with an honorary degree - especially given Schlafly’s views on public education. You can see a conversation between her and Christian reconstructionist filmmaker E. Ray Moore, who thinks parents are mandated by the Bible to homeschool their children since public schools are “godless and pagan by precept and design” and that there should be “God in the math class and in the science class as much as in the Bible class,” here.

Michele Bachmann has called Phyllis Schlafly the most important woman in US history the last 100 years, and calls Schlafly her mentor. Tells you lot about both, really.

Diagnosis: Although she is an irrevocably insane (and probably undead) dimbulb, Schlafly has done some real harm and her influence should not be underestimated. The Eagle Forum remains a relatively powerful organization.

This site (http://www.theocracywatch.org/) is useful for information on the Eagle Forum (among other things).

12 comments:

  1. Phyllis Schlafly joins in on Obama's alleged "hostility to religion", with predictably idiotic result.

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  2. The Eagle Forum weighs in on the challenges currently facing America. As expected, the problem is the existence of non-white, non-married, non-Christians.

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  3. Phyllis Schlafly tries to argue that feminist ideology entails that men are unfairly blamed for sexual assaults, which is a rather breathtaking claim even for the repugnant piece of sewer that is Phyllis Schlafly (also here).

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  4. Phyllis Schlafly is (surprise, everyone) being a complete idiot on early voting.

    Here she expresses her conviction that all Muslims are terrorists, sort of by definition, while Vic Eliason wonders if Chuck Hagel is a secret Muslim. More here (Schlafly also says that “JJerry Corsi is very reliable,” which would itself be reason enough for inclusion in this Encyclopedia).

    She has also argued that we need to train men to stand up to feminism, which implies a rather breathtaking assessment of the situation.

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  5. More McCarthy nostalgia from Schlafly. Apparently we need a new one.

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  6. Phyllis Schlafly, always a perceptive observer of current social and political trends, has recently pointed out that the main goal of homosexuals is to silence any criticism, thereby suggesting that there is something rather profound about marriage equality she has failed to fully grasp. Here she repeats her accusations against feminism, claiming that feminists are at war with Mother Nature.

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  7. About 10 years ago she put out a book on alleged errors in public school textbooks that was itself so rife with errors it was quickly withdrawn. But not before Ms Schlafly did a commercial where she smugly confused Andrew Jackson with Andrew Johnson.

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  8. Stupid things continue to pour out of Phyllis Schlafly's mouth. A good example is her incoherent defense of North Carolina's voter suppression law. Many of her worries concern the Affordable Care Act, of course. Here she claims that ACA will turn the US into a communist country, just like England or Canada. And public schools are in on the evils; indeed they are trying to prepare us to accept Obamacare's death panels, in Schlafly's mind. Which, of course, is one of the reasons she has called for stripping all funding from schools. And courts, and colleges, and child protective services (it's all about the children), social safety nets, feminists, and Democrats. That'll teach them.

    And it actually seems that she genuinely believes that liberals will steal children from conservative parents and give them to gays to make child pornography. Yup - she may have entered the uncharted territory slightly beyond whale.to.

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  9. Schlafly continues, not surprisingly, to have a tenacious grasp on reality. In her piece "Obama's War on the First Amendment", for instance, she just makes up whatever fits her paranoid delusions: "Obama has made it clear that he doesn’t want any expression of religious faith in any public place, including buildings or schools or events. He wants to redefine the First Amendment from “free exercise” to “freedom of worship,” which means you would only be able to go inside your church, shut and perhaps lock the doors, and say a prayer where no one else can hear you." Does she refer to anything Obama has ever said or proposed, you think?

    Or what about her bald assertion that many Americans are currently moving out of marriage-equality states in protest? No? She also claimed that immigrants will turn us into slaves; at least that claim received the support of Alex Jones. Which really should make her rethink what she said but of course it won't.

    But these are nevertheless the ideas on the grounds of which she suggests an Ukraine-style uprising against Obama.

    She has also made some new contributions to the war on women, for instance, the astute observation that girl marines make us look weak. In that respect she has also attempted to help the Republicans update their positions to attract female voters (particularly in light of a rather bad run in certain states in 2012), for instance by arguing that women need to be paid less than men so that they can find good husbands. The Eagle Forum has also issued a statement lamenting feminism and diversity in colleges - feminism and diversity, they say, make colleges dangerous places for men. Right.

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  10. Phyllis never fails to amaze with her jaw droppingly unhinged and insulting remarks. She recently claimed President Obama "allowed Ebola into the United States" in order to make the United States more like Africa. Claire Conner wrote in her memoir "Wrapped in the Flag" that Phyllis and Fred Schlafly were originally members of the John Birch Society, but that the Schlaflys soon left in order to start their own organization. Claire's mother Laurene Koenig Conner was rather cool to Phyllis and Fred after they left the JBS. Phyllis is a link between the more conventional conservatives and the people who call themselves conservative, but are really radicals.

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  11. Well she is now dead so that is that!

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