Remembering Phyllis Schlafly

Donald T. Critchlow writes in Politico:

Phyllis Schlafly, who died in September at age 92, left as her greatest legacy the election of Donald Trump.

A longtime grass-roots conservative activist, Schlafly got on board the Trump steamroller early on when, in March 2016, she rose from her sick bed to join the candidate on stage at a primary rally in St. Louis. Ill with terminal cancer, she stood with the help of aides as she told the enthusiastic crowd, “I think he has the courage and the energy — you know you have to have energy for that job — in order to bring some changes, to do what the grass roots want him to do, because this is a grass-roots uprising. We’ve been following the losers for so long. Now we’ve got a guy who’s going to lead us to victory.”

For those who followed Schlafly’s long political life, her support for Trump should not have come as a surprise. ...

Schlafly first came onto the national scene in 1964 as the best-selling author of A Choice, Not an Echo, a book she self-published in support of the Barry Goldwater movement and that sold millions of copies. She represented a grass-roots populist sentiment that stood against globalism, internationalism and crony capitalism. ...

Even if she died before witnessing it, Trump’s election marked a final victory for Schlafly and the populist right. Of course, the full extent of that victory will be determined by Trump’s success in the White House, but there’s no question that Schlafly will be remembered for the passionate activism that helped get him there.