Conservatives of the Year

The Phyllis Schlafly Report
By John and Andy Schlafly

The best test of an effective conservative is the ability to take incoming fire from the media and survive. With that in mind, let’s take a moment to recognize and thank the most courageous and effective conservatives of 2023.

Standout Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton was targeted by the media and Republican power brokers like Karl Rove, yet Paxton survived the ambush sham impeachment by his own Republican Party. Back in office, Paxton has resumed his valiant efforts to secure our southern border despite litigation by the Biden Administration to keep illegals flooding into our country.

The new Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) earns our praise for shutting off the funding of foreign wars for the remainder of 2023, despite intense pressure from the Senate uniparty led by Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY). Speaker Johnson set up a January showdown over continued funding of the federal government, while his leverage improves as Biden’s declines.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) is the courageous congressman who made the election of Speaker Johnson possible. By moving to “vacate the chair” occupied by Kevin McCarthy, who has since quit Congress, Gaetz overcame naysayers to enable the election of the most conservative Speaker ever.

Marine veteran Harrison Floyd has accomplished the most among the 19 unfairly indicted by the politically motivated Fulton County prosecutor in Atlanta, Georgia. Floyd overcame his wrongful imprisonment as the only black defendant, and has vigorously contested the charges by subpoenaing Fulton County’s mail-in ballots, with their envelopes, and information about its electronic voting tabulation concerning the 2020 election.

Floyd looked dapper when he appeared in court as the unhinged prosecutor Fani Willis, seething with resentment against the black Trump supporter, improperly attempted to revoke his bail merely because Floyd spoke out on social media against the injustice. While the deck remains stacked against him and all 19 defendants there, Floyd has flummoxed Willis such that she has not made any progress against Trump as liberals hoped.

House Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), who is not even a member of the Judiciary Committee, outshone the Republicans on that committee by calling out the tyrannical D.C. federal judges. She filed a stinging ethics complaint against district court Judge Beryl Howell for the judge’s appallingly biased statements against Trump and his supporters while their cases are pending.

Elon Musk earns a shout-out for his outspokenness against censorship and his restoration of banned users from X, formerly known as Twitter. Musk also criticized globalists, and his ambitious plan to establish a new, non-Woke college in liberal Austin, Texas, surpasses all the liberal philanthropy combined.

In Hollywood, Kelsey Grammer overcame opposition to achieve smashing success for the Jesus Revolution film, grossing nearly four times its production cost. Grammer merits further applause for reaffirming his support of Trump in an interview with the anti-Trump BBC earlier this month.

Two musicians scored conservative triumphs this year, to the consternation of the Left in the music industry. Jason Aldean recorded the #1 hit song “Try That in a Small Town,” which extols conservative small-town values and achieved the most weekly sales for any country tune in a decade.

Oliver Anthony would win the conservative Grammy of the year, if such an award were given, for his hilarious, self-released song the “Rich Men North of Richmond.” His lyrics include “I wish politicians would look out for miners / And not just minors on an island somewhere,” referring to the liberal-controlled Jeffrey Epstein cover-up.

Not to leave out the foreign conservative stars of 2023, Javier Milei stormed to a landslide win as the new president of Argentina. He is a pro-life economist who recognizes global warming as a “lie of socialism,” while he praises Trump.

Many additional Trump-like foreign conservatives prevailed in 2023. Kyriakos Mitsotakis won as prime minister in Greece, Geert Wilders won in the Netherlands, Christopher Luxon won in New Zealand, and Robert Fico prevailed in Slovakia, all making their countries great again while rejecting globalist immigration.

Let’s not overlook courageous conservatism in sports in 2023. Twelve-time NCAA All-American swimmer Riley Gaines gave up a dental career to defend women and girls against the invasion of transgender, biological males into their sports.

“Where are the feminists?” Riley Gaines pointed out as she fights to preserve the integrity of college sports for women. “We felt violated. We felt humiliated. We felt betrayed. We felt belittled,” she said about liberal colleges allowing biological males to ruin women’s sports.

Finally, our list would be incomplete without praising the hundreds of political prisoners being unfairly punished by the tyrannical elite in D.C., for the “crime” of humiliating the Deep State on January 6. The show trials and biased D.C. judges, whose own statements reveal their partisan anti-Trump agenda, have created American heroes in those who peacefully continue to oppose this abuse of power.

John and Andy Schlafly are sons of Phyllis Schlafly (1924-2016) and lead the continuing Phyllis Schlafly Eagles organizations with writing and policy work.

These columns are also posted on PhyllisSchlafly.com, pseagles.com, and Townhall.com.