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.

Trump Takes Big Leads in Michigan, Ohio

The Phyllis Schlafly Report
By John and Andy Schlafly

Trump takes a commanding lead in Michigan, as reported by Bloomberg and CNN polls showing Trump ahead of Biden by 4 to 10 points there. Even if Biden were to win several other swing states, realistically Biden cannot be reelected if he loses Michigan.

A headline in liberal Newsweek refers to this big shift in Michigan as a “nightmare” for Biden. The recent auto-workers strike was supposed to help Biden as he joined its picket line, but instead it boosted Trump by establishing him as the true champion of workers for opposing electric vehicles.

General Motors announced more layoffs on Friday of 1,300 auto-workers in Michigan, including those assembling its soon-to-be-discontinued Camaro muscle car, because of the push to electric cars. Liberals’ regulatory-driven shift to electric vehicles, which Trump opposes, is predicted to end an estimated 40% of auto-worker jobs.

Michigan’s economy is heavily dependent on auto manufacturing, and Biden’s destruction of it is similar to liberals’ war on coal in West Virginia, which has rendered that state unwinnable by Biden or any Democrat. Its incumbent U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) announced he will not seek reelection because, thanks to Trump, a Democrat can no longer be elected statewide in West Virginia.

Trump is winning over many union and women voters in Michigan, leaping to a 50-point lead there over his Republican primary challengers. The Michigan primary is pivotal because it has moved up to fifth position, after Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada, and is the last to define the race shortly before the mammoth 16-state, Super Tuesday primary in early March.

Michigan has a robust third-party system, which in 2016 drew nearly 6% of the votes as Trump then defeated Hillary Clinton. In 2020, there was a weak field of third-party candidates who garnered only 2% of the vote there.

This time, a strong field of third-party candidates led by the famous Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the progressive activist Cornel West, and the Green Party’s Jill Stein, is expected to surpass the combined third-party vote total in 2016. Many in Michigan are from the Middle East, and have turned against Biden for his mishandling of the Gaza crisis.

The odds of a criminal trial of Trump prior to the election have diminished due to Trump’s recent halting (for now) of the biased federal proceeding against him in D.C. In addition, the Wall Street Journal reported new polling last week which suggests that even a federal conviction of Trump would have only a marginal effect of a few points in voting, not enough for Biden to overcome his immense deficit that he has now in Michigan.

Democrats lack a replacement for Biden, as DeSantis destroyed Newsom in their recent debate on Fox which included DeSantis holding up a “poop map” of human waste from the homeless which litters San Francisco under Newsom’s leadership. Michelle Obama lacks the temperament to run for president, and would seem too much like Hillary Clinton’s unsuccessful campaign on her husband’s popularity.

Democrats have controlled Michigan’s government since 2022 and have ramped up cannabis sales with unlimited licensure and low pot taxes such that it has the highest per capita spending on marijuana, more than three times greater than California. Marijuana sales are expected to surpass $3 billion in Michigan this year on a population of only 10 million people, averaging $300 per adult in annual spending on pot.

Residents are moving out in droves, making Michigan so desperate to stem population losses that its Democratic leadership proposes paying people to move there. Nearly 40% of young adults in Michigan plan to move out within the next decade.

In response, a population council was convened under Democrat leadership to try to stem the exodus. Last week its liberal proposals were chock-full of failed Democrat approaches, and only one Republican legislator on the council voted against it.

Another Republican, a legislator from the Upper Peninsula where residents are referred to as “Yoopers,” said that the Democratic population proposals were so misguided that Yoopers might consider “closing the bridge and exploring statehood.” Obama won the Upper Peninsula in 2008 but it voted for Trump in both 2016 and 2020.

“Grocery prices are high; electric bills are high; Democrats are actively fighting to raise income taxes; and now the governor is using these proposals to rationalize tax hikes and force regular people to foot the bill for unnecessary new programs,” said Rep. Gary Prestin (R-Cedar River).

Next-door Ohio, which like Michigan depends on auto industry jobs, has Trump surging to a 12-14% point lead over Biden in an Emerson College poll. A Trump landslide in Ohio could cost Democrats a U.S. Senate and two Ohio Supreme Court seats.

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.

Jack Smith's Desperate Gamble at SCOTUS

The Phyllis Schlafly Report
By John and Andy Schlafly

After falsely pretending that Trump is being prosecuted like any other defendant, Biden's henchman Jack Smith just proved what a liar he is. On Monday Smith filed an unusual emergency appeal directly to the U.S. Supreme Court, which would be laughed out of court if Smith were treated like any other litigant there.

The motivation for Smith’s desperate gamble is that Trump-haters want an expedited, biased criminal trial against Trump in order to sway the outcome of the presidential election. This is an egregious misuse of prosecutorial power by Smith, and it should be harshly rebuked by the Supreme Court.

Smith’s latest abuse of the legal system landed on the desk of Chief Justice John Roberts, who is long known for senselessly pandering to the liberal media as he did during Covid and in the big Obamacare and abortion cases. Roberts granted Smith’s request for a special briefing schedule that requires a response by Trump’s attorneys by December 20.

While the 3-justice liberal wing of the Supreme Court will surely grant whatever Smith wants, and perhaps Roberts will too, that totals only 4 votes when he needs 5 to obtain fast-track review in bypass of the intermediate appellate court. Smith appears to be one vote short, which liberals recognize by baselessly demanding recusal of conservative Justice Thomas.

Several conservative Supreme Court justices have a markedly dim view of Roberts. None of them has any kinship with prosecutors either, except Justice Sam Alito but he has become the most courageous leader against the Biden agenda.

Justice Alito was the sole dissent on Monday to a request by another presidential candidate, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., to intervene in a pending case about internet censorship by the Biden Administration. RFK Jr. has been victimized more than anyone by that censorship, but the eight other justices refused to acknowledge him.

Smith wants the Supreme Court to reject Trump’s defense of legal immunity, but a president cannot be subordinated to the judiciary and Trump was president on January 6 during the protests at the Capitol. Trump also has a double jeopardy defense based on his Senate impeachment acquittal.

If Trump were treated like any other criminal defendant, as Smith and the Obama-appointed trial judge Tanya Chutkan have repeatedly pretended, there would not be this leap-frogging by Smith of the appellate court. Nor would Judge Chutkan have ordered a faster-than-usual briefing for a response deadline of Sunday, in reaction to the routine request by Trump’s attorneys for her to stay her ruling.

The more Smith flails away, the higher Trump rises in the polls. A new CNN poll shows Trump leading Biden in battleground states by 5 points in Georgia and 10 points in Michigan.

Meanwhile, it was just revealed that Smith intruded on Trump’s private cell phone records from when Trump was conducting his duties as president. Smith never sought or obtained approval by the Supreme Court for this shocking, unprecedented interference with the presidential office, which is likely to offend Supreme Court justices.

The perpetrators of Jack Smith’s charade seek to hold a show trial against Trump to try to tilt the election outcome against him. The D.C.-based judge and prosecutor feign treating Trump like everyone else, yet insist on railroading him in an unusual way before the upcoming presidential election.

The Deep State Dems thought the surprise raid of Mar-a-Lago would knock Trump out of contention for the White House. Then they hoped the county indictment of Trump by Alvin Bragg in New York City would end Trump’s political career, but it obviously has not.

The Mar-a-Lago case was assigned to a federal judge who has correctly sized up Jack Smith’s team as a gang of fools, and she doesn’t suffer fools lightly. Smith got the federal appellate court in Atlanta to roll over for him, as it does for all prosecutors, but Smith has made no progress since then in the Mar-a-Lago case, and no trial concerning it is likely in 2024.

Failing all that, liberals misusing prosecutorial power thought the indictments by a Democrat county prosecutor in Atlanta would be the cherry on the sundae – 91 felony counts in all, as the media keep reminding us. But it, too, has stalled amid too many absurd claims against too many innocent people, while its mugshot of Trump has become a rallying cry for millions of Americans fed up with the Left.

Yet Biden and Democrats still delusionally hope that if Trump were convicted and sentenced to prison, then enough voters would be swayed by that to defeat him on Election Day. Jack Smith’s case in D.C. is their last chance for this, but if the Supreme Court treats Mr. Smith like everyone else then he’ll become the biggest liberal flop ever.

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.

Judicial Tyranny Worsens in D.C.

The Phyllis Schlafly Report
By John and Andy Schlafly

The judicial pile-up against President Trump, led by Obama-appointed federal judges in D.C., has become increasingly brazen. Comments by these judges reveal a shocking level of political bias by people whose job requires them to be strictly nonpartisan.

Judicial bias was on full display last week at a posh D.C. hotel where the Women’s White Collar Defense Association gave its “champion” award to a sitting federal judge, Beryl Howell. With almost no Republicans on hand to deter them, the powerful Democratic women lawyers felt free to let down their hair and say what they think about Trump.

As chief judge on the D.C. district court until earlier this year, Howell issued a series of one-sided rulings that included ordering Trump’s attorney to turn over his confidential notes to federal prosecutors. Most criminal defense attorneys would have howled in protest at her defiance of the traditional attorney-client privilege, but these liberal Democratic women lawyers gave her a high award instead.

In remarks accepting her undeserved award, Judge Howell bragged that she and her D.C. colleagues were, in effect, saving America from Donald Trump, whom she falsely accused of pushing our country to the “brink of authoritarianism.” She incorrectly referred to our country as a “democracy” when we are a republic in which our laws are made by elected representatives restrained by checks and balances, not by a direct popular vote.

Judge Howell avoided mentioning Trump’s name, but the context of her remarks left no doubt that her comments were directed at Trump and his supporters, as the media reported. She went on in her speech to claim that she and her fellow federal judges in D.C. see “the impact of big lies” by Trump in cases arising from the January 6 protest.

When Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg made partisan comments against Trump in 2016, even the New York Times called her out in an editorial entitled, “Donald Trump Is Right About Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.” Trump had said “I think it’s highly inappropriate that a United States Supreme Court judge gets involved in a political campaign, frankly. I couldn’t believe it when I saw it.”

Howell’s comments were particularly objectionable because her court is presiding over ongoing cases against Trump and hundreds of people who rallied to support him on January 6, 2021. Another Obama appointee, Judge Tanya Chutkan, continues to preside over Jack Smith’s prosecution of Trump despite making a string of biased comments in her courtroom.

Chutkan has overseen convictions of more than 30 defendants in cases related to the January 6 rally, and has not acquitted a single defendant. According to The Washington Post, she has been the harshest sentencing judge, ordering at least some jail or prison time in all cases while sometimes exceeding the cruel sentences demanded by prosecutors.

Last Friday Judge Chutkan issued a 48-page diatribe against Trump, who is the frontrunner to be reelected president next year. The Jamaican-born federal judge made strained analogies to the founder of our country, George Washington, while imposing tyranny from the bench in her courtroom.

All that was missing from her narrative was a claim that she and other D.C. judges are courageously crossing the Delaware River as Washington did. The real tyranny is from crossing the Potomac River, where these judges have ruled against Trump and his supporters on every legal issue, while making absurd historical allusions.

The American people are turning against what Julie Kelly has called “January 6 jurisprudence,” confirmed by the reputable Pew Research in a recent survey about declining trust in government. Pew found that only 15% of Americans feel that the federal government is right “most of the time,” while a rock-bottom 1% say that the Feds are right “just about always.”

These liberal federal judges should read what Thomas Jefferson said 200 years ago about tyranny from the bench. As the author of the eloquent manifesto against the tyranny of King George III in 1776, Jefferson later recognized tyranny when he saw it coming from federal judges.

“As, for the safety of society, we commit honest maniacs to Bedlam,” Jefferson wrote, referring to the notorious English insane asylum, “so judges should be withdrawn from their bench, whose erroneous biases are leading us to dissolution. It may, indeed, injure them in fame or in fortune,” Jefferson continued, “but it saves the republic, which is the first and supreme law.”

The nearby Supreme Court should rein in the judges presiding over Trump-related cases in D.C., which have become show trials used by Biden supporters to crush his opposition. But instead the High Court wasted weeks pandering to liberal demands for a new code of ethics, and last Friday the Justices gave themselves a three-day weekend based on the death of long-forgotten former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who resigned nearly two decades ago.

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.

Widening Revolt Against Globalism

The Phyllis Schlafly Report
By John and Andy Schlafly

The shocking knife attack last week on children in broad daylight in Dublin was horrifying. Five people, including a five-year-old girl, two other youngsters, and a woman, were randomly stabbed and slashed by an assailant outside the primary school named Gaelscoil Coláiste Mhuire.

For years open-border liberals have been allowing extensive immigration into Dublin, similar to what has transformed London. When news leaked that the perpetrator was an immigrant, all-night rioting in Dublin ensued.

But then the Irish prime minister lashed out against the rioters, rather than the unprovoked attacker. Nearly a week later, Irish authorities shamefully continue to withhold his identity.

The prime minister’s response was to promise new laws immediately against “incitement to hatred and hatred in general.” Though not Irish, Elon Musk dryly observed, “Ironically, the Irish PM hates the Irish people.”

An unidentified young Irishman nailed this issue with an interview that aired on Musk’s X platform. The new legislation “has been drafted specifically to silence the Irish people from opposing ... the mass immigration agenda that’s going on right now. ... Migrants or so-called refugees are being dumped en masse on small Irish towns,” he said.

He called the mass immigration imposed on Ireland by globalists a “new plantation.” That term strikes a nerve among Irish who have long used it to bitterly criticize the colonization of Ireland by English Protestants in the 1600s.

Ireland joined the European Union, which means globalist politicians running Ireland have agreed to allow entry by any citizen of any other European Union nation. Some quip that any nationality other than British is accepted in Ireland today.

But hoi polloi are revolting against globalism now. Geert Wilders of the Netherlands won a stunning victory by campaigning against globalism and vowing to hold a public referendum there to exit the EU, which he calls “Nexit,” as Great Britain did with its Brexit.

Wilders’ political party won far more seats than expected, surging above poll predictions, and has left the powers-that-be in Europe in shock. This is similar to election returns in Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey and Finland, as globalists have been repeatedly routed by Trump-like candidates vowing to put their own country first.

Add Argentina to that growing list as the campaign theme of Make Argentina Great Again propelled Javier Milei to a landslide victory and Trump declared, “I am very proud of you.” Though smeared as “far-right” by CNN, Milei won with 56% of the vote last week as a pro-life libertarian who recognizes global warming as a “lie of socialism.”

Even many Canadians are finally fed up with globalism. The largest Ukrainian population outside of Russia is in Canada, where nearly 5% of its population, or 1.4 million people, is Ukrainian.

Last week the Conservative Party of Canada unanimously voted against a new trade agreement with Ukraine, in a humiliation of Canada’s far left prime minister Justin Trudeau who had signed the deal in expectation of full support. Instead of explaining why he thinks globalism is good for Canada, he lashed out at Donald Trump.

“The real story is the rise of a right-wing American, MAGA influence thinking that has made Canadian Conservatives, who used to be among the strongest defenders of Ukraine … turn their backs on something Ukraine needs in its hour of need,” Trudeau blustered. But no one is buying that spin any more.

In the U.S. Senate, where the much-criticized uniparty of pro-globalism senators control the agenda, a vote on sending many billions more to Ukraine is expected soon. New Speaker Mike Johnson and other conservatives in the House deserve credit for not including this in their recent continuing resolution to fund our government.

This leaves Democrats in a quandary as the presidential election heats up. Biden is closely associated in voters’ minds with an open southern border that has let in 10 million illegal aliens during his presidency.

Democrats are suddenly hinting that they might agree to modest measures to close our open southern border. But that’s just pre-election talk by Biden’s team as they see the handwriting on the wall for voters to turn against him for allowing so many illegals into our country.

Any tightening of our southern border in 2024 will just be reopened again if Biden or any Democrat were to win the next presidential election. It is not enough for Democrats to talk about closing a bit of the southern border, but instead need to take action to undo the massive amount of damage they have already caused by their open-border policies.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott just endorsed Trump for president, belatedly, as Trump visited the rampage by illegals over the Texas-Mexico border. Trump now has strong allies in Argentina, Italy, Greece, Hungary, and elsewhere as his admirers have swept to victory.

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.

Lack of Discipline in Schools is the Problem

The Phyllis Schlafly Report
By John and Andy Schlafly

Students are not showing up in public school today, as attendance is no longer desired by parents. Many public schools have become places of indoctrination by the Left, or downright dangerous to attend.

No one can continue to blame this on Covid-19, when schools shut down. Absenteeism is severe long after the pandemic subsided, as in Nevada where more than a third of the students are chronically absent.

Only 42% of American adults are reportedly satisfied with schools, a 20-year low. Disillusionment with costly higher education is increasing and that may have a spillover effect on attitudes toward secondary education too.

This disappearance of students in classrooms is not merely a few teenagers skipping out for some fun, which is not new. Elementary students who need to be learning fundamental skills during that period of their life are not being taken to school.

Just five years ago only 7% of elementary public schools had chronic absenteeism by 30% of students. But in 2021-22, the percentage of the elementary public schools having chronic absenteeism shot up to 38%.

Last month the New York Times reported that the schools run by the Department of Defense for about 66,000 children of service members have been doing better than public schools in all 50 states, as measured by the widely followed National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) exam. Most of these schools are on American military bases.

The Department of Defense Education Activity schools were first in our nation on the NAEP reading and math assessments in 2022. These schools were the only state or jurisdiction to show an increase in performance in any grade or subject that year.

The U.S. Army has a larger minority population than America as a whole: 46% compared with 40%. The outperformance by secondary schools on military bases compared with other public schools is due to better discipline.

A total of 45% of students in these Department of Defense secondary schools are in low-income families, which is higher than the national average of 38%. Moreover, one-third of the children in military families move each year due to transfers of their parents, which is a hardship.

The military knows how to discipline its members, without permitting bad behavior until expulsion becomes necessary. Corporal punishment, such as swatting a misbehaving student, was allowed nationwide by the U.S. Supreme Court for public schools in Ingraham v. Wright (1977), yet states outside the South ban it.

In public schools 77% of teachers are female today, in sharp contrast with how our military is run. The overwhelming percentage of those public school teachers are liberal and opposed to any physical punishment of any kind for bad conduct.

Studies show that physical penalties for misbehavior are not any more harmful than other forms of punishment, such as repeated yelling. Many of the same students who are violent toward other students and teachers also play in violent sports like football, which create a far greater risk of injury to them than any physical discipline would.

Bringing back sensible discipline to public schools is way overdue, and would be a better focus of the never-ending special sessions in Texas where Gov. Greg Abbott just called for a record-breaking fourth legislative session on education. Even if vouchers for private schools were to pass there, the vast majority of students would remain in declining, undisciplined public schools.

A third of teachers encounter threats by students annually, yet effective punishment is not allowed. Instead, liberals are permissive about misconduct until violence occurs, and even then sometimes fail to impose appropriate penalties.

While forbidding any meaningful discipline, public schools ultimately expel students but only after an egregious rampage. The single biggest reason for the increase in homeschooling is a fear by parents for the safety of their children in public schools.

Yet rather than restore order in schools, the failed approach of Vice President Kamala Harris while she was the district attorney for San Francisco was to prosecute parents for truancy, the outdated criminalizing of non-attendance at school. When she campaigned for California attorney general she promoted enacting a state law to punish parents when their children missed more than 10% of public school.

“We are putting parents on notice. If you fail to take responsibility for your kids, we are going to make sure that you face the full force and consequences of the law,” Harris threatened parents.

Harris, Biden, and the entire Democrat Party pander to teachers unions who should be blamed for turning schools into dens of crime, drugs, and liberal ideology. A study by the libertarian Cato Institute during Covid showed that delaying the reopening of schools was not based on valid concerns about the virus and safety, but on how powerful the regional teachers unions were.

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.

GOP Should Reject Improper Ballot Initiatives

The Phyllis Schlafly Report
By John and Andy Schlafly

The “will of the people,” as expressed by outcomes of heavily funded ballot initiatives, is a canard that should be rejected by Republicans. Direct democracy was feared and opposed by our nation’s founders, who established a representative government for the United States and guaranteed “a republican form of government” to each of its member states.

Yet Republican candidates who participated in last week’s third presidential debate seemed to misunderstand this crucial point, as reflected by their senseless responses to questions about a recent ballot initiative that just passed in Ohio. Ron DeSantis, for example, unjustifiably blamed the pro-life movement for being “caught flat-footed” by Issue 1, the abortion initiative, without mentioning that God-given rights should not be decided by a popular vote.

Republicans should be defending representative government against misuse of the ballot initiative process, which allows out-of-state industries and liberal billionaires to pass laws contrary to the informed decision-making by each state’s elected representatives. Ohio’s Issue 1 will benefit the billion-dollar abortion industry, while Issue 2 will profit the expanding marijuana industry by invading Ohio with a predicted $4 billion worth of pot.

Fortunately, some members of the Ohio state legislature are rising up against this misuse of ballot initiatives to change the culture of the Buckeye State. Ohio’s elected representatives should not take a back seat or bow down to ballot initiatives contrary to what has been the well-established tradition of Ohio and our Constitution.

The passage of the radical Issues 1 and 2 in Ohio are an assault by out-of-state industries and billionaires to transform the state, and its Republican-controlled General Assembly should strongly resist this invasion. Four out of five Republicans voted against Issues 1 and 2, and that is to whom the Republican legislators should be listening, rather than a multi-million-dollar barrage of television ads.

Legislators should not be deterred by chants in the media that “the people have spoken.” Representatives exist to resist tyranny by a misled majority, and Republican officials should not abandon the pledges they campaigned on for the benefit of Ohio.

Caving in to ballot initiatives is a betrayal of representative government, and of voters themselves. By denying the rights of voters to elect representatives to protect their state’s way of life, Republicans give residents an incentive to move to Texas and other states that prohibit mob rule through ballot initiatives.

Leftists are giddy about their scheme to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to use the ballot initiative process in about 20 states (40% of our country) to enact laws rejected by legislatures there. Not content with transforming Colorado and the West Coast into havens hostile to families, liberals are exploiting this process to invade the Midwest with failed coastal values.

More Midwesterners will inevitably respond by moving to Texas, where Leftists are not allowed to override the legislature. But families in Ohio and Missouri should not have to move to protect their way of life.

In less than a year, marijuana as enacted by ballot initiative in Missouri has transformed it into a $1.5 billion mecca for pot, with pervasive billboard advertising and retail stores selling it. Child poisonings and motorcycle accidents are sharply higher, while a crisis in fentanyl-related deaths has increased too.

The Republican response to questions about Ohio Issues 1 or 2 should be that some issues are not suitable for popular vote, as most states recognize by forbidding ballot initiatives from bypassing the legislature. We don’t allow any type of initiative or referendum at the national level because our Founders who framed our Constitution wisely rejected direct democracy.

Yet the liberal media is misusing ballot initiatives to bully Republican legislators into breaking their own campaign promises on which they were elected. There is no such thing as a particular “will” of the people, and candidates should honor their campaign pledges rather than allow out-of-state billionaires to rewrite their laws in a harmful way.

Republicans reject the call for a National Popular Vote to pick our president, and instead that office is filled by the Electoral College. Republican candidates for president should campaign on defending our republican form of government against the progressive strategy of direct democracy.

Our Declaration of Independence stands entirely against infringement on God-given rights by popular vote or by any other means. That timeless document describes the concept of unalienable rights as a “self-evident” truth, yet Trump’s rivals for president seem to think everything is fair game for ballot initiatives.

The Ohio legislature, with its Republican supermajority, could immediately overturn the cannabis Issue 2 ballot initiative to prevent Ohio from becoming a decadent culture of pungent weed. The marijuana-saturated states of California and Colorado are hemorrhaging in population, and Midwest legislators should not allow liberal mistakes to transform the middle of our country based on improper ballot initiatives.

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.

Dems Despair as Trump Surges

The Phyllis Schlafly Report
By John and Andy Schlafly

Liberals and their favorite media have given up on Biden as he plummets in the polls ahead of next year’s election. On Sunday the New York Times announced that Trump leads Biden in 5 of the 6 swing states, sending a signal to all liberals that Biden must be replaced as the Democrats’ nominee for president.

The filing deadline for the New Hampshire primary has already passed, and Democrat insiders have little time left before their South Carolina primary on February 3 to coalesce behind a replacement. Meanwhile, “the world is falling apart under Biden,” as 53-year-old Spencer Weiss, a Pennsylvania voter who has switched his support from Biden to Trump, told the NYT.

Biden has mishandled foreign crises from Ukraine to Israel, while letting in 10 million unemployed illegal aliens, more than the entire population of overcrowded Los Angeles County. He turns 81 years old later this month and plainly lacks the mental acuity to still be president.

Biden and his supporters have pushed transgender access to girls’ restrooms and locker rooms in schools, which sparked a walkout by students in Loudoun County, Virginia last week. In April, Biden proposed a federal rule under Title IX that would prohibit schools from categorically banning transgender students from invading girls’ sports.

Trump has led in stopping illegal immigration, which could include foreign terrorists hateful of the United States. He has also been strong against allowing male-bodied athletes to invade girls’ sports.

Michelle Obama and California Gov. Gavin Newsom are mentioned as possible last-minute replacements of Biden. Other potential candidates powerful with the insiders include Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and the same-sex married Pete Buttigieg, the Transportation Secretary who has bungled the electric car issue.

Democrat political insiders have compared their dilemma to a “five-alarm fire,” but Biden and his determined wife Jill refuse to step aside. Many Democrats who disapprove of funding foreign wars instead of domestic priorities are jumping ship: Biden’s advantage over Trump has eroded among black voters from a 78-point advantage to only 49 points.

A new poll was released by ABC News/Ipsos on Sunday, announcing that 76% of American adults feel our country is headed in the wrong direction, while only 23% see us going in the right direction. On the key issues of crime, inflation, and immigration, voters trust Republicans more than Democrats.

We are only a year from the presidential election, and barely ten months before early voting begins in some states. Worsening foreign crises and deepening economic problems, combined with an inevitable further decline in his mental capacity, mean there is no plausible way for Biden to reverse his slide.

Biden failed to file paperwork to be on the ballot in New Hampshire, while an obscure Minnesota congressman did file there, reminiscent of how Minnesota Sen. Eugene McCarthy chased the Democrat incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson from the race in 1968. Biden is counting on support by black primary voters in South Carolina to renominate him, but a deal between Obama and an alternative could force Biden to withdraw.

Much of the angst by Democrats over Biden is due to how well Trump is surviving the onslaught of politically motivated prosecutions. None of federal prosecutor Jack Smith’s attacks on Trump has worked, while many of them have backfired.

The federal judge in the Florida Mar-a-Lago case rebuked Biden’s henchmen for wasting her time with their antics, and she has suspended the schedule in that case. It is widely expected now that a trial in that ill-advised prosecution will not occur before the election, which removes it as an obstacle to Trump’s reelection.

Federal prosecutors indicted two of Trump’s low-level aides who have not turned against Trump as Biden’s henchmen hoped. The premise of that prosecution is that Trump was endangering national security at Mar-a-Lago, an absurd allegation unsupported by the evidence.

That leaves the federal prosecution of Trump in the anti-Trump venue of D.C. as Biden’s last remaining card to play against his opponent. But that case, which was supposed to be smooth sailing for the Trump-haters, has hit rocky waters too.

Special prosecutor Jack Smith demanded and obtained a severely improper gag order to prohibit Trump from disparaging Biden’s hired guns. Trump echoed the views of many by calling Jack “deranged” and a “thug,” who then persuaded the Obama-appointed judge to censor Trump despite strong objections by the ACLU to this infringement on the First Amendment.

But on Friday the D.C. Circuit suspended the gag order, thereby enabling Trump to speak freely again. Meanwhile, Trump’s attorneys have filed a compelling motion to toss the entire case out based on the presidential immunity that protects Trump against the allegations concerning actions he took on January 6, 2021, when he was still the president.

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.

Unplug the Green Boondoggle

The Phyllis Schlafly Report
By John and Andy Schlafly

Many groups and countries are lining up for new handouts by Congress, now that it is functioning again with a new Speaker. Among those with their hats in their hands for billions of dollars is the green energy industry of windmills and battery-powered cars.

Fortunately, newly inducted House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is fully supported by conservative lawmakers in the House who want separate votes on spending-neutral bills. First out of the gate is a $14.3 billion aid package to Israel that is funded by repealing part of Biden’s $80 billion IRS expansion.

On Monday, Biden’s Treasury Department announced that it will borrow the most ever for a fourth quarter: $776 billion. The multi-billion-dollar cost of the Leftist green agenda is not something we can afford to ignore anymore.

Ask Ford Motor Company. Since last Thursday afternoon, Ford’s stock has fallen by 14% in three business days on news of its losing a more-than-expected $1.33 billion in its electric vehicle (EV) unit for the third quarter, which translates into an average loss of $36,000 on every EV it sold.

Once a preeminent American corporation, Ford’s value has fallen to only $38 billion in market capitalization, and it cannot survive annual losses of $5 billion on EVs. A sharp increase in costs for raw materials needed by the batteries in EVs has cast doubt on if and when electric cars would ever be profitable to sell, despite mandates by Biden and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

As found by a new study released by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, “the average EV accrues $48,698 in subsidies and $4,569 in extra charging and electricity costs over a 10-year period, for a total cost of $53,267.” When converted into an equivalent subsidy per gallon of gasoline, it’s as though the government paid an extra $16.12 per gallon for a conventional internal combustion engine vehicle.

Hertz took a hit in its latest earnings report due to unexpected losses from operating the largest EV fleet in the rental car industry. Hertz announced a pause in its acquisition of more EVs.

Another green energy money pit is the wasteful spending on wind power, as illustrated by the often-idle giant wind turbines visible from many highways. Despite decades of effort and billions of dollars in spending, wind power is still unable to pay for itself.

Record cold temperatures across the United States this Halloween include October snow showers in eight midwestern states. The 20 and 30-degree drops in temperature being felt from Dallas to the East Coast require affordable energy or else there will be another jolt to inflation.

In August 2000, General Electric was the most valuable company in the world, having a market capitalization of $601 billion. Today, as it loses $1 billion annually on its offshore wind farms that blight the ocean view for many Americans, the value of the company founded by Thomas Edison has fallen by more than 80%, to just $116 billion.

Wind turbines fail to produce power when it’s needed most, such as on very hot or very cold days, and their maintenance expenses are exorbitant. The inconsistent supply of energy from wind turbines causes spikes that harm the energy grid.

Rising interest rates have laid bare the billions of dollars in operating losses generated by the noisy and ugly windmills. Since low-interest loans are no longer available, green energy companies will be forced to seek billions more in subsidies from the federal government to offset mounting losses.

As the funding of the federal government expires on November 17, the liberal wastefulness of green energy will be one of many senseless entitlements seeking new handouts in the next fiscal year. “Government is too invested to let these companies go bust, and taxpayers will be charged for the repair job,” the Wall Street Journal warned last weekend.

The real federal deficit has doubled from $1 trillion (not just billion) to $2 trillion in merely one year, while Biden demands another $100 billion to spend on no-win foreign wars. House Speaker Johnson wisely separates a vote on emergency aid to Israel from a vote on the much larger spending package demanded by Zelensky in Ukraine with the support of Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) despite rising conservative opposition.

A financial collapse, typically unpredictable in its timing, becomes increasingly likely under the weight of this crushing debt. Ending subsidies for green energy and foreign wars is a great place to start to save our economy.

Due to inflation caused by the wasteful government spending, the interest costs alone on the mountain of debt run up by Biden will soon exceed our total spending on our national defense. With a new Speaker, conservatives in the House have a golden opportunity to realign our nation’s priorities.

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.