Introduced by a fiery Steven Crowder, Phillis Schlafly addressed the CPAC audience by first thanking Sarah Palin for being a warm-up act, followed by an immediate decrying of the President’s plan to “fundamentally transform” the country.
Mrs. Schlafly, a longtime conservative and the founder of the Eagle Forum, also discussed the Democrat Party’s get-out-the-vote tactics, and noted that “we let the establishment pick a loser for us.” She went on to call out these losers: Bob Dole, John McCain, and Mitt Romney. She also called out the sole recent winner, George W. Bush, for whom she didn’t have gentle words: “they picked somebody who spent more than the Democrats, he added new programs that cost the taxpayers money, and he tried to get us open borders…when he lined up with Ted Kennedy.”
She continued to rail against the establishment leaders, saying “They’re blaming Ted Cruz for voting no on everything that’s come up. Well good for him!” After a round of applause, Mrs. Schalfly pointed out that out of Karl Rove’s 31 campaigns that he assisted with television ads, only 7 won. Her main point to CPAC was this: “We need your help to take back the Republican Party for the grassroots and for the kinds of candidates we want to nominate, instead of the ones who follow all the dictates of the establishment.”
She also said that the party needs candidates who are focused on social, moral, and national security issues, calling the establishment’s demand that candidates focus solely on the economy a “terrible mistake.”
Using her own experiences, Mrs. Schlafly pointed out she “grew up without handouts…and we grew up to be the Greatest Generation.” Mrs. Schlafly also hit home on the hot-button 2nd amendment issue: “When guns are outlawed, only outlaws have guns…If nuclear weapons are outlawed, only terrorists will have nukes.”
To conservatives, she closed with a simple and gracious message: “We need you.”
