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Fear and Loathing at the Eagle Forum's 1995 Annual Leadership Summit
by Michael Kennedy
Phyllis Schlafly received notoriety for her staunch opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment, but her conservative activism didn't stop there. Founder of the Eagle Forum and President since 1972, her agenda has included the following: strengthening U.S. national defense, supporting the presidential nomination of Barry Goldwater, fighting abortion rights, and opposing the gay rights movement. She has authored several books, including A Choice Not an Echo, The Gravediggers, and What's Wrong With Equal Rights for Women.
In 1993, the Eagle Forum decided it was time to bring its message to college campuses. Schlafly warned conservatives that "liberals envision schools as the means to absolute equality, to 'political correctness,' and the eradication of religion." To quash progressive forces in colleges and universities, Schlafly launched the Eagle Forum Collegians (EFC), a network of campus affiliates actively opposed to "political correctness," multiculturalism, and women's and gay studies. Funded almost entirely by the nonprofit Eagle Forum Education and Legal Defense Fund, EFC publishes a quarterly newsletter, The Eagle Eye, and sponsors member conferences, or Leadership Summits. EFC's mission is "To provide students with the tools necessary to combat PC and liberalism on college campuses; and to educate and inform the public on relevant issues." (EFC Mission Statement). With 80,000 newsletter subscribers alone, the organization has become a conservative force on college campuses.
I attended the Eagle Forum Collegians' Second Annual Leadership Summit on June 22-23, 1995 in Washington, DC. Speakers at the summit included Congressman Duncan Hunter, Senator and Presidential nominee Phil Gramm, Senator James Inhofe, Congresswoman Helen Chenoweth, Senator Spencer Abraham, and others on issues ranging from immigration and national security to feminism and "freedom".
A doomsday address by Frank Gaffney, Jr. from the Coalition to Defend America, titled "Why Can't We Shoot Down Enemy Missiles?" provided an opening day highlight. He identified the single most important national security problem today as the situation portrayed in the film Crimson Tide. Mr. Gaffney described several world leaders as "zealots" and "delusional fruit cakes" designing strategic plans to do away with large pieces of the United States -- maybe even your hometown! He blamed the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty for allowing a Crimson Tide scenario, and the federal government for instituting policy that allows "our people to remain vulnerable."
The first day concluded with an ice cream social in which participants listened to the Rush Limbaugh radio program.
The second day of the Leadership Summit focused on college campus politics. C-SPAN recorded the proceedings, including all thirty or so remaining student attendees. Phyllis Schlafly began with a presentation titled "Don't Fall For Feminist Follies." According to Schlafly, Simone DeBeauvoir was the "big mama of feminism," Betty Friedan is "a housewife that sat around feeling sorry for herself," US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is a "bizarre... kooky... off the wall... anti-homemaker... radical feminist," and Anita Hill too is a "kooky... bizarre... radical feminist." "The feminist movement," she proclaimed, "is not compatible with common sense, with human nature."
Later, two former students who had led successful campaigns to defund the Public Interest Research Groups and the US Students Association on their respective campuses offered attendees advice on how to mount similar efforts. One tip was to attend "the Morton Blackwell Leadership Institute."
Pat Collins, the Yale University student publisher of Light and Truth responsible for inflammatory and inaccurate coverage of an affair involving the return of a $20 million gift to Texas oil billionaire Lee Bass, gave a presentation titled "Building Conservative Newspapers." His enlightened analysis: "liberals are just wrong, so what are they going to do?"
Ron Rosenberger, Program Officer at the Young America's Foundation, spoke about his victory as the plaintiff of the US Supreme Court case against the University of Virginia. This litigation resulted in a national precedent prohibiting the denial of public university funding for religious publications such as his Christian evangelical magazine Wide Awake. His speech was broadcast over C-SPAN.
After several more presentations, Phyllis Schlafly wrapped up the Leadership Summit with a farewell and praised the Eagle Forum Collegians as the "traditional voices for a new generation."
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