The Constitution of the United States serves many purposes
in our republic. One of the main advantages of a written constitution is that
it protects Americans from the whims of changing elected officials. A written
constitution gives us an anchor on which to base our expectations for our
federal government. Similarly, the long-lost art of the party platform should
be an anchor by which we place reasonable expectations on elected officials of
a political party. If the party claimed by a politician is conservative, it is
a reasonable expectation that the politician himself should be conservative.
Phyllis Schlafly turned this concept from analogy to reality with her June and
September 1971 Phyllis Schlafly Reports.
When an elected official turns his back on the party platform he campaigned on,
he puts himself at incredible risk of alienating his voting base.
Long before the age of internet and instant communication, Phyllis Schlafly was gathering polling data the old fashioned way. By attaching an in-depth survey on President Nixon’s performance to the March 1971 Phyllis Schlafly Report, she amassed data from 3,423 conservatives. To put that in perspective, Gallup polls in that day polled around 1,500 people for their data. Today, Gallup polls are based on only 1,000 responses. In addition to the obvious numerical superiority of Phyllis’s poll, she also argued that the respondents were more qualified than the traditional polling pool. “We surveyed political activists – the people who vote in all elections including primaries, and who back up their votes with contributions in cash and volunteer work.” Curiously, the poll showed that conservatives were overwhelmingly unhappy with Nixon’s performance. Even more curiously, the poll indicated that 60% of respondents said should Nixon not run in 1972, they would want to see the Republican Party nomination go to the California actor-turned-governor named Ronald Reagan. That’s right, Phyllis Schlafly had picked up on the conservative support for Reagan way back in 1971.
Given the highly unfavorable rating afforded to Nixon by the
poll, the obvious question was “What did Nixon do to alienate the conservative
voters who had backed him in 1968?” That question is answered in the September
1971 issue of the Phyllis Schlafly Report.
In it, Phyllis listed out the major areas in which Nixon’s policies differ from
the Republican Platforms of 1968, 1964, 1960, 1956, and 1952. Some people
consider party platforms to be trivial at best, but not Phyllis. She always
held that party platforms are essential. As she wrote in the September 1971
report, “The last five Republican Platforms constitute a consistent and
harmonious fabric of the pledges made to the American people by the Republican
Party. What happened to these promises after the Nixon Administration took
office in January 1969?” Although critics say platforms are trivial because
they are technically non-binding documents, that is like saying George H. W.
Bush’s “Read my lips: no new taxes” pledge was inconsequential because it was
technically non-binding. Republicans should be expected to act like
Republicans. That is a legitimate expectation. That is what the platform is
for.
Phyllis Schlafly was so confident in the platform, she was
willing to stake everything on it. She only endorsed Donald Trump when he
promised to stick to the Republican Party Platform. I was blessed with the
opportunity to attend the 2016 Republican National Convention with Phyllis and
see the platform be built into what it is today. Phyllis was very pleased with
the 2016 platform. Her son Andy said at her funeral, “The party platform now
embraces Phyllis’s positions on everything from building a wall to stop illegal
immigration, to being strongly pro-life, to attaining military superiority,
which were all positions that she staked out decades ago.” The platform still
reflects the desires that Republicans have for their elected officials. All
they have to do is follow the principles they promised to follow when they took
the title of “Republican.” Now it is up to us to see them keep their promises. With
the help of Phyllis Schlafly’s timely commentary, we can learn from the
mistakes of past politicians and unleash the power of the Republican Platform.
By Jordan T. Henry
Director of Research
Phyllis Schlafly Eagles
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