Conservative icon and Eagle Forum founder Phyllis Schlafly tells World Net Daily that Donald Trump looks to be “the last hope for America,” because he confronts issues like immigration in a way the bipartisan Beltway establishment refuses to.
She predicted Trump would win because grassroots voters are outraged over such “betrayals” as the omnibus spending bill, in which Republicans used their historic midterm election victory – under the leadership of a Speaker who made his bones as the math-wizard archenemy of irresponsible government spending – to deliver a trillion-dollar bag of Christmas goodies to Democrats, funding almost the entirety of the Obama agenda without a fight.
Schlafly’s comments came in response to Trump’s fiery denunciation of the omnibus bill, which read in full:
If anyone needed more evidence of why the American people are suffering at the hands of their own government, look no further than the budget deal announced by Speaker Ryan. In order to avoid a government shutdown, a cowardly threat from an incompetent President, the elected Republicans in Congress threw in the towel and showed absolutely no budget discipline.
The American people with have to absorb higher deficits, greater debt, less economic liberty and more corporate welfare. Congress cannot seem to help itself in bending to every whim of special interests. How can they face their constituents when they continue to burden our children and grandchildren with debts they will never be able to repay? Our government is failing us, so we must do something about it. Who knows how bad things will be when the next administration comes in and has to pick up the pieces?
The only special interest not being served by our government is the American people. It is time we imposed budget discipline by holding the line on spending, getting rid of waste, fraud and abuse, and by taking on our debt. To do these things, we need a President who can lead the fight to hold Congress and the rest of government accountable. Together, we will Make America Great Again.
Schlafly applauded both the tone and substance of Trump’s response.
“This is a betrayal of the grassroots and the Republican Party,” she said of the omnibus bill. “We thought we were electing a different crowd to stand up for America, and they didn’t. We’re extremely outraged by what Congress has done. Nancy Pelosi couldn’t have engineered it any better. I think the people are going to react by electing Donald Trump.”
“It sounds like Donald Trump is the only one who has any fight in him,” Schlafly continued. “He will fight for the issues that we really care about and are very hot at the present time, such as the immigration issue. I don’t see anyone else who’s eager to fight.”
When WND asked if Schlafly thought Trump was the “last hope for America,” she replied:
He does look like he’s the last hope. We don’t hear anybody saying what he’s saying. In fact, most of the people who ought to be lining up with him are attacking him. They’re probably jealous of the amount of press coverage he gets. But the reason he gets so much press coverage is the grassroots are fed up with people who are running things, and they do want a change. They do want people to stand up for America. It really resonates when he says he wants to “Make America Great Again.”
She thought Trump’s approach would even win over some Democrats: “They are betrayed. There’s no doubt about it. The working man and woman have been betrayed by both parties. They’re ready for a change … anything they think would be better.”
The omnibus disaster was a $1.1 trillion in-kind campaign donation to Donald Trump, and to a lesser extent the other “outsiders” like Ted Cruz, Carly Fiorina, and Ben Carson. The Establishment could not have made a more compelling argument against itself, and its chosen candidates. Grassroots voters would be foolish to elect more of what they got in 2014, which was a line the Establishment should not have crossed – the final failure of their perpetual “we’ll fight next time, pinky swear!” evasions.
There is little reason to believe the same leadership will do much better when it holds the White House. The disconnect with base voters of their own party, the sense of betrayal Schlafly talked about, is near-total, especially given the ultimate blunder of putting Rep. Paul Ryan’s face on the sellout, and squandering the reputation of one of the few Establishment-friendly figures grassroots conservatives still took seriously on the subject of restraining government growth.
The Establishment congratulated itself for either defeating or co-opting the Tea Party movement after the 2014 election – a victory they apparently cared about far more than defeating Democrats.
They’ve spent every day since that election vindicating the Tea Party critique. Apparently they thought the interest in outsider candidates for 2016 was a whim that would pass. The omnibus betrayal just guaranteed the appeal of outsiders will not fade. Thus does the Establishment that proclaims itself convinced Trump is the only leading GOP candidate who would lose to Hillary Clinton take steps to make him stronger as this bizarre year in politics draws to close.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.