Ken0921This past weekend I had the pleasure of being one of the presenters at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, where we honored Phyllis Schlafly for her lifetime of achievement. She is the person whom even liberal academics look to when they want to explain grassroots conservatism. Phyllis was hailed—rightly so—for having stopped the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA).

Many of the battles that are being fought out now–from the defense of marriage and the fight against abortion in healthcare to the effort to protect women from being ordered into combat—would have been lost if Phyllis had not sounded her trumpet call against this grave threat to family life and liberty in America. Feminist icon and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wanted to ban separate prisons for men and women, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, and recruit the young for Person Scouts only. Imagine what Justice Ginsburg would have done with an ERA as a battering ram.

We were not engaging in some nostalgic trip down memory lane when we salute Phyllis Schlafly’s leadership; we are learning lessons in leadership. Phyllis had arrayed against her far more power than we are currently facing. The media back then was all liberal and all out for the ERA. The White House—not just the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter White House, but the Jerry and Betty Ford White House as well—was against her. So were the Democratic and Republican parties. Bi-partisan majorities in both houses of Congress not only gave the ERA a two-thirds vote, but also extended the deadline for ratification by a constitutionally dubious less-than-two-thirds vote when it appeared Phyllis’ STOP ERA efforts were beginning to gain traction.

She never gave in. She did her homework—just as Tea Party-goers are doing their homework today. She knew what the legal impact of the ERA would be. She explained why she was against the ERA in clear and strong terms. That’s what we need to do with Obamacare today. She got loud—I love the picture of this most ladylike woman belting out her message with a bullhorn. Today, they’re not going to simply ask us politely to pipe down; they’re going to try to shut us up. The latest news is that the unions are being recruited to shout down opponents of the healthcare takeover at future Town Hall meetings. Maybe ACORN will turn in their red T-shirts for SEIU vests. But the idea will be the same: Threaten, intimidate, silence, and rule.

We must have the courage now that Phyllis Schlafly showed in that ERA fight. But the best part is that she’s still in the fight. She fought for life and liberty then, and she’s in the fight for life and liberty now. And I’m proud to fight at her side.