When the Republican presidential candidates were asked in Wednesday’s CNN debate which woman they would choose to replace Alexander Hamilton on the $10 bill, I was disappointed with their answers. Ben Carson said his mother, Mike Huckabee said his wife and Jeb Bush named Margaret Thatcher, while Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Donald Trump seemed to agree on Rosa Parks.

Gentlemen, you are Republicans and you were debating at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. Didn’t the name of the most important Republican woman of the 20th century cross your mind?

Yes — Phyllis Schlafly, whose 1964 book A Choice Not an Echo became a bestseller and was widely credited with rallying conservatives behind Barry Goldwater’s presidential campaign.

Yes — Phyllis Schlafly, who brilliantly organized conservative women in the 1970s and ’80s to defeat the Equal Rights Amendment.

Yes — Phyllis Schlafly, whose Eagle Forum is to this day one of the most effective grassroots conservative organizations in America. Didn’t it occur to any of these Republican candidates that, if they had named Phyllis Schlafly to be on the $10 bill, they might have instantly won for themselves the loyalty of many thousands of conservative women across the country? Especially among social conservative voters in Iowa, and among voters old enough to remember the Goldwater and Reagan campaigns, the name Phyllis Schlafly still possesses a special magic.

That was a missed opportunity.

I don’t think we should change the $10 (nor, as some have suggested, the $20), but when Republicans miss a chance to praise Phyllis Schlafly, it bespeaks an ignorance of their own party’s history — or perhaps an unfortunate ingratitude for Mrs. Schlafly’s accomplishments.





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