WASHINGTON (AP) — Conservative activist Paul Weyrich, who coined the phrase "moral majority" and helped turn social conservatives into a powerful force in the Republican Party, died Thursday. He was 66.
Weyrich's death was announced by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think thank that he had helped to create.
Republican National Committee Chairman Mike Duncan said Weyrich "was instrumental in the development of conservative thought" in America.
Lee Edwards, a Heritage Foundation scholar and a friend, said Weyrich had suffered from ill health in recent years and had both legs amputated.
Condolences to his family and all that other stuff.
For the rest of us, here's a Weyerich memory hole item, via Eschaton commenter Sarah B.:
Weyrich: "Now many of our Christians have what I call the goo-goo syndrome -- good government. They want everybody to vote. I don't want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of people, they never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not now. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.
Buh-bye.
