Very strange that “Reaganite Republican” associates himself with the John Birch Society since the official JBS position on Reagan is that he was a “phony conservative”.
In fact, Marian Welch (the wife of JBS founder Robert Welch) terminated her JBS membership because she was so angry at the way which the new leadership of the JBS savaged Reagan in the pages of the JBS magazine, The New American, after her husband died. [The current JBS President, John McManus, once said that if the GOP nominated Reagan for President, it would be evidence that Reagan must be “a lackey” of the Communists!]. It should also be noted that Ronald Reagan denounced Robert Welch’s contentions about Eisenhower and other matters.
With respect to Reaganite Republican’s claim that history has “exonerated” the JBS -— nothing could be further from reality.
For example:
The Birch Society (and JBS founder Robert Welch) on numerous occasions emphatically declared that J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI were our nation’s most knowledgeable, authoritative, and reliable source of factual information about internal security matters generally, and about the communist movement in particular — as well as about what constituted effective anti-communism.
However, more often than not, FBI investigative files falsify every premise and conclusion which the JBS has disseminated over the past 50 years. And there are numerous FBI memos which reveal the utter contempt which senior FBI officials within the Domestic Intelligence Division had for Robert Welch and the JBS. See report below.
FBI FILES ON BIRCH SOCIETY AND ITS ASSERTIONS:
This 204-page report explains why J. Edgar Hoover and senior FBI officials within the Bureau’s Domestic Intelligence Division concluded in FBI memos that the JBS was “extremist”, “irrational” and “irresponsible”
http://sites.google.com/site/ernie124102/jbs-1
CONSERVATIVE CRITICS OF ROBERT WELCH and BIRCH SOCIETY:
Contrary to claims made by the Birch Society about the alleged “left-wing” origins of JBS criticism, the most potent adverse comments about the JBS have always originated from the right-side of the political spectrum. This report presents a representative sample of such comments.
http://sites.google.com/site/ernie124102/jbs-4
Critics have included such prominent Americans as: Sen. Barry Goldwater, Cong. Walter Judd, Gen. Albert C. Wedemeyer, Russell Kirk, Eugene Lyons, Willmoore Kendall, James Burnham, Robert Bork, J. Edgar Hoover, Herbert Philbrick, Frank S. Meyer, Cong. Gordon H. Scherer, William F. Buckley Jr., Patrick Buchanan, Fred Schwarz, Lee Edwards, the editors of the conservative newspaper, Human Events, George Sokolsky, Roy Cohn, Anthony Bouscaren, plus even many former Birchers such as: Alan Stang, Gary Allen, Milorad Draskovich, John Rees, William Norman Grigg, Mrs. Robert Welch -— and many many more.
DOCUMENTARY HISTORY OF THE JOHN BIRCH SOCIETY:
This report presents documents which, generally, have never been previously publicly available — including private correspondence between Robert Welch and numerous individuals and correspondence by JBS National Council members during the formative years of the Birch Society. This report is a work-in-progress and considerable new material will be added over the next few months.
JBS 9-1 https://sites.google.com/site/ernie1241/
JBS 9-2 https://sites.google.com/site/ernie1241a/
JBS 9-3 https://sites.google.com/site/ernie1241b/
BTW, has nothing to do with what anybody thinks of Reagan
All I’m saying as they were mocked not worth listening to -like the TEA Party today- and 75% of the predictions came true already, that’s all