The John Birch Society v. We the People Part I (2020)

ArticleVBlog ^ | February 24th 2020 | Rodney Dodsworth

[ChessExpert]

Thank you for the information. Another poster said the same thing. It never hurts to have confirmation.

I have little independent information here. I must say that it would not surprise me if the members of the JBS were unjustly slandered. I have seen so much unjust slander in recent years, it would be a surprise if the JBS wasn’t unjustly slandered. The positive (and intelligent) defense of the JBS is encouraging.

[Dr. Sivana]

In the 1970’s and 1980’s, the JBS, for some reason, was cool, and at times even hostile to the Reagan movement, which alienated it form many grass-roots conservatives. Also, for some reason, they were hostile to Rush Limbaugh, and the New American, their house organ, ran a couple of articles denouncing Rush. They also feuded with conservative publisher and polemicist William F. Buckley in a rhubarb that dated back to the early sixties.

Their main beef with Reagan was his ardent support for international "free trade" (with some noted deviations), "Tax Reform Act of 1986", some of his appointments, Nancy, and his priorities. Also, they would have liked him to maintain an even more anti-communist tone consistently.

William F. Buckley went out of his way to marginalize JBS from the beginning, fearing that what he viewed as the crazies would doom conservatism from being a winning movement, and especially disagreeing on tariffs and intervention not related to stopping Communism.

There is a range of opinions held by members and leadership of JBS, just as there are in NR and the Republican Party.

[Responsibility2nd]

Interesting.

Buckley was never conservative. And Reagan in his early years was leaning libertarian. Remember his famous 1975 remark.

So I can see why Birchers had some doubts about Buckely and Reagan.

Thank God Reagan proved to be a true conservative as president and not some squishy liberaltarian.

[searching123]

The JBS has not been “right” by any known rules of evidence and logic.

Robert Welch and every senior official of the JBS effusively praised former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. According to Welch and the JBS, Hoover was our nation’s most knowledgeable expert re: the Communist movement in the U.S. See for example, JBS article entitled “The Wisdom and Warning of J. Edgar Hoover” published in the 10/66 issue of the JBS magazine (American Opinion) and also available as a reprint. Significantly, Hoover’s FBI falsified EVERY major predicate of JBS ideology AND Hoover stated that the JBS was a “right wing extremist” movement that did not deal in fact or reality.
For details see:
https://archive.org/details/john-birch-society-report-october-2020-614pp/mode/2up

For a massive critique of the JBS position concerning our civil rights movement, see:
https://archive.org/details/0906-combined-pdf-racism-and-the-john-birch-society-283-pages

[searching123]

“Those folks were intelligent, courteous and friendly”

The point is that “intelligent, courteous and friendly” people can, nevertheless, be gravely mistaken in their views.

That is why even J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI concluded that the Birch Society was a “right wing extremist” group that did NOT deal in facts or reality.

[searching123]

There is no evidence in the public domain to support your contention that “There is a range of opinions held by members and leadership of JBS, just as there are in NR and the Republican Party.”

The core ideological belief of the JBS since its inception in 1958 has been that almost all of our national leaders in the 20th century were “Communist traitors” or “agents” of a vast criminal conspiracy. The JBS concluded that the U.S. was 60 to 80% under “Communist influence and control” — and they always predicted our imminent demise as a free country. In fact, numerous senior officials of the JBS claimed that our last free election would be in 1964, then 1970, then 1972, then 1976.

[Dr. Sivana]

I have read plenty of issues of The New American, and earlier Review of the News and American Opinion. I found positive reviews of contemporary US politicians, well reasoned opinion pieces on various topics, and thoughtful interv iews. Whatever number of Communists and fellow travellers there are in government, academia and elite cultural institutions, the last fee years showed that it was more than we thought. The Never Trumpers are their enablers.

[Robwin]

Robert Welch was one of the most intelligent and well informed individuals I have ever run across. His thesis was quite simple and quite correct. There is a cabal existent whose purpose is to end American sovereignty and replace it with a one-world technocratic government run by and for themselves.

Welch called them "Insiders" and thought their membership transcended race, religion, and other such factors. The Communist movement was but one dimension in their efforts, but not the whole of it. That was the more criminal aspect of the conspiracy, as it also included such groups as the elitist Council on Foreign Relations, the Bildebergs, the Tri-Lateral Commission, and other such organizations whose purpose it was to undermine Americanism and promote internationalism over nationalism.

Anyone who can look at how far we have come down this road since the end of WWII is simply not paying attention.

[searching123]

Apparently, Dr Sivana, you are not aware that the Birch Society (and its surrogates) have lost defamation lawsuits because their publications presented maliciously false information.

In July 1961, Robert Welch wrote in that month’s JBS Bulletin that there were 300,000 to 500,000 Communist Party members in the United States. The actual number (according to the FBI) was 5262! Obviously, Welch had no clue regarding the correct number because he had no way to determine that information. He did not have access to CPUSA dues payment info (as the FBI did) and he had no informants inside the CPUSA (the FBI had over 400 human informants inside the Party).

So, you can rely upon the FALSE information in JBS publications OR you can prefer verifiable FACTUAL information but you cannot rely upon the JBS for “reasoned” information. OPINIONS (by definition) do not necessarily reflect reality or truth. They are just personal observations or preferences -— such as stating that strawberry is the best flavor of ice cream. FACTS are different because they represent reality and truth.

Furthermore, the JBS has a very long history of associating itself with racial and religious bigots and praising or recommending such people (politicians and authors).

In December 2019, the former Research Director of the JBS (Tom Eddlem) resigned his lifetime JBS membership because of what HE described as “nazi racial propaganda” published in the JBS magazine (The New American). You can see Eddlem’s resignation letter here:
http://teddlem.blogspot.com/2019/12/resignation-letter-to-john-birch-society.html

For over 100 pages of details regarding JBS links to racial and religious bigots, see:
https://archive.org/details/jbs-chronology-january-2022

[searching123]

For a more accurate understanding of Robert Welch, see the new biography about Welch (published this month) that was authored by a PhD historian.
https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/C/bo123795778.html

Your understanding about Welch is deeply flawed. He made massive errors in analysis and judgment despite his “intelligence”. THAT is why almost the entire conservative movement in the U.S. denounced and rejected his views.

[searching123]

Buckley was “never conservative”? Then why did Robert Welch contribute $1000 twice to National Review? Why did Welch ask Buckley to support and endorse his original enterprises (and Buckley did so)?

Why did Welch describe Buckley as his “friend” and then suggest that Buckley be invited to a dinner honoring Alfred Kohlberg?

Why did Welch and Buckley have cordial correspondence for many years?

Why did Buckley’s positions on many public policy issues agree with Welch’s?

Why did the Birch Society recommend and sell Buckley’s books?

Why did Buckley’s magazine (National Review) feature the most important and accomplished conservative thinkers of the 20th century — whereas Welch was NOT able to attract authors of the same caliber for his magazines?

[searching123]

The JBS had a long history of accepting and praising racial and religious bigots into the JBS as members, as officials, and as paid employees.

The JBS never “opposed Judeophobia” — which is why it was never able to attract any significant number of Jews into its ranks — as even Welch admitted in private correspondence.

Furthermore, the official JBS position on Israel was extremely hostile AND it also attacked and defamed Jewish fraternal organizations like ADL and American Jewish Committee.

Robert Welch and the JBS recommended and sold publications by UK conspiracy author Nesta Webster. She was an official in the first UK fascist organization and in 1926 she gave a speech entitled “The Need For Fascism in Great Britain”. For details re: how the JBS promoted her writings see:
https://archive.org/details/webster-nesta-the-need-for-fascism-in-great-britain-1926-12pp

[Wallace T.]

The John Birch Society did expel several prominent members for anti-Semitic remarks, such as Revilo Oliver, an original founder of the group, and John Schmitz, who was the 1972 Presidential nominee of the American Party, Georgia Wallace's 1968 Presidential vehicle. However, John McManus, an executive with the JBS, espoused hostile remarks toward Jews at a few traditionalist Catholic conferences.

Conspiracy theories are by nature hard to substantiate. There was an anti-Bircher who wrote a monograph, The Belmont Brotherhood, that asserted that the JBS was indeed part of the Great Conspiracy. The author used the same techniques of guilt by association that the Birchers themselves used. As an example, one of the JBS founders was on the board of directors of a Federal Reserve Bank; another was a high ranking Mason; still another was a member of an affiliate of the Council on Foreign Relations.

[cgbg]

Speaking of ADL, check out their definition of “systemic racism”.

https://www.adl.org/racism

They have decided to declare war on white people.

Look who the racists are now....

That should concern you a whole lot more than your litany of historical complaints against JBS.

They are coming for you—not the Commies, not the JBS.

Nope—the ADL.

[Dr. Sivana]

The actual number (according to the FBI) was 5262!

Few of us at FR would trust FBI statistics these days. When they started fabricating info, and how much? Who knows. If you count front groups, the JBS number was probably closer to the truth. Heck Reagan was even a member of one before he figured it out.

I did a quick scan through the 100 pages of documentation. L:ong on accusations, short on actual quotations. One of the first quotations I saw is not "bigoted" at all, and reflects the thinking of many Freepers, namely that "democracy is a deceptive phrase, a weapon of demogoguery" (page 8).

“Our Liberal critics would have you believe that this statement, for an American, is practically heresy. This is because these same Liberals have been working so long and so hard to convert our republic into a democracy, and to make the American people believe that it is supposed to be a democracy, nothing could be further from the truth than that insidiously planted premise. Our founding fathers knew a great deal about history and government, and they had very nearly a clean slate on which to write the blueprint for our own. They gave us a republic because they considered it the best of all forms of government. They visibly spurned a democracy as probably the worst of all forms of government. But our past history and our present danger indicate that they were right in both particulars.”

Here's the comment by the critic: Political extremists [begging the question] such as the Birch Society claim that our Founding Fathers distrusted and detested democracy but Thomas Jefferson and James Madison named the political party they founded the "Democratic-Republican Party".
Anyone who is a student of history would know this to be true. Jefferson is but one Founding Father, and even he was not an absolute Democrat. Madison was certainly no Democrat in the classic sense.

My own instruction took place at a New England prep school and University of Chicago before transferring. These were hardly bastions of political extremism.

Now, apparently this Lucille Miller wrote anti-Jew material (I avoid "anti-semitic" as that includes Arabs and Abyssinians). So did Welch publish her books? Print articles written by her? Echo her anti-semitic statements? No. In a passing statement in a full-length book he described her as an incautious patriot. That is a thin connection to excuse the 100 page presentation to use almost an entire page on her writings for non JBS-operations.

As far as the pro-segregationalist material from the '50s, etc., you would have to write out a whole lot of organizations on both sides of the aisle, going clear nack to Abraham Lincoln, if that disqualifies association with them today.

I didn't have time to read the whole piece, but it seems like a mere hit piece, and is indiscriminate in its accusations. Indeed, many Freepers, and not just the ones who speak of the Amish, would be way beyond the pale for this writer, as well as everyone who freely associated himself with FR, including you.

[Fiji Hill]

The JBS never “opposed Judeophobia” — which is why it was never able to attract any significant number of Jews into its ranks — as even Welch admitted in private correspondence.
Yes, the JBS does oppose Judeophobia. Anyone who expresses hatred for Jews is kicked out. As for attracting any significant number of Jews into their ranks, no conservative groups have been able to do that.

Furthermore, the official JBS position on Israel was extremely hostile AND it also attacked and defamed Jewish fraternal organizations like ADL and American Jewish Committee.
I don't know if they have an official position on Israel. I have never read anything in their publications attacking the country, but I did read an article in their magazine The Review of the News praising Israel for defeating their Soviet-backed enemies in the Six Day War. More recently, their publication The New American supported President Trump's decision to move the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

As to the "Jewish fraternal organizations," the ADL and the American Jewish Committee seem more like lobby groups. I doubt that the far-left, cultural Marxist ADL has a whole lot of friends anywhere in the American conservative movement.

Robert Welch and the JBS recommended and sold publications by UK conspiracy author Nesta Webster. She was an official in the first UK fascist organization and in 1926 she gave a speech entitled “The Need For Fascism in Great Britain”.
You scored on that point. Some American Opinion bookstores, which were run by the JBS, were selling Nesta Webster's books, and I complained after reading one. But I think they liked her for her conspiracy-mongering rather than her Judeophobia.

[Robwin]

For a more accurate understanding of Robert Welch, see the new biography about Welch (published this month) that was authored by a PhD historian...Your understanding about Welch is deeply flawed. He made massive errors in analysis and judgment despite his “intelligence”. THAT is why almost the entire conservative movement in the U.S. denounced and rejected his views.

Gosh, searching123, do you mean there is a publication out there which is critical of Mr Welch and the JBS? How unusual. Note, however, this one is written by some guy with a PhD which means, of course, it must be true.

Wake up, sir. One of the goals of the Elitists has been, is, and shall continue to be an attempt to tear down and marginalize any person or group which offers serious opposition to their goals. Mr Welch and the JBS awoke any number of people to the Insiders' elitist program to undermine our Constitutional form of government, end nationalism, and merge our country into a New World Order of international government. And that is all to the good.