My experience over many decades is that the John Birch Society is filled with a bunch of wacko extremists. The Founder of the JBS (Welch) called President Eisenhower a communist stooge. Prompting the resignation of conservatives like Bill Buckley and Russell Kirk. Even Barry Goldwater distanced himself from JBS.
Wouldn’t be surprised to see that nutzies like Ron Paul, Thomas DiLorenzo, Lew Rockwell are members of JBS. Along with the late Reagan hater, Murry Rothbard.
I say, no thanks to JBS!
Mr. Buckley was there. I wasn't. It's the only footnoted novel I've ever read.
Regards,
TS
Over the years, the JBS has taken some raqther curious views for an organization that styles itself conservative. In the mid-1970’s, they opposed Ronald Reagan’s bid for the presidency—seems he wasn’t conservative enough, and even had some liberal views in the 1940’s. In 1978, R. D. Patrick Mahoney, one of their spokesmen, was denouncing Proposition 13, the California ballot initiative that sought to limit property taxes, which all other conservatives enthusiastically supported. In 1992, when George Bush was running for re-election against Bill Clinton, the Birchers poured a tremendous amount of money and effort into distributing a book denouncing Bush. The Birchers have also denounced the Nicaraguan Contras, William F. Buckley, Rush Limbaugh, and Newt Gingrich.
In the 1980’s, a friend of mine started a JBS chapter, but was purged because he was having the members read literature from the Defense Department, think tanks, and conservative journals analyzing security issues, and in particular the military threat posed by the Soviet Union. The Bircher who fired him insisted that he should have had them read Birch pamphlets that describe how some “Master Conspiracy” runs the world. Since there was no one to replace my friend, the chapter dissolved.