However, as is usually the case with the Birch Society, they artfully select only that data which conforms to their argument, or which they think exonerates the JBS, BUT they deliberately omit all contradictory or inconvenient data.
Admittedly, it is VERY difficult to have a rational and amicable discussion about the Birch Society because (1) JBS members and sympathizers rarely are willing to acknowledge factual information about their own history (2) JBS members and supporters routinely engage in ad hominem slurs and insults against anybody (left or right) who dares to criticize the JBS and (3) the JBS will not allow outside independent researchers to have access to JBS records in order to present an accurate history of the JBS. In addition, the JBS does not allow outside researchers to have access to its membership for survey purposes.
1. I do NOT believe that the JBS is a racist or anti-semitic organization by any normal standard.
HOWEVER, it is nevertheless accurate to point out that many racists and anti-semites DID join the JBS and some became JBS chapter leaders, JBS Coordinators, JBS National Council members, as well as paid JBS speakers, and contributors to JBS magazines.
[At least four members of the JBS National Council were prominent life-long segregationists, and many JBS members were also members of the White Citizens Council groups in their local communities so it is preposterous for Birchers to claim that they always "expelled" racists or anti-semites from their midst.
2. It also is INDISPUTABLE that the Birch Society praised southern politicians who were racists -- including such prominent racists as: Gov. George Wallace (AL), Gov. Lester Maddox (GA), U.S. Senator James O. Eastland (MS), Gov. Ross Barnett (MS), Cong. John Rarick (LA).
It should be noted that Sen. Eastland sought and received endorsements from the KKK in Mississippi for his election campaigns. Nevertheless, the JBS scored Eastland as 96 out of 100 on its "Conservative Index". At that time, the KKK was listed on the Attorney General's List of Subversive Organizations!!
3. Incidentally, Birchers were a major part of George Wallace's Presidential campaigns. Wallace's "Segregation Forever" speech never bothered Birchers. Some State Chairmen for the Wallace campaign were JBS members such as Nevada's Dr. John H. DeTar.
In November 1967, Willard S. Voit of California resigned as Vice-President of the John Birch Society's publishing and distribution arm "to actively campaign for George Wallace and to work on Wallace's campaign."
4. It also is INDISPUTABLE that the Birch Society hired individuals as speakers under the auspices of its American Opinion Speakers Bureau who were racists or anti-semites. Examples include: Rev. Ferrell Griswold, former Selma AL Sheriff James G. Clark, Gordon (Jack) Mohr, and Eric Dudley Butler.
Significantly, mainstream conservative organizations praised and recommended by the JBS NEVER associated themselves with these types of people!
5. In addition, the Birch Society has a long and indisputable history of being indifferent to and facilitating prejudice and bigotry because of their inclination to defend white privilege.
Keep in mind that JBS founder Robert Welch grew up in a small community in Chowan County, North Carolina during a time when Jim Crow customs and laws and segregation prevailed. Welch accepted those customs and laws as the natural order of things.
6. The JBS is NOT an anti-semitic organization BUT it did permit anti-semites to join as long as they kept their bigotry to themselves and did not attempt to hijack or manipulate their local chapter.
The most successful neo-nazi website in our country (Stormfront) was begun by a former Bircher, --i.e. Kevin Strom. The Stormfront website contains numerous messages from its readers who acknowledged that they started out as JBS members.
7. The California Senate Subcommittee Report which Mr. Newman references did NOT conduct research into the JBS nationally and its findings were limited to the relatively brief time period during which it conducted its investigation in California (in 1961 but published in 1963). Most of the conclusions which the Subcommittee reached in its first report on the JBS were based upon affidavits submitted by JBS members. I'm sure Mr. Newman would agree that self-reporting is not the best or most accurate method for determining the true character of an organization.
8. The Subcommittee updated its findings on the JBS in 1965. At that time its Report concluded:
"It has, as we predicted, been beset by an influx of emotionally unstable people, some of whom have been prosecuted in the courts for their hoodlum tactics in disrupting meetings and heckling speakers with whom they disagree...We are more critical of the Society now than we were [in the 1963 Report] for the reason that it has, in our opinion, merited such criticism by reason of its activities as exemplified by the irresponsible articles by a member of its National Council, the re-publication of The Politician, the inexcusable actions of its minority of irresponsible members, and dangerous increase of anti-Semitism among a minority of the membership."
On page 174 the Report observed:
"According to reliable sources, we would estimate that the Society has grown so rapidly that it has attracted a lunatic fringe that is now assuming serious proportions. We find very little anti-Negro sentiment among the members, but we do find a growing incidence of anti-Semitism, although the Society as a whole is far from anti-Semitic."
9. The JBS attracted an unusual number of racists and anti-Semites into its ranks. Most of the time, they were permitted to continue their JBS membership unless they said or did something publicly to embarrass the JBS or if they tried to takeover a local chapter and spread their bigotry under the auspices of the JBS.
10. One of the most significant examples of how the JBS turned a blind eye to bigotry concerns JBS founder Robert Welch's attempt to get Verne Kaub (of American Council of Christian Laymen--Madison WI) to join or to endorse the JBS.
Despite Kaub's virulent anti-semitism expressed in private letters to Welch, Welch nevertheless asked Kaub to join the JBS. Kaub refused because, as he told Welch, the JBS had "too many Jews" in the Society.
Although Kaub never joined, Welch did treat Kaub as a Home Chapter member of the JBS (i.e. not connected to a local chapter in his community) and Kaub was sent all materials which a dues-paying JBS member received.
11. More recently, a major controversy erupted within the top echelons of the JBS over comments made by former JBS President John McManus before Catholic organizations during the past 10+ years.
Both the former and current CEO's of the JBS described those comments by McManus as "anti-semitic" -- as did the only Jewish member of the JBS National Council (David Eisenberg).
Ultimately, McManus apologized and he claimed that he would revise his comments. Eisenberg and other JBS officials accepted McManus's contrition-- but the matter is unresolved because many people over the years have reported that McManus has expressed anti-semitic sentiments.
For example, the former Senior Editor of the JBS magazine, (William Norman Grigg) reported that:
"During the 2005 conflict, Vance Smith and his allies sought to capitalize on the fact that Jack McManus, the current JBS President (at the time, president emeritus and Council member) had given a number of blatantly, brazenly anti-Semitic speeches to schismatic Catholic groups. Audio and video recordings of those speeches had been made and marketed, and excerpts of some of the worst elements were compiled into a kind of highlight reel for use by Vance's faction in lobbying various people, including myself. I was furious with Jack; I'd known he was capable of saying some really vicious things (he once referred to AEI's Ben Wattenberg, who had interviewed Jack on the radio, as a "slimy New York Jew"; I about collapsed from shock), but my position is that one's internal prejudices are his own affair. (As an American of Mexican ancestry I apply that principle in dealing with anti-Latino prejudice as well). When I learned that Jack, for years, had been making speeches of that kind, my reaction was a mixture of rage and weary disgust."
12. There is considerably more inconvenient and unpleasant information about bigotry within the JBS to consider -- including understanding why the JBS believed and disseminated racist arguments first created by white supremacists AND why Robert Welch and the JBS were so hostile toward all national Jewish organizations as well as hostile toward Israel and Zionists AND why virulent Jew-haters were allowed to become JBS members and JBS officials -- but nobody will ever be able to write anything definitive about these subjects because the JBS does not allow outside independent researchers to have access to its archives for historical research purposes.
DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE:
John Birch Society CEO Vance Smith letter re: anti-semitic speeches by John McManus:
https://archive.org/details/032206GVanceSmithToJBSNCRe McManusAntiSemiticStatements
John Birch Society CEO Art Thompson Audio Re John McManus
https://archive.org/details/ArtThompsonAudioReMcManus
07-25-06 Wayne Rickert Reply To David Eisenberg Re McManus
https://archive.org/details/072506RickertReplyToDavidEisenbergReMcManus
1963 Report--Calif Senate Factfinding Subcommittee On Un American Activities (pages 1-61 on JBS)
https://archive.org/details/1963ReportOfCalifSenateFactfindingSubcommitteeOnUnAmericanActivities
1965 Calif Senate Factfinding Subcommittee Report on John Birch Society
https://archive.org/details/1965CalifSenateFactfindingSubcommitteeReportJohnBirchSociety
Right question: THE DNC RACIST OR ANTI-SEMITIC?
Who cares a zillion years later
Is it anti-Semitic to note that most Jews support the Left?
Anyway, the John Birch Society obviously does need to be dealt with. It is such a huge force in current American politics.
Next we need to address know-nothings, graingers, and whigs.
Actually, the JBS was simply correct.
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
Agreeing with many JBS positions, cannot fathom why they are so adamantly opposed to the Convention of States.
If they are for original intent, limited government, how can they take a part of Section V that allows for States writing amendments in addition to congress as something akin to Satan?
You obviously feel strongly about this, and I am wondering why you even regard it as a “thing.” I haven’t heard of the JBS for decades, so why are we worrying about it?
That's a good thing.
I've been exposed to their materials over the years, and in several instances found myself in vehement disagreement on one point or another.
Having said that, I find efforts to demonize the JBS to be laughable.
While I'm not a member, I don't particularly have problems with those who are, and judge them overall as individuals.
Consider the NRA, for example, versus GOA.
Most around here know that GOA is more conservative than the NRA, and has some things "right" which the NRA is too "moderate" on.
Does that mean every member of the NRA is squishy on gun-rights? Of course not.
Does it mean that very GOA member thinks each American male should have a machine gun in their closet? OK, bad choice of questions. ;-)
My point is, being a member of—or reviewing content from—any "political" organization isn't some kind of scarlet letter.
My experience as an individual is that nobody has everything right.
As for JBS, I'm not with the derision of that organization, and I think that it serves an important role in the pantheon of anti-communist organizations.
One JBS adage seems to be: "One thing they often neglect to mention about McCarthy when disparaging him is that he was basically right!"
Wtf is wrong with you?
U got some axe to grind ?
ARE YOU A JOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
So what? Were some of the American founders not slave owners? Are the Republicans and Democrats not jammed with controlling lying corrupt individuals who only exist to line their own pockets with power and cash?
Tell me, why are so many Jews leftist?
Are there any JBS members younger than 93?