Bringing Back Birch
The John Birch Society, the conspiracist group exiled by the right a half century ago, is on the march and gaining influence
SACRAMENTO, Calif. 鈥 In a hotel near the outer limits of California鈥檚 capital, just down the hall from the pain management conference and the baseball card show, three banquet tables along the back wall of the Cherrywood Room are covered with dozens of books, magazines and DVDs expressing the rightist of right-wing views of the world.
罢丑别谤别鈥檚 Call of Duty, a paperback about the 鈥渟terling nobility鈥 of Robert E. Lee and his lost cause. 罢丑别谤别鈥檚 Exposing Terrorism, a treatise declaring that Islamic terrorists are actually old-school, Moscow-directed Marxists in Muslim masks. On the next table is a volume titled Just Say No to Big Brother鈥檚 Smart Meters: The Latest in Bio-Hazard Technology.
罢丑别谤别鈥檚 a pamphlet on homeschooling, instructions for 鈥渟aving freedom,鈥 a DVD about the horrors of 鈥淥bamaCare,鈥 and several pamphlets, DVDs and books detailing the evils of the United Nations and its sinister scheme to create a New World Order through Agenda 21, a nonbinding U.N. resolution designed to encourage nations to pursue 鈥渟ustainable鈥欌 green growth and land use development efforts.
FRANCIS MILLER/TIME LIFE PICTURES/GETTY IMAGES
On this foggy Saturday morning, a few weeks before Christmas, there鈥檚 something for sale to suit almost every rightist predilection 鈥 almost.
A man steps up to one of the tables and asks, 鈥淒o you have anything by George Soros?鈥欌
The woman handling the money looks as if she has just been slapped.
鈥淚鈥檓 kidding, I鈥檓 kidding,鈥 he says, raising his palms in surrender to apologize for mentioning the liberal billionaire in mixed company.
Another man taps the would-be wisecracker on the shoulder.
鈥淗ey buddy,鈥 he says. 鈥淭hey do have The Communist Manifesto. Will that do? 罢丑别谤别鈥檚 a stack of them over there.鈥
鈥淎re you serious?鈥 the jokester asks, turning thoughtful. 鈥淚 guess that makes sense. It鈥檚 important to know how the enemy thinks.鈥
The John Birch Society publishes the Manifesto and sells it for six bucks a pop at gatherings of its conspiracy theory-loving, U.N.-hating, federal government-despising, Ron Paul-supporting, environmentalist-bashing, Glenn Beck-watching true believers, attending, in this case, a luncheon celebrating the group鈥檚 54th anniversary.
After more than five decades of secret socialist plots and accusations of treason at the highest levels of American government 鈥 these are the people who once called President Dwight Eisenhower a communist 鈥 the arch-conservative John Birch Society is still waging its Cold War-era crusade against the Red menace and American 鈥渋nsiders鈥 who, in the society鈥檚 view, are hell-bent on handing the country over to the socialists at the U.N.
鈥淚 can remember back in the early 鈥60s, there were people who were saying the John Birch Society wouldn鈥檛 achieve its 10th anniversary,鈥 John McManus, the president of the group, tells the luncheon audience of more than 100 mostly gray-haired people. 鈥淥f course, they were hoping that would be the case. Well, I鈥檓 pleased to announce all those people who said that are dead and we鈥檙e still functioning and functioning quite well.鈥
Once Again, the Commies
In a bit of political symmetry, the John Birch Society headquarters is located in Appleton, Wis., about two miles from where the remains of Sen. Joseph McCarthy are buried on a serene bluff overlooking the Fox River. The great American commie hunter died in 1957, cut down by a conspiracy of acute hepatitis and alcoholism.
Across town at the Birch Society, the senator鈥檚 spiritual kin soldier on from two single-story buildings connected by a subterranean passageway on a bland commercial strip. There, the society publishes its magazine, The New American, and runs a website that lists the group鈥檚 various 鈥渁ction projects,鈥 including its campaign to stop Agenda 21. The website also includes weekly video updates presented by the society鈥檚 CEO, Arthur R. Thompson, who, sitting in the group鈥檚 underground TV studio made up to look like a book-lined study, has covered in recent weeks such topics as 鈥淥bamaCare Supports Euthanasia,鈥 鈥淶ombie Attack鈥 and 鈥淩ussia Rising.鈥
In an interview with the Intelligence Report in his Appleton office, Thompson, an affable, white-haired man from Seattle who constantly fidgets with his glasses, twirling them in his fingers as he talks, said that two of the hardest 鈥渟ells鈥 the society has to the American people are that 鈥渃ommunism is alive and flourishing鈥 and 鈥渨hat is behind terrorism.鈥
The answer, Thompson said, is Russia, and it 鈥渋s so obvious, it鈥檚 incredible.鈥
鈥淲hile we鈥檙e sitting here proclaiming communism is dead, it鈥檚 growing everywhere and rapidly,鈥 he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 flourishing under different names, like the Muslim Brotherhood.鈥
At least some Americans appear to be buying what the Birchers are selling. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney raised more than a few eyebrows during the 2012 campaign when he said that Russia 鈥 not Iran, not North Korea 鈥 was, without question, America鈥檚 No. 1 geopolitical foe. Anxiety about Russia is straight out of the John Birch Society playbook of fear. For them, the wall is still up, the Cold War still raging.
Race and the Society
Once considered by the right and the left as the political equivalent of an addled uncle sent down to the basement rec room to drink, rant and hopefully pass out before saying anything too nutty in front of the guests, in recent years the John Birch Society has been invited back upstairs and has even hosted a dinner party or two. In 2010, the society was a co-sponsor of the annual Conservative Political Action Conference. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a fallacy to say that we ever went into hibernation,鈥 Thompson said in the interview with the Report. 鈥淲e鈥檝e always been active. We鈥檝e always influenced the conservative movement. We just don鈥檛 bang the drum and wave the flag about everything we do.鈥欌
But as has been the case for much of its up-and-down existence, the society often sticks its big right foot in its mouth and is again nudged towards the basement. That鈥檚 bound to happen sooner rather than later if the editors of The New American continue to publish on its website the kind of commentary they did two days after 20-year-old Adam Lanza stormed into the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14 and gunned down 26 people, including 20 first-graders who were only 6 and 7 years old and six educators.
Under the headline, 鈥溾楻oot Causes鈥 and Mass Murderer Adam Lanza,鈥 The New American commentator, Jack Kerwick, bemoaned the fact that absence of meaningful gun control was widely discussed in the aftermath of the mass shootings but that the 鈥渞oot causes鈥 of too many abortions and too few executions in the United States never 鈥渕ade the cut.鈥
Then Kerwick turned to Lanza鈥檚 race and gender. 鈥淔rom 鈥榓ffirmative action鈥 to massive Third World immigration,鈥 Kerwick wrote, 鈥渇rom media depictions of white men as either ignoramuses or crazed 鈥榬acists鈥 to the incessant barrage of giddy proclamations of an ever-diminishing white America, the assault on white men is comprehensive.
鈥淚s it impossible to believe,鈥 he asked, 鈥渢hat a young white man such as Lanza, who has been exposed to this systematic abuse his entire life, may not have been consumed with both self-hatred and rage? For that matter, may not his cultural animus toward whites have figured in Lanza鈥檚 choice to leave a trail (judging from news photos) of mostly-white bodies?鈥欌
Near the end of the piece, Kerwick swears he鈥檚 being facetious. It鈥檚 a lame attempt that sounds painfully like the old John Birch Society. It鈥檚 not, however, the John Birch Society William Grigg knows. Grigg was an editor and writer at The New American for years until he was fired in 2006 in a dispute with management about his private political blog postings.
Grigg attended anti-war rallies in Appleton and played lead guitar in a rock and roll band, Slick Willie and the Calzones. Despite being fired, Grigg said in a series of E-mails that he still believes in the principles of the society鈥檚 founder, Robert Welch, has a 鈥渃ontinued affection鈥 for the group鈥檚 volunteers and field staff, and a low opinion of the Southern Poverty Law Center and the current leadership of the Birch Society.
鈥淚n my experience it was practically impossible to find a volunteer or staffer who could honestly be described as 鈥榬acist,鈥欌 said Grigg, who is of Mexican and Irish descent. 鈥淎t one speech I gave in San Diego back in 1997, the chapter leader who acted as emcee was a black female ex-Marine, the invocation was given by a local African-American pastor, and the Mexican/Irish speaker was introduced by another chapter leader of 鈥楴ative American鈥 ancestry. Granted, this wasn鈥檛 a typical meeting of its kind, but I had more than a few experiences that were quite similar.鈥欌
It鈥檚 because of those experiences that he became so angry that Kerwick鈥檚 commentary appeared in The New American. 鈥淚t is incomprehensible to me,鈥 Grigg said, 鈥渢hat JBS would run such a specimen of ethnic grievance-mongering anytime 鈥 let alone in the immediate aftermath of the atrocity at Sandy Hook Elementary.鈥欌
Charges of racism and anti-Semitism have dogged the John Birch Society since its earliest days. It opposed civil rights legislation in the 1960s, saying the African-American freedom movement was being manipulated from Moscow with the goal of creating a 鈥淪oviet Negro Republic鈥 in the Southern United States. The society was a close ally of Alabama鈥檚 segregationist governer George Wallace and reportedly had 100 chapters in and around Birmingham, Alabama鈥檚 largest city, as well as chapters across the rest of the state. Thompson, the group鈥檚 CEO, said the society has never been either racist or anti-Semitic, going so far as to add that once a member is discovered to harbor such views he or she is immediately 鈥渂ooted out.鈥欌
Grigg said Thompson and McManus should be booted out. The men took over leadership of the society in 2005 after a bitter internal power struggle, an ugly coup, as some describe it, that saw the ouster of the previous regime. Grigg said the two men are prisoners of the past and are holding the society back. 鈥淭he society remains a monolithic, top-down organization in an age of social media,鈥 he said. 鈥淎t a time when most politically aware students and young adults are worried about the economy and the accelerating erosion of civil liberties, the JBS management remains obsessed with the supposed strategic threat posed by Russia.鈥欌
聽During its height in the 1960s, the society may have had as many as 100,000 members, still well short of Welch鈥檚 oft-stated goal of 1 million Birchers. But few know for sure how many Birchers exist today. Then and now, the group鈥檚 membership rolls are a closely guarded secret. 鈥淲e鈥檙e not vast numbers,鈥 Thompson told the banquet. 鈥淲e鈥檝e never been vast numbers. You don鈥檛 need to be vast numbers. You just need to be the dedicated few, who are focused on doing the same thing, at the same time, with the same intellectual arguments to the right people.鈥
From Welch to Koch
鈥淲elch was really quite smart in terms of business models,鈥 said Chip Berlet, a writer and researcher who has been following the John Birch Society for more than 30 years. 鈥淭he Birchers were one of the first right-wing groups that did computer-generated mail, keeping track of the issues by computers. But JBS was so universally condemned by people on the left and right, Welch really doesn鈥檛 get credit for using data tracking to organize people.鈥
Bob Dylan wrote a song about the society that summed up a widespread view, 鈥淭alkin鈥 John Birch Paranoid Blues,鈥 in the early 1960s, around the time patrician right-wing writer William Buckley famously called for the group to be banished from the conservative movement for being too extreme, a danger to both the Republican party and the country. Once a Birch ally, Buckley finally uncapped his poison pen and went after the Birchers in the pages of his magazine, The National Review, when it was revealed in the early 1960s that Welch had accused Eisenhower of being a communist.
聽鈥淏eing banished from the conservative movement and being banished from the National Review-approved conservative movement are not the same thing,鈥 Jesse Walker, who, as a senior editor at the libertarian-leaning Reason Magazine and Reason.com, writes about political paranoia among other topics. 鈥淛ohn G. Schmitz ran a basically Birchite third-party presidential campaign in 1972 that got over a million votes. That鈥檚 a lot of people who don鈥檛 take their marching orders from Bill Buckley,鈥欌 he said in an E-mail interview.
In 1980, a few days before Ronald Reagan was elected president, the society鈥檚 public relations director, according to The Associated Press, characterized the conservative Republican as a 鈥渓ackey鈥 of Communist conspirators. The public relations director at the time was none other than John McManus, who is now the president of the Birch Society.
鈥淲e鈥檙e up against a conspiracy,鈥 McManus told the Birch birthday bash in Sacramento. 鈥淧eople say, 鈥榊ou sound like a conspiracy theorist.鈥 I say, 鈥楴o, no, no. I鈥檓 a conspiracy fact-ist.鈥欌
JBS and the GOP
Inside the GOP tent these days, with a black man in the White House and the rest of the country browning more deeply with each generation, the line between the radical right and the conservative mainstream is increasingly difficult to discern.
鈥淟adies and gentlemen,鈥 McManus chortled at the banquet, 鈥渢he influence of the John Birch Society has exploded in the last couple of years.鈥
He was not just whistling 鈥淒ixie.鈥
鈥淭he John Birch Society has been aced out of a direct role because they are a political third rail of conservatives and the right wing,鈥 Berlet said. 鈥淭hey have been marginalized by the leadership of the right because of their conspiracy theories. But a lot of the right wing of the Republican Party was and is highly influenced by the John Birch Society. Step one in understanding the Birchers is that they are not that much more far out, compared to other people on the right.鈥欌
Some of the longtime Bircher ideas and themes that have slipped into the conservative mainstream and now sound like Republican talking points include, according to Berlet, the belief that big government leads to collectivism which leads to tyranny; that liberal elites are treacherous; that the U.S. has become a nation of producers versus parasites; that the U.S. is losing its sovereignty to global treaties; that the 鈥淣ew World Order鈥 is an actual plan by secret elites promoting globalization; and that multiculturalism is a conspiracy of 鈥渃ultural Marxism.鈥
But Walker, the Reason editor, does not see the society as especially 鈥渋nfluential in the inner circle of the GOP.鈥 The Birchers, Walker said in an E-mail, are often 鈥渄eeply hostile to a wide range of policies the national Republicans have embraced.鈥
聽鈥淚t鈥檚 worth noting,鈥 he added, 鈥渢hat the JBS has evolved with the times; the modal Bircher of today and the modal Bircher of, say, 1964 would not see eye to eye about everything. It was interesting in the 1990s to watch as a group that we tend to associate with hawkish anti-Communists suddenly discovered its inner isolationism, opposed the first Gulf war, and generally moved toward a stance of skepticism toward military interventions abroad.鈥
New Bottles, Old Wine
Conner long ago turned her back on the society. Today, she is an unabashed, proud, Obama-loving liberal. She has written a funny and sometimes sad book about growing up Birch called Wrapped in the Flag: A Personal History of America鈥檚 Radical Right that is due to be released by Beacon Press in early July. She worries that her fellow liberals are making an old mistake, underestimating the John Birch Society and its ability to 鈥渃reate havoc.鈥
鈥淚 always say to my liberal friends you better stop laughing at these people and pay attention,鈥 she says. 鈥淭he ideas that you hear today coming from the right were generated in the 鈥60s by the John Birch Society. It鈥檚 new language, but the same ideas. In terms of the intellectual framework of the GOP, it鈥檚 the Birch Society every single day.鈥
She says liberals are still celebrating Obama鈥檚 re-election while the Birchers and the rest of the right are back at work. One lost election or 20 years of lost elections, she says, won鈥檛 discourage them. 鈥淚f anything,鈥 she says, 鈥渢hey鈥檙e going to be energized. They really believe President Obama is part of the socialist revolution that began with FDR. So, they鈥檙e going to dig in their heels. They鈥檙e going to get busy and stay busy. As the kids say, that鈥檚 how they roll.鈥
