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“In a modern industrial society, banishment of destitution and cushioning the shock of personal disaster on the individual are proper concerns of all levels of government, including the federal government.”
These words spoken by a US President got him a denouncement as a communist by the John Birch Society. The year 1954 and the words in a State of the Union speech by General Eisenhower.
The Birch Society continued to grow in the 1960s, two of its strongest states being California and Texas. Its official ideology was a well-tuned anti-communist conspiracy theory. It opposed all civil rights legislation and attracted a number of racists and anti-Semites to its membership and national council.
Special Report: Freedom Works and the John Bircher Problem
IREHR – As noted in Tea Party Nationalism, of all the national Tea Party factions, FreedomWorks had been the organization least entangled with overt bigotry. For instance, FreedomWorks was the only faction who did not have a “birther” as a national staff member. It was the only group that had not jumped on to the nativist bandwagon and supported Arizona’s controversial SB 1070. It had steered clear of most of the outlandish conspiracy theories and far-right machinations that have consumed other Tea Party groups. Now, that has changed.
For a short-term bump in membership, the long-term costs to the credibility of the organization may be extraordinarily steep.
Dick Armey need look no further than the front-page of his FreedomConnector site to see John Birch Society (JBS) activism in Tea Party ranks. Numerous JBS events have shown up in “Latest Activities” section on homepage of FreedomConnector. Most notably, the FreedomWorks staff has been busy promoting the Birchers on their social networking site.
Since the launch of the site, FreedomWorks staff and the FreedomConnector web team have posted at least fifty-nine different announcements that advertised John Birch Society events across the country. (See list in Appendix). Even a cursory look at this list of meetings, forums and protests demonstrates quite clearly that this is not an isolated incident or simple mistake that can be easily dismissed. FreedomWorks staff and the web team have posted an average of ten Birch events a month since the launch of this site. They have advertised Birch events in California, Florida, Idaho, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Texas.
Despite Dick Armey’s denials, there has been Bircher participation in FreedomWorks Tea Party events from the beginning of the movement. In fact, a large organized contingent of Birchers attended the big FreedomWorks 9-12 Rally in Washington DC. The Birchers have been quite open on their own website about their participation. One post detailed their activities:
“I think everyone knows by now the the[sic] 912 Tea Party Rally in DC was a huge success and is going to go down as a signature event in the history of the freedom movement. It was an honor to be able to be a part of it. I especially want to thank all the Birch members and friends who came up from Virginia and North Carolina and helped us distribute over 4000 pieces of Birch educational material (DVD’s, New American Reprints and NAU flyers). They were real boots on the ground soldiers for us.”
The John Birch Society Has a Long History
Founded in 1958 with its headquarters in Massachusetts, the Belmont candy manufacturer Robert Welch was both its first president and treasurer. Although Fred. C. Koch, father of the contemporary ultra-conservatives Charles and David Koch, was on its national council, he was not a member of the founding board of directors–contrary to some of the rumors circulating on the Internet.
Initially, the Birch Society drew its strength from two directions, according to the 1970 book, The Politics of Unreason: Right wing Extremism in America, 1790 to 1970, by Seymour Martin Lipset and Earl Raab: Opposition to changes unleashed by the black freedom movement, and unhappiness with the sitting Republican President Dwight Eisenhower–particularly his inability and unwillingness to turn back the clock on civil rights and on the growth of the welfare state.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."