Rise and Fall and Rise of John Birchers

Review by Bill Doughty––

Welch with portrait of Birch

Robert W. Welch Jr. attended both the U.S. Naval Academy and Harvard Law School, but finished neither. He abandoned careers in the Navy and in law and became a wealthy candy manufacturer. He also started one of the most divisive groups in American history, the John Birch Society. Welch named JBS for Christian missionary and U.S. Army Air Forces Capt. John Birch, who was killed by Chinese communists in 1945 –– what the society considered the start of a “Holy War.”

Emerging from the ashes of a long history of racist, nationalist, and populist movements, including 1950s McCarthyism, the John Birch Society dedicated itself to defeating global communism, propagating Christianity, countering civil and women’s rights, and promoting an America First agenda. The JBS latched onto the GOP like a sea lamprey and did not let go.

“By the early 60s Birchers had settled on the course they would follow in the decades to come. They would operate on the fringe of the conservative movement and, episodically and erratically, within the Republican Party,” according to Matthew Dallek, author of “Birchers: How the John Birch Society Radicalized the American Right” (Hachette, 2022)

“Ideologically, the society flaunted its antiestablishment sensibility and pumped hot-button cultural issues –– patriotic eduction, moral library books, an end to teaching sex education in schools –– into local debates over their communities’ most valued and non-partisan institutions.” Past is prologue, as the saying goes.

After President Eisenhower appointed Earl Warren as chief justice of the Supreme Court, the Warren Court ruled progressively in favor of integration in Brown v. Board of Education. SCOTUS also upheld the wall of separation between state and church in banning prayer in public schools. So the Birchers targeted and smeared Earl Warren and called for his impeachment.

At the 1964 GOP Convention, Michigan Governor George Romney warned his colleagues and electors about the rise of populism and radicalism within the Republican Party, calling for more tolerance, inclusion, and respect for diversity in the Republican platform under Goldwater. "The strongest personality on earth cannot deal with the problems of this nation except upon the basis of correct principles. Our party was founded at a time of grave national crisis," Romney said, noting Abraham Lincoln's role in saving the Union. "The nation and its destinies were in peril, not only by the irreconcilable conflict between slavery and freedom, but also by the extremism of that time. And the extremism and lily-white Protestantism destroyed the Whig Party and brought the Republican Party into being."

Senator George Romney at the GOP Convention, 1968

But for most of the past six decades, according to Dallek, “Birch ideas were hardly dominant in the Republican Party.” Those ideas –– anti immigration, anti world alliances, anti feminism, anti abortion, anti gun safety, and anti integration –– were on the rise with Barry Goldwater and in reaction to the civil rights movement.

“In some communities, the society was very much in the ascendant. Its influence in the GOP in 1963 was also greater than at any time since its inception. But most Birchers had lost their elections, they failed to stop candidates such as (George) Romney from winning their races, and numerous Republicans from the Northeast to the Midwest to the West Coast remained vigorously opposed to their ideology and political style. Unbeknownst to the society, in the summer of 1963 the White House was preparing to launch an all-out assault that had the potential to knock the Birch movement to the ground. The society’s prospect remained uncertain and contingent. The struggle for power in the Republican Party –– and in the United States –– was heating up. Birchers warned of Armageddon, cast critics as traitors and degenerates, disrupted civic meetings, harassed teachers and principals, and hinted at physical violence. More than any other movement of the 1960s, the Birch Society ignited what they described as an end-times contest for the very soul of the United States.”

“The ideas, activism, and style that Birchers helped pioneer has continued to drive well into the twenty-first century.” George Romney’s speech in 1964 –– really a warning –– is chillingly relevant today.

The JBS wanted to ban alcohol, according to Dallek. They were also against Hollywood, the media, school integration, fluoridation of water, and teaching of evolution instead of creationism. “They sought to use the power of government to enforce Christian identity in American culture while repudiating allegedly alien values like pluralism and tolerance.” Dallek contends they “helped launch a culture war that reverberates today.”

Maddox and Wallace

One of the stars of intolerance and the culture war in the 1960s and 70s was Georgia Governor Lester Maddox, who became popular by wielding axe handles to chase black people out of his restaurant. Maddox was befriended and supported by JBS founder Robert Welch.

Welch endorsed Alabama Governor George Wallace’s run for president in 1968. Wallace was an avowed segregationist and racist. He chose as his running mate retired Air Force General Curtis LeMay, who Dallek describes as “the real-life inspiration for the cigar-smoking General Jack D. Ripper” of Stanley Kubrick’s film Dr. Strangelove.

“An architect of firebombing in World War II, LeMay had a fascination with nuclear weapons and drew howls of outrage when he endorsed their use while on the campaign trail. Although LeMay had a record of innovative military leadership, Wallace’s choosing him was a running mate was perceived as empowering Birchers and the far-right fringe.”

Dallek writes:

“Haltingly, over decades, this fringe usurped the party’s center. The trajectory was alterable, not inevitable, contingent rather than certain. Many Republican leaders worked to stop it, until they didn’t. The society fostered apocalyptic thinking about the country’s direction, mistrusted elites as traitors, and raised the specter that only drastic remedies, including violence, could save the country. Its brand of mass politics fed money, energy, and ideas to conservative Republicans. And by offering a home for conspiracy theorists, racists, and antisemites, some Republican leaders emboldened the rights most noxious and violent bigots. The GOP establishment’s effort to court this fringe and keep it in the coalition allowed it to gain a foothold and eventually cannibalize the entire party, Over time, this uneasy alliance came to seem commonplace, part of the zeitgeist –– more and more alarming yet no longer shocking.”

On the other hand…

Clinton and Carter

A goal of liberals and other anti-Birchers was “to build the world they wanted –– a world where pluralism trumped hate, science trounced unreason, and democracy conquered fascism.” Progressives witnessed how an “America First” fascist-friendly and non-interventionist approach, including appeasement, led to the Second World War.

Those on the Left also saw how the Birchers’ fervent and feverish anti-Communism and white Christian nationalism led the nation into the war in Vietnam, invasion of Iraq, and a culture war at home. By the early 1990s, the us-and-them influence of the Birchers, personified by politicians Pat Buchanan and Newt Gingrich, was rejected with the election of Navy Veteran Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter in 1976 and Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton in 1992.

“Clinton used his bully pulpit to tie the GOP to far-right militants like Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City mass murderer, and Randy Weaver, the white separatist who triggered a bloody confrontation with the FBI at Ruby Ridge. After McVeigh’s powerful homemade bomb tore through the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995, Clinton attended a memorial service in Oklahoma City and urged Americans ‘to purge ourselves of the dark forces which gave rise to this evil. They are forces that threaten our common peace, our freedom, our way of life,’ and, he vowed, ‘we will stand against the forces of fear.’ Some right-wing talk show hosts and politicians, he added, had to realized that their ‘incendiary talk’ moved fanatics to action. Their ‘constant bashing of government, and relentless assumption that forces beyond our control run our government’ had spread dark views of federal employees and could trigger more bloodshed.”

That warning was nearly 30 years ago!

In the yin-yang of the American republic’s elections under the constraints of the Electoral College, George W. Bush was elected president. Bush’s presidency was the “most consequential chapter yet in the Birchification of the American right and the GOP.” Bush, whose father appointed Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court, chose John Ashcroft as his first attorney general. Ashcroft expressed his belief, shared by many on the far-right, that “Jesus is king,” reigning above the Constitution and civil authority.

During Bush’s presidency, another politician, far more conservative than Bush, made a name for himself. Ron Paul (father or currently serving Senator Rand Paul) marked the time when, Dallek says, the fringe became mainstream. “Paul’s influence was substantial, opening the Republican Party to previously unthinkable views.”

The senior Paul as countered, however, by statesman and Republican standard-bearer John McCain, a Navy veteran and former POW, who said those who engage “in the politics of division and slander” are “corrupting influences on religion and politics, and those who practice them in the name of religion or in the name of the Republican Party or in the name of America shame our faith, our party and our country.” Although McCain called out Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell as “agents of intolerance,” he would later backtrack and reconcile with Falwell, hoping to woo Christian fundamentalists.

Ultimately, according to Dalleck, “McCain saw that it was no longer possible to navigate the tension between the far right and the mainstream because by 2008, in the Republican Party, the fringe had begun to gain the upper hand. If he wanted to win, McCain had little choice but to violate his own principles.” He selected Sarah Palin as his running mate.

With Obama’s election, gun sales rose dramatically, militia membership increased, and “the far right was now entering the mainstream of the Republican Party, bringing with it the legacy of the John Birch Society.” Along with Pat Buchanan and Rand Paul, politicians supporting or condoning extremism in the GOP included Senators Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, and Ron Johnson as well as “fringe” Representatives Jim Jordan and Michelle Bachman, according to Dallek.

Alex Jones

“Unlike in the mid-1960s, the Republican Party of the early 2010s failed to check the extreme right,” Dallek says. Instead, “social media and the ubiquitous, sophisticated right-wing amplified the far right’s most inflammatory claims.”

Media stars arose to spread the authoritarian populism of the far right: The Drudge Report, FOX News, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, and “breakout media star of the far right” Alex Jones, who as a young teen was influenced by John Birch Society PR director Gary Allen’s book “None Dare Call It Conspiracy.” Jones aligned with Roger Stone, a massive influencer of the extremist fringe right, even as Jones capitalized on conspiracies. Jones spread falsehoods related to the the 9/11 attacks, the Sandy Hook massacre, and supposed cannibalization of children by Democrats, including Hillary Clinton.

Conspiracies became part of the right’s bloodstream as it had been in the 1960s.

Just as the Birchers feared communists were in control of the civil rights movement, MAGA followers believed America’s first black president was born overseas and was not eligible to serve. While JBS followers feared adding fluoride in water as a government conspiracy, sixty years later many far right extremists feared COVID vaccinations and believed various pandemic-related conspiracies.

“Trump drew energy, as Birchers had, from white supremacists, militias, and nativists and brought them into his coalition. His alliances with the white nationalists who rioted in Charlottesville (‘fine people’), with the far-right, all-male Proud Boys (‘stand back and stand by’), and with the deep-state-obsessed, conspiratorial QAnon (‘people that love our country’) blended racism and conspiracy theories in ways that harked back to the mix of racism, antisemitism, and conspiracy theories that drew many Birchers to their movement.”

And Dallek contends, “Just as Birchers took a dim view of democracy, Trump questioned the integrity of elections in which millions of people of color voted.” The conspiracy theory of a stolen election, though disproven in dozens of court cases and denied by sane Republicans in many states, led to the tragedy of the insurrection of January 6.

Dallek may be right in his overall thesis, that the United States is still under the influence of the John Birch Society. He believes the Bircher years/epoch/era started in 1958 and continues through today. On the other hand, it may have been with us for for far longer –– perhaps for centuries under different names: Slavery, Manifest Destiny, Know Nothings, Lost Cause, America First, and White Christian Nationalism.

Three events in the news coalesced over the past week or so as I finished this important book, bringing some of the book's points home:

First, President Joe Biden visited a memorial in Vietnam that honors a great American, late Senator John S. McCain III; when all is said and done McCain stood up for the Constitution.  McCain also stood up for democracy and against autocracy and theocracy. He conceded his election loss to President Obama in 2008. McCain even asked Obama to offer a eulogy at his funeral.

Second, last week I watched another Republican – American statesman Mitt Romney – announce he would not seek reelection. Romney is a former Republican nominee for the Presidency who won 47 percent of the popular vote but lost – and conceded gracefully – to President Obama in 2012. Romney acknowledges in a forthcoming biography by McKay Coppins, “Romney: A Reckoning,” that he does not recognize today’s GOP, where many of his Republican colleagues, he says, no longer support the Constitution.

Finally, I read with sadness that President Biden has called to offer his final good-bye to a dying former president with gold standard ethics and integrity: Navy veteran Jimmy Carter, despite being a victim of Birchers and their ilk more than four decades ago, conceded to President Ronald Reagan in 1980. During his naval career and presidency, Carter, a Navy submariner and commander in chief, literally protected and defended the U.S. Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic.

Jimmy Carter Paradox Part 3: Fundamentalism

Review by Bill Doughty––

In a bipolar and increasingly monochrome America, Jimmy Carter paints colorful bridges to attempt to bring people together, including people of different religious beliefs.

Carter is the most devout life-long religious person elected to the presidency in modern U.S. history. His father was a deacon at his Plains Baptist Church in Georgia, and Carter has attended or led weekly Sunday school Bible lessons his whole life.

He led Bible study at Annapolis, for example, while he was a midshipman at the U.S. Naval Academy during World War II.

Paradoxically…

• Carter studies both the Old and New Testaments as a former missionary and self-described “evangelical Christian and a Baptist.” Yet, he decries the rise of religious fundamentalism and is strongly in favor of the wall of separation between State and Church.
• Despite his reliance on the comfort of his faith and daily prayer, he is not in favor of mandatory prayer in school, government displays of the Ten Commandments, or legislative decisions based on interpretations of the Bible over the Constitution.

This is the third in a series of reviews of “Our Endangered Values: America’s Moral Crisis” (Simon & Schuster, 2005).

Carter sat down to write the book several years after fundamentalist Islamist extremists attacked the United States on September 11, 2001. It was published in the aftermath of the U.S. invasion of Iraq ordered by President George W. Bush twenty years ago. This book is still relevant and timely –– explaining why the United States has become so fractured and why fundamentalism is so dangerous.

“The most important factor is that fundamentalists have become increasingly influential in both religion and government, and have managed to change the nuances and subtleties of history debate into black-and-white rigidities and the personal derogation of those who dare to disagree. At the same time, these religious and political conservatives have melded their efforts, bridging the formerly respected separation of church and state. This has empowered a group of influential ‘neoconservatives,’ who have been able to implement their long-frustrated philosophy in both domestic and foreign policy.”

Carter notes, “Narrowly defined theological beliefs have been adopted as the rigid agenda of a political party.” He adds,”The irresolvable differences of opinion on abortion, homosexuality, and other sensitive social issues have been exacerbated by the insistence of intensely committed hardliners on imposing their minority views on a more moderate majority.”

 

Compared to his time in the White House in the mid-to-late 70s, Carter concludes, “Stronger and sharper partisan differences have evolved among Americans in recent years.”

As president, he was able to work with both Republicans and Democrats who put country and people above party and personal interests. What was still growing in 2005, when this book was published, has metastasized in 2023. Here's how Carter saw it nearly twenty years ago:

“Nowadays, the Washington scene is completely different, with almost every issue decided on a strictly partisan basis. Probing public debate on key legislative decision is almost a thing of the past. Basic agreements are made between lobbyists and legislative leaders, often within closed party caucuses where rigid discipline is paramount. Even personal courtesies, which had been especially cherished in the U.S. Senate, are no longer considered to be sacrosanct. This deterioration in harmony, cooperation, and collegiality in the Congress is, at least in part, a result of the rise of fundamentalist tendencies and their religious and political impact.”

Carter blames not only the rise of fundamentalism but also the impact of dark money in politics thanks to some large corporations and billionaires. One could argue that the differences have only grown even sharper and stronger in 2023, with help from social media algorithms, right wing media caught telling lies, and a more partisan judiciary.

Early in “Our Endangered Values” Carter identifies “prevailing characteristics” of intense fundamentalism. These characteristics can apply to Middle East ayatollahs or to homegrown “prophets” like Waco’s David Koresh:

1. Almost always, they are groups led by authoritarian males who want to subjugate women.
2. They believe the past is better than the present. [And they try to whitewash history.]
3. Self-righteousness: “Fundamentalists draw clear distinctions between themselves, as true believers, and others, convinced that they are right and that anyone who contradicts them is ignorant and possibly evil."
4. Anger: They are quick to threaten or even initiate physical attacks on others who don’t share their beliefs.
5. Fundamentalists define themselves in an “increasingly narrow and restricted” way.

The bottom line, according to Carter, is that fundamentalists [including Islamists, Christian nationalists, white supremacists, Opus Dei, etc.] believe in an ideology that is based on rigidity, domination, and exclusion. They abandon the rule of order, social justice, and environmental stewardship in favor of selfishness, greed, power, and control of others.

While reading and ruminating about “Our Endangered Values” over the past several weeks I also finished reading Daniel Byman’s “Spreading Hate: The Global Rise of White Supremacist Terrorism” (Oxford University Press, 2022). It’s a terrific companion that overlaps nicely with Carter’s observations.

Byman presents a history of extremism, militancy, and terrorism by white supremacists, antigovernment activists, Christian nationalists, and authoritarian anarchists. Like other authors and historians, such as Michelle Goldberg and Kathleen Belew (who is cited several times), Byman shows how often military veterans –– such as Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, who was also associated with the Christian Identity movement –– have been involved in anti-government violence.

More than ten percent of the people arrested for participating in the insurrection of the Capitol on January 6, 2001, are military veterans. It’s no wonder DOD is trying to root out domestic extremists in its ranks.

But it's not all doom and gloom.

In “Spreading Hate” Byman gives a hopeful view of curbing White Power power. The FBI demolished the Ku Klux Klan. Informants regularly turn on violence-prone militia extremists. The federal government learned lessons from Waco (thirty years ago today) and Ruby Ridge, so does not respond with overwhelming violence when provoked. Perhaps most importantly, public sentiment turns against mass shooters and other terrorists who try to bring about anarchy and civil war.

Charlottesville rally, August 2017.

I doubt even Jimmy Carter back in 2005 could have imagined the white supremacy rally in Charlottesville in 2017, the J6 Capitol insurrection in 2021, or the continuing rise of influential Republican representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, from his own state of Georgia.

Speaking of civil war –– Antithetical to Carter, Greene calls for a “national divorce” of red and blue states. Greene has also come out against support for the defense of Ukraine against the Russian invasion, which is supported by the Russian Orthodox Church.

Greene recently expressed support for the Air Force national guardsman who leaked top secret Pentagon documents. (The documents came to light because of their appearance on a pro-Russian site helmed by former Navy petty officer Sarah Bils, according to USNI News.)

Greene tweeted: "Jake Teixeira is white, male, christian, and antiwar. That makes him an enemy to the Biden regime.”

Paradoxically, Biden, like Jimmy Carter, is a deeply religious president who sees the world through moderate, and some would now say progressive, eyes. In 1976 Biden was the first senator to endorse Carter for the presidency.

As for Carter, he is genuinely and deeply religious, and his interpretation of Christian values is based on caring for and about others, not alienating them. As a farmer, teacher, and builder, he tries to create bridges between people and away from blind fundamentalism.

Carters and Reagans at the Carter Center opening in 1986.

“There is obviously a widespread, carefully planned, and unapologetic crusade under way from both sides to merge fundamentalist Christians with the right wing of the Republican Party,” Carter writes. “Although considered to be desirable by some Americans, this melding of church and state is of deep concern to those who have always relished their separation as one of our moral values.”

Carter reflects, “Despite what I consider to be a constitutional and biblical requirement for the separation of church and state, I must acknowledge that my own religious beliefs have been inextricably entwined with the political principles I have adopted.” Much is left up to interpretation and selective understanding of religious texts, he says.

Carter’s nuanced views in “Our Endangered Values” includes further discussion of the treatment of women, the rights of homosexuals, and stewardship of the environment, among other controversial issues.

He also explores issues of gun control and abortion –– parts 1 and 2 of this series.

His commitment to compassion and his consideration of the views of others is welcome and especially relevant in a divided America in 2023. Today, his Carter Presidential Center in Atlanta, which includes the Carter Presidential Library and Museum, welcomes people from all over the world who want to learn, live in peace, and work together in support of human rights.

The Carter Presidential Library and Museum

Jimmy Carter Paradox Part 1: Guns

Review by Bill Doughty––

In “Our Endangered Values: America’s Moral Crisis” (Simon & Schuster, 2005) former President Jimmy Carter credits Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, as well as Bill Clinton, with supporting legislation passed by Congress in 1994 that reduced deaths in the United States caused by military-style assault weapons.

“For ten years,” the legislation “prohibited the manufacture, transfer, and possession of nineteen specific semiautomatic assault weapons, including AK-47s, AR-15s, and UZIs” designed not for hunting but for killing other humans. Carter laments that after a decade of reduced mass shootings, George W. Bush and Congress, with pressure from gun lobbyists, allowed the ban to expire.

He makes common sense arguments for preserving the Second Amendment while at the same time protecting human life. “This is not a controversy that involves homeowners, hunters, or outdoorsmen,” Carter writes. “I have owned and used weapons since I was big enough to carry one, and now own a handgun, four shotguns, and two rifles.” 

Hunters, he says, don’t need weapons of war.

Carter targets the NRA and firearms industry who “mislead many gullible people into believing that our weapons are going to be taken away from us.” Gun lobbyists spends millions of dollars on stoking fear and paying politicians directly or indirectly who do their bidding.

Paradoxically…

• Such politicians generally claim to be “pro-life,” yet they promote powerful weapons that cause more deaths –– opposing sensible gun reforms, including background checks, red flag laws, and curbs on assault weapons and magazine sizes, etc. 
• Some say they are pro-police, but they allow a proliferation of weapons of war that are used against law enforcement, such as happened last year in Uvalde, Texas, last month in Nashville, Tennessee, and this week in Louisville, Kentucky.
• They are generally against big government but want to create a more heavily armed police state, even hoping to arm teachers in schools.

Last year was the worst year for school shootings: 34, with nearly three dozen students and adults killed and 43,000 students exposed to gunfire, according to the Washington Post. Death by guns is the leading cause of death for children in the United States, where there are many more guns than people. In 2022, 6,542 guns were intercepted by TSA and airport security, an average of 18 per day.

For some Americans, the gun culture is like a cult religion, and the AR-15 is like a sacred and holy icon. These self-proclaimed patriots are often fundamentalists whose religious beliefs and political principles are “inextricably entwined,” Carter observes.

“I have experienced the intensity of patriotism as a submarine officer, the ambitions of a competitive businessman, and the intensity of political debate,” Carter writes. “As a Southern moderate and former career naval officer, I espoused a conservative fiscal policy and a strong defense.” His devout Christian beliefs, he says, are not in conflict with his desire for protection over proliferation, stewardship over rapaciousness, humility over hubris, and diplomacy over unprovoked military action.

Carter and McCain

“Commitment to peace and diplomacy does not imply a blind or total pacifism,” Carter says.

In addition to lamenting the passing of the ten-year assault weapons ban, Carter expresses disappointment with the rise of neoconservatism.

Neocons, personified by former Vice President Dick Cheney, led to the end of international arms control efforts, a stall in normalizing relations with Cuba, an invasion of Iraq twenty years ago, and the use of state-sponsored torture that broke the Geneva Conventions.

Carter lauds fellow Navy veteran Senator John McCain for his stand against torture and for international human rights.

“Republican Senator John McCain, who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam, has criticized the way detainees have been treated by U.S. forces, and he, Armed Forces Committee Chairman John Warner, and other Republican senators have proposed legislation that would prohibit the U.S. military from engaging in ‘cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment’ of detainees, or from hiding prisoners from the Red Cross, and would set uniform standards for interrogating anyone detained by the Defense Department. These powerful Republican seniors have quoted comments from fifteen top-ranking military officers: ‘The abuse of prisoners hurts America’s cause in the war on terror, endangers U.S. service members who might be captured by the enemy, and is anathema to the values Americans have held dear for generations.’ McCain said, ‘The enemy we fight has no respect for human life or human rights. They don’t deserve our sympathy. But this isn’t about who they are. This is about who we are.’”

Carter makes a passionate plea throughout “Our Endangered Values” for a return away from fundamentalism toward a more reasoned, compassionate, and understanding America.

He decries “both Democratic and Republican Parties” for “vituperative” approaches, “partisan animosity,” and an adoption of “‘red’ and ‘blue’ as habitual descriptive phrases within and between states.” Carter advises us to build bridges toward greater understanding and a commitment to equality, justice, and human rights.

Photo courtesy Patrick Gregerson, Pixabay

“Only the American people can redirect our government’s legal, religious, and political commitments to these ancient and unchanging moral principles,” Carter writes.

Instead of only proclaiming “thoughts and prayers” in the wake of gun violence, a new generation of Americans is approaching the issue with thoughts and action.

Carter walked the path of other civil rights pioneers including Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.

King said, “We must come to see that the end we seek is a society at peace with itself, a society that can live with its conscience.”