John Birch Society x Today’s GOP (Bradley Onishi and Daniel Miller; Straight White American Jesus podcast)

At the height of the John Birch Society’s activity in the 1960s, critics dismissed its members as a paranoid fringe. After all, “Birchers” believed that a vast communist conspiracy existed in America and posed an existential threat to Christianity, capitalism, and freedom. 

But as historian Matthew Dallek reveals, the Birch Society’s extremism remade American conservatism. Most Birchers were white professionals who were radicalized as growing calls for racial and gender equality appeared to upend American life. Conservative leaders recognized that these affluent voters were needed to win elections, and for decades the GOP courted Birchers and their extremist successors. 

The far right steadily gained power, finally toppling the Republican establishment and electing Donald Trump.

Interview: 

https://www.straightwhiteamericanjesus.com/episodes/john-birch-society-x-todays-gop/

The John Birch Society’s Return to CPAC - The Atlantic

For Welch, the Warren Court was incontrovertible evidence of the Soviet mandate in motion, given its decision outlawing prayer in public schools and, crucially, its ushering of America into a racially desegregated future. Donations flooded in as the John Birch Society took aim at the civil-rights movement, the United Nations, local public libraries and school boards, and the diabolical plot apparently enshrouding all of them…

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/02/john-birch-society-cpac-conservatism/677542/

A historian details how a secretive, extremist group radicalized the American right (Terry Gross; Fresh Air podcast)

Matthew Dallek says the John Birch Society, which was active from the late '50s through the early '70s, propelled today's extremist takeover of the American right. His new book is Birchers.

Interview: 

https://www.npr.org/2023/05/17/1176662608/a-historian-details-how-a-secretive-extremist-group-radicalized-the-american-rig

'Birchers,' the history of a group that helped pave the road to Trump - The Washington Post

With "Birchers: How the John Birch Society Radicalized the American Right," Dallek joins a chorus of historians who have insisted, since Donald Trump's victory in 2016, that the contemporary Republican Party, with its nationalist, isolationist, nativist and conspiratorial inclinations, can be understood only by looking back to far-right mobilizations of earlier eras: to groups such as the Birchers, who were long considered too marginal and too extreme to have played a decisive role in shaping American conservatism, much less all of American politics. "More than any other far-right group, and more than the most hardline Goldwater, Nixon or Reagan Republicans," Dallek writes, "the Birch Society staked out a vigorous challenge to conservative orthodoxy and bequeathed to subsequent generations an extreme antigovernment zeal and rhetorically violent appeal."…

https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2023/03/22/birchers-john-birch-society-radical-right-matthew-dallek/

The influence of the John Birch Society today: how the Republican far right gave us Trump and DeSantis

Out of sight but not forgotten, the John Birch Society is a husk of its old self. Still, its penchant for conspiracy theories courses in the veins of the American right...

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/mar/19/birchers-review-republican-far-right-trump-desantis-dallek-john-birch-society

The history of far-right populism, from the John Birch Society to Trumpism (On Point)

In 1958, businessman Robert Welch founded a right-wing political advocacy group – The John Birch Society — based on conspiracy theories.

“He believed that elements in the American government including the president were part of a secret apparatus that were in line with the Soviets and there would be a one world government," Ted Miller, professor at Northeastern University, says.

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Welch found ways to influence American society, and politics. Among other tactics, he set up ad hoc committees to advocate for conservative causes.

“The ad hoc committee called TRIM supported lower taxes, and it became crucial to the anti-tax proposals that Reagan pursued," Miller says. "But the people that joined these ad hoc committees didn’t really know they were getting involved with the John Birch Society."

Today, On Point: The origins of right wing conspiracy theories – from the John Birch Society to Trumpism.
Interview: 

https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2022/07/13/the-history-of-far-right-populism-from-the-john-birch-society-to-qanon

The John Birch Society is still influencing American politics, 60 years after its founding - The Conversation US

It planted the seeds of the tea party and the Trump administration. ....
https://theconversation.com/the-john-birch-society-is-still-influencing-american-politics-60-years-after-its-founding-107925