In this excellent article, @rickperlstein argued that historians had not paid sufficient attention to the more "surreal" dimensions of the history of American conservatism. Today I went down two surreal rabbit holes that I'll share with you here. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/11/magazine/i-thought-i-understood-the-american-right-trump-proved-me-wrong.html

Rabbit hole 1) Billy James Hargis was a far right radio preacher who partnered with General Edwin Walker (supposedly the inspiration for Gen. Ripper in Dr. Strangelove) to stage a massive anti-communism crusade in the early 1960s. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/wild-road-trip-rallied-conservatives-180970033/

In the 1970s Hargis officiated at the marriage of two of the students at the conservative Christian college where he was President. On their honeymoon, the husband and wife discovered that they had both had sexual relations with Billy Hargis when they were students.

Here's Billy James Hargis being interviewed by Tom Snyder in December of 1977, after Hargis's misconduct had been made public. He complains a lot about how unfair the press has been to him and conservatives like him. Uh huh.

One of Hargis's proteges in right wing media in the 1950s was Richard Viguerie, who would later be a key innovator in the field of direct mail, playing a major role in the New Right's take-over of the GOP from Goldwater to Reagan.

Here's a video celebrating Viguerie's career as a political consultant, in which we hear Roger Stone, Barry Goldwater, Jr., and Newt Gingrich sing Viguerie's praises as the "funding father" of modern conservatism.

In 1987 Viguerie had fallen on hard times & was bailed out by Rev. Moon's Unification Church, who purchased his office building for $10 million. Viguerie, a devout Catholic, had been politically linked to the Unification Church for years. https://books.google.com/books?id=VRDo9R_FbdUC&lpg=PA58&ots=CC0toujah-&dq=viguerie%20moon%20church&pg=PA58#v=onepage&q=viguerie%20moon%20church&f=false

Rabbit hole 2) In 1950 the town of Monisee, Wisconsin staged a day-long event where everyone pretended that the town had been taken over by Communists.