In October 1964 WABC in New York broadcast a 1 hour special on right wing extremism in America, focusing on how that year's GOP nominee, Barry Goldwater, had stimulated new interest in extremist groups like the John Birch Society.
The show features footage of a John Birch Society meeting that was held in Summit, NJ in a house that is now estimated to be valued at about $1.1 million. Just to give you a rough sense of the socio-economic position of such 1960s extremists.
Outside the house where they met in 1964 was a "Don't Tread on Me" flag and an American flag. Inside was a meeting room stocked with pro-police, anti-UN, and anti-socialism bumper stickers and a range of conservative reading material.
These are the right wing extremists. They opened the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance and a silent prayer. Then the leader opened the meeting reminding the group of their "epoch undertaking--less government and more personal responsibility under God."
This was the meeting's agenda. They were focused on gaining control of the Supreme Court (impeaching Warren), isolationism (anti-UN), opposition to the civil rights movement, supporting local police, and expanding the reach of right wing media (American Opinion magazine).
The case against Earl Warren was that his anti-segregationist rulings since Brown v. Board have supposedly inspired racial strife and violence in the US and are turning the republic into something it was never meant to be, a democracy.
This is a pretty creepy moment when the leader says they most definitely don't wish Earl Warren any harm, none at all, no sir...they really wish him well, even though he's destroying the American republic.
While making it clear that they are "for Civil Rights," they firmly oppose the "Negro revolutionaries" of the day, who they claim are exactly like Mao's agrarian revolutionaries and are being used by hostile foreign powers to undermine the US government.
The leader notes that, as ex-President Herbert Hoover has pointed out, "the American negro" owns more cars than all of the black people in Africa. Clearly, African-Americans in 1964, according to this person, should be thankful for how good they have it.
Not only do we need to shrink the federal government dramatically, but ackshually, the graduated income tax was Marx's idea that he came up with in order to destroy America!
Next we hear from a JBS member who's a police officer and he's gotta say, never have police officers felt less supported by the public and the urban violence spurred on by civil rights protesters is at risk of getting out of hand if we don't toughen up.
"The police literally represent the last physical bulwark between the American people and the forces of evil and violence that the Communists are attempting to start."
--John Birch Society leader, October 1964.
"This is a deadly serious thing...We have constant cries from the same sources that start the riots or precipitate them about police brutality and about civilian review boards..in the only two cities with civilian review boards the police found themselves practically paralyzed."
"The John Birch Society was among the first to recognize that it was a major Communist objective to paralyze and demoralize the police...this is a deadly serious thing and we've got to pay attention to it."
A critic of the JBS expresses dismay at what he's seen. “If someone had told me I really couldn’t have believed it. I feel as though I’ve come out of a totally different planet. I see things stated as facts that bear no relationship to the facts at all.”
The host asks one of the authors of "Danger on the Right" if he wrote the book in response to the question as to "Could It Happen Here?" It, of course, being fascism. The author responds "yes, it could happen here."
When asked why he joined the JBS, this man says he's been interested in these issues for a long time, since serving as an aide to John W. Davis, the head of the Jeffersonian Democrats, the "disinherited branch" of the Dem Party. This is coded language.
John W. Davis was one of the lawyers in Brown v. Board who argued FOR the "separate but equal" doctrine. The "Jeffersonian Democrats" of the 1950s and 60s were those who rejected the Democratic Party's gradual embrace of the civil rights movement. https://americanhistory.si.edu/brown/history/5-decision/defenders.html
The JBS founding member being interviewed also notes that he's proud to be associated with the other leading men in that organization, like Clarence Manion, the Dean of the Notre Dame Law School (which is getting noticed more and more these days).
For more on Manion, who was a key figure in the "draft Goldwater" movement that started in 1960 and succeeded in gaining him the GOP nomination in 1964, see this excellent book. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Messengers_of_the_Right/csfRDAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PP1&printsec=frontcover
Coda: Right on cue, the GOP candidate for WA governor offers up a key talking point of that 1964 John Birch Society meeting. https://twitter.com/Jemsinger/status/1312457634306424833?s=20
I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that some folks within the GOP tried to call out and push back against the far right take over of their party. Here’s a thread on one such person, OR GOP Senator Mark Hatfield. https://twitter.com/sethcotlar/status/1271257985239547904
For more contemporary resonances, here's a thread on the Marion County (Oregon) GOP whose FB page has some pretty strong John Birch Society energy. https://twitter.com/SethCotlar/status/1275838754196828160?s=20
You can follow @SethCotlar.
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