It Took Six Decades, Billions of Dollars and Fascist Ideology on Steroids
How the John Birch Society Became the Republican Party
The Birchers; 60 Years of Destroying Democracy That Created The American Fascist Party of Today
PART 1 of ?
It is totally understandable that decent Americans regard Trump era and today’s Republican Party as new, but unprecedented and extraordinary period.
This post will show that the ideology of the fascist inspired far right originated with the 1960’s John Birch Society. The same tenets and ideology are not only on the scene, they are close to making the entire agenda a reality by 2024.
Why does the John Birch Society, a seemingly distant far right organization that is over 60 years old matter today?
The blend of plutocracy, racism, authoritarianism and misogeny that is today’s Republican Party has enjoyed a rebirth of deeply rooted Fascist ideology that gained solid footing post WWII and the “Cold War”. This Fascist undertow is both pervasive and organic and in the DNA of Far Right America. From the inception it gained a rich powerful following among Capitalist business leaders. They provided the money to grease the cogs of the JBS agenda, to insure unfettered and rampant Capitalism protection from their paranoid world ending threat of Communism or for that matter unions, desegregation or actually paying taxes. This Communism was not simply the China/Russia external brand, it was instead a domestic, internal, and stealth variety. A Commie attack by fellow Americans from within. Ironically the right lifted their strategy right from the Communist playbook.
We may want to regard the Cold War as over, that the American Bund of Pro Nazis, Segregation, and misogyny were long ago relegated to the dustbin of history. However, Fascism gained a foothold through the embrace of the John Birch Society by the Republican Party. The current Republican Party channels all JBS ideology and tactics.
The zeal with which John Birchers pursued their agenda for over 60 years, is now the agenda and playbook of the Republican Party. These strategies, tactics and ideologies empowered Republicans to obstruct, stonewall and attack the nation’s majority with impunity (witness the 1/6/21 Capital Insurrection).
They have stopped the promise of being a land that aspires to egalitarian treatment of its citizens, The JBL/Fascist/Republicans have not only hobbled the United States from pursuit of realizing a government vested in the will of the people; they have replaced it with their rich authoritarian elites; including a Christo Fascist imbued cadre, that is in turn virtually in all segments of our government and society. This cadre envisions themselves as the new overlords in what amounts to what will be a combo of Fascist rapidly becoming a feudal realm. And it is a dark and dangerous realm.
These graphics are by no means comprehensive. You might see that there is the absence of “Constitutional Originalism” and the jargon of “CRT” and “Wokeism.” I want to spare my readers from being dragged through the latest dog whistle and newspeak language of Fascist Zealotry, but if anyone reading this needs expansion on their shorthand, as odious as it might be; I’ll be pleased to do so.
So, we can continue forms of cognitive biases that include “rosey retrospection,” the tendency we have to remember past events as being more positive than they were in reality. Or we can call friends, relatives, and join with Democrats in making people understand the dangerous crossroad in our history. I encourage you to avoid trying to get crazy Uncle Bob, or some other relative to break the fever. That exercise is like persuading an evangelical to see reality.
A sidebar for my friends
The paragraph below is from the book “Birchers: How the John Birch Society Radicalized the American Right.” by Matthew Dallek. It provides just one pertinent deja vous example happening right now
The struggle over the ideas, values, and books featured in local curricula and programming for children touched a nerve in the Birch universe. In Wellesley, Massachusetts, Laurence Bunker, a Birch founder, Harvard-trained lawyer, and onetime aide-de-camp to General Douglas MacArthur, won a seat as a trustee of the town’s public library. His victory raised the prospect that the library might clear its shelves of any books offensive to the society. Bunker’s Birch membership so troubled his pastor at the Wellesley Unitarian Church that the pastor mounted a campaign to unseat him from the library board.9 Dallek, M. (2023). Birchers: How the John Birch Society Radicalized the American Right. Hachette UK.