In 1958, a bunch of libertarians came together and formed the John Birch Society. The goal of the Birchers was to convince the American people that every person in America who is to the left of Mussolini was a communist. In the beginning the JBS was embraced by mainstream republicans but within a few years their paranoid delusions chased away even the uber right, like William F. Buckley. Before Reagan, Dwight Eisenhower was the official republican deity. When the Birchers claimed that Eisenhower was actually a full blown communist, many of their more sane followers departed JBS. The darling of JBS was Joseph McCarthy.
Outside of finding a communist under every rock, the JBS dedicated themselves to opposing civil rights, especially integration, women's rights, regulation of capitalism and people who worshiped in the wrong religion.
So, we end up with a group of people who are the ideological twins of the Ku Klux Klan, but with a more socially acceptable face. They justified their racism by claiming that the civil unrest of the 60s was a communist movement. JBS was a racist, anti feminist, fundamentalist christian group of haters.
The founder and leader of the John Birch Society was Robert Welch. Another founder and financial backer was Fred Koch of Koch Industries. Two of his sons, commonly referred to as the Koch Brothers, were integral to the founding and financial support of the Tea Party. It seems that each time the organization becomes socially vile, they reappear with a new name.
KKK > John Birch Society > Tea Party. The latter two are generally strong followers of Ayn Rand. Only the focus has changed. The KKK focused on racism. The John Birch Society focused on communists. The Tea Party focuses on anti-government. Ideologically, they are more similar than they are different.
This brings us to Ron Paul. Paul published many racist rants in his newsletters. One condemned Ronald Reagan for signing the legislation making Martin Luther King's birthday a national holiday. He proclaimed it to be a national Hate Whitey Day. Paul has denied writing the newsletters and his libertarian followers believe him. Here is what they must swallow. It was Paul's newsletter. It is operated by Paul family members. It carried Paul's byline. It never published a retraction of the racist articles. For him to be unaware, then Ron Paul must have allowed some anonymous ghost writer to write words under Paul's own name which he NEVER read and nobody ever pointed out to him. I'm afraid I have to call bullshit on that one.
Paul claims that he has never been a member of the John Birch Society, but admits that he counts many of its leaders as his close friends. What is true about Paul is that he is a racist, anti feminist, corporatist, christian fundamentalist. Ron Paul is the ONLY elected official who receives a grade of 100% from JBS.
The JBS was not "racist" - which is why, of course, it attracted many prominent African-Americans and other minorities into its ranks including such prominent black intellectuals as George Schuyler as well as former FBI informants who had joined the Communist Party or its front groups and they joined explicitly because they wanted to do something about perceived racism within U.S. society.
ReplyDeleteI suppose it is a natural human tendency to pretend that anybody who does not share your personal political preferences must be someone who is morally and intellectually defective---but you discredit your argument by using malicious caricatures instead of making careful distinctions based upon verifiable fact.
Yes--there were individual racists who joined the JBS. All large organizations attract weirdos and wackos. But the real question is this: what did the JBS do about people whom they discovered to be racists? ANSWER: They expelled them from the JBS.
In fact, in Mississippi, an entire JBS chapter was disbanded because the Chapter Leader refused to terminate the membership of one individual who was discovered to be associated with the KKK.
Also: it was the testimony of JBS-member, Rev. Delmar Dennis, which was responsible for convictions of KKK members in Mississippi for civil rights violations. After Dennis surfaced as an FBI informant, the JBS hired him as a Coordinator -- and he traveled the U.S. giving speeches about how malicious and dangerous the KKK was and how often the KKK was responsible for terrible violent crimes--which were not punished because of the corruption of local law enforcement.
Anybody who knows Cong. Ron Paul knows he is not a racist. For you to make such an incredibly malicious and libelous comment is indicative of YOUR pervasive BIGOTRY.
Furthermore, he is NOT the "only" elected official who receives 100% from the JBS on its Freedom Index. He is one of 26 (!!) who score 100. Typical of your total contempt for FACTS!
Your blog title "Juan's Rants" is certainly appropriate since a rant, by definition, is
"a speech or piece of writing that incites anger or violence".
That, apparently, is YOUR purpose--incitement of anger or violence -- not reason, not careful examination of evidence, not presentation of facts, and certainly not honest commentary. SHAME ON YOU!
You are nothing but a JBS apologist. The JBS fight against civil rights is legend and well documented. They tried to separate themselves from the KKK by claiming the civil rights marches were all communist inspired. After the Supreme Court desegregated schools in Brown vs Board of Education, JBS was so enraged that they mounted a nationwide campaign to impeach Chief Justice Earl Warren.
ReplyDeleteIf Ron Paul's newsletter writings are not racist, then you have a very low bar for what constitutes racism. Then again, I have yet to meet a racist who actually thought he was a racist.
I am NOT a "JBS apologist". In fact, the JBS has banned me from posting messages on its websites because they despise me.
ReplyDeleteI have spent 40+ years researching the JBS and debating HUNDREDS of JBS members. Many JBS members have described me as a Communist, or as a "disinformation agent" or "a New World Order stooge" and similar terms. One JBS member wrote me a letter in which he described me as "worse than Al Qaeda". Why? Because I have written a 127-page report about the JBS which is based, primarily, upon first-time-released FBI investigative files and my Report proves, conclusively, that the JBS is NOT a reliable source of factual information.
The JBS WAS against civil rights legislation and our civil rights movement --- but their opposition was not based upon "racism".
The truth about this matter is much more nuanced and requires careful examination of evidence, not your knee-jerk epithets just because you (and I) disagree with their position. Do you consider Sen. Barry Goldwater to be motivated by "racism" just because he also opposed the 1964 legislation? Even though he was a founding member of, and financial contributor to, the NAACP in Phoenix? Even though he played a part in desegregating the Arizona National Guard?
The JBS campaign against Earl Warren was NOT primarily because of the 1954 Supreme Court desegregation decision.
Instead, it was because of more than a dozen major Supreme Court decisions which the JBS thought reflected a pattern where Warren had violated both his constitutional oath and his judicial oath.
If you read the January 1961 JBS Bulletin, (pages 14-19) you will see a section captioned "Grounds For Impeachment". Robert Welch then cites a series of U.S. Supreme Court decisions which he thought justified impeaching Warren, for example:
(1) "In the Steve Nelson case the Warren Court simply wiped out the anti-sedition laws of more than forty states..."
(2) "In the Koningsberg case the Warren Court canceled the right of any state to deny a license to practice law to a man merely because he wouldn't say whether he was a Communist or not."
(3) "In the Sweezy case the Warren Court revied the New Hampshire Supreme Court and held that the Attorney General of New Hampshire was without authority to question a lecturer at the State University...concerning reported subversive activities."
Welch then refers to "dozens more" cases which (in his judgment) violated traditional understandings and court precedents regarding the limits of federal powers versus what decisions were left to states.
In a summation comment, Welch asked:
"And when you ask, in view of these decisions, just what rights the Warren Court WOULD leave to the states, the answer is: absolutely none."
The impeachment petition which the JBS circulated gives as the justifying reason:
"We believe the Chief Justice has, by his conduct on the bench, been engaged in tearing down the Constitution which it is his sworn and official duty to uphold."
Conservative critics of Welch (such as Sen. Barry Goldwater and conservative columnist George Sokolsky) opposed Welch's impeachment movement --- but even they (unlike yourself) CORRECTLY presented the fundamental issue being discussed. It was NOT just (or even primarily) the 1954 desegregation decision. It was DOZENS
of Supreme Court decisions.
But, again, your contempt for facts enables you to write whatever fiction you want.
There are many VALID reasons to reject the JBS -- but deliberate falsehoods about their beliefs and objectives serves only to make it possible for them to effortlessly characterize ALL critics as ignorant and malicious (thanks to people like yourself!)
I freely admit that my opinion is based a lot on "If it quacks like a duck".
ReplyDeleteI worked for a company that led a huge fight against the KKK in the 30s and 40s. They got pats on the back for being champions of equality. The fact is that they thought that powerful Klan presence would impede attracting business to Texas. The company, in fact, would hire people of color only for janitorial jobs, and that was in the 70s. Fighting the Klan was simply a PR move. JBS certainly did a lot of quacking.