March 19, 2023
SOUND FAMILIAR?:
The fringe group that broke the GOP's brain -- and helped the party win elections: The John Birch Society pushed a darker, more conspiratorial politics in the '50s and '60s -- and looms large over today's GOP, argues historian Matthew Dallek. (Ian Ward Mar 19, 2023, Vox)
Ian WardWhat sort of tactics did the Birchers use in their early days to mobilize the conservative grassroots outside of the party apparatus of the GOP?
Matthew DallekTheir mission throughout the 1960s was to try to educate the American people about the communist conspiracy, and many of the Birchers -- not all, but many -- were suspicious of the two-party system.They didn't like democracy, and they believed the only way to save the country was through a kind of shock education -- through controlling the kinds of texts that kids and college students and other Americans were exposed to...
Posted by Orrin Judd at March 19, 2023 7:02 PM