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The John Birch Society to Co-Sponsor CPAC

danarhea

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The 51-year-old ultra-conservative group, once ostracized by the right, is co-sponsoring the 2010 Conservative Political Action Conference.

This is sickening. CPAC used to stand for something, and now it is teaming up with a racist political group that once attempted to impeach a Supreme Court Justice for the Brown v. Board of Education decision, claiming it was a Communist attempt to turn Arkansas into a "Negro Soviet Republic", and whose leader claimed that MLK was trained by Russia to overthrow the US government?!?! The only thing worse than the John Birch Society is the Ku Klux Klan, and not by much.

Unbelievable. What in the hell is happening to the right in this country? They are truly beginning to slide into the toilet. I hope that any Conservative who reads this will make a decision to kick CPAC to the curb. It is giving the Conservative movement one hell of a black eye.

Article is here.
 
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I was pretty shocked when I heard about this.
 
Rachel Maddow reported on this yesterday ~

[ame=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#34581121]Rachel Maddow Show[/ame]
 
FBI FILES ON JOHN BIRCH SOCIETY:
ernie1241 - JBS-1

Learn why FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and senior FBI officials concluded in FBI memos that the Birch Society was "extremist", "irrational", "irresponsible", "fanatics" and "lunatic fringe".

More info: ernie1241@aol.com
 
If the CPAC wants to include the John Birch Society, they should do it; it's their prerogative. That is what makes America great: the craziest have the ability to express their opinions.

It's inane and childish to exclude the John Birch Society for being "too conservative," especially when the focus is to create a GOP "Purity" test. There are many things you can say about the John Birch Society, crazy insane jumps to my mind, but "Liberal," is not one of them. You can criticize the concept, certainly, and criticize the product. Yet no one can honestly fault the CPAC for not creating a "balanced opinion." What would they do, bring in the ACLU?

Further yet, it's debatable on whether the CPAC is buying into JBS's views. Actually, I'd go further and say that's not the case in the slightest. If CPAC really bought into the Birch Society's views, why host the JBC? Why not have the John Birch Society host the event, and send a delegation to them?

Indeed, I see this as a step forward for the John Birch Society. They've clearly left their extremist (e.g. idiotic) views behind. They have decided to accept CPAC's views by supporting their venture, not the other way around.
 
This is sickening. CPAC used to stand for something, and now it is teaming up with a racist political group that once attempted to impeach a Supreme Court Justice for the Brown v. Board of Education decision, claiming it was a Communist attempt to turn Arkansas into a "Negro Soviet Republic", and whose leader claimed that MLK was trained by Russia to overthrow the US government?!?! The only thing worse than the John Birch Society is the Ku Klux Klan, and not by much.

Unbelievable. What in the hell is happening to the right in this country? They are truly beginning to slide into the toilet. I hope that any Conservative who reads this will make a decision to kick CPAC to the curb. It is giving the Conservative movement one hell of a black eye.

Article is here.

The right is getting more radical every day.
 
The right is getting more radical every day.
This isn't "the right", this is McCarthyism mach 2.

A perfectly unintentional, and arguably predictable, side affect of current political conditions. Albiet, still disgusting, and proof that the republican leadership is out of touch with their grassroots.

The republican party is not a party of racists, nor has it been or will it be, but a party of a leadership corrupted by special interest, it is. What a surprise.
 
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So, what's wrong with The John Birch Society?

They said that nelson Mandela is a Commie. He is!
 
This isn't "the right", this is McCarthyism mach 2.

A perfectly unintentional, and arguably predictable, side affect of current political conditions. Albiet, still disgusting, and proof that the republican leadership is out of touch with their grassroots.

The republican party is not a party of racists, nor has it been or will it be, but a party of a leadership corrupted by special interest, it is. What a surprise.

I used to agree with you, but the more I hear about and read, the more I think that the base for these radicals is growing. I agree that the GOP has been hijacked, but the hijackers have real public support keeping them in office.
 
I used to agree with you, but the more I hear about and read, the more I think that the base for these radicals is growing. I agree that the GOP has been hijacked, but the hijackers have real public support keeping them in office.

If you lived here your opinion might have a little more credibility.
 
If the CPAC wants to include the John Birch Society, they should do it; it's their prerogative. That is what makes America great: the craziest have the ability to express their opinions.

It's inane and childish to exclude the John Birch Society for being "too conservative," especially when the focus is to create a GOP "Purity" test. There are many things you can say about the John Birch Society, crazy insane jumps to my mind, but "Liberal," is not one of them. You can criticize the concept, certainly, and criticize the product. Yet no one can honestly fault the CPAC for not creating a "balanced opinion." What would they do, bring in the ACLU?

Further yet, it's debatable on whether the CPAC is buying into JBS's views. Actually, I'd go further and say that's not the case in the slightest. If CPAC really bought into the Birch Society's views, why host the JBC? Why not have the John Birch Society host the event, and send a delegation to them?

Indeed, I see this as a step forward for the John Birch Society. They've clearly left their extremist (e.g. idiotic) views behind. They have decided to accept CPAC's views by supporting their venture, not the other way around.

AREO: What makes you claim that the Birch Society has "clearly left their extremist views behind" ?? Which of their views do you acknowledge were "extremist" and which you think they now have discarded?

For example: Are you aware that in 2002 the JBS published a new edition of Robert Welch's so-called "private letter" entitled The Politician?

The JBS describes the 2002 edition on the back cover as "perhaps the most devestating expose of the last century" because it "tells the bitter, but little known, truth" about our postwar history.

Among the "truths" which the JBS wants everyone to read and believe is that President Eisenhower and most of our political leaders and government officials during the past 8 decades have been traitors and conspirators.

And to bring this message into contemporary history, the back cover states:

"But most importantly The Politician exposes that 'conspiracy of gangsters' which even now is setting America's foreign and domestic policy."

JBS officials no longer subscribe to their former pretense which proposed that what Welch wrote in his "private letter" was not connected to the Birch Society. In fact, they now embrace the content of Welch's manuscript. See, for example, the Foreword to the new 2002 edition written by the former CEO of the JBS.

Lastly,
(1) if you review current issues of the John Birch Society Bulletin, you will notice that they routinely reprint comments originally published in the 1960's and 1970's regarding what they considered the pervasive communist conspiracy in our country

(2) during the past 51 years the JBS has never retracted ANY derogatory statement or conclusion it made about any person, organization, or publication -- even when it lost libel lawsuits!

So what is your conclusion based upon?
 
I used to agree with you, but the more I hear about and read, the more I think that the base for these radicals is growing. I agree that the GOP has been hijacked, but the hijackers have real public support keeping them in office.
They aren't radicals, they are people that want smaller government. They have been disenfranchised for 8 years and Obama's policies are the straw that broke the camel's back. That is radical?

This is just a byproduct of political conditions, discontent and partisanship. As if anyone in the Tea Party Movement, the Palinites, or Fox Followers, would actually cheer if the JB society spokesman were to say "We want to renslave black people and go kill communists" at the CPAC meeting.

Most of these people wouldn't bother to look who the Co-sponser is, much less find and connect this "hidden agenda" with the John Birch Society. Normally, they just see a reliable organization, CPAC, as a place to have a voice in congress because they see them on TV and agree with them on what they say on their website. People don't see stuff like this, and even when they are told, they just say "Rachel Maddow is biased and she just wants to slander us any way she can." And rightfully so due to "history" with MSNBC.
 
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So, what's wrong with The John Birch Society?

They said that nelson Mandela is a Commie. He is!

They said EVERYONE was a commie. And I mean EVERYONE. Every last man, woman, child, and cat was a communist in their eyes.

But Dogs weren't. We all know dogs are loyal capitalists. Especially the Terriers. They happen to be the best Capitalists.
 
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They said EVERYONE was a commie. And I mean EVERYONE. Every last man, woman, child, and cat was a communist in their eyes.

But Dogs weren't. We all know dogs are loyal capitalists. Especially the Terriers. They happen to be the best Capitalists.

Where did they say that? Provide a link, please.
 
Where did they say that? Provide a link, please.

In private remarks to the first meeting of his JBS National Council on January 9, 1960, at the Union League Club in Chicago, Robert Welch made these observations about the gravity of our situation:

“From a careful and realistic study of the mountainous pile of evidence that is there for all to see, certain terrifying conclusions are objectively inescapable. Among them are:

(1) The Communists are winning their large victories, as they always have, through the cumulative effect of small gains;
(2) They make these gains chiefly through the conniving assistance of many of the very diplomats and officials who are supposed to be opposing them;
(3) Communist influences are now in almost complete working control of our government;
(4) And hence, the United States Government is today, as it has been for many years, the most important and powerful single force promoting the world-wide Communist advance.”

[A Confidential Report To Members Of The Council of The John Birch Society – minutes of 1/9/60 meeting held at Union League Club in Chicago IL, page 1-2; minutes signed by Robert Welch.]

Furthermore, according to the minutes of this meeting, Robert Welch stated:

"Today, gentlemen, I can assure you, without the slightest doubt in my own mind that the takeover at the top is, for all practical purposes, virtually complete. Whether you like it or not, or whether you believe it or not, our Federal Government is already, literally in the hands of the Communists." [Ibid, page 2]

"In our two states with the largest population, New York and California ...already the two present Governors are almost certainly actual Communists...Our Congress now contains a number of men like Adam Clayton Powell of New York and Charles Porter of Oregon, who are certainly actual Communists, and plenty more who are sympathetic to Communist purposes for either ideological or opportunistic reasons." [Ibid, page 7]
[Note: the reference to Governors refers to Edmund G. Brown of California and Nelson Rockefeller of New York.]

"In the Senate, there are men like Stephen Young of Ohio, and Wayne Morse of Oregon, McNamara of Michigan, and Clifford Case of New Jersey and Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota and Estes Kefauver of Tennessee and John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts, whom it is utter folly to think of as just liberals. Every one of those men is either an actual Communist or so completely a Communist sympathizer or agent that it makes no practical difference..." [Ibid, page 8]

“Our Supreme Court, dominated by Earl Warren and Felix Frankfurter and Hugo Black, is so visibly pro-Communist that no argument is even needed…And our federal courts below that level…are in many cases just as bad.” [Ibid, page 8]

"Our State Department is loaded with Communists from top to bottom, to the extent that our roll call of Ambassadors almost sounds like a list somebody has put together to start a Communist front." ... [Ibid, page 8]

"It is estimated from many reliable sources that from 70% to 90% of the responsible personnel in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare are Communists. Our Central Intelligence Agency under Allen Dulles is nothing more or less than an agency to promote Communism throughout the world...Almost all the other Departments are loaded with Communists and Communist sympathizers. And this generalization most specifically does include our whole Defense Department." [Ibid, page 8]

In addition, in July 1961, JBS founder Robert Welch wrote in the JBS Bulletin:

“…we believe that there are not more than 300,000 to 500,000 Communists in our country (or about ¼ of 1% of our population) and not more than a million allies, dupes, and sympathizers whom they can count on for any conscious support…” [JBS Bulletin, July 1961, page 14]

Thus, in total, Welch thought there were about 1.3 to 1.5 million Communists, Communist dupes, Communist sympathizers and Communist allies in the United States as of July 1961.

However, according to the FBI, there were only about 4700 CP members in 1961 and the FBI's Security Index which was intended to track all persons considered dangerous to U.S. security (including known and suspected CP members and sympathizers) reflected 9899 persons in the "Communist" category---i.e. nothing remotely close to Welch's estimate of 1.3 to 1.5 million!
 
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So, what's wrong with The John Birch Society?

They said that nelson Mandela is a Commie. He is!

They also said that the Brown v. Board of Education decision by the Supreme Court was an attempt to create a "Negro Soviet Republic" out of Arkansas. You can't get any more racist and wacko than that.
 
If you lived here your opinion might have a little more credibility.

Why is living in this country a prerequisite to having an opinion on anything that happens in this country? Didn't I just see you running your mouth about how horrible South Africa is on some other thread? Why don't you practice what you preach. :roll:
 
Not nearly as radical as the left, though.

Actually, this thread is about CPAC's embracing the John Birch Society. You are free to start a thread about the radical left any time you want, and I will probably agree with most of what you say IN THAT THREAD. And guess what else? I won't attempt to derail your thread by trying to turn it into a flame war either.

However, the radical left is not the topic here. The topic is CPAC's embracing the John Birch Society, and its effect on the right, which I find disturbing. So please post pertaining to the topic. If you agree with CPAC, then post that you do, and state why. If you don't agree with CPAC, then post that you don't and state why. But please stop trolling. Thank you.
 
So, what's wrong with The John Birch Society?

If the CPAC wants to include the John Birch Society, they should do it; it's their prerogative. That is what makes America great: the craziest have the ability to express their opinions.

LOL! That is what the Republican party needs, more crazies! :rofl

Rock on Garth!
 
I am going to take a slightly different course here. I went the the John Birch Society webpage(- The John Birch Society) and did a bit of reading. While they are far right, and to my mind wrong about everything, I did not find anything in 15 to 20 minutes of reading to suggest they are any more wacky than any far right or left organization of today. Even the wiki article on them does nothing to make the think that currently they are any more objectionable than any group on the outskirts of the political spectrum.

So instead of getting all worked up about this, I want to ask you all a question: what is it about JBS today(not 20 years ago) that makes this so worth of criticism?
 
If you lived here your opinion might have a little more credibility.

Just help me out here becasue I am a newby. I have debated extensively on two forums and these have made non Americans who live outside the USA very welcome. Even the most vociferous opponents have refrained from personal attacks based on nationality or residence. Different forums have different standards. Is this sort of response acceptable on here? If I post my opinion on the John Birch society am I going to receive personal attacks based on the fact that I am a Brit living in China? Can I reciprocate with suitably calibrated personal attacks of my own?
 
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I am going to take a slightly different course here. I went the the John Birch Society webpage(- The John Birch Society) and did a bit of reading. While they are far right, and to my mind wrong about everything, I did not find anything in 15 to 20 minutes of reading to suggest they are any more wacky than any far right or left organization of today. Even the wiki article on them does nothing to make the think that currently they are any more objectionable than any group on the outskirts of the political spectrum.

So instead of getting all worked up about this, I want to ask you all a question: what is it about JBS today(not 20 years ago) that makes this so worth of criticism?

What would be the reaction of the Democratic Party invited Trotskyists to their coventions? And Trotskyists are far preferable to the scum of the JBS. After all, Trotskyists grow up to be neocons.
 
What would be the reaction of the Democratic Party invited Trotskyists to their coventions? And Trotskyists are far preferable to the scum of the JBS. After all, Trotskyists grow up to be neocons.

Why would I care what some right winger thinks about who we invite to our conventions? I ask again, what is so wrong with JBS today? Why is this worth getting upset about?
 
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