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Yahoo
02-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Opinion - Trump 2.0 is the final victory of the John Birch Society
In 1958, a group of prominent business leaders founded the John Birch Society. Led by Robert Welch, inheritor of a vast candy fortune, these titans of wealth believed a vast communist conspiracy had penetrated the U.S. government. In 'The Blue Book of the John Birch Society,' Welch presented an apocalyptic vision where politics was no longer a staid battle between the two political parties but a conflict 'between light and darkness; between freedom and slavery; between the spirit of Christianity and the spirit of the anti-Christ for the souls and bodies of men.' Welch claimed these non-Christians sought to replace Christianity with a 'pragmatic opportunism' governed by 'hedonistic aims.' He dubbed his followers 'God's Angry Men.' What energized the Birchers was their belief that the U.S. government was engaged in a plot to strip Americans of their individual rights and impose a collectivist regime on an unsuspecting public. To them, the evidence was conclusive: the 'gradual surrender of American sovereignty to various international organizations,' of which the United Nations is the outstanding example; the centralization of power in Washington, D.C., which resulted in the 'practical elimination of our state lines'; the 'steady advance of federal aid to and control over our educational system, leading to complete federalization of our public education;' liberal news media through which 'gullible Americans more readily swallow as true' that communism is a 'glorious system;' using the term 'civil rights' to ignite the 'flames of disorder;' and the fluoridation of public drinking water as a means of instituting socialized medicine and imposing vaccine mandates to control the population. To accomplish his aims, Welch sought to recruit 'a million men' who would impose an American-style version of authoritarianism: 'The John Birch Society will operate under completely authoritative control at all levels. … We mean business every step of the way.' The John Birch Society quickly grew to a membership of 30,000 with a staff of 240 employees and more than 400 bookstores across the U.S. with an annual income of $1.3 million. Robert Welch attracted support from the middle class and the well-to-do. As Barry Goldwater noted, 'Every other person in Phoenix is a member of the John Birch Society. I'm not talking about commie-hunted apple pickers or cactus drunks. I'm talking about the highest cast of men of affairs.' What made the John Birch Society popular was its appeal to conspiracists who saw the government as the enemy. Welch even went so far as to call Dwight D. Eisenhower a 'dedicated conscious agent of the communist conspiracy,' a charge that infuriated Eisenhower. Conservatives eventually came to despise the John Birch Society. William F. Buckley wondered how its members could tolerate 'such paranoid and unpatriotic drivel.' Yet today, Robert Welch's dream of taking over the Republican Party and imposing an authoritarian-style regime has come to pass. Writing in The Bulwark in 2022, Robert Tracinski declared: 'The Birchers are back. And they're winning.' Tracinski noted the signs of conquest were everywhere: a belief in 'the machinations of a secret cabal that controls everything from the intelligence agencies to the schools,' the 'rapid spread of crackpot theories to otherwise normal and respectable people,' the disarming of conservative critics as 'weak-kneed appeasers handing over the country to its enemies' and an 'uneasy balancing act of conservatives in the media and in politics who don't want to denounce the crackpots for fear of angering their party's base.' Trump's second term has brought about the final victory of the John Birch Society. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy has incorrectly denounced vaccinations as causing the rise of autism in children, while claiming the measles vaccine has not been 'safely tested.' He has virtually dismantled the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control. Education Secretary Linda McMahon has been charged with demolishing that agency through the questionable use of a presidential executive order to fulfill Trump's promise to return education to the states 'where it belongs.' The Birchers would be delighted with the virtual elimination of USAID and Trump's pause on all foreign aid, including suspending George W. Bush's President's Emergency Plan for Aids Relief that has delivered medication to 25 million people in 54 countries. The United Nations has become a place where Trump cast-offs like Michael Waltz are sent into exile. Trump has installed Kash Patel as FBI director and Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence, where both are firing those they believe belong to the 'deep state.' Secretary of State Marco Rubio is dismantling of the National Security Council staff, which one White House official gleefully described as the 'gutting' of the 'deep state.' We are also witnessing the targeting of bureaucrats such as Miles Taylor and Chris Krebs, whom Trump deems as 'egregious leakers and disseminators of falsehoods.' Finally, we are seeing fluoride bans in public drinking water in Utah and Florida, with other states poised to follow suit. No wonder one Bircher exclaimed, 'God has delivered Donald J. Trump to save the United States of America.' John F. Kennedy once described members of the John Birch Society as those on the fringes 'who have sought to escape their own responsibility by finding a simple solution, an appealing slogan, or a convenient scapegoat.' Trump's reelection has given Welch and the John Birch Society something they desired but never really thought imaginable: victory. John Kenneth White is a professor emeritus at the Catholic University of America. His latest book is titled 'Grand Old Unraveling: The Republican Party, Donald Trump, and the Rise of Authoritarianism.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
02-06-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
Trump 2.0 is the final victory of the John Birch Society
In 1958, a group of prominent business leaders founded the John Birch Society. Led by Robert Welch, inheritor of a vast candy fortune, these titans of wealth believed a vast communist conspiracy had penetrated the U.S. government. In 'The Blue Book of the John Birch Society,' Welch presented an apocalyptic vision where politics was no longer a staid battle between the two political parties but a conflict 'between light and darkness; between freedom and slavery; between the spirit of Christianity and the spirit of the anti-Christ for the souls and bodies of men.' Welch claimed these non-Christians sought to replace Christianity with a 'pragmatic opportunism' governed by 'hedonistic aims.' He dubbed his followers 'God's Angry Men.' What energized the Birchers was their belief that the U.S. government was engaged in a plot to strip Americans of their individual rights and impose a collectivist regime on an unsuspecting public. To them, the evidence was conclusive: To accomplish his aims, Welch sought to recruit 'a million men' who would impose an American-style version of authoritarianism: 'The John Birch Society will operate under completely authoritative control at all levels. … We mean business every step of the way.' The John Birch Society quickly grew to a membership of 30,000 with a staff of 240 employees and more than 400 bookstores across the U.S. with an annual income of $1.3 million. Robert Welch attracted support from the middle class and the well-to-do. As Barry Goldwater noted, 'Every other person in Phoenix is a member of the John Birch Society. I'm not talking about commie-hunted apple pickers or cactus drunks. I'm talking about the highest cast of men of affairs.' What made the John Birch Society popular was its appeal to conspiracists who saw the government as the enemy. Welch even went so far as to call Dwight D. Eisenhower a 'dedicated conscious agent of the communist conspiracy,' a charge that infuriated Eisenhower. Conservatives eventually came to despise the John Birch Society. William F. Buckley wondered how its members could tolerate 'such paranoid and unpatriotic drivel.' Yet today, Robert Welch's dream of taking over the Republican Party and imposing an authoritarian-style regime has come to pass. Writing in The Bulwark in 2022, Robert Tracinski declared: 'The Birchers are back. And they're winning.' Tracinski noted the signs of conquest were everywhere: a belief in 'the machinations of a secret cabal that controls everything from the intelligence agencies to the schools,' the 'rapid spread of crackpot theories to otherwise normal and respectable people,' the disarming of conservative critics as 'weak-kneed appeasers handing over the country to its enemies' and an 'uneasy balancing act of conservatives in the media and in politics who don't want to denounce the crackpots for fear of angering their party's base.' Trump's second term has brought about the final victory of the John Birch Society. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy has incorrectly denounced vaccinations as causing the rise of autism in children, while claiming the measles vaccine has not been 'safely tested.' He has virtually dismantled the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control. Education Secretary Linda McMahon has been charged with demolishing that agency through the questionable use of a presidential executive order to fulfill Trump's promise to return education to the states 'where it belongs.' The Birchers would be delighted with the virtual elimination of USAID and Trump's pause on all foreign aid, including suspending George W. Bush's President's Emergency Plan for Aids Relief that has delivered medication to 25 million people in 54 countries. The United Nations has become a place where Trump cast-offs like Michael Waltz are sent into exile. Trump has installed Kash Patel as FBI director and Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence, where both are firing those they believe belong to the 'deep state.' Secretary of State Marco Rubio is dismantling of the National Security Council staff, which one White House official gleefully described as the 'gutting' of the 'deep state.' We are also witnessing the targeting of bureaucrats such as Miles Taylor and Chris Krebs, whom Trump deems as 'egregious leakers and disseminators of falsehoods.' Finally, we are seeing fluoride bans in public drinking water in Utah and Florida, with other states poised to follow suit. No wonder one Bircher exclaimed, 'God has delivered Donald J. Trump to save the United States of America.' John F. Kennedy once described members of the John Birch Society as those on the fringes 'who have sought to escape their own responsibility by finding a simple solution, an appealing slogan, or a convenient scapegoat.' Trump's reelection has given Welch and the John Birch Society something they desired but never really thought imaginable: victory. John Kenneth White is a professor emeritus at the Catholic University of America. His latest book is titled 'Grand Old Unraveling: The Republican Party, Donald Trump, and the Rise of Authoritarianism.'
Irish Times
26-04-2025
- Politics
- Irish Times
What does Northern Ireland's reaction to the death of Pope Francis say about attitudes?
In the lobby of Belfast City Hall , the queue was of councillors, not members of the public. It took time, once the book of condolence for Pope Francis was opened on Wednesday, for people to drift in and sign their names; when they did so, they were Protestant as well as Catholic . Among them was 79-year-old Colin Flinn, from a Presbyterian background, who told The Irish Times the late pontiff had been 'a great example to the world, to politicians, to everyone. And so humble.' This language was echoed by DUP leader Gavin Robinson, who described the pope in an interview with the BBC as 'someone who wanted to do things differently, he seemed a more gentle, humble, engaging and caring individual.' READ MORE It was important, Robinson said, to 'recognise the significance of this passing'. Francis was, he said, 'not somebody that I follow, but somebody I can recognise for the position that he holds and the importance that people attach to him. 'I recognise this is a significant moment of mine, of yours, those neighbours in Northern Ireland for whom the pope means a great deal.' His party colleague, Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly, made similar remarks, offering her 'sincere condolences' and recognising that Francis was 'held in high regard and admiration by so many ... I know that his loss will be felt deeply.' Such words from senior DUP figures would once have been unthinkable. For this is the party founded and led by Ian Paisley, the Moderator of the Free Presbyterian Church, who in 1986 was thrown out of the European Parliament after he heckled the then pope, John Paul II, while brandishing a poster declaring him the anti-Christ. 'History shows unionist politicians were not always positive or constructive about the Catholic church and at times their comments were hurtful and disrespectful, as Ian Paisley's track record in the 1980s testifies,' says writer and former BBC Northern Ireland political correspondent Stephen Walker. 'The DUP leader's comments show how times, and indeed unionism, have moved on, and many in high office, like Gavin Robinson, are more mindful of the power of language and the need for civility and kindness.' Meanwhile, says former chair of Co-Operation Ireland Peter Sheridan, 'simple gestures like those short number of words that Gavin Robinson and Emma Little-Pengelly made, become etched in people's memory'. It was Sheridan who masterminded another hugely significant gesture – the handshake between Queen Elizabeth II and Martin McGuinness in Belfast in 2012. 'The power of that small gesture, if you like, even momentarily, gave a sense of moving forward ... [and] the comments of Gavin Robinson and Emma Little-Pengelly do go a way to resolving differences and rebuilding trust,' he says. 'Those few comments are a move from division towards connection.' At the risk of stating the obvious, gestures matter in Northern Ireland; in the last year or so, there have been many firsts – such as the presence of the First Minister, Sinn Féin's Michelle O'Neill, at a PSNI graduation ceremony and at a Northern Ireland soccer match in Windsor Park, or the visit of Little-Pengelly to a GAA club in west Belfast. That these are seen as significant reflect how Northern Ireland is changing – politically, socially, demographically and in terms of religious adherence. In the 2021 census, almost one in five identified themselves as having no religion – a 'marked increase', the statisticians said, compared to the one in 10 who did so a decade earlier. Yet it also reflects how far Northern Ireland has to go. Sectarianism persists in post-conflict Northern Ireland; hours after the pontiff's death, a video was being shared online of an anti-pope song apparently played by a band at an Apprentice Boys' parade in Lisburn. 'It would be churlish not to recognise that the DUP's comments are a vast improvement on what was said in the past, so there's obviously a recognition within the upper echelons of the DUP that there's a need to move past where they've been up to this point,' says nationalist commentator Chris Donnelly. 'But there's still significant room to travel.' He cites the presence of Ms O'Neill at the funeral of Queen Elizabeth, or the official Remembrance Day event last November 'when she was alongside members of the British armed forces at Belfast City Hall. Sinn Féin recognise, as the leading voice of nationalism, that actions matter as well as words.' Michelle O'Neill will attend the pope's funeral in Rome, while the Deputy First Minister will not. For a senior DUP politician to have attended the pope's funeral 'would have been a very symbolic gesture ... that would have been appreciated,' says Donnelly. The power of such a gesture cannot be underestimated, says Sheridan. 'It may not solve everything, but it definitely opens the door, and sometimes that's the most you can hope for in these situations.'
