Posted on 11/23/2013 3:19:50 AM PST by defeat_the_dem_igods
Conner contends that today's tea party is the modern-day rebirth of the John Birch Society. They share a worldview, she says. The same paranoid distrust of government. The same desire to protect the rich. The same cruel streak that blames the poor for their poverty and seeks to deny government help on that basis. The same willingness to believe all manner of bizarre claims against political leaders they don't like.
(Excerpt) Read more at tampabay.com ...
The John Birch Society (JBS) is an American political advocacy group that supports anti-communism, limited government, a constitutional republic and personal freedom.
It's no wonder this administration's "cult" class continues to trash us Tea Party members.
Gotta love a nice balanced article, NOT!
I wonder why there is no comments section for it?
Just once, I’d like to read a progressive column that explains intellectually, rather than asserts emotionally, why the principles of our framing generation are extreme.
So Conner is a self described socialist, pardon me, progressive. Of course she is not going to like anyone that believes in a Constitutional Republic.
She’s quoted as saying: “Bush pushed to partially privatize Social Security.” If that had happened it would not be the mess it is in today.
Our wonderful socialists, taking from the rich (the middle class) and giving to the poor. As a self reward for being so good they elevate themselves to some elite status where they are completely exempt from their own rules.
Impossible due to the way they think. To get them to explain something intellectually is a little like trying to get water to run up hill.
“The same paranoid distrust of government”
____________________________________________
My God, who, other then the modern American Marxist, would NOT distrust the Oboverment.
Yes, I am afraid, very afraid, and it is not paranoia.
I would be a proud John Birch Society member...as I was Tea Partier before there was a Tea Party. You can’t comment on the article at the website but you can vote how it makes you “feel”.
Isn’t it funny that the Tea Party has a paranoid distrust of government and the left has a paranoid distrust of their neighbors?
Should have pinged you to the above as well.
This article seems to think that number is infinite, and that makes her the truest of true believers.
These people have utter contempt for the very idea of truth. They are Sophists, and the classical response to sophistry is to be Philosophers. The philosopher does not make a claim of his own wisdom, but asserts only that he loves wisdom - thereby claiming that wisdom exists and can be pursued by logic applied to facts.
Funny, I've never seen either JBS members or people aligned with the so called Tea Party stand around and say "we need to protect the rich".
Protecting their well connected rich friends, guys like Jon Corzine for example, seems to be the modus operandi of the left.
The John Birch Society sounds saner than Hollywood and Washington combined. Not that that would take a whole lot of effort, mind you.
I still remember the billboards that said..”GET US OUT OF THE RED UN!” and on the other side...”IMPEACH EARL WARREN!”
I’ve read some Bircher literature in the past. It was not “foaming at the mouth” propaganda at all, but well researched political info.
Although the John Birch Society advocates a limited, Constitutionalist federal government, as does the Tea Party, there are significant differences. The Birchers believe that American politics are dominated by a "master conspiracy" centered in the Council on Foreign Relations, a New York-based think tank, a notion rejected by most conservatives.
The JBS has also been cool toward issues and personalities that excite conservatives. They wouldn't support Ronald Reagan, apparently because he held some liberal views back in the 1940's, and they were opposed to aiding the Nicaraguan Contras who fought against the Communist Sandinistas. They even opposed Proposition 13, California's tax limitation initiative that all other conservatives in the state enthusiastically supported.
And unlike the loosely-structured Tea Party, the JBS is monolithic. Its leadership is not chosen by its members; it is run more like a business. Members belong to local chapters whose chairmen are chosen by the Society's leadership and not elected by the members, and there is a Home Chapter for those not members of local chapters.
So to compare the Tea Party tot he JBS is to ignore some important differences.
This indeed was a claptrap article filled with liberal inflammatory buzzwords. But one thing was interesting. One thing I did not know:
The Koch family was instrumental in founding the JBS, and they are instrumental in supporting Tea Party politics. If true, that is cool.
Fred C. Koch, founder of Koch Industries, was not only an outstanding pioneer in the petroleum industry, but a staunch anti-Communist and American patriot.
The Birch Society is much more than a mere “American political advocacy group that supports anti-communism, limited government, a constitutional republic and personal freedom.”
If that were an accurate description of the JBS, there would be no problem whatsoever — even if it had some unorthodox viewpoints.
But central to JBS ideology is the predicate that virtually all of our national leaders and prominent politicians during the 20th century were Communist traitors or “agents” of a criminal conspiracy whose objective was (and is) destruction of our freedom and bringing us into a one-world socialist dictatorship.
Which is why virtually the entire conservative movement in our country has rejected the JBS and that is also why senior officials of the FBI during J. Edgar Hoover’s tenure as FBI Director described the Birch Society in internal FBI memos as “extremist”, “irrational”, “irresponsible” and a hindrance to effective anti-communism.
CONSERVATIVE CRITICS OF ROBERT WELCH and BIRCH SOCIETY:
Contrary to claims made by the Birch Society about the alleged “left-wing” origins of JBS criticism, the most potent adverse comments about the JBS have always originated from the right-side of the political spectrum. This report presents a representative sample of such comments.
http://sites.google.com/site/ernie124102/jbs-4
Critics have included such prominent conservative Americans such as:
Sen. Barry Goldwater, Cong. Walter Judd, Gen. Albert C. Wedemeyer, Russell Kirk, Eugene Lyons, Willmoore Kendall, James Burnham, Robert Bork, J. Edgar Hoover, Herbert Philbrick, Frank S. Meyer, Cong. Gordon H. Scherer, William F. Buckley Jr., Patrick Buchanan, Fred Schwarz, Lee Edwards, the editors of the conservative newspaper, Human Events, George Sokolsky, Roy Cohn, Anthony Bouscaren, plus even many former Birchers such as: Alan Stang, Gary Allen, Milorad Draskovich, John Rees, William Norman Grigg, Mrs. Robert Welch -— and many many more.
You “forgot” to mention that the author of the book discussed by the Tampa newspaper is Claire Conner — the daughter of one of the founding members of the Birch Society (and one of its National Council members), i.e. Stillwell J. Conner.
Claire’s book is a memoir concerning what it was like growing up in a family with highly intolerant and authoritarian political beliefs (and her brothers and sisters confirm her account.)
There are MANY differences between the Tea Party Movement and the Birch Society — but there are also some similarities. The Birch Society has a much more highly developed ideology and it relies upon an historical analysis which probably would repel most Tea Party Movement adherents.
In fact, a recent issue of the JBS “Freedom Index” {previously known as Conservative Index) which scores the voting behavior of all members of Congress, showed that many Tea Party favorites received scores which would be equivalent to “poor” or “fail” (i.e. D and F) if you converted the scores into letter grades given in school.
I often point out that all humans have blood but if you are given the wrong blood type, you die. Similarly, many people and organizations appear to have similar views and objectives but, in reality, they have irreconcilable differences which make them incompatible with each other. Ultimately, that is the case with the Tea Party and JBS.
I have reaqd The New American for years. They are usually 6 months ahead of the MSM on any story, if it ever breaks. They have been uncannily accurate, imho, although there are always some exceptions.
Raving? No. Just well explained articles on why actions taken (on BOTH) sides of the aisle are often beyond the Constitutional scope of our Government as intended by the founders.
If that seems "extreme", then that is only a measure of the ignorance of and deviation from original intent.
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