[Sonny M]

just as he excised the John Birch Society from our ranks.

Who was or is the John Birch society? I've heard the name, but don't know anything about them. What did they do and whats the bad thing about them?

[Verginius Rufus]

The John Birch Society was a zealously anti-Communist organization founded by Robert Welch in the late 1950s. Welch had previously voiced the opinion that Dwight Eisenhower was a conscious agent of the international Communist conspiracy.

The JBS was ridiculed a lot by the mainstream media of the day...there was even a popular song making fun of them ("if your mother is a Communist, you'd better turn her in") and the attorney general of the state of California called them a bunch of "little old ladies in tennis shoes."

The organization was named in honor of an American killed by the Communists in China shortly after the end of WWII.

[Valpal1]

This is the most concise explanation.

http://www.fact-index.com/j/jo/john_birch_society.html

They are world class conspiracists.