Birchers: How the John Birch Society Radicalized the American Right Dallek Matthew
Birchers: How the John Birch Society Radicalized the American Right Dallek Matthew How a notorious far right organization set the Republican Party on a long march toward extremismAt the height of the…
Specifikacia Birchers: How the John Birch Society Radicalized the American Right Dallek Matthew
Birchers: How the John Birch Society Radicalized the American Right Dallek Matthew
How a notorious far right organization set the Republican Party on a long march toward extremismAt the height of the John Birch Society's activity in the 1960s, critics dismissed its members as a paranoid fringe. But as historian Matthew Dallek reveals, the Birch Society's extremism remade American conservatism. After all, "Birchers" believed that a vast communist conspiracy existed in America and posed an existential threat to Christianity, capitalism, and freedom.
Conservative leaders recognized that these affluent voters were needed to win elections, and for decades the GOP courted Birchers and their extremist successors. Most Birchers were white professionals who were radicalized as growing calls for racial and gender equality appeared to upend American life. The far right steadily gained power, finally toppling the Republican establishment and electing Donald Trump.