50 years later, history is proving them right-
as it will soon enough the TEA Party
The agenda was pro-family, pro-Christian, anti-communist, anti-UN, and anti-big government, while treating the principles of the US Constitution/Bill of Rights as sacrosanct. The JBS charter was based on opposing plans of what they said were a small group of 'Insiders' working surreptitiously both in and outside of government to bring the this country's free-market enterprise system to it's knees while incrementally stripping America's sovereignty and inflicting a socalist society upon our people. But they also felt both the USSR and US governments were under the influence of the same international cabal, one keen to bring about a collectivist 'New World Order'... all orchestrated from behind the scenes and by-hook-or-by-crook.
Naturally such conspiracy theory brought massive derision
-particularly from those it exposed- and the John Birch Society was mocked as paranoid and delusional, among other things. But just listen to what the man had to say back then in '73 -most of this quoted from their 1958 charter- and you tell me he's not talking about the internationalist-socialist Sorobama regime that's currently ripping this country a new one...
John Birch Society
- surrender of American sovereignty to UN
and other international organizations
- greatly expanded government spending...
'as wastefully as possible'
- higher (and then much higher) taxes
- increasingly unbalanced budget-
despite tax increases
- wild inflation of our currency and
destruction of our savings
- greatly increased socialistic controls over every operation of our economy... and every activity
of our daily lives
- correspondingly huge increases in federal bureaucracy, and both cost and reach of government
- far more centralization of power in Washington
(and gradual erosion of states' power)
- creeping federalization of education system
- anti-war propaganda, "peace" at all costs...
thus inevitably on enemy terms (of course)
Just 'cuz you're paranoid
doesn't mean they're not after you:
If you find that level of conspiracy theory to much to swallow, consider this: The second head of the John Birch Society was Congressman Larry McDonald from Georgia, who was killed on September 1, 1983, when the Soviet Union shot down KAL 007... the only congressman killed by the Soviets during the Cold War.
The John Birch Society RightWingAmerica Wikipedia h/t Kirby