My dad unfortunately knew a number of Birchers back in the 60´s and 70´s. They were convinced the Soviets were going to land in Mexico, turn left and be eating lunch in Phoenix the same day. If you didn´t agree the state was about to be overrun by commies you were part of the conspiracy. They formed patrols to scour the state watching for signs of a Soviet invasion. Just what we need.

Change Soviets to illegal aliens and I´ll pay attention, #1

#1, Aldrich Ames was recruited by the Soviets out of Mexico City.

McCarthy was right.

Could the BIrchers have been as well?

Amazing how the ´fringes´ sometimes turn out to not quite so ´fringey´.

The Birchers were wrong about the Soviet invasion. The Soviets didn´t invade anything except our colleges. And look at the results.

I must be/have been a Bircher without knowing it -- I´ve been railing about communists in government for YEARS!!

My family just laughed.

I say -- well, here we are Now.

Hey Dudes, the Communists have relabeled themselves so many times it´s hard to follow them.

Maybe if you focused on those peoples methods and results it wouldn´t matter what they are called.

#1 Everything your dad knew about the Birchers and imparted to you is so wrong that it is difficult to respond. I knew of no Birchers who thought this way. Your dad was full of it. Formed patrols to scour the state for a Soviet invasion. BS.

Liberal one world (Rockefeller) republicans got a lot of mileage mischaracterising Birchers and their fear of soft on communism secular big government in the early 60´s, just as BushRomneyRoveRinos attempt to silence voices of the T party conservative movement.

Hmm. Maine went 56.3% to 41.0% for Obama in 2012, and sent Angus King, a left-leaning Democrat disguised as an Independent, to the senate.

I think they´re a trifle confused.

I looked the JB Society up on Wikipedia. Apparently I´m a JBer at heart.

I am of an age where I remember the Birchers and Joe McCarthy well. I don´t have to look ´em up on Wikipedia. Joseph McCarthy was absolutely right as subsequent events have shown. The Birchers were also right, but too strident. Had they dialed it back a touch, they would be much more powerful today, IMHO.

#6...you are right about them relabeling themselves. Years ago they were smart enough to make the term Liberal to equal Communism and Progressive to equal Socialism.

Anyone remember when the Socialist in the House of Representatives used to have their "Congressional Socialist Caucus"? Now it is called the "Congressional Progressive Caucus".

There is reported to be between 70 and 90 members of the House, all Democrats, that are members of the Caucus and the Socialist Party. Why are Americans dumb enough to keep electing them?

Maybe we need to stop blaming Democrats and Republicans and start blaming Low Information Voters who vote for these Socialist and Communist. Obviously they are getting exactly what they didn´t know what they were voting for.

#4, if the Soviets took over our:
Educational system(In OUR humble opinion)
State Department(IMHO)
Bureaucracy(IMHO)
Hollywood
Journalism
Insurance Industry(Progressive, GEICO)
Etc.....
Can it REALLY be said they did NOT invade?
Or that the JB Society was wrong?

The revival of the Birchers may partially explain the dissolution of the Republican Party.

I remember that the libs tried to get Reagan to "renounce" the JBS but he refused.

horacer, your dad was being lied to... I was a member of the John Birch society from 1959 to 1963 and nothing like that was evident. We actually went to people we knew and showed videos of the results of communism. And was there conspiracies to overthrow the government? Absolutely, have you ever heard of the TV show "I led 3 lives" you might be able to download it as a torrent, but it was the FBI cases regarding Communist cells in the US. Communism is alive and well, look at South America, the creeping crud called socialism, aka communism is crawling slowly toward our boarders.

If they are against the UN, I am for them.

Thank you #16, but I was never lied to. I witnessed these people in my home, usually at Sunday dinner. They were colleagues of my father. Arizona was very small at the time. I should have been more clear, these people thought columns of Soviet tanks were going to roll into downtown Phoenix anyday. If you disagreed you were part of the conspiracy. Reagan and Buckley both had problems with the movement because of the fringe conspiracy element. In the 60´s one of their devotees formed the first Minutemen group to hunt out soviets in the west.

My family is very anti-communist. But we´ve always believed they would take over thru Hollywood, the schools and government, not columns of tanks rolling in from Mexico.