Changes

In the 1960s, the John Birch Society spread its beliefs through paperback books and sending organizers to campuses, local coffee houses and other places where young people congregated. Today, it relies more upon social media and the internet.

==Conspiracies==

As leader of the society, Welch decided that the root cause of most of the troubles was a two-century-long conspiracy of the "[[Illuminati]]," a group supposedly founded in Bavaria in 1776. He declared it was responsible for the French and [[Russian Revolution]]s and the two world wars, as well as evils of Lincoln's income taxes, Wilson's Federal Reserve, and Roosevelt's New Deal. Most insidious of all was the United Nations. It also controlled the Communist party and the [[Trilateral Commission]]. The only member of the Illuminati he could identify by name was [[Nelson Rockefeller]]. Reagan was suspect because he picked for vice president the choice of the Illuminati, [[George H.W. Bush]]. Welch argued that the Illuminati was subversive of good government, destructive of religion, and used professional agitators and massive terror to destroy the good people, while manufacturing smears to destroy the brave souls who tried to expose it.<ref>There's more; see Stewart (2002).</ref>

Historian [[Richard Hofstadter]] claimed the Birch Society was the leader of the right wing in the 1960s.<ref>Hofstadter himself later turned right. Hofstadter, ''The Paranoid Style in American Politics and Other Essays'' (1967) p. 70</ref> In 1968 Governor Pat Brown of California, about to be defeated for reelection by Reagan, unleashed a 13-page report calling Reagan a puppet of the John Birch Society. (Reagan considered the JBS leaders to be kooky and kept them out of his campaign.)<ref>Rick Perlstein, ''Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America'' (2008) p. 113</ref> As late as 1980, House Speaker [[Tip O'Neill]] warned that "John Birchers control the Republican Party," overlooking the fact that the only Birch Society member in Congress at the time was a Democrat from Georgia, [[Larry McDonald]] who caucused with O'Neill. In fact the John Birch Society never controlled the Republican party in any state at any level at any time.<ref>Steven F. Hayward, ''The Age of Reagan: The Fall of the Old Liberal Order, 1964-1980'' (2001) pp 101, 675;</ref> The John Birch Society has been labeled by the left as "racist", "fascist", and "anti-semitic". The John Birch Society has been falsely associated with the Ku Klux Klan and American Nazi Party by the [[Southern Poverty Law Center]] and at the 1964 Republican National Convention, establishment [[RINO]] candidate [[Nelson Rockefeller]] mentioned the John Birch Society's name with the Communists and the Ku Klux Klan. But the John Birch Society was never a hate group and the society accepts non-whites, Jews and Freemasons.<ref>https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VjtYovgRxF4</ref> And the reason it was called "racist" by leftists is its opposition to certain aspects of the Civil Rights movement that were communist-influenced. The JBS opposed the civil rights movement because it was campaigning for federal government legislation which would restrict the freedoms of all Americans, of all races as well as create federal government programs which would expand the government's power. They did not oppose rights for blacks, they opposed restriction of rights in the name of "anti-discrimination" and expansion of federal government power and spending.

==Publications==