In the late 1970's the New Right coalition of secular and Christian conservatives and reactionaries emerged as a powerful force on the American political landscape, and helped elect Ronald Reagan to the presidency in 1980 and 1984. The eclipsed Birch Society saw its influence dwindle even further after Reagan took office, and further still after they attacked Reagan's policies as too liberal. The faltering finances of the organization were further stung when the JBS lost a defamation lawsuit by Chicago civil liberties attorney Elmer Gertz.
The Society apparently turned to a fundraising scheme of dubious propriety. A donor seeking to make tax exempt gifts to the JBS in 1983 was instructed to write checks made out to two non-profit groups, Summit Ministries of Colorado and the San Antonio Academy of Texas. Both institutions bought substantial advertising in Birch publications. This appears to have been a systematic operation to allow supporters to make donations to tax-exempt groups while channeling the funds into the coffers of the Society.
When Robert F. Welch died in 1985, the Birch Society had shrunk to less than 50,000 members. There then ensued an internal struggle over who would grab the reins of the organization. The victors even alienated Welch's widow who denounced the new leadership from her retirement home in Weston, MA. Magazine subscriptions, often a close parallel to membership, fell from 50,000 to fewer than 20,000. A study of the 1989 Birch subscription list by Charles Jeffrey Kraft revealed that the highest per capita Birch membership was clustered in the Rocky Mountain states. The top dozen states by percentage of membership (with a high of .00045) were South Dakota, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Utah, Nebraska, Wyoming, Washington, Colorado, Arizona, Oklahoma, and Georgia. In the 1980s and 90s many of these states would see disproportionately high activism by hard right populist groups such as the Posse Comitatus and armed citizens militias.
The greatest numbers of members lived in California (2648), Texas (1232), Florida (1154), Georgia (949), Washington (873), New York (773), Ohio(726). Tennessee (694), Indiana (635), Wisconsin (604), Colorado (590), and Pennsylvania (586). The Birch membership was found to be "disproportionately well educated and upper income status," with a "high incidence of physicians and dentists."
The collapse of communism in Europe and the end of the Cold War might have signaled the end of the Birch Society, but the UN role in the Gulf War and President Bush's call for a New World Order unwittingly echoed Birch claims about the goals of the internationalist One World Government conspiracy. As growing right-wing populism sparked new levels of cynicism regarding politicians, and economic and social fears sparked rightist backlash movements, the Birch Society positioned itself as the group that for decades had its fingers on the pulse of the conspiracy behind the country's decline. In 1989 Birch leadership cashed in by selling its prime office buildings in Belmont, MA, relocating to Appleton, WI, and investing the funds from the sale of its real estate in improving its magazine and rebuilding its membership.
Between 1988 and 1995 the Birch Society at least doubled, and perhaps tripled its membership to over 55,000. Birch organizers have been especially active in organizing against federal land use regulations and expansion of the national park system.
----- Original Message ----- From: <JKSCHW at aol.com> To: <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Sent: Monday, January 24, 2000 11:36 PM Subject: Re: ZIG/ZOG
> In a message dated 00-01-24 18:54:06 EST, you write:
>
> << the John
> Birch Society, which is growing, >>
>
> Say more, you unpatriotic rotton doctor commie rat. I would have thought that
> the JBS was deader than Communism.
>
> --jks