Not just a Birchite phenomenon anymore. Leftist enclave Santa Cruz voted to de-flouridate in the 90's. One of my old mentors, Mike Rotkin (see a photo of him in Doug Dowd's, "Blues for America, " Monthly Review Press in his Cornell SDS days) in Santa Cruz, was one of the leaders of the anti- flouridation forces. Reason or National Review had a piece in a recent issue, if memory serves, on this having become a big cause in geographical zones where the New Age and leftism intersect.
Can't find the piece but, this was the jist
http://www.nationalreview.com/impromptus/impromptus052903.asp
> I absolutely love what I'm about to tell you. You know how, for years,
> the Left (and others) have teased the Right about the fluoridation of
> water? Eons ago, apparently, some right-wingers were alarmed about
> fluoridation, as they believed that it was some socialist plot, or a
> scheme at brain-washing, or something.
Well: One of my best friends is a dentist — a professor of dentistry, in fact, in the Midwest. He was in town (New York) for a conference recently and this question of fluoridated water came up. He said, "You know, people are still up in arms about that. They go to court and besiege city councils and all that." I said, "Really, after all these years? The Right's still suspicious of that? Left-over John Birchers or something?" He said, "No, no — not at all. These are left-wing groups: know-nothing environmentalists, earthy-crunchy types — the usual crowd."
Well, well, well. Who's laughin' now, huh? Who's afraid of fluoride in the water now? And this is 2003!
As I believe I said elsewhere in this Impromptus: ha, ha, ha.
-- Michael Pugliese