William F. Buckley and the Birchers: A myth, a history lesson and a moral

[marmar]

William F. Buckley and the Birchers: A myth, a history lesson and a moral
William F. Buckley claimed he had banished far-right paranoia from the conservative movement — but look at it now

By CORMAC KELLY
APRIL 3, 2021 1:00PM


(Salon) The story goes like this: in 1962, the leading conservative intellectual William F. Buckley Jr. used his magazine National Review to condemn the far-right John Birch Society. The denunciation isolated the Birchers and their wild conspiracy theories within America's conservative movement and led to their downfall.

The story is a myth, reliant on half-truths and omissions to make it convincing. Yet in articles and books, Buckley repeated it again and again. As the Republican Party grapples with QAnon believers and Trump loyalists, the myth that Buckley saved conservatism from extremists has been repeatedly cited as fact to explain how the party of Lincoln can save itself.

The truth is far more interesting. It shows that extremism in America's conservative movement has ebbed and flowed since the 1950s, yet never disappeared. Buckley claimed to have vanquished the Birchers, acting as the gatekeeper of American conservatism. Yet when Barry Goldwater became the first conservative presidential nominee of a major political party in 1964, it was the Birchers, not Buckley, who played the key role. The Birchers had a profound impact on American conservatism, a fact Buckley wished to expunge. He wanted to make conservatism respectable. To acknowledge the influence of the Birchers would be an admission of failure.

It's true enough that Buckley and the Birchers represented opposite wings of American conservatism. Buckley was the erudite face of conservative intellectualism, a self-described "intellectual revolutionary" against the liberal order. In 1955, he founded National Review, which became the publication for highbrow conservative opinion and carried conservatism into America's mainstream intellectual discourse. ............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2021/04/03/william-f-buckley-and-the-birchers-a-myth-a-history-lesson-and-a-moral/

[NNadir]

1. I built my vocabulary reading Buckley, but found him to be a contemptible human being...

...otherwise.

His brother, briefly a Senator from New York, was just as bad.

[Grins]

5. So was his father....

...and his wife, sister, son-in-law, son-in-law’s son.

[bronxiteforever]

2. K&R. Great article also important to note the Koch

Family’s ties to the John Birch Society. Fred Koch, father of the two GOP mega donors Koch brothers, was a founding member of the crazy John Birch Society.

“ In 1958, Koch became a founding member of the John Birch Society, an American political advocacy group that opposes communist infiltration and supports limited government. Koch held John Birch Society chapter meetings in the basement of his family's home in Wichita, Kansas.”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_C._Koch

[underpants]

3. I must say I find the contiguity of the image of the erudite Mr. Buckley with the hirsute QBacca

to be both whimsical and trenchantly mordant

[empedocles]

4. Fine post

[Martin68]

6. My experience with my right wing parents is the they were indeed influenced by Buckley to

disdain the John Birch Society, but reverted decades later under the tutelage of Ronald Reagan. The Tea Party resembled the John Birch Society in all ways except their name. Buckley did manage to hold off the extremists for a time, but we got Trump nevertheless.

[Garion_55]

7. I used to watch him when I was like 12

I got into that political shit early on. I knew he was smart and was saying stuff intelligenty but I also knew what he was saying was crazy and didn't make sense it was not logical to me Simply based on my 13 years of experience on the planet I just knew it was off.

I also watched the McLaughlin group Elinor cliff those guys? They were also smart and speaking intelligibly but the things they were saying made sense was like yeah yeah do that

What we do know for sure now is that there are no more William of Buckley's in the GOP although 's current guys are just like Matt gates and Donald Trump idiots who don't talk about anything intelligent anymore take no substantive stances on anything

[Mopar151]

8. So!

Are the Birchers, then an advocate for mental illness as public policy? It would explain a lot.......