tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/john-birch-society-20289/articlesJohn Birch Society – The Conversation2024-03-15T12:11:53Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2240352024-03-15T12:11:53Z2024-03-15T12:11:53ZDid Biden really steal the election? Students learn how to debunk conspiracy theories in this course<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582032/original/file-20240314-24-in072o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Trump supporters attend an election fraud rally in December 2020 in Washington, D.C.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/trump-supporter-and-qanon-follower-jake-the-q-shaman-angeli-news-photo/1297805096?adppopup=true">Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images </a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Text saying: Uncommon Courses, from The Conversation" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/uncommon-courses-130908">Uncommon Courses</a> is an occasional series from The Conversation U.S. highlighting unconventional approaches to teaching.</em> </p>
<h2>Title of course:</h2>
<p>Debunking conspiracy theories </p>
<h2>What prompted the idea for the course?</h2>
<p>I am interested in how people internalize or learn about political beliefs they go on to adopt. This interest coincided with my concerns about the seeming ease with which some far-right conservatives and supporters of former President Donald Trump peddled patently bogus conspiracies about <a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-2020-election-lies-debunked-4fc26546b07962fdbf9d66e739fbb50d">election fraud in 2020</a>.</p>
<p>One of the outcomes of these schemes was Trump supporters’ attack on the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/08/01/trump-indictment-jan-6-2020-election/">U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021</a>. Sadly, the belief that the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent, even in the face of overwhelming <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/ap-fact-check-on-jan-6-anniversary-trump-sticks-to-election-falsehoods">evidence to the contrary</a>, has remained one core element of the Trump 2024 campaign. I remembered the work of historian Richard Hofstadter, who coined the term <a href="https://harpers.org/archive/1964/11/the-paranoid-style-in-american-politics/">the “paranoid style” in politics</a> in a Harper’s Magazine essay in 1964. His main idea was that some politicians were using fear and a paranoid style of thinking to sway voters. They refused to accept the current state of society and wanted to make it appear that there was a looming threat to the country. </p>
<p>Hofstadter’s work was prompted by the actions of an extreme right-wing movement called the <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/01/11/a-view-from-the-fringe">John Birch Society</a>. I had a feeling of déjà vu with Trump. </p>
<h2>What does the course explore?</h2>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582034/original/file-20240314-30-8vw3ie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A black and white leaflet says 'Does history repeat itself' and shows a photo of John F Kennedy. It has text comparing the deaths of Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582034/original/file-20240314-30-8vw3ie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582034/original/file-20240314-30-8vw3ie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1268&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582034/original/file-20240314-30-8vw3ie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1268&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582034/original/file-20240314-30-8vw3ie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1268&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582034/original/file-20240314-30-8vw3ie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1594&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582034/original/file-20240314-30-8vw3ie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1594&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582034/original/file-20240314-30-8vw3ie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1594&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A 1970 conspiracy theory handout lists the similarities with the killing of John F. Kennedy and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/conspiracy-theory-handout-with-image-of-john-f-kennedy-news-photo/599828533?adppopup=true">Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What’s the real truth about the moon landing? Who <a href="https://time.com/6338396/jfk-assassination-conspiracy-culture/">really killed JFK?</a> These are just some of the questions we explore in this course. My goal is to balance the serious with the absurd. </p>
<p>I want students to identify the root causes of the conspiracy, use vetted sources and learn to be good consumers of online information.</p>
<p>I also want to train students in the practice of critical analysis. The American Psychological Association has shown that people who <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000392">practice conspiratorial thinking are more likely</a> to seek simple solutions to complex problems and experience feelings of fear and isolation. </p>
<p>We begin the course examining what we can learn from both political science and psychology. We look at the long history of hoaxes, frauds and deliberate conspiracies in American history, stretching back to the Illuminati, <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2015/catholics-and-conspiracies">anti-Catholicism</a> <a href="https://www.adl.org/resources/report/antisemitic-attitudes-america-conspiracy-theories-holocaust-education-and-other">and antisemitism</a>. </p>
<p>What is old is new again. The idea that a mysterious group <a href="https://theweek.com/62399/what-is-the-illuminati-and-what-does-it-control">like the Illuminati</a> is secretly in control of the world has not gone away. False beliefs about various groups such as Catholics and Jews are, sadly, recycled again and again.</p>
<p>The course also covers the current <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/02/01/1228373511/heres-why-conspiracy-theories-about-taylor-swift-and-the-super-bowl-are-spreadin">conspiracy theories about Taylor Swift</a>. This includes the false belief that the outcome of the February 2024 Super Bowl was predetermined so that the Kansas City Chiefs would win, and Swift, the girlfriend of Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, would announce her support for President Joe Biden. </p>
<p>My course also explores much more serious threats, like QAnon – a dangerous movement that falsely believes secret government operatives are running child sex rings. </p>
<p>We also take a look at topics like UFOs, aliens, Bigfoot and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-the-loch-ness-monster-real-197338">Loch Ness monster</a>.</p>
<h2>Why is this course relevant now?</h2>
<p>In the current age of <a href="https://theconversation.com/republicans-and-democrats-consider-each-other-immoral-even-when-treated-fairly-and-kindly-by-the-opposition-220002">political polarization</a>, it is critical that I do all I can to equip future leaders and citizens with the tools they need to suss out fact from distraction and outright fiction. </p>
<h2>What’s a critical lesson from the course?</h2>
<p>My hope is that my students leave the course with the confidence that they need to not only recognize but to openly combat disinformation. We live in an age of oversaturation of information. My students are digital natives. They rarely receive information from traditional media outlets like newspapers. When one considers the wealth of disinformation on the internet, or the prospect <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/11/15/more-americans-are-getting-news-on-tiktok-bucking-the-trend-seen-on-most-other-social-media-sites/">that TikTok is their primary source of news,</a> it is critical that students are educated about how to evaluate information.</p>
<h2>What materials does the course feature?</h2>
<p>I use a <a href="https://adfontesmedia.com/interactive-media-bias-chart/">number of resources</a> in this class, including <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/true-story-brainwashing-and-how-it-shaped-america-180963400/">magazine articles</a>, academic papers, books <a href="https://www.callingbullshit.org/tools.html">and websites</a> that give people tools to recognize false information. </p>
<p>Our reading list includes the books “<a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520276826/a-culture-of-conspiracy">A Culture of Conspiracy:</a> Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America,” “<a href="https://academic.oup.com/yale-scholarship-online/book/17546">Enemies Within: The Culture of Conspiracy in Modern America</a>” and “<a href="https://www.burnsiderarebooks.com/pages/books/140941664/richard-hofstadter/the-paranoid-style-in-american-politics-and-other-essays">The Paranoid Style in American Politics and other essays”</a>.</p>
<h2>What will the course prepare students to do?</h2>
<p>My students will feel some discomfort at times confronting their own biases and preconceived notions.</p>
<p>The idea is that my course will prepare students to question and then determine the veracity of patently false information. My students will also be prepared to recognize that most conspiracies are born from conditions of stress and the fear of the other.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224035/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Cason does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A scholar of history of education and American politics explains what is behind his course on conspiracy theories and how students learn to debunk fake ideas.David Cason, Associate Professor in Honors, University of North DakotaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1221772019-08-23T12:29:24Z2019-08-23T12:29:24ZSetting the historical record straight for the critics of The New York Times project on slavery in America<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289093/original/file-20190822-170931-1n8foq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Screen Shot of the New York Times homepage for its series, "1619."</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/1619-america-slavery.html">New York Times</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Four hundred years after the event, the New York Times has published a special project focusing on the first Africans arriving in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/1619-america-slavery.html">1619 at Point Comfort, Virginia,</a> and the legacy of slavery in the U.S.</p>
<p>“No aspect of the country that would be formed here has been untouched by the years of slavery that followed,” the introduction said.</p>
<p>While there has been much <a href="https://www.vox.com/identities/2019/8/19/20812238/1619-project-slavery-conservatives">praise for</a> <a href="https://pulitzercenter.org/blog/media-coverage-1619-project">the project’s recasting of American history</a>, it has been given a chilly reception by others. These critics, including <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/08/19/newt-gingrich-calls-new-york-times-1619-project-a-lie/2049622001/">former top GOP legislator Newt Gingrich</a>, attempt to <a href="https://www.vox.com/identities/2019/8/19/20812238/1619-project-slavery-conservatives">dismiss</a> the significance of the “20 and odd” Africans who arrived in 1619 and the <a href="https://www.slavevoyages.org/">12.5 million other African</a> people who were sold into the transatlantic slave trade. </p>
<p>“The whole project is a lie,” Gingrich said.</p>
<p>Statements such as one in an <a href="https://thefederalist.com/2019/08/21/no-america-wasnt-built-slavery-faith-men-created-equal/">article</a> by Joshua Lawson – “By A.D. 1619, slavery had existed for more than 5,000 years, dating back at least to Mesopotamia” – are akin to the recurring social media mantra over recent years that America shouldn’t be blamed, it didn’t invent slavery, and that it’s been around forever. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289085/original/file-20190822-170931-r18gm8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289085/original/file-20190822-170931-r18gm8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289085/original/file-20190822-170931-r18gm8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=281&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289085/original/file-20190822-170931-r18gm8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=281&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289085/original/file-20190822-170931-r18gm8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=281&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289085/original/file-20190822-170931-r18gm8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289085/original/file-20190822-170931-r18gm8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289085/original/file-20190822-170931-r18gm8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Screenshot of John Birch Society tweet from Nov. 3, 2016.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://twitter.com/The_JBS/status/794328462773325825">Twitter</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Similarly, social media comments often expresses ideas like: <a href="https://twitter.com/swgapecan/status/1163826746485104640">“Who captured them and sold them into slavery in the first place? It was their own people, black people</a>.”</p>
<p>These arguments may sound reasonable because they have a sliver of truth. But as a historian of the <a href="https://www.gilderlehrman.org/content/historical-context-facts-about-slave-trade-and-slavery">African diaspora</a>, I know these characterizations oversimplify the complex history of the slave trade and discourage important conversations about, and an understanding of, American history. </p>
<h2>Selling the enemy</h2>
<p>First, Africa was not, and is not, a country. Long before the Portuguese made their way to <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/archaeology-and-history/magazine/2019/07-08/virginia-first-africans-transatlantic-slave-trade/">Angola in 1483</a>, to start what became the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/abolition/africa_article_01.shtml">transatlantic slave trade</a>, African <a href="https://www.history.com/news/7-influential-african-empires">kingdoms, queendoms and empires</a> had long occupied and ruled different parts of the continent, which is close to 12 million square miles. </p>
<p>These centuries-old civilizations were ethnically, linguistically and religiously diverse. Wars were common, as in every other continent, and the people sold to European traders beginning in the 1490s were mostly <a href="http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/blackhistory/africa_caribbean/africa_trade.htm">prisoners of war</a>, not allies. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289095/original/file-20190822-170914-tanedb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289095/original/file-20190822-170914-tanedb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289095/original/file-20190822-170914-tanedb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289095/original/file-20190822-170914-tanedb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289095/original/file-20190822-170914-tanedb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289095/original/file-20190822-170914-tanedb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289095/original/file-20190822-170914-tanedb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289095/original/file-20190822-170914-tanedb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Five generations of slaves on Smith’s Plantation, Beaufort, S.C., in 1862.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/98504449/">Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Timothy H. O'Sullivan photo</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It is true that slavery has been around for thousands of years. But the chorus of social media <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=slavery%20has%20been%20around&src=typed_query&f=live">commentary</a> tries to remove any blame from the country’s forefathers for <a href="https://www.archives.gov/research/african-americans/slavery-records.html">the American version of the institution</a> and its devastating consequences. </p>
<p>They are correct in their statement that slavery has been around for millennia, and that America did not invent it. But it lacks context and substance that is critical to understanding our nation’s history. </p>
<h2>Race-based slavery</h2>
<p>Moreover, African traders were not aware of the distinct form of slavery that was to develop in the colonies – one that wed skin color to class in ways never seen before, as it became a distinct product of the trade. That form was drastically different from the African “<a href="https://ldhi.library.cofc.edu/exhibits/show/africanpassageslowcountryadapt/introductionatlanticworld/slaverybeforetrade">Old World</a>” models. </p>
<p>Old World slavery was characterized by a more fluid status. The enslaved could own property and legally marry, and their children were not automatically enslaved. Slaves were often criminals, or victims of religious wars. More specifically, slavery in Africa was not a life term, nor was it inherited. The Old World models were more like an indenture, where there was a term of labor to be paid, and then freedom would be granted. </p>
<p>This was nothing like the race-based <a href="http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ism/resources/origins_chattel_slavery.aspx">chattel slavery</a> that grew with the transatlantic trade, which guaranteed a lifetime term and the further enslavement of one’s children. </p>
<p>Almost the entire 12.5 million captured Africans were brought to the Americas as enslaved, not indentured people. Although there are a <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1narr3.html">few exceptions</a>, those few are not representative. European criminals and poor people often held indentured status, and most migrated to the Americas by choice. Those first “20 and odd” Africans were captives, and did not choose their destiny. These are some of the striking differences between European and African laborers.</p>
<p>The legacy of race-based chattel slavery produced distinct trauma over <a href="https://eji.org/history-racial-injustice-racialized-poverty">many generations</a>. Its history and legacy of sustained inequality is exceptional.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations-a-narrative-bibliography/372000/">Race</a> was <a href="https://history.princeton.edu/news-events/news/invention-race">invented by European colonists </a> to provide an excuse for the systematic oppression of African-descendant people. Race was used to categorize different groups of people based on skin color, and to stratify the different groups into distinct class structures. </p>
<p>The millions of enslaved men, women and children were sold into a land where their skin color became a brand that kept them, and all of their children, enslaved for generations. </p>
<p>“New World” slavery reflected nothing of Old World slavery, and everything of the racial caste system that took hold in the colonies, all in the effort to build both <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/slavery-capitalism.html?mtrref=www.google.com&gwh=CA575990CC621A0D508690DAF7BC433D&gwt=pay&assetType=REGIWALL">capitalism</a> and <a href="https://www.monticello.org/slavery-at-monticello/jsam-main-nav">colony</a>.</p>
<p>Taking blame from the buyer of slaves, and placing it on the seller, distorts history. Similarly, the history and legacy of Old World slavery and race-based chattel slavery are not parallel.</p>
<p>The United States of America was built on grand ideas of <a href="https://billofrightsinstitute.org/founding-documents/declaration-of-independence/?utm_source=GOOGLE&utm_medium=TEXT&utm_campaign=EVERGREEN&utm_term=DECLARATION&utm_content=DECLARATION&gclid=CjwKCAjw-vjqBRA6EiwAe8TCkw2iBWW2s9-SzdiVq6-j6nc0ObFFIkahSZv5P4GaU_P7IPualREvIhoC1TQQAvD_BwE">freedom, equality and justice for all</a>. It was also built mostly from the unpaid labor of enslaved African and African American people.</p>
<p>[ <em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/122177/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kelley Fanto Deetz does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A historian says that critics get the past wrong.Kelley Fanto Deetz, Lecturer in American Studies, University of VirginiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1079252018-12-06T11:43:17Z2018-12-06T11:43:17ZThe John Birch Society is still influencing American politics, 60 years after its founding<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248932/original/file-20181205-186073-uqmsin.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Some of the far-right group's staff in 1976</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Watchf-AP-A-MA-USA-APHS445023-John-Birch-Society/29523c1a34c34854a3200de3c9b92f6a/5/0">AP Photo/J. Walter Green</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The retired candy entrepreneur <a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/john-birch-society-founded">Robert Welch</a> founded the John Birch Society 60 years ago to push back against what he perceived as a growing American welfare state modeled on communism and the federal government’s push to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10570317109373675">desegregate America</a>.</p>
<p>Although Welch’s group has never amassed more than <a href="https://archive.org/stream/JohnBirchSociety/JBS-Boston-5_djvu.txt">100,000 dues-paying members</a>, it had garnered an estimated <a href="https://archive.org/stream/radicalrightthen010584mbp/radicalrightthen010584mbp_djvu.txt">4 to 6 million sympathizers</a> within four years of its 1958 formation.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248930/original/file-20181205-100847-1pvkh2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248930/original/file-20181205-100847-1pvkh2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248930/original/file-20181205-100847-1pvkh2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=756&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248930/original/file-20181205-100847-1pvkh2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=756&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248930/original/file-20181205-100847-1pvkh2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=756&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248930/original/file-20181205-100847-1pvkh2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=950&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248930/original/file-20181205-100847-1pvkh2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=950&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248930/original/file-20181205-100847-1pvkh2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=950&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Robert Welch in 1961.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Associated-Press-Domestic-News-United-States-ROBERT-WELCH/cedfb37c97e5da11af9f0014c2589dfb/3/0">AP Photo</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=vY5u6FMAAAAJ&hl=en&authuser=1&oi=ao">scholar of political history and social movements</a>, I find many parallels between today’s far right and its predecessors. Just as the John Birch Society emerged in the midst of the civil rights movement, today’s far-right movements formed as a reaction to the election of Barack Obama – a milestone for racial equality. </p>
<h2>The Birchers</h2>
<p>The original “<a href="https://www.thefreedictionary.com/Bircher">Birchers</a>,” as John Birch Society supporters are known, were Republicans who believed their party had grown too moderate. <a href="https://theconversation.com/if-goldwater-can-win-the-gop-nomination-why-not-trump-46981">Like the tea party movement</a> that arose half a century later while the nation debated expanding health care coverage, same-sex marriage and immigration reform, they objected to the federal government’s growth, and ardently opposed federal intervention into what they considered to be state and local affairs.</p>
<p>Birchers expressed a belief in domestic communist conspiracies. They went so far as to accuse <a href="https://www.ncdcr.gov/blog/2015/12/09/roots-of-the-john-birch-society">President Dwight Eisenhower and Chief Justice Earl Warren</a> of being communist dupes and agents – building on the legacy of <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/senator-who-stood-joseph-mccarthy-when-no-one-else-would-180970279/">Sen. Joseph McCarthy</a> whose movement of <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/intellectuals-and-mccarthy">predominantly Midwestern Republicans</a> found the society’s agenda appealing.</p>
<p>Although these allegations relegated Welch to <a href="https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2017/04/rise-fall-john-birch-society-50-years-ago/">fringe status</a> as a <a href="https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP75-00149R000800170140-4.pdf">political leader</a>, the John Birch Society amassed a national base <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/titles/10488.html">among staunch conservatives</a>. </p>
<p>In their heyday, <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/title/american-right-wing-readings-in-political-behavior/oclc/551652136">far-right groups</a> that subscribed to “Welchian” conspiracy theories propagated their views on over 500 radio broadcasts each week – with the John Birch Society alone producing a program on <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/the-john-birch-society-4158089">100 stations</a> – and a widely circulated newsletter.</p>
<p>A string of <a href="https://archive.org/details/JBSCATALOG1968">Birch bookstores</a> doubled as <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/radical-right-report-on-the-john-birch-society-and-its-allies/oclc/1011698075&referer=brief_results">local headquarters</a> for meetings and distribution centers for fliers, films, rally tickets and bumper stickers, spread its influence.</p>
<p>Even though Welch understood racism and bigotry would <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/radical-right/oclc/1005226239&referer=brief_results">hurt his cause</a>, the John Birch Society’s opposition to the civil rights movement attracted Americans sympathetic to racist paranoia. For example, it consistently published reports accusing civil rights leaders of communist subversion and alleging that people of color were plotting to divide the country and control the world.</p>
<p>In 1964, backing from the John Birch Society in Republican primaries, <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/titles/10488.html">such as California</a>, secured the right-wing-backed candidate Barry Goldwater’s Republican presidential nomination.</p>
<p>“All those little old ladies in tennis shoes that you called right-wing nuts and kooks,” <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/title/goldwater-coalition-republican-strategies-in-1964/oclc/227624">Goldwater’s organizational head</a> reportedly told him about the campaign volunteers who appeared to be Birch sympathizers, “they’re the best volunteer political organization that’s ever been put together.” </p>
<p>Despite Goldwater’s loss to incumbent Lyndon B. Johnson in a landslide, many <a href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/10/barry-goldwater-lasting-legacy-112210">political scientists</a> and <a href="https://www.heritage.org/political-process/report/barry-m-goldwater-the-most-consequential-loser-american-politics">conservatives</a> believe that Goldwater’s failed bid made way for the modern conservative movement by <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/titles/8044.html">passing the torch</a> to Richard M. Nixon’s “silent majority,” ending decades of liberal dominance.</p>
<h2>Contemporary counterparts</h2>
<p>The John Birch Society is also directly linked to conservative politics today.</p>
<p>Most notably, Fred Koch, the father of <a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/4/14/11348780/gop-megadonors-koch-brothers">David and Charles Koch</a>, was among the Birch Society’s first 11 members and its main <a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/4/14/11348780/gop-megadonors-koch-brothers">financial backers</a>. The billionaire Koch brothers have pumped massive amounts of money into <a href="https://www.washingtonian.com/2012/05/30/the-battle-for-cato/">libertarian causes</a> and <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?id=d000000186">conservative political campaigns</a> for decades.</p>
<p>As investigative journalist Jane Mayer explains in her book “<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/215462/dark-money-by-jane-mayer/9780307947901/">Dark Money</a>,” Fred Koch strongly encouraged his sons to follow in his political footsteps, something <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/05/koch-brothers-family-history-sons-of-wichita/">Charles and David did</a> in general. For a time, both brothers belonged to the Birch Society, but they had <a href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/01/charles-koch-political-ascent-jane-mayer-213541">moved on by the 1970s</a>.</p>
<p>Additionally, in their exhaustive examination of the tea party movement, political scientists <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/titles/9954.html">Christopher Parker and Matt Barreto</a> argue that Obama’s election instigated the rise of today’s far right. Much like how the John Birch Society arose as a rejection of progress on civil rights, tea party supporters felt anxious about what they saw as the “real” America slipping away when the country chose a black man to be its president.</p>
<p>Just as Birchers called Justice Warren a communist for overruling state and local segregation laws, the tea party <a href="https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124359632">labeled President Obama a socialist</a> because of his plan to expand health insurance coverage. And, similar to Birch Society claims that the civil rights movement was a treasonous ploy to divide the country, Trump and his surrogates paint the <a href="http://theconversation.com/the-backlash-against-black-lives-matter-is-just-more-evidence-of-injustice-85587">Black Lives Matter movement</a> as a force working toward the collapse of social order.</p>
<p>Moreover, in 2017, as the Trump administration got underway, violent incidents involving <a href="https://theconversation.com/charlottesville-a-step-in-our-long-arc-toward-justice-82880">white supremacists</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/pittsburghs-lesson-hatred-does-not-emerge-in-a-vacuum-105952">mass shootings</a> were becoming more common. Yet, Jeff Sessions, Trump’s attorney general at that time, tasked the FBI with compiling a report on so-called “<a href="http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/356016-aclu-files-request-for-fbi-to-release-surveillance-documents-of">black identity extremists</a>” with the “<a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/analysis/testimony-congressional-black-caucus-fbis-report-black-identity-extremism">potential to incite irrational police fear of black activists</a>.”</p>
<h2>Donald Trump</h2>
<p>From the start, Trump’s incessant and loud questions about whether <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2017/11/29/politics/trump-president-birth-certificate/index.html">Obama was born in the U.S.</a> and his <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-37230916/drug-dealers-criminals-rapists-what-trump-thinks-of-mexicans">attacks on immigrants</a> <a href="https://www.vanderbilt.edu/university-press/book/9780826519818">echoed the Birch Society’s</a> obsessions. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248934/original/file-20181205-186079-dhbe5v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248934/original/file-20181205-186079-dhbe5v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248934/original/file-20181205-186079-dhbe5v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248934/original/file-20181205-186079-dhbe5v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248934/original/file-20181205-186079-dhbe5v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248934/original/file-20181205-186079-dhbe5v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248934/original/file-20181205-186079-dhbe5v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248934/original/file-20181205-186079-dhbe5v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tea party protest in 2010.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Obama-Pa-Protest/ff9d5d8511b84179aae6a1d5a2586a5a/20/0">AP Photo/Mark Stehle</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By openly courting voters who had been <a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/401820-what-happened-to-the-tea-party">tea party supporters</a>, Trump mobilized enough of the Americans who were anxious about their country’s future to make it to the White House.</p>
<p>Since taking office, Trump’s far-right supporters have tolerated his efforts to delegitimize many political institutions, including <a href="https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/407440-read-president-trumps-exclusive-interview-with-hilltv">the intelligence community</a> and <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/analysis/his-own-words-presidents-attacks-courts">the judiciary</a> – taking after the reactionary right 60 years earlier. By abandoning a traditionally conservative need for institutional stability, I believe that Trump echoes the John Birch Society’s willingness to oppose uncomfortable change in society at any cost.</p>
<p>Today, while much of the John Birch Society exists online and through its bimonthly magazine, <a href="https://www.thenewamerican.com/">The New American</a>, some conservatives are trying to reboot <a href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/07/16/the-john-birch-society-is-alive-and-well-in-the-lone-star-state-215377">local chapters</a> of the <a href="https://smallbusiness.chron.com/difference-between-nonprofit-corporation-501c3-59719.html">nonprofit corporation</a>. </p>
<p>The society, which <a href="https://www.jbs.org/about-jbs/press-room">does not divulge</a> how many current dues-paying members it has, maintains it is not a political, but rather an educational organization. However, it <a href="https://www.post-gazette.com/local/region/2011/02/04/John-Birch-Society-welcomes-newcomer-tea-party/stories/201102040392">welcomed the tea party with open arms in 2011</a>.</p>
<p>And, <a href="https://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/politics/item/24899-exclusive-interview-with-john-birch-society-ceo">in a 2016 interview</a>, the group’s CEO argued that Trump “captured” a movement built on the political causes the Birch Society had championed for decades.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/107925/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher Towler previously received funding as a Ford Foundation Fellow. </span></em></p>It planted the seeds of the tea party and the Trump administration.Christopher Towler, Assistant Professor of Political Science, California State University, SacramentoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/678992016-11-17T21:37:02Z2016-11-17T21:37:02ZThe real reason Trump won: White fright<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146283/original/image-20161116-13547-57j23l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What drew white voters to Donald Trump?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/ Evan Vucci</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many presidents have assumed the reins of a divided nation, but we’ve never seen anything like the reaction to Donald J. Trump’s 2016 presidential election. </p>
<p>It didn’t happen to Richard Nixon while the country was bitterly split over race and war. </p>
<p>Half of the country believed Al Gore was cheated out of his shot at the White House in 2000, but the run-up to George W. Bush’s presence in the Oval Office offered nothing like what we are seeing now. </p>
<p>President Barack Obama, by turns believed a socialist and African national, among other things, was feared by some on the right, but didn’t face what the current president-elect now faces: a country whose division is exceeded only by <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/obama-legacy-poll_us_569fde11e4b0fca5ba765452">Civil War-era America</a>.</p>
<p>If Trump is so divisive, why did he win? </p>
<h2>The conventional account</h2>
<p>If we are to believe the emerging consensus, Trump won with the support of <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/10/upshot/why-trump-won-working-class-whites.html?_r=0">working-class white voters</a>, people anxious about their economic prospects in a globalizing economy. The <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/08/12/a-massive-new-study-debunks-a-widespread-theory-for-donald-trumps-success/">theory goes</a> that the automation that has replaced workers, and the pull of capitalism that pushed manufacturing jobs overseas, squeezed the white working class. As a result, <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/06/28/donald-trump-globalization-trade-pennsylvania-ohio/86431376/">the white working class supported Trump</a> and his promises to blunt globalization and curb free trade, moves that will preserve working-class jobs. </p>
<p>Hogwash. </p>
<p>Reasonable people may disagree on the definition of “working class,” but let’s agree that it resides in the <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2016/06/21/news/economy/upper-middle-class/">US$30,000 to $50,000 range</a>. Even if we add in those classified as poor – that is, <a href="http://www.cnn.com/election/results/exit-polls/national/president">households earning less than $30,000</a> – this group constitutes only about 36 percent of the electorate. Substantial, but not enough to hand Trump the election. </p>
<p>Especially not since <a href="http://www.cnn.com/election/results/exit-polls/national/president">Hillary Clinton actually beat</a> Trump among poor and working-class voters: 52 percent to 41 percent.</p>
<p>So, where did Trump beat Clinton if income is the criterion by which we’re judging the election? Even if not by much, exit polling indicates he bested her among those earning at least $50,000 – that is, the middle and upper class. </p>
<p>But for the fact that much has been made of the white working class riding to Trump’s rescue, it’s not entirely shocking that the GOP standard bearer won the middle- and upper-class white vote: It’s been this way for some time, for <a href="http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/trump-may-become-the-first-republican-in-60-years-to-lose-white-college-graduates/">several decades</a>, in fact. </p>
<p>Instead, what’s most arresting is that middle- and upper-class whites voted for this particular candidate. College-educated whites <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0674745698?ie=UTF8&tag=thewaspos09-20&camp=1789&linkCode=xm2&creativeASIN=0674745698">tend to be more tolerant</a> than those without a college diploma. In a nutshell, a college education is generally tied to a commitment to <a href="http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/E/bo3683564.html">democratic values</a>. But Trump’s brazen misogyny, racism and navitism run afoul of these values. </p>
<p>By the way, <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/138754/blame-trumps-victory-college-educated-whites-not-working-class">I’m not the only one</a> to conclude that Trump’s victory had at least as much to do with support from voters who remain unencumbered by economic anxiety as those riven by it.</p>
<h2>The real reason he won</h2>
<p>If social economic status – especially education – is a gateway to a more tolerant, democratic society, why did middle- and upper-class voters back someone who represents the antithesis of such values? </p>
<p>It’s actually pretty simple, in my opinion. My reading of history suggests that the boundaries of American identity intersect with whiteness, patriarchy, xenophobia and homophobia. This means that anyone, any group that falls outside of such a definition of American identity, is considered beyond the political community; they’re aliens. </p>
<p>Rapid social change, which poses a threat to this truncated version of American identity, activates anxiety and anger on the part of those who lay claim to this identity. The America with which they’ve become familiar is changing too fast. Hence, the slogan for the Trump campaign: “Make America great again.” This suggests that America, in its present state, is defective in some way and needs to return some previous version of itself. </p>
<p>Let’s consider what could be “wrong” with America circa 2016. </p>
<p>Rapidly changing demographics means that America will transition to a “<a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2014/12/12/new-projections-point-to-a-majority-minority-nation-in-2044/">majority-minority</a>” country no later than 2044. Women are now more visible in public life than ever. Three serve on the Supreme Court. One even ran for president – twice. Same-sex marriage is now <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/14pdf/14-556_3204.pdf">the law of the land</a>. Last, but not least, we’ve had a black president for almost eight years. </p>
<p>With this in mind, many Trump supporters believe themselves to be losing “their” country, something that leads them to prefer a social milieu more consistent with days gone by – one in which primarily white, middle- and upper-class, heterosexual, native-born men reigned supreme. </p>
<p>It isn’t the first time America has witnessed something like this. Rapid social change spurred the growth of the <a href="http://press.princeton.edu/titles/9954.html">Ku Klux Klan</a> in the 1920s and the <a href="http://press.princeton.edu/titles/9954.html">John Birch Society</a> in the 1960s. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146284/original/image-20161116-13512-afphsm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146284/original/image-20161116-13512-afphsm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146284/original/image-20161116-13512-afphsm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146284/original/image-20161116-13512-afphsm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146284/original/image-20161116-13512-afphsm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146284/original/image-20161116-13512-afphsm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146284/original/image-20161116-13512-afphsm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ku Klux Klan members supporting Barry Goldwater’s campaign for the presidential nomination at the Republican National Convention, San Francisco, California in 1964.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Goldwater1964SanFranciscoKKK.jpg">United States Library of Congress</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Like Trump’s supporters, economic anxiety had next to nothing to do with why people supported the KKK or the John Birch Society. These people were relatively well off. Instead, it was the perception of existential threat that pushed people to join each. The <a href="http://press.princeton.edu/titles/9954.html">KKK felt threatened</a> by the “New Negro” and religious minorities; for the JBS, it was about the <a href="http://press.princeton.edu/titles/9954.html">civil rights movement joining forces with the Soviet Union</a>.</p>
<p>But we needn’t look back as far as the 20th century to identify the most recent example the reactionary sentiment that fueled Trump’s stunning victory. </p>
<p>As <a href="http://press.princeton.edu/titles/9954.html">I have written elsewhere</a>, the Tea Party movement formed in reaction to the election of the first black president. He represented social change in which 20 percent of white voters couldn’t believe. </p>
<p>When one considers the extent to which these groups overlap, these similarities come as no great surprise. My analysis of <a href="http://kcts9.org/programs/vote-2016/washington-state-views-political-figures-race-immigration-and-voting-rights">existing polling data</a> suggests 83 percent of those who identify with the Tea Party also supported Trump’s candidacy during the campaign. In other words, Tea Party supporters are now Trump supporters.</p>
<p>More importantly, if the policy preferences of Trump supporters are even remotely similar to those who supported the Tea Party, progressives have reason to be concerned. Tea Party types are far less inclined to support progressive policies than establishment conservatives. </p>
<p>Still, a silver lining may exist. Trump’s victory, in light of all of his antics during the campaign, makes it all but impossible to deny the continuing currency of racism, sexism, xenophobia and homophobia in the United States. It’s on display for all to see. </p>
<p>This could be a good thing: It forces us to reckon with who we really are. Is America really about the democratic, progressive values professed in the founding documents? Or, are we really the small-minded, bigoted place Trump’s election represents? </p>
<p>If we hope to maintain a claim to exceptionalism, we must find our way back to the values on which this country was founded, ones that include equality and freedom. </p>
<p>If Trump and his supporters really wish to “Make America great again,” perhaps they should go all the way back to these founding principles. Only this time, they should leave behind the racism, sexism and nativism.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/67899/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher Sebastian Parker does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Exit polling shows that Hillary Clinton actually won the poor and working class vote. If “Make America Great Again” wasn’t fueled by an angry underclass, what powered it?Christopher Sebastian Parker, Professor of Political Science, University of WashingtonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/469812015-09-14T10:15:11Z2015-09-14T10:15:11ZIf Goldwater can win the GOP nomination, why not Trump?<p>As the primary season heats up, few believe he can win the GOP nomination. The establishment choice is a shoo-in, but the upstart candidate believes the country is on the wrong path, well on its way to losing its greatness. The newcomer promises to reclaim America for “real” Americans, through the restoration of law and order. He advances a platform that makes the establishment cringe, but he enjoys the support of a cadre of conservative activists.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/94318/original/image-20150909-18665-1cxrtlo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/94318/original/image-20150909-18665-1cxrtlo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=844&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94318/original/image-20150909-18665-1cxrtlo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=844&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94318/original/image-20150909-18665-1cxrtlo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=844&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94318/original/image-20150909-18665-1cxrtlo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1061&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94318/original/image-20150909-18665-1cxrtlo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1061&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94318/original/image-20150909-18665-1cxrtlo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1061&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Barry Goldwater in 1962.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BarryGoldwater.png">Marion Trikosko</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The year is 1964. The candidate is Barry Goldwater – not, as you may have assumed, Donald Trump. </p>
<p>After Republican nominee Richard Nixon lost a close election in 1960, the more conservative faction of the GOP sought a “real” conservative standard-bearer in 1964, and found one in Goldwater. He would go on to win the Republican nomination.</p>
<h2>A call to restore America to glory</h2>
<p>Despite a solid civil rights record earlier in his career, as a senator from Arizona, Goldwater voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, arguably the most important civil rights legislation in 100 years. He promised to arrest what he believed was America’s decline and restore the United States to glory. But it wasn’t until New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller’s campaign stumbled that Goldwater’s took off. His surge was made possible by a relatively small, activist faction of the Republican party: <a href="http://www.rickperlstein.net/before-the-storm/">the John Birch Society</a>.</p>
<p>Today, the GOP establishment favorite is former Florida Governor Jeb Bush. Like Rockefeller, Bush is off to a rough start – especially when compared to Trump. For proof, consider the most recent <a href="http://elections.huffingtonpost.com/pollster/2016-national-gop-primary">Huffington</a> Post poll, an average of 154 polls. Trump enjoys a comfortable advantage over Bush, the establishment candidate: 33% to 9%. </p>
<p>Perhaps more importantly, Trump holds a decisive edge among the modern conservative reactionaries: the <a href="http://issuu.com/mleditor/docs/econtabreport_rep_with_tp__2_">Tea Party</a>. A quick analysis of American National Election Study data suggests that a majority of Republicans also identify with the Tea Party.</p>
<p>Among Tea Party supporters, in <a href="http://issuu.com/mleditor/docs/econtabreport_rep_with_tp__2_">an analysis</a> of an Economist/YouGov poll I requested, 86% support Trump, versus 29% who support Bush. Further, Trump is the preferred nominee among 52% of Tea Party supporters versus only 10% for Bush. Finally, 91% of Tea Party supporters will be “enthusiastic” about their preferred nominee versus 78% of Republicans overall. </p>
<p>The Tea Party’s enthusiasm about Trump almost certainly stems from his extreme position on immigration. He has said almost nothing about shrinking government, a core concern of the Tea Party. Consider Trump’s solution to the problem of “<a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-anchor-babies-arent-american-citizens/">anchor babies</a>,” children born on American soil to illegal immigrants. He wants to get rid of <a href="https://theconversation.com/donald-trumps-battle-against-birthright-citizenship-46428">birthright citizenship</a>, something guaranteed by the 14th Amendment. Tea Party conservatives embrace this position far more than establishment conservatives, as Matt Barreto and I show in our <a href="http://press.princeton.edu/titles/9954.html">book</a>, Change They Can’t Believe In: The Tea Party and Reactionary Politics in America. </p>
<h2>More engaged supporters</h2>
<p>Tea Party supporters, like the John Birch Society supporters in the 1960s, have proven to be a force in the GOP. They are far more politically engaged than establishment conservatives. </p>
<p>In our book, Barreto and I demonstrated that, compared to establishment conservatives, Tea Party conservatives are more interested in political affairs than establishment conservatives. For instance, during the Tea Party wave of 2010, 85% of Tea Party conservatives were interested about what was “going on in Washington” versus 66% of establishment conservatives. More important, where 96% of Tea Party conservatives voted for Republicans, only 74% of establishment conservatives did so.</p>
<p>We also showed Tea Party conservatives are more likely to vote and donate money to candidates than establishment conservatives. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/94319/original/image-20150909-18622-1jhpge4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/94319/original/image-20150909-18622-1jhpge4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=176&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94319/original/image-20150909-18622-1jhpge4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=176&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94319/original/image-20150909-18622-1jhpge4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=176&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94319/original/image-20150909-18622-1jhpge4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=222&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94319/original/image-20150909-18622-1jhpge4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=222&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94319/original/image-20150909-18622-1jhpge4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=222&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Goldwater-Miller bumper sticker promises a change.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As in Goldwater’s case, few gave Trump much chance to win the nomination when he announced his candidacy just over two months ago. Some still consider him a long shot. The establishment has its candidate and, like Goldwater, Trump continues to say things that cause mainstream conservatives to pause – all while gaining momentum and setting the agenda. </p>
<p>Also like Goldwater, Trump can win the nomination with the backing of a committed faction of activists animated by the fear that “their” America is slipping away. Illegal immigrants are taking American jobs and committing crimes of all kinds, including rape and murder, he says. Trump, like Goldwater, promises to rescue America through the restoration of law and order.</p>
<p>A key difference remains: Unlike Trump, Goldwater was an experienced politician. Goldwater had solid, thought-out policy proposals based on sound conservative principles. For instance, his promotion of small government was rooted in economic liberty, and the belief that big government tempered the practice of personal responsibility. In short, he sought to remove the state from personal and economic life. Trump lacks political experience and has yet to show much in the way of policy over rhetoric. </p>
<p>Even so, do not be surprised if Trump wins the nomination. Yes, Goldwater was eventually beaten badly by Lyndon Johnson in 1964, but not before igniting the grassroots conservative movement that dominated American politics for a generation. Just over a half-century later, as conservatives again lament their loss of control amid issues of race and immigration, it could happen again. </p>
<p>History has a way of repeating itself.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/46981/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher Sebastian Parker does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In 1964, the John Birch Society pushed Barry Goldwater to victory in the Republican primary. The same could happen with the Tea Party and Trump this election cycle.Christopher Sebastian Parker, Associate Professor, Political Science , University of WashingtonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.