They are the Tea Party/Reform Party. There always have been, always are and always will be fringes to either side of political parties.
I have been reading The Straight Dope since I was around 13, (1983 or 1984?) which is when I think Cecil devoted an entire column to the Birchers.
I still can picture Slug’s illustration on that one…
The Birchers were the Tea Party before it got to be as successful as the Tea Party was. Same people and themes. Just never got any traction because people like Beck, Coulter, Hannity and Limbaugh were ignored by the MSM 50 years ago.
Let’s see how close I can get to this one without looking it up. The Freaks have a bunch of acid on sugar cubes and they leave the box of them in their van. One of the Freaks’ fathers has to take the van to his John Birch meeting because “The Cadillac won’t start! The Cadillac won’t start!”. He spies the sugar cubes in the van and takes them in for coffee. All the Birchers have coffee with sugar, and then they embark on an ancestral memory trip, where they’re Druids lurking in their mystic groves or whatever. The end of the comic has the father coming home and the mother asks how the meeting went. The father is dressed as some sort of tribal warrior, and he says they’ve dissolved their chapter.
How’d I do?
heh, i learned about it via Mad Magazine…
and Pogo
Seconded.
“Join the John Birch Society, holding off the Reds
We’ll use our hands and hearts, and if we must, we’ll use our heads”
This wine never goes away, it just gets a new label.
I knew who they were, forgot, and was then reminded by that Dylan song.
I also like the first chorus:Join the John Birch Society, help us fill the ranks —
To get this movement started we’ll need lots of tools and cranks.
Bob Dylan? I knew about it because of the Charlie Daniels song:
I’m a faithful follower of Brother John Birch
And I belong to the Antioch Baptist Church
And I don’t even have a garage–you can call home and ask my wife!
Heck, I’ve got a copy of Walt Kelly’s “The Jack Acid Society Black Book.” (Although I think “Jack Ash Society” is a more elegant parody of the name.)
I also came in here to mention that song, Uneasy Rider.
Sure, I know who the Birchers are. And so should you, considering that W. Cleon Skousen is where Glenn Beck gets most of his worst ideas from.
Sounds about right but tbh I can’t fully recall, it’s been years since I read it.
That Dylan song, Talkin’ John Birch Paranoid Blues (lyrics).
Charlie Daniels’ Uneasy Rider (and it’s um, interesting, sequel Uneasy Rider 88’ all about the joys of fag bashing, guess he didn’t hear the warning about the brown acid . . . or something).
CMC fnord!
I think I got the general idea of what it was after seeing the “Fred Birch Society” in the game Illuminati. It’s an “America – Love It or Leave It” kind of group, isn’t it?
Would it be too reductive if I were to say I know who they are, when all I really “know” about them is that they’re a bunch of right-wing wackos who see their anti-communism as a hammer, and every conceivable social ill as a nail? Thing is, I don’t like to view myself as someone who just looks to the stereotype and lets it go at that.
I suppose it’s theoretically possible for there to be more to them than their stereotype. But I’m gonna vote “know them,” anyway.
Now that I think about it, the first time I heard of the Birchers was when Eric Snow, 1980’s Padres pitcher, revealed that he was a member.
A sick & lasting legacy of the McCarthy Era.
Yes, but have you read his biography?
I have! said handsomeharry, proudly.
Best wishes,
hh