With the stinging defeat of the Republicans in the 1964 Presidential election, many thought the ultra-conservative wing of the Republican Party, led by Barry Goldwater would be a dead issue by the 1966 mid-term elections. But that appears to be far from the case. With civil unrest, and protest to the Vietnam War growing, Goldwater was probably right in his attitude of biding his time, waiting for voter apathy towards the party in power. And by 1968 his timing was right.

But in 1965, it was still a case of assessment and speculation on a far-off future. This Meet The Press panel interview takes place in June of 1965 when Goldwater was not in public office, but rather Citizen Goldwater and the titular head of the Republican party.

Sen. Barry Goldwater: “We need Republicans. Now if a man runs not as a Republican but as something else, you can’t count him as a Republican. He may not be able to get elected as a Republican in New York City, and I might say I’m a poor one to speak on this because I don’t live in New York City, I can’t vote there, and I have no business trying to influence votes one way or another up there. I happen to be a vice-President of the National Municipal League, and we have pushed non-partisan city elections. I got into politics on a non-partisan ticket. But I was a Republican and I let people know about it.”

He goes on to discuss his opposition to a Third Party and several items which would no doubt condemn him to the status of Liberal by today's standards. It's interesting to consider just how far right the Republican Party has come since the days when Barry Goldwater, during the 1964 campaign was object of an impromptu billboard commentary to his "In Your Heart, You Know He's Right" to the accompaniment of " . . .Far Right."

He would not be perceived that way today I'm afraid.

(Father Charles Coughlin - one of the originators of "you're either for us or against us")

When I first began Newstalgia, I ran an entry called "Father Coughlin - the Grandfather of Hate Radio". At the time, I was only able to run a 10 minute clip from one of his talks. It gave a glimpse, but not a complete idea of just what all the controversy surrounding Father Coughlin was all about.

Charles Coughlin was no doubt the first, at least on a national scale, to use radio as an instrument of extremist ideology. Much of what is going on now in reference to the current state of Hate Radio can be attributed almost directly to the weekly tirades and rants of Father Coughlin over 70 years ago.

But in readying this entry, and playing back this broadcast of August 27, 1939, I noticed Coughlin wasn't alone in his shrillness - he had a warm up act.

Dr. Edward Lodge Curran - or Father Curran often used the first half hour of the one hour broadcast to showcase his particular rants, as is evidenced by this harangue of the Cincinnati School Board.

Father Curran: “Every effort was made by the leftist forces, who claimed the right to Freedom of Speech for themselves, but who deny it to others. Seventy-two hours before the meeting, all the efforts of the splendid Cincinnati committee and sponsors had almost dwindled to idle gestures. A Mr. Von Schlichten, a teacher in one of the Cincinnati schools had accepted the invitation to act as Chairman. Mr. Henry Siegal, editor of The American Israelite, promptly complained to the school board. The school board held a secret meeting. And at that meeting, the pedagogical wisdom of withdrawing as Chairman was impressed quite contritely upon Mr. Von Schlichten. And Mr. Von Schlichten, in free, democratic 20th Century America, was forced to withdraw. This is the same Cincinnati School Board, which has permitted the Communists to make use of Woodward High School. This is the same Cincinnati School Board which has never presumed to reprimand any of its other employees who have participated in the activities of the Communistically mind and Communistically controlled American League For Peace and Democracy.”

Curran, it should be noted, ran somewhat afoul of the America First Committee and appears to have dropped out of the history books of extremism. He does, however pop up as the author of "Great Moments Of Catholic History". The wonders never cease.

As for Coughlin - well, his rants are legendary.

Father Coughlin: “I believe that I am on safe ground in affirming that the World War was fought for commercial domination and not for the preservation of Democracy. I believe that I am on the side of truth when I say that the Peace Treaty of Versailles was nothing more than a document of hatred. Defies in a mad attempt to resolve the evils of International Capitalism. And I believe that, although Communism of Russia was in part a rebellion against the system of International Capitalism. Nevertheless it was an insane rebellion, because it fought not only the persecutors of the poor, but the principles of right-reason and the outraged Christ who loves the poor.”

Continuing the look at Politics and Elections past, here is a portion of an NPR All Things Considered Special election broadcast on the occasion of Pat Buchanan winning the 1996 New Hampshire Republican primary.

Winning by one percentage point over Bob Dole, who refused to concede, the victory of Pat Buchanan signaled a further shift to the Right for the Republican Party. Buchanan, a staunch Social Conservative, advocated a kind of "lock and load" policy where Foreign Policy was concerned. Also was vehemently opposed to Roe V. Wade and was determined to overturn it. He was also anti-gay, anti-government and favoring an isolationist view of our place in the rest of the world.

Interesting and eerie parallels between the Buchanan of 1996 and the current crop of hopefuls.

Here is the broadcast from February 22, 1996 from All Things Considered.

(Seems to have a very long history)

The name C.W.Burpo rings no bells to speak of - other than the fact that he was a "radio minister" who was virulently anti-communist and died in 1982. One of the things I've noticed, in researching a lot of these "radio ministers" who preached a steady stream of right-wing extremist diatribe during their "messages to the children of God" is that not many of the recordings seem to exist. Certainly, the Library of Congress has a policy not to accept recordings of any of those broadcasts, with the possible exception of Father Coughlin, who was something of a pioneer of the form.

But C.W. Burpo hosted a daily program, heard over a large number of radio stations in middle and Southern America for a number of years, beginning in the late 1950's and going to the late 1960's. After the first few minutes of citing scripture and praying for God's guidance, he launched into a tirade over the perilous nature of our lives here in America.

As sampled by this 1965 broadcast dealing with the Civil Rights Movement.

C.W. Burpo: “I’m talking about real, red-blooded patriotic Americans, and I say there’s no doubt in the minds of those Americans that Nazism and Fascism are evil, and that we want no part of it. And yet with increasing intensity, we observe references in the press to Nazis and Fascist activities in our country. Now there’ve been no exposures of such activity, just references veiled insular references, as far as we’ve been able to learn there is no real Nazi or Fascist threat within America, but we have during the course of investigation learned something very revealing. And that is, that there is a Communist conspiracy against this nation, against the churches, against the homes, against the schools and against your very life. And as a major tactic of this conspiracy – well AS a major tactic of this conspiracy is to smear the opposition with a Nazi or Fascist label. But let’s look at the real trouble that we’re facing today. Communist infiltration into the Race Revolution is becoming evident as investigation exposes leaders and organizations. A partial list of organizations involved in the Civil Rights Movement, which reportedly has Communist or Communist fronters in its leadership are . . .now I have a copy of this so I’m going to give it and I want every station to hold steady because we’re not going to incriminate you.

Continue reading »

(Just a harmless bunch o'regular folks who happen to hate just about everything.)

So there we were, Amato and I at the Tea Baggers rally in Santa Monica yesterday. More people with cameras than picket signs. More Ron Paul supporters than TEA folk. More "you shoulda been here earlier", than here now (I got there at 3:30 where the crowd had swollen to 40 - by 5:00 it was down to 10).

But there was a guy walking around handing out business cards. The gist was warning America of the plot by NAFTA to take over the country and turn it into one big Mexico and Canada. The card came with an appeal to visit JBS.org and "get the inside story".

I remarked to the guy that I hadn't heard anything about the John Birch Society in years and always wondered what they were up to lately. The guy, a rather ambiguous fellow dressed in personality-matching beige, shook his head emphatically that he knew nothing about the John Birch Society and that he was "just handing out these cards", and quickly melted into the thinning crowd.

Yes, I always wondered what became of The John Birch Society - that epitome of Communist conspiracy paranoiacs. Where did they go? What became of that "million plus" membership I was always hearing about in the 1960's.

True, their ranks thinned out when their founder Robert Welch died, and I thought they went the route of so many flavor-of-the-month extreme groups and just evaporated.

Not so. Seems the JBS is alive and well and kicking up all sort of under-the-radar dust. This time it's not communism but EU World domination and of course government meddling in private lives (read: guns, taxes, far-right ideology and oh yes, massive funding from people like the Koch family). So, you roll all those things together and its the same old Leopard of the 50's and 60's, only with new Millennium spots.

So I stumbled across a news item from 1965, a review of a new film put out by the Society in an effort to drum up support.

Seems after over 50 years of being around, the John Birch Society is still around and paranoid as ever.

(Back in the day when every living breathing thing was suspected of having Communist sympathies)