Posted 9:09 AM by Scoobie Davis

The Rehabilitation of the John Birch Society
Since the early 1960's, the conservative movement has tried to distance itself from the loony ideas of the late Robert Welch and the John Birch Society (Welch believe that President Eisenhower was part of the communist conspiracy). In 1961, Buckley's National Review devoted an entire issue to repudiating the Birchers. The Birchers have still been around but were not a force in the American political dialogue--until recently.

Glenn Beck has tried to mainstream quasi-Bircher thought with his popularization of the writings of Mormon reactionary Cleon Skousen (who was considered extreme to even the Birchers). In February 2010, the Birchers were a co-sponsor of the 2010 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, D.C. Just today I was flipping through the radio and heard right-wing radio jocks Quinn and Rose touting an article about the START Treaty from the Bircher publication New American.