February 8th, 2023
Read the introduction which gave a little background information on this guy. He’s a real whackjob. The book opens with the Trump election conspiracy and its popularity and says this conspiratorial mindset can be traced back to the Birch Society. This goes back to the McCarthy era where people were paranoid about communists infiltrating and ruining the country. They claimed Eisenhower was a communist and so was Marshall. Eventually they were kicked out to the fringes of conservatism, which paved the way for the Reagan types, but never truly excommunicated. This fringe conservatism, the author will claim, allowed for conspiracy theorists to stay relevant, even if cast aside.
February 10th, 2023
Read the first chapter last night. It was a family history of the Welches from early 18th century to 1899, when Robert Jr was born. They were colonial settlers in North Carolina, from Wales it seems, and then some generations went by. RJ’s grandfather fought for the Confederacy died young. His father Robert was a successful farmer in the post war years. They were baptists probably white supremacists. The second chapter goes over the first several years of Welch’s childhood. He’s some sort of boy genius whose mother doted on him to the chagrin of his brother. Seems like a nice kid. Shame he turns out so messed up.
February 11th, 2023
Read two more chapters. We’re still on Welch’s childhood and young adulthood. He was a smart kid and went to college at like 12, graduating in 1916 or 1917. He joined the Naval Academy during the war, but it ended soon after America joined and he was disillusioned with the banality of military life. The author uses the word ‘belied’ too much. Welch bounced around for a while. He dropped out of the Academy and grad school and ultimately tried Harvard Law. Before this time, Welch had already shown his Republican conservatism by writing little rhyming articles for the newspaper. Harvard Law was a very progressive place at this time, and it disgusted a staunch conservative and Constitution originality like Welch. He was against all sorts of progressive policies like welfare and income tax. Despite his youth and intelligence, he was a dickhead. After floundering and being a disappointment to his father, he ended up pursing business in candy. He also married a rich girl who was apparently hot. He worked hard and seemed to find success in the candy business. He invented those nasty Sugar Daddy caramel stick things, which must still disappoint children every Halloween to this day.
February 12th, 2023
Chapter 6 is pretty short. Welch’s investments in his business put him in lots of debt and he did not recover. Cocoa prices soared and the Depression hit; he was bankrupt. He had to work for his little brother, which was a huge humiliation. No surprise, Welch was very much against FDR and the New Deal. He was anti-union and against the social democratic policies. FDR’s economic reform put restrictions on businesses, which right-wingers can’t stand, yet they have no problem with restricting workers. Towards the end of the 2nd term, the New Deal started to fall apart and FDR gave in to party pressure as some Dixiecrats joined with Republicans, who gained in the Senate and House. This gave false hope to Welch, as the Dixiecrats joined FDR as war was on the horizon.
February 13th, 2023
The war years get a short chapter, and the author uses “belie” again. Welch joins the America First Committee and is a staunch anti-interventionist. There’s plenty of good reasons to not want to enter a war, but unfortunately many pro-fascists were part of the cause. FDR actively (or subversively) opposed the anti-interventionist and won the next election. Welch, despite adopting Boston as his home, was dependent on the midwest and south and very much disliked the east coast and Wall Street corporate types, which is another fair point. I don’t like the whole right-wing “America is a Republic, not a Democracy” garbage. The country has evolved and given more power to the people. To the chagrin of Welch, the Japs attacked and war was inevitable from there.
February 19th, 2023
I read some during the last week but haven't have a chance to write anything. I haven't felt the need to either. It is not a very interesting book. Up until Eisenhower's presidency, Welch is just a background character. The author is telling a very general US history with some commentary of what Welch and other Right wingers had thought. Welch was certainly a known person. He ran for Lieutenant Governor and lost. He worked with Senator Taft on the 1952 election. Taft probably would've won if Eisenhower had not stepped in. Taft was too old school isolationist for the modern world, so Eisenhower decided, or was convinced by Lodge and other Republicans, to run. Welch gains notoriety as a writer. He railed against socialism in his campaign and was more interested in fighting Communism in Asia than helping Europe. He would've let MacArthur nuke China to save Taiwan. Welch was a McCarthyist whacko who saw Communist conspiracy in everything. He wrote a book about John Birch, another whacko who was a Christian Missionary and also some sort of US or Chiang Kai-shek spy, and got KIA. The US said it was accidental to prevent an international incident, but really it was intentional. This somehow became a huge conspiracy and Welch wrote a book about it, making a martyr and saint of the man. It was a hit. He even went to Asia and was given a seat of honor with the South Korean president. He met Chiang Kai-shek and was somehow a big celebrity among the Asians. He also wrote a “private” letter that claimed Eisenhower was a Communist. Welch hates NATO and the New Deal, all things Eisenhower understood were necessary to continue. This is probably where the break with the establishment Republicans happens. McCarthy is already out of the picture and it seems like the alarmism is fading.
February 20th, 2023
About halfway through the book and it looks like Welch is now dedicating his remaining life to politics. He leaves the candy business and starts a magazine which sounds like a lot of rants about Communists. Seems like the only time he was right was about Castro. He saw a lot of false flags and staged scenarios. Pretty loony. I assumed that kind of crazy was modern. Yeah, I guess that’s it. It’s 1956, he’s 57 or so, and Eisenhower is running for president again.
February 22nd, 2023
The book talks about the founding of the John Birch Society but I feel like half the book has been talking about this. It hasn’t really gotten into what they do. It just sounds like a mouthpiece for Welch where he complains about Communists and says Sputnik isn’t real. I guess he was trying to educate the masses but I’m sure most people can smell a nutcase.
February 25th, 2023
Lots of conservative types who were either in the conspiracy crowd or just bored joined the JBS. They were trying to save the country. Many of them did not buy that Eisenhower was a Communist, but Welch tried to distance his personal beliefs from the point of the society. Buckley's National Review printed a negative article about Welch and his society, but Buckley was not able to fully segregate his journal from the JBS crowd. In 1960, Welch did not want Nixon to run for president. He thought he was an opportunist, especially after Nixon wheeled-and-dealed for Eisenhower over Taft and made agreements over civil rights with Rockefeller. Welch claimed at this point there was no room for consersatives in the main parties, and that the differences between Republicans and Democrats was minimal. That’s definetly true today. Some of the far righters tried to organize a third party and get Barry Goldwater to run for president. Goldwater was a right-wing war-hawk who Welch adored. However, the third party gained no traction. Goldwater took his name out of the running for the Republican party, and Nixon was the candidate. Goldwater will run in 1964, however.
February 26th, 2023
The one chapter I read is mostly about the JBS coming under attack from other journalists. They accuse JBS and Welch of being fascists or Nazis and racists/anti-Semites. It doesn’t seem like they are fascists. They likely lean towards the laissez-faire libertarian mode of thought. Judging them form modern eyes, it’s hard not to see racism in Welch’s beliefs. He though MLK was a Communist plant and that civil rights would come about naturally. He may not have hated minorities, but he was not on their side. As far as Jews go, he probably wasn’t an anti-Semite, but he did have some close relations to some. He expelled people from JBS for racist or anti-Semitic views, but slowly. Probably he was just more ignorant and blind to it than malicious. There were like 20 pages on all this. The next chapter was about a replacement for Welch, as people were seeing him as a liability for the Conservative movement. However, Welch was going nowhere.
February 27th, 2023
The “rational Right” conservatives are turning against Welch. Buckley and his Nation Review launch an all out assault to try to push Welch out of the movement. His beliefs are alienating and his conspiracies take attention away from the real work that has to be done. That said, Buckley himself was more of an active racist than Welch. Welch seems more like the typical old-white guy racist. It doesn’t come from a place of hatred, but of ignorance and a lack of sympathy. The rest is about civil rights and colonialism. Again, Welch sees the Civil Rights movement as an attempt by Communists to create civil war. JBS and the ilk see the anti-colonial movement as racist, trying to remove minorities from the country/empire. The mental gymnastics are fascinating. Welch claimed pictures of riots and dog attacks were staged, or, as we now say, fake news. People are dumb. Always were, always shall be.
March 6th, 2023
After JFK was assassinated, the JBS and other right-wing extremists were quickly blamed. Welch blamed Communism because Oswald defected to the USSR and was a Communist or socialist. It was not the first Communist assassination of a world leader. Right wing extremists were a logical target after all of JFK’s social and racial reforms. JBS and Welch hated the Civil Rights Act and the Supreme Court Decisions that promoting racial equality. They claimed it was against government interference, but it is just malice against minorities and the lower classes. Goldwater ran a lackluster campaign in 1964, but LBJ won in a landslide. Still, the LBJ years were rife with racial and political violence. Riots happened in many major cities, leading to deaths. It sounds like a rough time.
March 7th, 2023
More of the same. It’s just slowly going through American history. JBS got new recruits after all the racial rioting and whatnot. The left fragments and falls apart. Welch comes out as a Pro-Vietnam War even though he thinks it’s a phony war. This alienates some of his higher ups; several resign. To Welch’s chagrin, Nixon is the Republican candidate and wins in 1968. Welch thinks he is secretly a liberal in the pay of Rockefeller and that Kissinger is a UN agent.
March 8th, 2023
This book’s pretty repetitive. It’s winding down and there doesn’t sound like there’s much else to discuss. We’re just waiting for Welch to die. It’s all the standard Jesus-freak and libertarian politics with the crazy conspiracies about one-world governments tucked underneath. There’s like 50 pages left; I’ll finish it soon.
March 9th, 2023
One more chapter and and epilogue. This short chapter talks about JBS’s financial troubles in the 70s but they success with conservative movements. They sort of led the Christian bandwagons on anti-abortion, anti-porn, Satanism, blah blah blah. Nut jobs. The book talks about this Bunker guy who got rich on Libyan oil and was as crazy as Welch. He gave Welch plenty of money, but the finances were not good enough.
March 10th, 2023
The last chapter is more on what JBS was doing in the 70s and 80s, presumably up to the death of Welch. Their grassroots movement really drove the whacky Christians and Catholics into the GOP. JBS was early on the anti-abortion movement and related things. Anything dumb Christians were protesting (and still are today), the JBS probably had some organizing done. They were very much against women’s rights and the Equal Rights Amendment, and rights for anyone, for that matter. Property rights. Why don’t they view abortion as a property right? Because they are dumb. Then they want to drop taxes to incredibly low numbers, which of course happened, and still happens. Reagan favored the rich and so has every president since. At least Welch isn’t screeching about Communists so much now.
March 11th, 2023
Finished the book today. There wasn’t much left in the last chapter. Pretty much Reagan gets elected and around this time the JBS starts going bankrupt. JBS’s popularity peaked in the 70’s when people started to actually find out about real government conspiracies. I guess nowadays we take it for granted that the government does horrible things to people. Back then, maybe they thought differently. I don’t see how, as this is the government of genociders, lynchers, and strike breakers. Reagan was the pinnacle of GOP and Christianity, though Welch didn’t consider him a true conservative because he signed some lax abortion laws as governor. Reagan espoused conspiracies that crackpot Welch propagated. Reagan even conspired himself with Iran-Contra. Scumbag. It’s clear that Welch had a long lasting effect on the GOP. He then died in 85. The epilogue then goes over all the problems with Alex Jones and partisan media outlets and Trump’s bandwagon on it. 9/11 may not have been a conspiracy, but Iraq certainly was. The 2000 election was also shady and probably a conspiracy. Can’t trust nobody.