The Rabid Right threat to democracy is nothing new

 The Rabid Right threat to democracy is nothing new.  I believe it's worse now, because the Republican Party has embraced doolally fringe theories like QAnon, whereas in the 60s, the then Republican Party shunned the John Birch Society.

From a fascinating Twitter thread by Seth Cotlar, who teaches history at Willamette University.  He looks at newspaper articles and letters to the editor from 1962.

Salem Statesman Journal, 29 January 1962. A commentator notes that ultraconservative "super-patriots" seem to be rising in number and influence, do they pose a greater threat to the nation than Communists?

 "Now for the rookie in the movement, everything falls into place--unless, of course, he knows some contemporary history."

The US right has always been at war with the Marxist "enemies of the people" who run the media.

Part 3 is on General Edwin Walker, a precursor in many ways to our current Q-warlord Michael Flynn.

Part 4. "It is worth pondering the possibility that [the John Birch Society], unwittingly, is following a Communist-inspired line to destroy Americans' faith in their most respected leaders and institutions."

Part 5 focuses on Strom Thurmond as the great hero of the ultraconservatives ca. 1962. Striking that the author makes very little mention of the civil rights/segregation part of Thurmond's national appeal.

Forgot to mention the interesting coincidence that the 1962 angry Christian Patriot letter writer was from Independence, OR...the hometown of recently expelled far right OR legislator Mike Nearman.

Sixth and final installment. Interesting how the author implies that the various ultra-right groups won't successfully join together because then they'd have to pool resources. IOW, for many, this was a lucrative grift they weren't about to give up.

I've only attached one pic of the texts Cotlar references, but the original twitter feed is worth visiting to see all the others.

Here's the Wikipedia article on the John Birch Society.  I noted with interest that the JBS was also anti-science (for example, promoting laetrile as an anti-cancer cure)   Crackpot unhinged loonies.  And the modern Right echoes all these dotty theories--even though Communism has been completely discredited and defeated.