The saddest part of Claire Conner's Wrapped in the Flag book about John Birch society.
I was just reading one of the saddest parts of Claire Conner's book about the new rise of the John Birch Society. It is called Wrapped in the Flag.
Her parents were avid John Birchers. They had no tolerance for disagreement on issues. In the 60s "The Birchers scared a whole lot of citizens with the revelation that the Communists had formulated a plan to form a Negro Soviet Republic right in the heart of the South."
Claire had defied her parents and become what they snidely called a "bleeding heart liberal". When I read the last words her mother ever said to her, I realized how strong she had to be to break from their devotion as Birchers.
Claire's daughter, Sarah, had driven to see her grandmother when she was very ill. Sarah put her on the phone with Claire. She said her grandmother was having a good day and wanted to talk to her. I transcribed this from the book.
"This is Claire," I said. "I'm so glad you called. I love you, Mom."
Silence.
"Don't you want to say something to your daughter?" Sarah suggested.
"What should I say?" Mother said.
"Tell her you love her," Sarah suggested.
There was a long pause before Claire's mother finally responded.
Finally Mother answered. "I can't say that," she blurted out. "I'm not sure I do."
That was the last time she had a chance to talk to her mother.
I can't imagine the heartbreak that would bring.
In her personal blog, Claire tells some more of the ways they intimidated and tried to make her feel unworthy.
Part Five: Storming Dixie
She was impressed with MLK and took the opposite side from her parents during the Civil Rights movement.
You better be careful,” my mother told me. “You’re turning into a bleeding heart liberal.”
“You are a disgrace,” my father said. “I can’t stand to look at you.”
Many years later, after my father was gone, I talked to my mother about her beliefs. “What happens to the poor, the elderly, the unemployed, the disabled if the Birch society achieves success?”
“It doesn’t matter, not at all,” she told me. “It’s all about the Constitution.”
“The Constitution doesn’t feed a hungry child or help an unemployed man,” I argued.
“That’s not my concern.”
And these words from her mother unfortunately were correct. She told Claire that the Birchers were waiting and would be back.
“Our day will come.” All you socialist-liberals will fail and we’ll be ready.”
I do not think liberals failed, I think they were failed by a party that did not stand up to such extremists. A party that followed the policy of trying to win by being more like the other side, in other words taking their issues before they could get around to it.
SO yes, in that way liberals were failed. There was no real opposition when it was needed most. So many in the GOP congress now go around spouting Birch philosophy when in actuality is right wing libertarianism.
I am seeing just lately some Democrats moving away, or seemingly so, from the corporate policies of the DLC/Third Way.
I hope it continues.
= new reply since forum marked as read
and bought her book but haven't read it yet. Checking in to say 
Read the book, it's a real gem.
Here they go again.
http://www.bobdylan.com/us/songs/talkin-john-birch-paranoid-blues
Well, I was feelin’ sad and feelin’ blue
I didn’t know what in the world I wus gonna do
Them Communists they wus comin’ around
They wus in the air
They wus on the ground
They wouldn’t gimme no peace . . .
So I run down most hurriedly
And joined up with the John Birch Society
I got me a secret membership card
And started off a-walkin’ down the road
Yee-hoo, I’m a real John Bircher now!
Look out you Commies!
Now we all agree with Hitler’s views
Although he killed six million Jews
It don’t matter too much that he was a Fascist
At least you can’t say he was a Communist!
That’s to say like if you got a cold you take a shot of malaria
Well, I wus lookin’ everywhere for them gol-darned Reds
I got up in the mornin’ ’n’ looked under my bed
Looked in the sink, behind the door
Looked in the glove compartment of my car
Couldn’t find ’em . . .
I wus lookin’ high an’ low for them Reds everywhere
I wus lookin’ in the sink an’ underneath the chair
I looked way up my chimney hole
I even looked deep down inside my toilet bowl
They got away . . .
Well, I wus sittin’ home alone an’ started to sweat
Figured they wus in my T.V. set
Peeked behind the picture frame
Got a shock from my feet, hittin’ right up in the brain
Them Reds caused it!
I know they did . . . them hard-core ones
Well, I quit my job so I could work all alone
Then I changed my name to Sherlock Holmes
Followed some clues from my detective bag
And discovered they wus red stripes on the American flag!
That ol’ Betsy Ross . . .
Well, I investigated all the books in the library
Ninety percent of ’em gotta be burned away
I investigated all the people that I knowed
Ninety-eight percent of them gotta go
The other two percent are fellow Birchers . . . just like me
Now Eisenhower, he’s a Russian spy
Lincoln, Jefferson and that Roosevelt guy
To my knowledge there’s just one man
That’s really a true American: George Lincoln Rockwell
I know for a fact he hates Commies cus he picketed the movie Exodus
Well, I fin’ly started thinkin’ straight
When I run outa things to investigate
Couldn’t imagine doin’ anything else
So now I’m sittin’ home investigatin’ myself!
Hope I don’t find out anything . . . hmm, great God!
Copyright © 1970 by Special Rider Music; renewed 1998 by Special Rider Music
You will get a lot of laughs, just because of the suggestion
Much appreciated.
I have neighbors who think like that. I think I am the only liberal for miles around here. I only talk about the weather.
Sorry about that, hurts when it's family.
I have a sister seven years older than I who attended Colorado College from the fall of 1961 through the spring of 1965. As a high-school student living in Houston, Texas, she once came to the defense of a Jewish friend of hers who was being bullied at school. Despite the fact she was nominally a Methodist, my sister wore a Cross of David around her neck in defiance of the anti-Semitic bigots.
While she was attending C.C., she joined a sorority -- which, like so many other sororities (and fraternities as well), had racist bylaws. A friend of hers at the college was Jewish. (I don't remember if she was the same girl my sister had defended in high school.) She wanted her friend, as well as others, to be able to join her sorority; so, she and another friend of hers launched a petition to the national headquarters of the sorority urging them to drop their racist bylaws.
She also participated in a PEACEFUL demonstration against the largest employer in Colorado Springs for their "whites only" hiring practices. (Incidentally, why didn't any conservatives ever condemn employment discrimination against blacks?)
When the Houston, Texas, chapter of the John Birch Society heard about her activities, they held a press conference in which they publicly accused my sister of being a Communist. If this had happened in the 1950s during the height of McCarthyism, my sister's chances of getting a good job would have been ruined.
What's so funny about this is the fact that my sister, who had been blacklisted as a "Communist," was the person who in 1971 would introduce me to a very depressing but interesting book: The Confession by Artur London. This book was an autobiography written by a man who had served as an important government official in the Stalinist regime of Clement Gottwald, the former Czechoslovakia's first Communist dictator. To be brief, London survived a Stalinist purge that resulted in the infamous Slansky trial. He was one of the three defendants who was sentenced to life. The other eleven defendants were condemned to death. The remaining three were eventually pardoned, and London and his family were permitted to immigrate to France, where London wrote his book (and called Stalin "the grave digger of socialism" . London detailed what the secret police had done to him. In other words, the book was an expose of Stalinist totalitarianism. So much for my sister's "Communism"!
I'm one of the most moderate and independent members here, but I DESPISE the John Birth Society with every fiber of my being and have ABSOLUTELY NO RESPECT for anyone who defends this pathetic group of people, who once called Eisenhower a Communist. As far as I'm concerned, my sister was performing a public service. She deserved a medal for her contriubtion to civil rights in this country. Again, I DESPISE the John Birch Society!
Forgive me for submitting such a long post and getting so emotional.
Really you need to make a stand alone post of that story. It's powerful.
Growing up, I dared to protest only slightly but if I had told them exactly what I thought, the consequences would have been very severe - anything from a beating to being kicked out of the house! I can identify with Claire Conner so much.
When my father passed when I was 21, there were no tears from me. He was an angry tyrant who should have been treated for PTSD when he returned from WWII. My relationship with my mother has always been a tense, distant one. She's now almost 90, yet I see her but once a year. She often drives me to drink. 
This part of your book just broke my heart. People like this do not listen, will not listen, have closed their minds.
There should have been an organized opposition to this rebirth of the Birchers, and that should have been the Democratic party.
They played from the book of the so called "centrists", never opposing, going along to get along...for way too long.
Welcome to DU.
Keep being passionate.
AND you are so right:
The people running the GOP and the Koch network are not conservatives or compassionate. They are dangerous extremists.
And we can no longer compromise with them.
But now it seems most of the Republican party embraces their extremity. It's frightening, and disheartening.
Congrats on your book! 
That way it gets more views and a better likelihood of getting noticed.
