1. William F. Buckley's purging of John Birch Society is often held up as a model for how to deal with extremists. And it was on the whole commendable. But there important forgotten complexities to story.https://twitter.com/EliLake/status/967393436302225409 …
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11. Buckley's 1965 purge of the Birch Society is a continuation of his 1950s purging of anti-war voices. His big worry was mass movement of USA right that was anti-war.
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12. The same pattern can be seen in Buckley's later turn against Pat Buchanan & Joseph Sobran. They had voiced bigotry for years but Buckley criticized them when they opposed first Iraq War.
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13. The final wrinkle in all this is that's it is by no means clear Buckley's condemnation had real world effect. Birch Society is still around & its membership peaked in early 1970s, after Buckley's polemic.
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14. For that matter, after Buckley condemned Pat Buchanan, Buchanan went on to deliver the keynote address at GOP convention in 1992.
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15. The Bircher/Buchanan/Sobran wing of GOP never went away. Part of Trump's success in 2016 primaries was he was voice of that wing.
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16. If you want more of this history, I go into the depths here;https://newrepublic.com/article/122804/national-reviews-trump-dilemma-kick-him-out-keep-his-fans …
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