For the past couple of years as I’ve been writing about the horrible agenda of Fox News commentator Glenn Beck, I’ve noted many times that Beck’s views seem to be derived almost entirely from the hateful, paleo-right wing conspiracy theory world view of the John Birch Society — a group that has made an amazing comeback as the GOP has melted down.

Yesterday at the John Birch Society website, writer Larry Greenley made this connection completely explicit, with an article that lays out the many ways in which Glenn Beck’s ideology and paranoid obsession with communists comes directly from the Birchers. Glenn Beck is mainstreaming the ideas of this vile organization: Glenn Beck Recapitulates The John Birch Society (Google cache link).

As a longtime member of The John Birch Society (JBS), I’ve been watching the Glenn Beck TV Show closely since he moved over to Fox News in 2008. I’ve been fascinated to see how Beck has been getting progressively (sorry for the bad word choice) closer to presenting American history in the way that The John Birch Society has been doing it for over 50 years.

Last night’s show, June 24, which was an overview of communism in America, was the ultimate in complete agreement between the Beck and JBS presentations of American history.

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Although this video has been available since our 50th Anniversary celebrations in 2008, we’ve changed the title to “The John Birch Society in 1958, Forerunner of the Tea Party Movement?” Take a look and see how appropriate the new title is. I believe the inclusion of this video in this article will help you see just how close the worldview of the JBS is to that of Glenn Beck in particular and the Tea Party movement in general.

It’s pretty well known that William F. Buckley was instrumental in expelling the JBS from conservative circles. But the conservative movement of today has morphed into something Buckley wouldn’t even recognize — a movement in which reasonable people are made into pariahs, extremism has become completely mainstream, and race baiters and religious fanatics are running the show.

(Hat tip: Adam Holland.)