NPR’s Terry Gross interviews historian Sean Wilentz about the resurgence of paranoid John Birch Society ideology on the right wing, led by the main promoter of JBS craziness: Glenn Beck: Drawing On 1950s Extremism?

They don’t allow embedding of the audio for this interview, but it’s worth a listen. We’ve been trying to sound the alarm about the resurrection of the John Birch Society for more than a year; it’s important to note that not only is their ideology returning, the John Birch Society itself has made an enormous comeback in the age of the Tea Party, and is now largely accepted in mainstream Republican circles.