Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, July 3, 1995 TAG: 9507030100
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARK HOLMBERG RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH
DATELINE: RICHMOND (AP) LENGTH: Long
\ When it comes to distrusting the federal government, Grace Winston, 78, and George Meyer, 72, can teach a thing or two to those whippersnappers in the militia movement.
Long before conspiracy theories became cool again, Winston and Meyer and their fellow John Birch Society members were meeting in a Richmond bookstore, spreading the word about big government's plan to swap the U.S. Constitution for a socialistic New World Order.
Gun control, violent crime, outlawing religion in school, the United Nations, the Trilateral Commission, the New Deal, the Federal Reserve, the Council on Foreign Relations - perhaps even the bombing in Oklahoma City - ``are all part of the plot to terrorize us into a one-world government,'' Meyer said.
``Why would we want to go to a world government?'' Winston asked, her brown eyes flashing. ``We have the best form of government in the world - as long as the Constitution is still there.''
A Bircher for a quarter-century, Winston considers the Constitution a sacred document.
She skewered a visitor with those brown eyes. ``That's why they're so desperate to get rid of it.''
At the top of the ``they'' list is President Clinton.
``He's the best thing that's happened to the John Birch Society,'' said Winston, Richmond chapter leader.
With recent polls indicating that half the nation's citizens distrust the federal government and a good many of those see Uncle Sam as an immediate threat, membership in the John Birch Society is surging, the organization claims.
Last year, membership jumped 80 percent, according to a national spokesman. Subscriptions to the New American, the society magazine, have doubled in two years and a special issue, ``Toward a Police State,'' sold more than 360,000 copies.
``Last year is the best year we've had since 1964, Goldwater,'' said Tom Eddlem, 29, director of research for the Appleton, Wis.-based John Birch Society, referring to then-GOP presidential candidate Barry Goldwater. ``This year is shaping up to be even better than last year.''
Eddlem estimates national membership in the ``tens of thousands,'' but wouldn't be more specific about current and past membership figures.
Previously published figures list the educational organization as having more than 3,000 chapters nationwide. The society's American Opinion stores like the one in Richmond dot the land.
Eddlem says he's part of a new wave of younger Birchers who surf the Internet and know how to run a fax tree. They join ranks with Goldwater-era members who still offer yellowed literature featuring conservative cheerleader Phyllis Schlafly looking like a member of the ``Mod Squad.''
``The younger generation hasn't heard much about the John Birch Society and has an open mind,'' Eddlem said.
Earl Dennis of Chesterfield County is part of the new wave. He's 38, a devout Christian, a father of five, a computer programmer and now a leader in his South Richmond John Birch Society chapter.
He believes the federalization of abortion, education, welfare, criminal justice and gun control are unconstitutional and thwart individual responsibility and integrity.
``That has made it easier to have an abortion than a baby, easier to have a divorce than stay married, easier for someone else to take care of your kids, harder to be good, easier to be bad,'' Dennis said.
When he started looking for groups that shared his beliefs, he stumbled onto the John Birch Society eight months ago.
``What I had heard about them was that they were some kind of radical group that was anti-communist. I went to a couple of meetings and found that their goal is to protect and defend the Constitution.''
He quoted the motto of the society: ``Less government, more responsibility, and - with God's help - a better world.''
The John Birch Society was founded in 1958 by Robert Welch, a candy manufacturer, author and staunch anti-socialist who admired fundamentalist Baptist preacher and World War II Army Air Force Capt. John M. Birch, who was killed by Chinese communists in 1945.
Its goal: to educate citizens about the communist threat and the importance of adhering to the Constitution.
For nearly a decade, the society considered communism the primary enemy. ``But then we realized there was a conspiracy above communism,'' explained Dr. Charles S. Wassum, a regional coordinator for the John Birch Society.
That conspiracy is the establishment of a socialistic world government, he said, and it's being orchestrated by ``the Insiders'' - people like Clinton and George Bush, the Rockefellers, the Kennedys.
Wassum said it's hard for him to understand why everyone doesn't see through the conspiracy. ``To me, it's so obvious,'' he said.
``More people are listening now,'' Wassum added. ``What the John Birch Society was saying 35 years ago is coming true now.''
Indeed, the society, which had shrunk to 98-pound weakling status just a few years ago, is flexing its muscles.
The society turned bully two months ago in a tussle over the Conference of the States, a gathering of governors and lawmakers from across the nation scheduled for October. Even though it was proposed by a Republican governor, Birchers saw the conference - designed to shift power back to the states and away from Washington - as another attempt to bypass the Constitution.
``In a span of just weeks, the John Birch Society has heaved the conference locomotive off track,'' reported the Salt Lake Tribune.
As George Meyer put it: ``We're not kidding around. ... We're in this thing to win the country back.''
by CNB