The John Birch Society: Leadership Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

Readers of the The New American magazine are well aware of the Deep State menace facing our Constitution, our culture, and our very lives. However, knowing that the problem exists does no good unless we take action to defend our God-given rights from the malicious tyrants who threaten them.

That is why Robert Welch founded The John Birch Society 65 years ago. He called together 11 trusted associates for a two-day conference in Indianapolis and told them:

We do not have to die driven against any wall, nor do we have to lose this struggle at all. As I have said elsewhere, there is enough strength, enough money, enough intelligence, and enough patriotism in the vast business community of America, to form the nucleus that will stop, and destroy, the Communist conspiracy — if we can stir it to action in time. What I am proposing here is the mechanics, and the leadership through men like yourselves, by which it can be stirred to action and that action made effective.

Those words marked the birth in December, 1958 of the only organization that exists, even today, to expose the master conspiracy that seeks to destroy Godly institutions and to enslave mankind under an oppressive world government. 

Welch was not intimidated when labeled a “conspiracy theorist” by scoffers and media hacks who parroted the CIA-popularized slur. His academic genius (he read Ridpath’s nine-volume History of the World by age seven and graduated from college at age 16) and business acumen (he became independently wealthy in industry and served for years on the board of the National Association of Manufacturers) prepared him for the expected backlash from the liberal establishment he sacrificed his life, fortune, and sacred honor to expose.

With Welch’s unique combination of knowledge and courage at the helm, The John Birch Society flourished. JBS members organized into chapters nationwide, working locally but following a coordinated national agenda. Baseless attempts to smear the organization only swelled its ranks further.

Sixty-five years later, JBS is still going strong, as acknowledged by The Nation, which ran a headline in June: “How the John Birch Society Won the Long Game.”

Others rightfully recognize the organization’s vast influence in the freedom fight. “We All Live in The John Birch Society’s World Now,” declares a November 2021 headline in The New Republic. And in the 2022 booklet Birch’n since 1958: How The John Birch Society Keeps America Free, conservative author Trevor Loudon is quoted as acknowledging, “The JBS is the unsung hero of the liberty movement. Without your diligent educational work and courageous activism, we may have already lost the battle to restore the constitution.”

2023 Leadership Conference

JBS members and leaders continue to gather each year, just as Robert Welch and fellow patriots did more than six decades ago. It is a time to celebrate past successes, prepare for battles ahead, and have a great time doing so.

The line-up for this year’s Leadership Conference promises to carry on the tradition. JBS National Events Coordinator Lisa von Geldern discussed the two-day event with The New American senior editor Alex Newman on his Sentinel Report podcast in July.

“The opening night of the conference [Friday, September 8], we’re having James Patrick from the Big Picture,” which is a crowdsource film journalism company. “He’s going to be showing his documentary Nitrogen 2000,” relates von Geldern. It’s a story about “what’s going on in the Netherlands [where] they are trying to destroy the farmers and their nitrogen, which is what is used as a fertilizer.” Von Geldern noted that the Netherlands is called the breadbasket of Europe and says that the film evinces a planned food shortage.

It’s familiar theme to that which farmers in the Great Plains are facing over another innocuous chemical: carbon dioxide. That is why JBS chose Des Moines to host this year’s conference. Iowa is one of several Corn Belt states faced with loss of private property rights to taxpayer-subsidized carbon capture pipelines.

“It’s eminent domain being used, not for a public good like telephone lines or a road. It’s being used to generate profits for private companies,” says von Geldern. “And the loss of our rights to that land was actually put into the Biden infrastructure bill.”

James Patrick will deliver a keynote address on the subject, and afterwards attendees will enjoy a casual hour with John Birch, the nephew of the organization’s namesake.

Conference speakers on Saturday, September 9, continue the theme of defending rights. They include former U.S. Representative Steve King (reputedly Phyllis Schafly’s favorite congressman), who will address federal issues related to carbon capture in an interactive question and answer session, and John Birch Society regional field coordinator Tammy Kobza, who has been on the front lines with Iowa farmers, fighting for their property rights against the nefarious agenda. Both will offer effective strategies to use in local activism throughout the country.

JBS field coordinator Nicole Sanders will relate these carbon capture schemes to globalist plans in her presentation entitled Fighting Agenda 2030 Locally. She will teach attendees how to identify numerous measures couched in “sustainable” and “comprehensive” terms, implemented in city and county governments but formulated by United Nations bureaucrats. Alex Newman will also discuss how the Deep State is using climate change to stoke fear and take control. This knowledge will help private citizens identify and reverse problem areas at home.

Attendees are in for a treat with an appearance by world-renowned physicist, Dr. Douglas Frank, who discovered algorithms being employed to manipulate our elections. Many know Dr. Frank from Mike Lindell’s documentaries Absolute Proof and Absolute Interference. In his presentation, Dr. Frank will reveal seven steps to take back our elections.

JBS research project manager Christian Gomez will talk about tools and tactics to protect our U.S. Constitution from those who are actively planning to replace it and pitch our sacrosanct Bill of Rights.

JBS communications director Paul Dragu will provide a tribute to The John Birch Society on its 65th anniversary, and there will also be a special memorial presentation honoring former U.S. Congressman and JBS Chairman Larry McDonald, 40 years after the Soviet Union shot down the plane he was aboard, KAL 007.

An important keynote address rounds out the busy day’s schedule. Dr. Ryan Cole, founder of Cole Diagnostics in Idaho, is an expert in the long-term effects of Covid and the jab, and has testified before the U.S. Senate [committee??] and multiple state legislatures. His topic will be The Death of Science: Medical Freedom in an Era of Lies.

For those planning to attend, tickets are available here, or by calling 1-800-527-8721. All freedom-loving Americans, whether JBS members or not, are welcome because, as von Geldern notes, “The government of the United States, unique in all the world, was designed to limit government interference in the day to day lives of its citizens. When we don’t pay attention to that, the people who want to control us, who want to take money and power from us, are busy at work doing exactly that. We have to wake up, learn the proper role of government, and how to fight back. The John Birch Society can teach you that.”