WEBVTT - John Birch vs. the PTA 0:00:16.155 --> 0:00:23.715 Pushkin Hey West Archived listeners, I wanted to share a 0:00:23.715 --> 0:00:26.755 story I just released over on the Revisionist History podcast 0:00:27.075 --> 0:00:31.595 about the history of American conservatism and Halloween candy. It 0:00:31.635 --> 0:00:34.955 felt appropriate for this election year Halloween. It's a story 0:00:34.995 --> 0:00:38.115 that traces the rise of an ultra conservative political organization, 0:00:38.475 --> 0:00:41.595 the John Birch Society, and its attempt in the nineteen 0:00:41.675 --> 0:00:45.915 sixties to take over the Parent Teacher Association. I hope 0:00:45.955 --> 0:00:47.915 you enjoy it and have a happy Halloween. 0:00:49.795 --> 0:00:52.275 I want to read to you from a very important 0:00:52.915 --> 0:00:57.795 historical document, the April nineteen sixty two edition of the 0:00:57.795 --> 0:01:04.195 Welby Way Elementary School Parent Teacher Association newsletter, the Wellby Buzzings, 0:01:04.875 --> 0:01:08.235 written of course by the PTA of the elementary school 0:01:08.275 --> 0:01:13.035 in the West Hills area of Los Angeles. First item, 0:01:13.435 --> 0:01:16.315 President's message. I would like to say thank you to 0:01:16.355 --> 0:01:18.795 the ladies that work so hard on the and this 0:01:18.875 --> 0:01:23.515 is all in caps double parking safety campaign. Second item 0:01:23.795 --> 0:01:27.395 sing along with progress PTA meeting for April. Our hostesses 0:01:27.875 --> 0:01:31.195 will be the sixth grade Mutters. Third item a meeting 0:01:31.235 --> 0:01:35.075 on safety to fire prevention. Fourth item an interesting and 0:01:35.195 --> 0:01:38.395 informative trip to the fire station. Fifth item the local 0:01:38.435 --> 0:01:41.435 council meeting. Key detail. It's going to be a luncheon. 0:01:44.715 --> 0:01:49.595 Are you still there? Still awake? Four announcements on school safety, 0:01:49.835 --> 0:01:54.595 a fifth on participatory democracy, a luncheon. I'm guessing you're 0:01:54.595 --> 0:01:58.795 poured to tears. It's all so very Pta. The only 0:01:58.835 --> 0:02:02.675 things missing are the potluck supper, the newspaper drive, the 0:02:02.675 --> 0:02:09.795 book fair. But that's where you're wrong. This newsletter is, 0:02:09.835 --> 0:02:12.955 in fact the skeleton key to understanding our political moment 0:02:13.555 --> 0:02:17.155 right now, Like this exact moment, if you're listening to 0:02:17.195 --> 0:02:20.395 this episode soon after its release, there are two things 0:02:20.435 --> 0:02:23.715 going on in your world, the US presidential election between 0:02:23.715 --> 0:02:27.915 Donald Trump and Kamala Harris and more Halloween candy than 0:02:27.955 --> 0:02:30.755 you know what to do with. Well in this episode, 0:02:31.475 --> 0:02:37.235 a story that manages to bring both together. It all 0:02:37.275 --> 0:02:40.675 really begins with the well beway PTA newsletter from April 0:02:40.835 --> 0:02:46.035 nineteen sixty two, and specifically with the sixth and final item, 0:02:46.515 --> 0:02:51.435 the editor's message, which begins the power to seek the 0:02:51.515 --> 0:02:54.075 truth is within all of us, but there are some 0:02:54.195 --> 0:02:58.315 who abuse this freedom and cloud the answers and the issues, 0:02:58.675 --> 0:03:01.315 so that seeking the truth and knowing it is the 0:03:01.395 --> 0:03:04.875 truth becomes a harder task than it was ever meant 0:03:04.915 --> 0:03:10.035 to be. You're listening to revisionist history. My podcast asked 0:03:10.035 --> 0:03:15.915 about things overlooked and misunderstood. I'm Malcolm Gladwell. Here's our question. Why, 0:03:15.995 --> 0:03:19.555 in this otherwise very dull PTA newsletter does the mother 0:03:19.675 --> 0:03:22.395 who wrote it feel the need to write an urgent 0:03:22.515 --> 0:03:28.595 defense of democracy? She doesn't say, But as my colleague 0:03:28.635 --> 0:03:31.515 BENDADAPF Hafrey discovered, it has to do with a man who, 0:03:31.555 --> 0:03:35.835 perhaps more than almost anyone else, is responsible for creating 0:03:35.875 --> 0:03:41.115 the modern style of far right conspiratorial thinking running rampant today. 0:03:41.955 --> 0:03:45.435 A man who write, at the time that Editor's note 0:03:45.475 --> 0:03:49.115 was published, held in his hands the fate of the 0:03:49.155 --> 0:03:59.835 PTA and American public life. Here's Ben. 0:04:02.275 --> 0:04:04.835 The video is grainy, but you can make out an 0:04:04.835 --> 0:04:08.675 older man, late sixties, standing in a suit and tie 0:04:08.755 --> 0:04:11.875 against a black back, clasping his hands on the. 0:04:11.915 --> 0:04:15.715 Lecturn, Faithful citizens, wherever. 0:04:15.195 --> 0:04:15.635 You may be. 0:04:16.635 --> 0:04:19.475 He's got big ears, a big nose, and a high 0:04:19.555 --> 0:04:23.235 forehead well suited to an indignant raising of the eyebrows. 0:04:23.755 --> 0:04:26.235 The media coverage of him lately had given him many 0:04:26.275 --> 0:04:30.635 opportunities to do this. As he speaks, the camera pushes in. 0:04:31.235 --> 0:04:32.395 It's a recruitment video. 0:04:33.155 --> 0:04:36.915 It is our deliberate and careful purpose to pull together 0:04:37.035 --> 0:04:41.115 into one group a body of morally good and truly 0:04:41.155 --> 0:04:45.035 responsible citizens who are proud of each other and of 0:04:45.075 --> 0:04:46.555 the society to which they belong. 0:04:47.635 --> 0:04:50.755 He then proceeds to reassure his viewers that the identities 0:04:50.755 --> 0:04:53.475 of people in this group are never shared with anyone, 0:04:53.795 --> 0:04:56.395 not least of all because their enemies abound. 0:04:57.155 --> 0:05:01.115 The carefully coordinated attacks against us from all points of 0:05:01.155 --> 0:05:05.475 the ideological compass have reached a crescendo stage since the 0:05:05.515 --> 0:05:09.195 first of this year, with the surprising but visible result 0:05:09.875 --> 0:05:13.595 of solidifying the dedication of all the numbers still further 0:05:14.435 --> 0:05:17.915 end up stimulating the recruiting efforts. 0:05:19.035 --> 0:05:23.875 This is Robert Welch Junior. Consider the facts. He speaks 0:05:23.915 --> 0:05:26.595 a little like a dictator. He seems to run some 0:05:26.635 --> 0:05:30.755 sort of secret society, and consider himself public enemy number one. 0:05:31.555 --> 0:05:36.795 Who is this titan? Well, naturally, he's a candy tycoon. 0:05:38.955 --> 0:05:42.395 Robert Welch Junior was born on a former plantation in 0:05:42.435 --> 0:05:45.515 North Carolina just before the turn of the twentieth century. 0:05:46.275 --> 0:05:49.475 As a kid, he was precocious and a daydreamer. Wanted 0:05:49.515 --> 0:05:52.795 to be a writer, an intellectual but he felt that 0:05:52.875 --> 0:05:55.275 before he could do so, he had to get rich. 0:05:56.235 --> 0:05:58.995 So one night, as a young man, he had a brainstorm. 0:05:59.315 --> 0:06:01.835 According to Edward H. Miller, who wrote a biography of 0:06:01.875 --> 0:06:05.835 Welsh called A Conspiratorial Life, Welch stayed up late into 0:06:05.835 --> 0:06:09.155 the evening, writing and writing to answer a single question, 0:06:10.195 --> 0:06:12.955 what specific goods in demand would be best for me 0:06:12.995 --> 0:06:17.635 to start manufacturing without either capital or experience. This is 0:06:17.675 --> 0:06:20.755 a quote Miller found from an associate of Welsh's recalling 0:06:20.915 --> 0:06:25.155 this legendary moment quote. As the sky began to show 0:06:25.235 --> 0:06:28.555 the first streaks of dawn, Roberts stared at the notes 0:06:28.595 --> 0:06:32.355 in front of him. One word remained amid the maze 0:06:32.355 --> 0:06:39.515 of dark lines scratched across the pages. That word was candy. 0:06:40.315 --> 0:06:43.675 We've arrived at the Halloween portion of our programming. So 0:06:44.035 --> 0:06:47.075 if in your baskets this year you find the following candies, 0:06:47.235 --> 0:06:51.195 Sugar Daddy, Sugar Baby, or the Junior Mint, you're encountering 0:06:51.195 --> 0:06:54.315 a piece of the Welsh legacy, and actually the legacy 0:06:54.355 --> 0:06:57.075 of his brother too, who naturally also worked in the 0:06:57.115 --> 0:07:01.315 candy business. The Welsh nuclear family of Hit Candies, the 0:07:01.355 --> 0:07:03.675 patriarch of which the Sugar Daddy I have to say, 0:07:03.715 --> 0:07:07.955 I find totally inedible has been a mainstay forever. Children 0:07:08.075 --> 0:07:14.435 of the nineteen eighties may remember the jingle subary beby for. 0:07:16.835 --> 0:07:18.115 Shuby beerby. 0:07:20.795 --> 0:07:22.555 Welch. Was part of what I've come to think of 0:07:22.795 --> 0:07:27.075 as the American sweets aristocracy. I'm talking about a special 0:07:27.115 --> 0:07:29.795 class of confectioners and bakers who turned out to have 0:07:29.835 --> 0:07:32.435 a surprising number of ideas about how society ought to 0:07:32.475 --> 0:07:36.475 be run. In the pantheon, we have Milton's navely Hershey, 0:07:36.555 --> 0:07:39.355 whose chocolates were so delectable he was able to put 0:07:39.355 --> 0:07:43.835 his social ideas to the test, building utopian town called Hershey, Pennsylvania. 0:07:44.475 --> 0:07:48.075 Then there's Sylvester Graham, the clergyman who invented the Graham 0:07:48.115 --> 0:07:52.155 Cracker to combat youth masturbation. John Harvey Kellogg, the Seventh 0:07:52.235 --> 0:07:55.915 Day Adventist, who invented cornflakes to do the same. The 0:07:55.955 --> 0:07:59.755 candy makers, in particular, tended to be extremely paranoid because 0:07:59.755 --> 0:08:02.395 there was actually quite a bit of spying in their industry. 0:08:03.035 --> 0:08:06.355 They had to guard their secrets, their recipes, their fortunes. 0:08:06.995 --> 0:08:10.235 Some would even blindfold the people who repaired their mission genes. 0:08:11.235 --> 0:08:15.955 But I digress. After establishing himself in the candy business 0:08:16.075 --> 0:08:19.475 and drinking deeply at the trough of its paranoia, Welch 0:08:19.595 --> 0:08:23.115 set out to elbow his way into the intellectual class, 0:08:23.155 --> 0:08:27.755 specifically the anti communist class. Over the years, he wrote 0:08:27.755 --> 0:08:31.675 a number of articles in books about the rise of communism, including, 0:08:31.755 --> 0:08:35.435 per his biographer, a novel about inant society oppressed by 0:08:35.475 --> 0:08:38.995 a monolithic state, which somehow went unpublished. But it was 0:08:39.035 --> 0:08:42.675 in nineteen fifty four that one of his ideas finally 0:08:42.715 --> 0:08:43.315 broke through. 0:08:43.995 --> 0:08:47.675 He was very secretive about these because Welch was always 0:08:48.555 --> 0:08:53.595 worried about the Communists as he saw getting a hold 0:08:53.715 --> 0:08:54.675 of what he was saying. 0:08:55.595 --> 0:09:00.155 Historian Matthew Dallak, author of the book Bircher's, talking about 0:09:00.155 --> 0:09:02.635 Welch's penchant for sending secret. 0:09:02.435 --> 0:09:07.355 Letters because they exposed him and they damaged You know, 0:09:07.475 --> 0:09:14.115 these true, this patriotic movement to destroy communism, it would 0:09:14.155 --> 0:09:15.075 be it. 0:09:15.075 --> 0:09:18.395 Would basically be like killing his movement in the crypt. 0:09:19.275 --> 0:09:19.555 Now. 0:09:19.875 --> 0:09:23.195 The letter he sent in nineteen fifty four, in particular, 0:09:23.315 --> 0:09:27.835 merited sensitivity. It was a roughly nine thousand word attempt 0:09:28.035 --> 0:09:32.275 to explain why he disliked Dwight Eisenhower so much. The 0:09:32.315 --> 0:09:37.075 first Republican president in multiple decades. The letter built to 0:09:37.115 --> 0:09:41.475 the irrefutable conclusion that Dwight Eisenhower was not really a Republican. 0:09:42.035 --> 0:09:47.595 He was quote a dedicated, conscious agent of the communist conspiracy, 0:09:48.275 --> 0:09:51.875 operating under the direction of his brother, the affable Milton. 0:09:52.795 --> 0:09:57.675 They're really divorced from, you know, any semblance of the truth. 0:09:58.075 --> 0:10:02.875 The other thing, though, is that the argument against Eisenhower 0:10:02.915 --> 0:10:10.275 I think fits into the Joe McCarthy argument that clearly 0:10:10.395 --> 0:10:13.795 the setbacks in the world for the United States in 0:10:13.875 --> 0:10:18.635 the fight against communism is a result of communists in 0:10:18.675 --> 0:10:22.995 the government, including Eisenhower, allowing the communists to win. 0:10:24.115 --> 0:10:27.315 Where the ant book had failed, the letter succeeded wildly. 0:10:27.915 --> 0:10:30.715 It ballooned into a book that is over four hundred 0:10:30.835 --> 0:10:35.395 pages long, complete with an extremely tedious footnote section explaining 0:10:35.395 --> 0:10:39.275 the sourcing for his atlandish claims. As Welch once wrote, 0:10:39.555 --> 0:10:43.395 explanations are like government. Nobody loves them, but a minimum 0:10:43.435 --> 0:10:47.915 amount of both is a necessary evil. But anyway, Welch 0:10:48.075 --> 0:10:50.195 was not content to mail secret letters the rest of 0:10:50.235 --> 0:10:55.675 his life. He wanted to build a movement. So four 0:10:55.795 --> 0:10:59.795 years after that letter, in October nineteen fifty eight, Welch 0:10:59.875 --> 0:11:03.635 brought together eleven of his most powerful friends to a 0:11:03.675 --> 0:11:08.555 secret meeting in Indianapolis. He didn't say what for, but 0:11:08.675 --> 0:11:11.155 he did tell them each book their own hotel rooms 0:11:11.195 --> 0:11:14.515 so people wouldn't see them together. Then he promised them 0:11:14.635 --> 0:11:17.355 that there was nothing conspiratorial about what they were about 0:11:17.395 --> 0:11:20.075 to do, which was to gather in a secret location 0:11:20.355 --> 0:11:22.475 for two days and conspire. 0:11:23.595 --> 0:11:26.195 My undertaking today is to try to tell you all 0:11:26.235 --> 0:11:29.355 about the background, methods, and purposes of the John Bird Society. 0:11:30.275 --> 0:11:33.035 This tape is from a recruitment video he made later on. 0:11:33.595 --> 0:11:35.555 We don't have a recording of what he said that 0:11:35.675 --> 0:11:38.275 day in Indianapolis. I mean, it was a secret meeting, 0:11:38.635 --> 0:11:42.235 but I think it's safe to assume he was on message. 0:11:42.275 --> 0:11:45.555 Welch was there to start a new anti communist organization, 0:11:46.075 --> 0:11:48.875 after all, with the Communists already in control of the 0:11:48.955 --> 0:11:52.035 US presidency, the situation was getting a little out of hand. 0:11:53.075 --> 0:11:56.675 As we have said many times before, the fundamentally decent 0:11:56.755 --> 0:12:00.875 American mind simply refuse us to recognize the nature of 0:12:00.915 --> 0:12:05.475 the cunning beasts who constitute our enemies today. This is 0:12:05.675 --> 0:12:10.115 especially true when these criminal gangsters assume all of the 0:12:10.195 --> 0:12:14.115 suavity and regalia of high office. 0:12:14.315 --> 0:12:17.635 Eleven men walked into that room in Indianapolis, and the 0:12:17.715 --> 0:12:21.235 John Birch Society walked out, named by the way for 0:12:21.275 --> 0:12:24.675 an American missionary who'd been killed by Chinese communists and 0:12:24.715 --> 0:12:27.275 then became a kind of patron saint for people like 0:12:27.355 --> 0:12:31.395 Robert Welch Junior. These were important men with money and 0:12:31.475 --> 0:12:34.235 time to burn and an axe to grind. They had 0:12:34.275 --> 0:12:39.195 Eisenhower's former IRS commissioner, presidents of major companies, a former 0:12:39.235 --> 0:12:43.235 aide to Douglas MacArthur, and Fred Cooch oil man and 0:12:43.355 --> 0:12:45.635 father to the Koch brothers, was there too. 0:12:46.715 --> 0:12:50.835 I'll wake my friends and arise now I'll be forever fallen. 0:12:51.435 --> 0:12:54.315 We mean business and we can still win, but we 0:12:54.355 --> 0:12:57.595 are in our race against time, with the enemy advancing 0:12:57.795 --> 0:12:58.355 every day. 0:12:59.555 --> 0:13:02.155 Welch knew what he was doing. He took his show 0:13:02.195 --> 0:13:05.355 on the road, giving versions of that speech across the country, 0:13:05.795 --> 0:13:08.955 and a lot of the listeners, bored Americans rattled by 0:13:08.995 --> 0:13:13.155 war and free doubt by integration, thought, hey, this guy's 0:13:13.155 --> 0:13:16.195 got a point. He started with just his friends who 0:13:16.195 --> 0:13:18.915 thought like he did, then his friend's friends, and then 0:13:18.915 --> 0:13:24.075 his friends friends friends. But Welch's dreams were always much grander. 0:13:25.835 --> 0:13:29.675 By any realistic appraisal of our size against our need. 0:13:29.995 --> 0:13:33.395 We are still very small, but we certainly expect our 0:13:33.435 --> 0:13:37.075 present growth to continue until we have the million members 0:13:37.315 --> 0:13:41.915 of fervat patriotism and unassailable character, which is our goal. 0:13:43.115 --> 0:13:46.195 Despite Welch's vision for one million patriots to join the 0:13:46.235 --> 0:13:49.755 John Birch Society, estimates show that the membership was likely 0:13:49.795 --> 0:13:52.195 at an all time high when it hit thirty thousand 0:13:52.195 --> 0:13:53.435 members in the sixties. 0:13:54.675 --> 0:13:59.235 The mission was not explicitly to take over a political party. 0:14:00.315 --> 0:14:04.195 It was not to even take over in nes silly 0:14:04.195 --> 0:14:08.475 American institutions. It was to wage a mass education campaign 0:14:09.155 --> 0:14:14.595 to allure Americans, to educate them about the dire nature 0:14:15.155 --> 0:14:18.635 of the communist conspiracy inside the United States. 0:14:19.875 --> 0:14:22.715 And so a small but influential group of right wingers 0:14:22.835 --> 0:14:26.035 became convinced that there was a war going on at home. 0:14:27.275 --> 0:14:32.035 A continuous, undeclared war in which our our enemies observed 0:14:32.035 --> 0:14:38.115 no rules of international law, of civilization, or of human decency. 0:14:38.155 --> 0:14:42.075 But where was the front in this war? Exactly two 0:14:42.195 --> 0:14:45.875 years after its founding, the Birch Society had part of 0:14:45.915 --> 0:14:53.995 the answer. The Parent Teacher Association, of course, we'll be 0:14:54.075 --> 0:15:10.715 right back. The bitter Root Valley lies in the southwest 0:15:10.715 --> 0:15:14.795 of Montana between the Sapphire and Bitterroot Mountains. It's the 0:15:14.795 --> 0:15:18.395 place they filmed Yellowstone Today. It's gorgeous. 0:15:18.715 --> 0:15:20.755 Okay, so small town. 0:15:21.595 --> 0:15:24.275 Gail Laro Munson was a little girl growing up in 0:15:24.275 --> 0:15:27.315 the valley in the nineteen sixties in a town called Darby. 0:15:27.875 --> 0:15:31.115 Back then, its population was three hundred and ninety eight. 0:15:31.675 --> 0:15:35.275 Close snit, neighbors looked out for each other. Kids could 0:15:35.275 --> 0:15:40.355 be out till dark and from back home they would 0:15:40.355 --> 0:15:44.115 be safe. If you were caught doing something wrong, the 0:15:44.195 --> 0:15:46.875 neighbors would let your parents know and they'd be ready 0:15:46.915 --> 0:15:47.715 when you got home. 0:15:48.555 --> 0:15:51.075 Darby was the kind of place where you knew everyone, 0:15:51.555 --> 0:15:54.955 especially if you were in Gaylee's family. Her dad, Orville Row, 0:15:55.275 --> 0:15:58.715 was the superintendent of the school district, but in the 0:15:58.755 --> 0:16:02.595 early nineteen sixties strangers began to show up in the valley. 0:16:03.635 --> 0:16:06.195 Orville was busy right around then getting new Bibles for 0:16:06.235 --> 0:16:08.435 a local school because there as we're all beaten up. 0:16:08.915 --> 0:16:11.355 He asked a local clergymen how to get rid of 0:16:11.355 --> 0:16:13.755 the old ones in a respectful way, and he was 0:16:13.795 --> 0:16:16.475 told to burn them. So he gathered up the bibles 0:16:16.595 --> 0:16:19.435 and set them on fire, and all of a sudden, 0:16:20.075 --> 0:16:24.075 those strangers leaped into action. It turned out they were 0:16:24.115 --> 0:16:27.275 part of a club, the John Birch Society. 0:16:28.995 --> 0:16:31.715 Merch members appeared at the regular school board meeting with 0:16:31.755 --> 0:16:36.195 a petition demanding that Laoe not be offered a new contract. 0:16:36.355 --> 0:16:37.915 It was all over the local radio. 0:16:38.395 --> 0:16:41.515 The majority of the board rejected that demand, and this 0:16:41.675 --> 0:16:45.475 action of the board intensified an already steady program of 0:16:45.515 --> 0:16:47.995 intimidation against the Row and his family. 0:16:49.155 --> 0:16:52.315 The Birchers were turning Orville's quiet life in Derby with 0:16:52.315 --> 0:16:56.395 his three kids and his wife, completely upside down. Here's Orville. 0:16:57.275 --> 0:17:01.555 There are individuals, of course the community who will drive 0:17:01.635 --> 0:17:06.795 by and make have scene signs. There have been an 0:17:06.915 --> 0:17:10.315 incidents where people are called the house my life had 0:17:10.355 --> 0:17:14.435 answered and have used a'bscene language on the telephone. Basically, 0:17:14.435 --> 0:17:19.035 it's it's a joy, simple postant harassment. 0:17:20.115 --> 0:17:23.475 An archivist in Montana named Kristen Gates wrote an essay 0:17:23.475 --> 0:17:26.515 about all this. She found letters from the principle of 0:17:26.555 --> 0:17:30.835 the local school who said the Birchers were quote using 0:17:30.995 --> 0:17:38.675 the local pta as a springboard to infiltrate the schools. 0:17:40.275 --> 0:17:43.155 Here I'm telling you about what unfolded for the LaRose 0:17:43.235 --> 0:17:46.315 in a tiny town in Montana. But they weren't the 0:17:46.315 --> 0:17:50.235 only people involved in local ptas or schools who became targets. 0:17:50.755 --> 0:17:53.795 This is not the case now, but in the nineteen sixties, 0:17:53.835 --> 0:17:56.995 according to one study, almost half of all families in 0:17:57.035 --> 0:18:01.795 America were represented in the PTA fifty percent. The PTA 0:18:01.915 --> 0:18:04.635 became such a well known part of public life that 0:18:04.875 --> 0:18:07.515 it was even the subject of a number one song 0:18:07.595 --> 0:18:09.875 in the nineteen sixties, Harper. 0:18:11.675 --> 0:18:16.155 And it was signed by the Secretary Unprevaletta. 0:18:20.755 --> 0:18:24.235 The PTA played a huge role in modernizing American education. 0:18:24.915 --> 0:18:28.155 Every local PTA was part of the National PTA, which 0:18:28.235 --> 0:18:30.915 was run out of Washington, and they worked together to 0:18:30.915 --> 0:18:34.755 petition schools to adapt and modernize, like a miniature version 0:18:34.795 --> 0:18:37.755 of the federal government. He was actually originally called the 0:18:37.795 --> 0:18:42.275 Congress of Mothers. Anyways, all this paid dividends. If you've 0:18:42.395 --> 0:18:46.515 drunk fluoridated water, which you have gotten vaccinated in schools, 0:18:46.595 --> 0:18:48.955 gone to a public kindergarten, or just been at a 0:18:48.995 --> 0:18:52.635 school that received federal funds, you can thank the PTA 0:18:53.475 --> 0:18:58.155 next bakesale, maybe by a cookie. As a sociologist, Robert 0:18:58.195 --> 0:19:02.475 Putnam writes, the PTA in its day was quote one 0:19:02.475 --> 0:19:07.675 of the most impressive organizational success stories in American history 0:19:08.475 --> 0:19:13.675 end quote, and who at that exact moment wanted to 0:19:13.675 --> 0:19:17.195 pull off another of the most impressive organizational success stories 0:19:17.235 --> 0:19:22.395 in American history Dark Willy Wonka Robert Welch Junior, whose 0:19:22.435 --> 0:19:25.315 recruiting methods were slightly more apocalyptic. 0:19:26.395 --> 0:19:28.995 The wise and the brave do not hold back until 0:19:28.995 --> 0:19:29.715 it is too late. 0:19:30.915 --> 0:19:34.235 In its newsletter, the John Birch Society told its members 0:19:34.275 --> 0:19:37.395 to quote join your local PTA at the beginning of 0:19:37.435 --> 0:19:40.955 the school year, get your conservative friends to do likewise, 0:19:41.315 --> 0:19:44.075 and go to work to take it over. You will 0:19:44.155 --> 0:19:47.475 run into real battles against determined leftists who have had 0:19:47.515 --> 0:19:50.075 everything their way. But it is time we went on 0:19:50.115 --> 0:19:53.835 the offensive to make such groups the instrument of conservative 0:19:53.875 --> 0:19:57.675 purpose with the same vigor and determination that the liberals 0:19:57.675 --> 0:20:02.635 have used to the opposite aims. With encouragement from the 0:20:02.715 --> 0:20:06.795 John Birch Society, extremists of all stripes started showing up 0:20:06.835 --> 0:20:10.435 to local ptas across the country trying to take them over. 0:20:10.995 --> 0:20:13.595 You know, all kinds of methods were being used. 0:20:14.115 --> 0:20:17.915 Sarah Heath, a historian at Indiana University Kocomo. 0:20:17.915 --> 0:20:20.995 So the Birch Society might pack cars full of people, 0:20:21.715 --> 0:20:24.955 so if I bring thirty people to a local meeting 0:20:24.995 --> 0:20:25.875 of a PTA. 0:20:26.635 --> 0:20:27.515 But basically what they. 0:20:27.475 --> 0:20:29.555 Would try to do is, if I can get thirty 0:20:29.595 --> 0:20:32.635 people to go to this one local meeting, we can 0:20:32.675 --> 0:20:35.035 try to take over the proceedings of that meeting. 0:20:36.155 --> 0:20:40.675 Suddenly, amid the conversations about fire safety and participatory democracy, 0:20:41.195 --> 0:20:43.715 parents had to consider things like whether skipping the pledge 0:20:43.755 --> 0:20:45.595 of allegiance at the start of a meeting made you 0:20:45.675 --> 0:20:49.835 a Stalin level communist or an Eisenhower level one. Such 0:20:49.875 --> 0:20:53.515 considerations it turned out demand quite a bit of everyone's time. 0:20:54.315 --> 0:20:58.355 Because what they wanted to do was first get some 0:20:58.395 --> 0:21:00.595 people to get so tired that they would just say, 0:21:00.635 --> 0:21:01.275 I've got to go. 0:21:01.275 --> 0:21:01.995 Home, right. 0:21:02.155 --> 0:21:05.475 PTA meetings are usually in the early evening, so some 0:21:05.515 --> 0:21:08.155 people would leave. Then they call the vote, and then 0:21:08.155 --> 0:21:09.315 they have a majority. 0:21:10.715 --> 0:21:13.435 The virtuers wanted to use the ptas to reach school 0:21:13.475 --> 0:21:15.755 boards so they could change the textbooks and root out 0:21:15.755 --> 0:21:18.755 all the comedy and sex education stuff. But a lot 0:21:18.755 --> 0:21:20.995 of what they did was actual harassment. 0:21:21.715 --> 0:21:25.195 You know, there are examples of people throwing trash on 0:21:25.235 --> 0:21:29.795 the lawns of PTA members or threatening people by the phone, 0:21:30.315 --> 0:21:32.875 calling them at all hours of the night, you know, 0:21:32.995 --> 0:21:33.915 just to keep them awake. 0:21:34.995 --> 0:21:38.675 The PTA fought back in classic PTA form, with pamphlets 0:21:38.715 --> 0:21:41.635 and lists of meeting best practices. But this was a 0:21:41.675 --> 0:21:44.755 little like bringing knives to a gunfight. At this point 0:21:44.955 --> 0:21:47.075 there'd even been a report of a bombing at a 0:21:47.115 --> 0:21:49.475 restaurant where a PTA meeting was going to be held. 0:21:50.035 --> 0:21:52.795 This is what happens when you talk about national politics, 0:21:52.835 --> 0:21:57.155 like Robert Welch Junior, like you're in a shadowy war, a. 0:21:57.315 --> 0:22:02.435 Continuous, undeclared war in which our enemies observed no rules 0:22:02.435 --> 0:22:06.435 of international law of civilization are of human decency. 0:22:08.155 --> 0:22:11.155 The PTA kept pushing back their own way against the Birchers. 0:22:11.675 --> 0:22:13.835 There's even a quote from the PTA president in the 0:22:13.875 --> 0:22:18.955 congressional record saying these extremists are not really after the PTA, 0:22:19.715 --> 0:22:23.035 but are attempting to gain control of it to get 0:22:23.035 --> 0:22:28.355 at their real objective, the educational system. But for Orville Row, 0:22:28.755 --> 0:22:33.835 the superintendent in Darby, Montana, these extremists weren't some faraway thing. 0:22:34.675 --> 0:22:37.995 They were at his doorstep, and I walked home in 0:22:38.035 --> 0:22:38.595 the evenings. 0:22:38.675 --> 0:22:42.275 At times I have had a car follow me. Ordinarily, 0:22:42.315 --> 0:22:44.635 they apparently are cowards because. 0:22:44.315 --> 0:22:44.915 When I am. 0:22:46.355 --> 0:22:48.635 Stopped and gone over to take their license them. 0:22:48.675 --> 0:22:51.915 But there was a holy picture. 0:22:53.315 --> 0:22:57.915 But the aggression wasn't just limited to Orville. Orville's eldest 0:22:57.955 --> 0:23:00.795 son was a fifth grader in the local school. One day, 0:23:00.835 --> 0:23:03.155 there was a basketball game. He was sitting in the 0:23:03.195 --> 0:23:07.475 stands watching. He was not an unpopular kid, but midway 0:23:07.475 --> 0:23:11.235 through the game, a couple of classmates to him. They 0:23:11.235 --> 0:23:13.835 pulled him out of his seat and they began to 0:23:13.835 --> 0:23:18.115 beat him mercilessly. This is Gail again, his sister. 0:23:18.755 --> 0:23:21.555 And when they were beating him up, he was at 0:23:21.555 --> 0:23:25.875 a basketball game in the gym and other kids were 0:23:25.875 --> 0:23:26.955 sturing it on. 0:23:27.955 --> 0:23:32.115 The kids weren't Birchers all they knew he was Orville, 0:23:32.155 --> 0:23:33.275 the Bible Burner's son. 0:23:33.995 --> 0:23:36.315 Then he's coming into the house and ask pissed why 0:23:36.955 --> 0:23:39.475 they are calling him names. 0:23:39.675 --> 0:23:42.195 I didn't do anything, and. 0:23:42.195 --> 0:23:44.275 Of course it's rather had to explain forty youngster in 0:23:44.315 --> 0:23:45.035 that age. 0:23:45.475 --> 0:23:49.795 He came home bloodied. He was We were all confused, 0:23:49.795 --> 0:23:52.915 Why you know, what did I do? Why did this happen? 0:23:54.395 --> 0:23:57.515 The tipping point came when Orville A. Row was driving 0:23:57.555 --> 0:24:00.195 his whole family along one of the roads around Darby 0:24:01.155 --> 0:24:04.995 suddenly another car appeared and tried to run them off 0:24:05.035 --> 0:24:08.715 the road. They all could have died, and that was 0:24:08.755 --> 0:24:13.915 the last straw. After years of harassment, he decided it 0:24:13.955 --> 0:24:15.435 was time to leave Darby. 0:24:16.555 --> 0:24:20.435 He sacrificed for the family. And I know that was 0:24:20.475 --> 0:24:23.675 a really difficult thing to not stay in fight because 0:24:23.715 --> 0:24:27.475 my dad has so much integrity and he was a 0:24:27.515 --> 0:24:33.755 tough guy. And if he hadn't had a family, I 0:24:33.875 --> 0:24:36.235 firmly believe my brothers and I believe he would have 0:24:36.275 --> 0:24:39.195 stayed and he would have fought this situation. 0:24:40.955 --> 0:24:43.155 The people of Derby had a picnic for the LaRose 0:24:43.195 --> 0:24:46.875 before they packed up and left. Montana had been Orville's 0:24:46.875 --> 0:24:49.675 home since he was a kid, the place he'd loved 0:24:49.675 --> 0:24:52.635 to fish and hunt, taught school, and raised a family. 0:24:53.515 --> 0:24:56.835 When the LaRose left, the school system didn't just lose 0:24:56.875 --> 0:25:01.515 its superintendent, It fell apart. There were twenty three teachers 0:25:01.555 --> 0:25:06.075 in the Darby Consolidated School that fall, only seven went 0:25:06.115 --> 0:25:09.595 back to work. Things were never the same for the 0:25:09.955 --> 0:25:13.195 row family either. When I called the kids up, none 0:25:13.235 --> 0:25:16.155 of them really wanted to talk about this. Then they 0:25:16.275 --> 0:25:18.875 changed their mind. I think, if I had to guess, 0:25:19.475 --> 0:25:22.035 because they wanted to stand up against the people who 0:25:22.075 --> 0:25:26.195 did this to their family, to their father, and also 0:25:26.555 --> 0:25:29.555 to their mother. Dorothy, my dad. 0:25:29.395 --> 0:25:33.715 Said, before this happened, she was such a fun person, 0:25:33.955 --> 0:25:37.315 great sense of humor. I'd love to hear my dead 0:25:37.395 --> 0:25:41.275 stories of my mom because I didn't, I didn't witness 0:25:42.435 --> 0:25:45.915 a lot of this, and so you know, we were 0:25:45.955 --> 0:25:55.475 all cheated out of an amazing person. And just I 0:25:55.595 --> 0:26:00.155