Really interesting polling data here. Of course, this is the finding that especially stood out to me--about 80% of GOP county chairs endorse the "republic, not a democracy" meme that the John Birch Society tried to inject into the nation's political bloodstream in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
New at Tusk: Trump and Haley backers view their party, their country, and their world with such stark differences, it's really no surprise no one has unified the party behind them yet.
The John Birch Society did not *invent* the "we're a republic, not a democracy" meme of course. The American fascists of the 1930s and 40s were quite fond of it as well. This screenshot is of 1946 testimony by Robert Edmondson included in his book "I Testify Against the Jews."
If I had a nickel for every time I've encountered the "we're a republic, not a democracy" meme in my research into the Oregon far right ca. 1935-2000 I'd be a rich man. I can't stress enough how absent that line was from mainstream discourse. bsky.app/profile/seth...
Here's a series of cartoon panels that Huss's friend, and chair of the Marion County GOP Betty Freauf, sent out to the many people on her mailing list in the 1980s. FWIW, in 2016 Freauf published an article saying that HItler was one of the good guys, like Jesus.
Here's that "we're a republic not a democracy" line as articulated by Kenneth Brown of Gervais, Oregon in 1940. Brown was an "America First" Silver Shirt fascist who ran in the Republican primary with the goal of restoring the US to the White Christian Republic he claimed it was meant to be.
Another "we're a republic, not a democracy" line, this one from a 1954 white supremacist and antisemitic newsletter published in Memphis, TN. This copy was owned by a Portland fascist named Grace Wick.
To give you a flavor of what sort of publication this was that promoted the "we're a republic, not a democracy" meme 4 years before the John Birch Society was founded, here's a representative page from that Jan. 1954 edition. The caricature is of a "globalist" sneaking Marxism in via "liberalism."
Here's American fascist Robert Edmondson using the "democracy not a republic" line in a 1940, America First, piece calling for a vigilante force of Americans to arise and protect their freedoms.
Thank you, this is very helpful for understanding the background to some discussions in the US. We did a survey of legislators and got some replies that we were wrong to ask about democracy as the US wasn't one.
Wow, I would have loved to have had this image in 2016 when I was battling an old classmate on Facebook over this ridiculous claim. Saving for future use.
Oregon's got such a "pleasant" history of horrible people. Thank you for doing this work. (Hope you're aware of the resources at Tracktown U, some strong collections there.)
Good to know, that stuff needs to be used. Did anybody show you Robbie McLaren's Angry White Men? I think it's very telling that Powell's staff found it too uncomfortable to have it exhibited.
We don't like knowing our horrible history.
I'd swear I heard non-Bircher conservatives (though maybe "non-Bircher" should be in scare quotes) using the "Republic not a Democracy" line in the '90s. If my memory is accurate on that point (enh, maybe) then it had gotten pretty mainstream for conservatives by that point.
I found this. Its such a bizarre point of phrase. My guess its used as a sort of talisman that strikes the listener too dumfounded to continue the discussion reasonably.
www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2016/1...
How early have you tracked the phrase being used for this purpose? Came across this antebellum article in the Tuskegee Republican, May 06, 1858, but I think I have seen it earlier.
By the way, putting this together with my other research, here is Alabama Senator Clement Claiborne Clay who gave the Republic, not a Democracy speech in 1858 pictured in 1862 on a $1 Confederate note.
That's the earliest I've seen it in those exact terms...though obviously the tension between "republic" and "democracy" as concepts was present from the founding era on. It wouldn't surprise me if defenders of slavery used that phrase to argue against "abolition democracy" in the 1850s.
Nevermind that when they talked about 'the republican form of government' they meant what we now call 'democracy' as shorthand, and the switch even occurred well within Madison's lifetime
Yeah, democracy meant 'mob rule' (more properly this is ochlocracy, but whatever) in the 1770s and 1780s
But it didn't mean that anymore as early as Madison's second term, and most certainly not by the 1820s
