<p>Only a tiny majority of Republicans in contested races will go on record with an opinion about Sandy Hook conspiracist Alex Jones. A historian of the conspiratorial far right explains why. </p>
An interview with Edward H. Miller, author of A Conspiratorial Life: Robert Welch, the John Birch Society, and the Revolution of American Conservatism. In the book, Miller argues that Welch’s paranoid right-wing nativism, dismissed by thinkers like William F. Buckley, gradually moved from the fringe into mainstream conservatism.
<p>Today, the society itself and its beliefs are growing. North Texas is the center <a href="https://www.texasobserver.org/the-john-birch-society-sees-a-renaissance-in-north-texas/" target=" blank">of its resurgence</a>. Welch’s legacy continues to live on in modern day conservatism.</p>