Tulsa John Birchers Still Hoping to Hunt Down Subversives in the Sooner State

AltTulsa missed the local John Birch Society meeting a couple of weeks ago. Fortunately for Tulsa and Oklahoma politics, almost everyone else missed the meeting too.

The Tulsa World sent a reporter at the meeting, however, and he reported a grand total of 20 or so at the Birch meeting. That's an extraordinarily poor turnout in a county that went heavily Republican earlier this month, supporting such candidates as Sen. Jim Inhofe, and yet another sign of the waning influence of the Birchers.

One local person at the meeting was Sally Bell, recently a candidate for Tulsa County Commission. Bell lost to Karen Keith, but Bell blamed her loss on the World.

"The local newspaper absolutely tore me to shreds," Bell told the group. (Blame the press—a time-honored and all-purpose right-wing tradition.)

The paper said the aims of the Birchers are "to spread the gospel of anti-totalitarianism and to organize to resist the looming 'New World Order.'"

Reporter Denver Nicks also quoted Don Crosson, a leader of the local Birch organization, who identified state Sen. Randy Brogdon of Owasso as a John Birch member.

Just what the Oklahoma senate needs—another Cold War dinosaur, still working hard to resurrect the Joe McCarthy and expel Commies and other heathens (read: non-white immigrants) from the Sooner state.

Why there must be several dozen Reds hiding somewhere around here and, with Bell, Crosson, and Brogdon on the alert, we can all sleep tight tonight.