New documents prove that Charles Koch, just like his father, was an active member of the John Birch society and the Tea Party is essentially an offshoot of that organization.

The folks over at Progressive Inc. and the Center for Media and Democracy are publishing new information from uncovered documents that prove Charles Koch was an active member of the Kansas John Birch society even up through the civil rights era.

Here is just a little of what The Progressive writes about the findings: 

Charles Koch was not simply a rank and file member of the John Birch Society in name only who paid nominal dues. He purchased and held a "lifetime membership" until he resigned in 1968. He also lent his name and his wealth to the operations of the John Birch Society in Wichita, aiding its "American Opinion" bookstore -- which was stocked with attacks on the civil rights movement, Martin Luther King, and Earl Warren as elements of the communist conspiracy. He funded the John Birch Society's promotional campaigns, bought advertising in its magazine, and supported its distribution of right-wing radio shows.

The reactionary ideas learned from his father and stoked by his ideological ally in Wichita, Bob Love of the Love Box Company, were not simply passing fancies of the young scion of an oil fortune. The tools of the trade he absorbed in his late twenties and early thirties appear to continue to animate some of his actions decades later, as with his 2014 op-ed in the Wall Street Journal claiming those who criticize him are "collectivists." The echoes of his past role reverberate along with the millions he and his brother David Koch have spent fueling a John Birch Society-like "Tea Party" peopled with right-wingers like Birchers of decades past who contend against all reasoning that the president is a communist. David Koch himself has claimed President Obama is a scary "socialist." These roots run deep in the Kochs. 

In many ways, the playbook deployed by the Kochs today through myriad organizations resembles a more sophisticated (and expensive) playbook of the John Birch Society back then. Even the recent announcement of the Kochs to give a $25 million gift to the United Negro College Fund (with strings attached requiring the recruitment of free market African American college students) echoes that past. In 1964, in the face of criticism for its assault on the civil rights movement, the John Birch Society also funded a scholarship program to give college funds to African Americans who were not active in the civil rights movement, according to documents the Progressive.org/Center for Media and Democracy has obtained. 

It has been pointed out repeatedly that the modern Tea Party is simply a reboot of the same organization famous for its numerous communistic conspiracy theories, anti-civil rights stance, and homophobic mindset.

This organization almost doomed the Republican party in the 1960's and it looks like the modern day reincarnation is ready to do the same in 2014.

The video that the Koch brothers and Tea Party do no want you to see, and the book they do not want you to read.

Courtesy of Americans Against the Tea Party: 

Her name is Claire Conner, and she’s written a book called “Wrapped In The Flag” that the Koch Brothers and the Tea Party don’t want you to see! 

According to her website, 

“Claire was twelve years old when her parents dove into the world of paranoid politics, a world dominated by the John Birch Society, an anti-Communist, anti-federal government movement. “We’re taking back the country” was the Birch mantra. 

Claire’s parents were the first two Birch members in the entire city of Chicago. Her father, Stillwell J. Conner, became a National Council member and remained in top leadership for thirty-two years. Her mother was a partner in all things Birch.” 

Claire’s new book is about the unholy coalition of Tea Party, libertarians, huge corporations, violent gun-nuts,, the religious right and the revamped John Birch Society. 

“Extremism broke my family,” Claire says. “I don’t want it to break my country.”

It is no secret that the Tea Party was wholly dreamed up and funded by the Koch brothers, and has been used to destabilize our government and render it virtually impotent. 

Understanding who is funding the group, that their agenda dates back to the John Birch society, and that the model for their astro-turf organization comes from the cigarette companies, might help us to fight them and wrest control of our country back from those who would turn it into a wasteland.

That is if it is not already too late.