Beck Backs Birch: Conspiracy Theory ‘Makes Sense’

Growing up, CNN host Glenn Beck thought the extreme-right John Birch Society was “a bunch of nuts.” But on his July 25 Headline News show, Beck told his JBS guest, “You are starting to make more and more sense to me.”

The visitor to the “Glenn Beck” show was Sam Antonio, the 31-year-old Southern California coordinator of the John Birch Society. Antonio said JBS believes a 2005 agreement with Canada and Mexico “has allowed the Mexican government to get a hold on our enforcement of laws here in America.”

Antonio was referring to the SPP, the Security and Prosperity Partnership agreement. The pact, aimed at easing regulatory barriers between the United States, Canada and Mexico, has been seized upon by nativists and far-right groups as a secret conspiracy to eliminate borders and replace the dollar bill with the “Amero,” accepted everywhere from Toronto to Mexico City. No one has done more to promote this bogus conspiracy theory than JBS, which in the bad old days saw communists hiding under every bed — including President Eisenhower, hardly a commie candidate in most minds.

“We are just exposing the truth that’s been out there for many, many years,” said Antonio. SPP, he added, will be “an opening of our borders for Canada and Mexico and eventually all throughout the Americas.”

That “truth” has been bedeviling many a politician recently. The New York Times reported today that Rudolph Guliani and Mitt Romney, both Republican presidential candidates, were stumped when asked about the alleged plot.

This wasn’t the first time a JBS official made a recent appearance on CNN. For a few seconds last fall, another CNN host, Lou Dobbs, showed a clip of JBS President John McManus lambasting the SPP. “What’s going on is a super elite is taking control,” he said.