The society says it is anti-totalitarian,[citation needed] particularly anti-socialist and anti-communist. It seeks to limit the powers of government and defends what it views as the original intention of the U.S. Constitution, which it believes is based on Christian principles. It opposes collectivism, including wealth redistribution, economic interventionism, socialism, communism, and fascism. In a 1983 edition of Crossfire, Congressman Larry McDonald (D-Georgia), then its newly appointed president, characterized the society as belonging to the Old Right rather than the New Right.[9]
The society opposed aspects of the civil rights movement in the 1960s because of its concerns that the movement had communists in important positions - for instance, in the latter half of 1965, the JBS produced a flyer titled “What’s Wrong With Civil Rights?”, to also be used as a newspaper advertisement.[10][11] As published, one of the answers provided by the JBS was: “For the civil rights movement in the United States, with all of its growing agitation and riots and bitterness, and insidious steps towards the appearance of a civil war, has not been infiltrated by the Communists, as you now frequently hear. It has been deliberately and almost wholly created by the Communists patiently building up to this present stage for more than forty years.”[12] The society opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, saying it was in violation of the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and overstepped the rights of individual states to enact laws regarding civil rights. The society is against "one world government", and has an immigration reduction view on immigration reform. It opposes the United Nations, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), and other free trade agreements. The society argues that there is a devaluing of the U.S. Constitution in favor of political and economic globalization, and that this trend is not an accident. It cites the existence of the Security and Prosperity Partnership as evidence of a push towards a North American Union.[13] Stuart A. Wright has said, their political racism however was no different from both Republicans and Democratic politicians of the time.[14]
Characterizations
