Convention 100 delegates and alternates were self-identified Birchers.") Their silence does little to aid the post-election assessments or the Radical Right's political strength and the prospects for continued strength. Where have rightists entrenched themselves in local parties? How strong is their local discipline and dedication?
It is easy to criticise simply because the book could have done so much more. Indeed, there is so much unknown about the Radical Right that it should provide ambitious researchers and journalists with fertile fields for many years.
Meanwhile, the rest of us might learn from the Overstreets' commentary on a friend who decided be didn't have the time to read a rightist publication:
With measured contempt he read its title aloud: Dan Smoot Speaks. Then he asked, "But who wants to Hsten?" -and dropped the publication into the wastebasket...
To toss into the wastebasket or otherwise ignore that which offends our sense of truth and fairness may be a satisfying gesture; but it may also be a costly one. May we not, as a people, be repeating once more a type of folly for which the world has paid, in this century, an appalling price?
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