The Conservative Society of America
On April 15, 1961, Courtney formed the "Conservative Society of America" in Chicago and served as the national chairman of the new organization. The announced purpose was to support conservatives already in Congress and to recruit new candidates who would oppose liberal and/or socialist-voting congressmen regardless of partisan affiliation. By 1962, he hired Ward Poag of Nashville, Tennessee, a former John Birch Society coordinator, as national field organizer for his group. In June 1962, Courtney announced his CSA had 1,500 members representing forty-seven states. Among CSA endorsers on CSA letterhead were Bryton Barron, Medford Evans, Dan Hanson, George J. Hess, J. Bracken Lee, Harold Poeschel, Frank Ranuzzi, E. Merrill Root, and Major General Charles Willoughby.
Courtney, a member of the John Birch Society, endorsed the views expressed by Robert W. Welch, Jr. in his controversial book The Politician, which claimed that former U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower was a "conscious, dedicated agent of the communist conspiracy." Many Republican candidates at the time repudiated the John Birch Society in part because of outrage felt over Welch's book.
In 1962, Look magazine declared that Courtney's CSA had a staff of fifteen and an income of $133,000 in 1960 and $181,000 in 1961. The CSA also rated members of Congress. In 1962, it declared that there were only two 100 percent conservative Senators, Strom Thurmond of South Carolina (still a Democrat) and Republican John Tower of Texas, and three perfect House conservatives, James B. Utt of California, Clare Hoffman of Michigan, and Bruce Alger of Texas. Goldwater received an 88 percent rating, but Senate Republican Leader Everett McKinley Dirksen of Illinois garnered only a 64 percent rating. Over the years, Tower would lose his high standing with the most conservative Republicans as he steadily moderated his views. Alger's staunchly conservative views presumably contributed to his defeat for reelection by Democrat Earle Cabell in the Democratic landslide of 1964.
Courtney, also in 1962, published America's Unelected Rulers, a book which claimed that the private organization Council on Foreign Relations was seeking to hijack American foreign policy to create world government.
Courtney refused to support Richard Nixon in 1968 and served as campaign manager for former Governor George Corley Wallace, Jr., of Alabama.
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