Quick! Who are the foremost Democrat in Name Only politicians? If you were to say Joe Manchin and up until her switch to independent Kyrsten Sinema, your response would be understandable in a present-day context but quite wrong in a historical context. Many political questions are difficult to resolve and up for much debate, but for the question of who the most conservative Democrat was to serve in Congress in American history, the answer is without doubt Lawrence Patton McDonald (1935-1983) of Georgia. Professor Donald Wilkes (2003) scathingly wrote on him, “Conservative to a psychopathic degree, the very embodiment of the lunatic fringe of the far right, chairman of the John Birch Society, Larry McDonald was the most fanatical right-wing extremist ever to sit in Congress” (1).
The 1974 midterms resulted in many new liberal Democrats in Congress, but one district in which this was decidedly not the trend was in Georgia’s 7th, centered in Cobb County. Incumbent John W. Davis was a moderate Democrat who although he had had a segregationist record in the 1960s, he was accused of being insufficiently anti-busing. McDonald, who had unsuccessfully tried to defeat him in 1972, ran his campaign on busing, which was deeply unpopular in the South as well as nationwide generally and this resulted in him winning the primary. He won election by less than a point against Republican Quincy Collins, the closest contest in Georgia that year. However, McDonald would improve his numbers on Collins, winning by over 10 points in 1976.
When it came to party loyalty, it turned out that just about the only thing that he regularly voted with Democrats on was who to elect House speaker. In his time in office, he was by DW-Nominate standards to the right of every single elected official in Congress, with a whopping 0.884. This is further to the right than Marjorie Taylor Greene. His lifetime American Conservative Union score was a 99%, while he averaged a 5% by Americans for Democratic Action. McDonald, however, regarded himself as a Democrat in the tradition of Jefferson and Jackson.
McDonald supported returning to the gold standard, backed transferring all the functions of the Great Society to states, campaigned against the Panama Canal treaties, and expressed his belief that there was a global conspiracy to implement socialism in the United States, stating, “The drive of the Rockefellers and their allies is to create a one-world government combining supercapitalism and communism under the same tent, all under their control…Do I mean conspiracy? Yes I do. I am convinced there is such a plot, international in scope, generations old in planning, and incredibly evil in intent” (McDonald). This talk of conspiracy elicited comparisons to Senator Joseph McCarthy, who he was a fan of. For journalist Jack Anderson, McDonald was “Bush league McCarthy” (Dorman).
The 7th District Democratic organization censured him in 1978 over his refusal to support President Carter, his membership in the John Birch Society, his belief that the Constitution had no implied powers, and his advertising methods (Marion, 109). McDonald would win reelection by a greater margin than in 1976. Although successful in his district, political scientist Michael Barone (1984) would note in The Almanac of American Politics that “McDonald has fine credentials: a good education, a successful career as a urologist. But his politics are so far out, and his political skill so limited, that he has little impact”. On July 23, 1980, McDonald proposed to ban trade with the USSR after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, but it cratered 124-284. On June 27, 1977, and again on July 22, 1980, he proposed denying any Legal Services Corporation funds for gay rights legal cases, and these amendments passed overwhelmingly, but would not get through the Senate. Of course, he opposed the very existence of the Legal Services Corporation, but he took vote wins where he could get them. McDonald also opposed all US participation in the United Nations, and in 1983 he sponsored a resolution with Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.) to put this into effect. Indeed, he sponsored many resolutions and bills that went nowhere, including:
. Repealing the Gun Control Act of 1968.
. Cutting Congress’ pay by 10% if the budget is not balanced.
. Barring women from U.S. service academy membership.
. Ending all federal involvement in education.
. Eliminating the income limit for Social Security recipients.
. Abolishing the Federal Election Commission.
. Repeal the Occupational Safety and Hazard Act of 1970, thereby ending OSHA.
. Recreating the House Internal Security Committee.
(Congress.gov)
McDonald and Foreign Authoritarians
Despite McDonald’s stated belief in American freedoms, he seemed quite keen on embracing authoritarians if they were anti-communist. He had a portrait of Generalissimo Francisco Franco in his office and more controversially, once suggested in a debate nominating Rudolf Hess, at one time Hitler’s number three man in Nazi Germany and incarcerated in Spandau Prison for life, for a Nobel Peace Prize for his anti-communism. McDonald had a bit less controversially called for the release of Hess on account of old age. The British had been pushing for this and President Nixon had supported it in 1974 (Baker).
Quackery, Civil Rights, and MLK
As a urologist, McDonald embraced quackery in his pushing of laetrile as a treatment for cancer in late-stage patients and was ordered to pay a judgment in a malpractice lawsuit on the matter in 1976. His record was one of repeated opposition to civil rights measures, voting against extending the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in 1975 and 1982, opposing all funding measures for the Civil Rights Commission, and he was even one of only three representatives to vote against the Equal Credit Opportunity Act Amendments, which expanded the 1974 ban on credit discrimination on sex to race. His reasons appeared to have to do with his staunch opposition to federal anything, but he was also a critic of MLK.
McDonald was one of the few legislators to consistently vote against any honors for civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr., asserting that per FBI evidence he “was associated with and being manipulated by communists and secret communist agents” (The Spokesman-Review). He was also thus one of the few opponents of the MLK holiday who engaged in personal attacks against King. McDonald instead proposed honoring Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver (Congress.gov).
Western Goals Foundation & John Birch Society
In 1979, McDonald founded with General John K. Singlaub and John Rees the Western Goals Foundation, which attracted support from America but more so from abroad. Although his impact on Congress was nil, this was not an insignificant organization and he used it to conduct his own surveillance of potential communist activities. This included an officer of the Los Angeles Police Department copying records on left-wing activists to be destroyed and their addition to the organization’s database for further monitoring, for which they were sued by the ACLU. This organization’s advisory board included such figures as Singlaub, Joseph McCarthy’s counsel Roy Cohn, Congressmen Bob Stump of Arizona and Phil Crane of Illinois, General George S. Patton IV, novelist Taylor Caldwell, economist Henry Hazlitt, theoretical physicist Edward Teller, and former FBI agent and John Birch Society figure Dan Smoot. With this organization, McDonald sought to fill in the gap left from the end of the House Internal Security Committee (formerly House Committee on Un-American Activities) in 1975. Interestingly enough, a good deal of the funding came from West Germany from men who wore medals and never traveled to the United States (Dorman). The organization also provided funding for the Contras after the adoption of the Boland Amendment in 1983.
By 1983, John Birch Society founder Robert W. Welch was at 83 years old ailing, and as the only Bircher in Congress, McDonald was the natural choice to succeed him. He sought to grow the organization from 50,000-80,000 estimated members to half a million members. However, McDonald would never get to implement his vision.
McDonald’s One Way Flight
On August 30, 1983, McDonald boarded KAL 007 to Seoul, South Korea, where he was to attend an anti-communist conference sponsored by the Heritage Foundation. Unfortunately, the flight entered Soviet airspace on September 1st and the Soviet air force shot it down, killing all 269 passengers on board. Thus, he was the only member of Congress ever killed by the USSR.
There were some conservatives who afterwards thought that McDonald was specifically targeted for assassination, but this is highly unlikely given his boarding of KAL 007 was a last-minute decision. What’s more, I personally think the Soviets had better things to do than to assassinate McDonald; there were much greater anti-communist targets out there. Although his widow Kathy ran for his seat, ultimately the Democratic primary was won by Buddy Darden, who was far better suited for the state’s Democratic Party, and he then won the election. The John Birch Society reverted back to Welch as the leader until his death on January 6, 1985.
References
Baker, L. (2007, September 27). Life imprisonment of Nazi Hess a “charade”. Reuters.
Retrieved from
https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-archives-hess-idUKL2785983520070928
Barone, M. (1984). The almanac of American politics. Washington, D.C.: National Journal.
Retrieved from
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Larry_McDonald
Dewar, H. & Aplin-Brownlee, V. (1983, September 2). Rep. McDonald Hailed As Right-Wing Martyr. The Washington Post.
Retrieved from
Dorman, Z. (2018, February 2). The Congressman Who Created His Own Deep State. Really.
Politico.
Retrieved from
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/12/02/larry-mcdonald-communists-deep-state-222726/
Griffin, G.E. (1983). The subversion factor: a history of treason in modern America.
Retrieved from
; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89-cCq1BMyc
Marion, N.E. & Oliver, W. (2014). Killing Congress: assassinations, attempted assassinations and other violence against members of Congress. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
McDonald, L.P. Introduction for Allen, G. (1976). The Rockefeller File. Seal Beach, CA: 76′ Press.
McDonald’s peers note tragic irony. (1983, September 2). The Spokesman-Review.
Representative Lawrence P. McDonald. Congress.gov
Retrieved from
https://www.congress.gov/member/larry-mcdonald/M000413
Wilkes, D.E. (2003, September 3). The Death Flight of Larry McDonald. School of Law University of Georgia.
Retrieved from
https://digitalcommons.law.uga.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1049&context=fac_pm
Mad Politics: The Bizarre, Fascinating, and Unknown of American Political History 
This brings back memories, I was going to law school in DC at the time of the KAL shootdown, and thus had the privilege of attending the public memorial service for McDonald at Constitution Hall.
By the way, McDonald was designated “shadow” defense secretary in the “shadow cabinet” organized by prominent conservatives in February 1977 in the early days of the Carter administration.
from the book “How Satan turned America against God” by Dr. and Pastor W. Grady, there are some interesting info about the disdain with which the widow was treated by POTUS Ronald Reagan after KAL 007 bombing. Ronnie, a Catholic, hated him, a Methodist. Someone was building the Republican party as the only religious party of the Congress. For this reason the Methodist Larry McDonald and the Baptist Jimmy Carter had to be torpedoed… The first physically (blaming then the Ruskies), the second politically with a poisoned deal with Iran… The process took time but at the end the Republican party kept the monopoly about conspiracy & Christianity, meanwhile the Democratic became a brainless party for unlimited sexual liberty (LGBTQ)….
The true conspiracy today hides the story on how both parties were transformed. Not only Trump’s heavy fascist axe on the Republicans but especially the Democrats are a dead mummy emptied of Jesus’ gospel replaced with the devilish gospel of the “sexual liberation front”.