Republican Conspiracy Theories

“Communist Wealth Redistribution” via the United Nations

Republican Party leadership is warning about the United Nations and its “extreme environmental protection initiatives.” The UN supposedly is attempting to gain control over American citizens. Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich is using such accusations in his attempt to court members of the tea party movement.

Scientists and environmentalists who warn against climate change and other threatening developments had it bad enough under George W. Bush’s administration; now the Obama administration seems hesitant to get involved in questions of climate and nature protection.

Given current Republican attitudes on the subject, above all among tea party movement adherents, people concerned with environmental protection should be getting cold chills at the thought of a Republican president.

The New York Times reports activists with tea party connections are protesting all over the country about state and/or local efforts to control urban sprawl and impose energy saving measures.

In Maine, for example, the tea party-backed Republican governor has scrapped an important project to reduce traffic density on Route 1. In Florida, an attempt to initiate high-speed rail service was abandoned because of conservative opposition. And in several cities and municipalities, funding for programs to measure and reduce CO2 emissions were done away with.

That alone shouldn’t shock observers. The bottom line is that individual programs should be debated and discussed on a factual level to determine whether they are realistic and appropriate.

“Comprehensive Plans for Extremist Environmental Protection”

Republicans and tea party movement activists fight not only against the expansion of public transportation networks and the construction of bicycle paths; they’re fighting against a global conspiracy as stated in resolutions adopted by the Republican National Committee (RNC) in January at their winter meeting in New Orleans.

The enemy they target seeks to limit individual and decision-making freedom of individuals and force the population into the cities. The enemy is identified as the United Nations and their Agenda 21. This proposal was developed in 1992 with the goal of developing and enacting sustainable concepts in business, environmental and development policy.

And that’s what Republicans consider extremely dangerous. Their “Resolution Exposing United Nations Agenda 21” begins with the statements:

WHEREAS, the United Nations Agenda 21 is a comprehensive plan of extreme environmentalism, social engineering, and global political control that was initiated at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992; and,

WHEREAS, the United Nations Agenda 21 is being covertly pushed into local communities throughout the United States of America through the International Council of Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) through local “sustainable development” policies such as Smart Growth, Wildlands Project, Resilient Cities, Regional Visioning Projects, and other “Green” or “Alternative” projects; and . . .

And from there, it proceeds with its oracle-like conspiratorial depiction of the United Nations as a threat to the American Way of Life saying the UN’s “radical plan of so-called sustainable development” even threatens the concept of private property including homes, automobiles and farms.

What the United Nations views as social justice sounds to the Republican Party leadership like a “socialist/communist redistribution of wealth.” The resolution goes on to say that due to “the destructive and insidious nature of United Nations Agenda 21” and its dangerous goals, the RNC calls upon Republicans to oppose it at all levels.

They Want to Control Us

Newt Gingrich, one of the two more promising Republican candidates for the presidency, has been inveighing for months against the UN and Agenda 21. He stated as early as July that it would lead to the nationalization of private property. “(Agenda 21 is) part of a general problem of United Nations and other international bureaucracies that are seeking to maintain an extra-constitutional control over us, and I reject that model totally,” said Gingrich.

Gingrich, who admits that he knew nothing of Agenda 21 prior to embarking on his election campaign, is obviously hoping to score points with followers of the tea party movement and lessen Romney’s chances of winning the nomination. His argument can also be used in opposing President Obama’s policies. In June, Obama initiated the White House Rural Council, a project the administration wants to use to strengthen rural communities.

Commentator Eric Bolling of the Fox News Business Channel says the council is reminiscent of Agenda 21 and reminded his listeners of what, in his opinion, the UN stood for: Global control by way of “a one world order.”

In September, Gingrich announced at a tea party movement function that if he is elected president, one of his first acts would be to deny funding to any project that was in any way connected with Agenda 21.

Conspiracy theories fall on fertile ground with many tea party supporters. That’s why they currently target the efforts of the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI), something explicitly mentioned in the RNC document. The ICLEI supports cooperation between cities and municipalities with the goal of environmental protection and sustainable development.

In the U.S., the council offers advice on reducing CO2 emissions. According to the New York Times, conservatives oppose the use of “smart meters” that measure the actual energy used in a home. According to one tea party supporter in Roanoke, Virginia, “The real job of smart meters is to spy on you and control you – when you can and cannot use electrical appliances.” Roanoke hopes using smart meters will help conserve electricity.

Meanwhile, other voices vehemently contradict what the conservative activists are preaching. And finally, many supporters of environmental protection and energy conservation have never even heard of UN Agenda 21. The New York Times says that makes it difficult for them to be part of a global conspiracy.

Riding a Wave of Irrational Public Fear

An editorial commentary in the Roanoke Times [http://www.roanoke.com/editorials/wb/304014] recently agreed it was a prudent idea for Virginia counties to remain affiliated with the ICLEI: “The board’s only two Republicans had to break with their party and join one of the board’s three independents in voting ‘yes’ to ICLEI and to keeping things real in county government.” The editorial went on to say, “Real, as in rejecting the fantastic notion that ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability U.S. is a one-world, UN-directed conspiracy of global domination determined to control local land-use decisions and destroy private property rights.”

Community opposition to the ICLEI was supported by a wave of irrational public fear that board foreman Richard Flora compared to the McCarthy era witch hunts. The editorial concluded, “Instead of global communism, the perceived threat today is global environmentalism imposed by — well, someone from the outside.”

How irrational the fear of a power grab by the United Nations really is can be seen by the organization’s inability to get members to decide anything of real importance — such as the Kyoto Protocol — which even the Obama administration rejected. And finally, the U.S. is the largest contributor to the UN and most influential member of the Security Council.

Just what are Republicans afraid of, anyway?