The John Birch Society, Agenda 21, and the GOP Platform

[LuvNewcastle]

I was in a conversation yesterday about the various problems we have in our town. This guy kept bringing up Agenda 21 as the culprit behind those issues and he told me to look up Agenda 21 on the internet and get back with him about it. He talks to teabaggers, so I should have known something was up, but I Googled it this morning and found a bunch of conspiracy theories. Theories about Agenda 21 seem to be gaining ground in the GOP; opposition to Agenda 21 was included in the Republican Party platform and Alabama has passed a law against it. It appears that the Republicans are steadily constructing that alternate reality of theirs.


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DEDHAM, Mass. — Some of the books on the table were old and musty-smelling, as though they'd been kept for a couple of decades in an attic with an ill-maintained roof. Their subjects were old and musty-smelling as well; William F. Buckley: Pied Piper of the Establishment was one of them. There were also tomes from ancient lost souls like Medford Evans and Dan Smoot. There was a creationist tract of indeterminate age. It was the early evening at the Endicott Estate, a lordly old pile here just outside Boston, and the John Birch Society had come to call.

Next to the old, musty-smelling books was a pile of new pamphlets and newsletters and flyers. These dealt with Agenda 21, a 20-year old plan for sustainable growth that came out of the United Nations, and out of the Rio Conference on the environment, in 1992. The program was a non-binding set of resolutions aimed at encouraging nations toward conservation of their resources and preserving their open spaces, and promoting what became known as "sustainable growth." In Agenda 21, however, the Birchers, and an increasing number of more mainstream conservatives — including Fox News, Newt Gingrich, and, rhetorically anyway, the Republican National Committee which, in January, called Agenda 21 "destructive and insidious" — see a worldwide plot to destroy private property rights and force upon us all a one-world government of "the elites" through radical environmentalism, forcing us all to live in the regimented hellholes of our cities. The other Republican candidates, alas, are seen by many people in the movement as being squishy on the subject.

They see the hand of Agenda 21 in everything from concerns about overpopulation, to town water regulations, to zoning-board decisions, to the "Green Teams" that are formed in local high schools, to the smart meters on home appliances, which they believe are really monitors that transmit data to a kind of central command that, one day, will punish people who use too much power. The instrument of Agenda 21, they say, is the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives, a non-profit founded in 1990 to coordinate local governments efforts toward sustainable developments. The ICLEI, it is said, is the tip of the Agenda 21 spear.

There were about 15 of us here on Wednesday night, including one gentleman in a tricornered hat, to listen to Hal Shurtleff, the regional director of the John Birch Society, explain the plot. And about early on in Shurtleff's spiel, about when he referred to the U.N. as "the House of Hiss," and shortly before he began whacking the U.N. around for the alleged crimes of its peacekeepers around the world, I remembered something I'd forgotten about the Birchers: For all their elaborate and fascinating conspiracy-spinning, they're as dull as dishwater. The digressions are endless, the connections evanescent. The secret plans always take 20 minutes to explain and, by the time Shurtleff had gotten around to showing us how Maurice Strong, a former U.N. official who got rich as an oilman, "came to the attention of David Rockefeller. Wonder how that happened?," you had lost the thread of what was going on entirely. (His basic point began as the fact that Strong once said something loopy about the fall of industrialized nations.) There is also the traditional Bircher distrust of "elites." (John Kerry and his yacht come in for a hiding here.) And there are, of course, some of the snarkish kind of asides that made Buckley realize what a liability the Birchers were to the march of conservatism, causing him to read them out of the movement, which is why he became the Pied Piper of the Establishment, I reckon.


Read more: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/agenda-21-conspiracy-2012-6668296#ixzz26jb7R9lQ

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If you want to understand just how extreme and conspiratorial many in the “mainstream” Republican party have become, look no further than a resolution on Agenda 21 passed quietly in January.

Agenda 21 is a completely non-binding international framework for sustainability passed in 1992 at the Rio Earth Summit. The framework, which sets out very loose aspirational goals for making communities more efficient and less carbon-intensive, was signed by then President George H.W. Bush and later upheld by Presidents Bill Clinton and President George W. Bush.

Since the framework was adopted, right-wing conspiracy theorists have pushed bizarre theories about Agenda 21 being a central tool for the United Nations to create a one-world government and take away the rights of local property owners. In recent years, elevated by the megaphone of extreme pundits like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, these conspiracies made their way into mainstream politics. Today, Agenda 21ers — many affiliated with the Tea Party and the John Birch Society — are peddling fears about Agenda 21 in order to stop basic efficiency and renewable energy programs on the state level.

Conspiracy theorists active in politics have called Agenda 21 “socialism on steroids” that would cause Americans to be “herded into centers like the UN wants.”

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/08/15/523931/republican-party-officially-embraces-garbage-agenda-21-conspiracy-theories-as-its-national-platform/

[Raven]

1. Shurtleff was in my town a few months ago...

urging people to vote down the Town's Economic Development Plan because it contained sustainable development principles and was, therefore, furthering the goals of Agenda 21 and facilitating the takeover of the Town by the United Nations...no joke. When people questioned him he got personal and nasty. This is a pretty conservative town but people were really put off by the guy. He eventually folded like a cheap suit.

[LuvNewcastle]

2. The guy I was talking to yesterday told me that our public

transportation problems were related to Agenda 21. He also tied several other things to Agenda 21; I can't even remember it all. He said that cities across the country were forced to adopt Agenda 21 or lose any federal money. This is the kind of thing that happens when people subject themselves to right-wing media and never watch anything else, so their views aren't moderated and they never hear an opposing viewpoint.

[cally]

3. Thanks for this. I had no

idea,

[Raven]

4. These people are very dangerous and they

have no qualms about going after people personally. Shurtleff went on the town's Facebook page with his crap and I gave Will Pitt a heads up about it. Will posted a response and almost immediately Shurtleff went after him personally. The town Planner who developed the economic development plan posted to defend it and Shurtleff went after her accusing her of taking bribes from developers and consultants. This is their tactic and many people won't stand up to them because they are afraid of being attacked.

[LuvNewcastle]

6. A lot of us are oblivious to the crazy shit that's being spread

by all the nuts out there. This kind of thing needs to be exposed to the light of day and discussed before it does anymore damage.

[lunasun]

5. so what is this agenda?

from TP.org comments
Here is Principle 1:

“Human beings are at the centre of concerns for sustainable development. They are entitled to a healthy and productive life in harmony with nature.

“If you take the time to actually read the document, you’ll find that there is absolutely nothing in it that in any form or fashion could be characterized as a conspiracy to create a one world government. In fact, the rights to national sovereignty are affirmed in the very next principle: Principle 2.”
.......................................
once again voluntary people

[LuvNewcastle]

7. Just a few of the theories:

1. Humans are to be herded into certain corridors for habitation. The rural areas are to be left for animals, who are to be regarded as more important than humans.

2. Bike-riding advocates are part of the plan. They're trying to do away with cars in cities by not making parking spaces.

3. As usual, there's a big secret de-population effort being carried out.

[Raven]

8. Right! and this even embarrassed the

baggers in my town.

[lunasun]

10. I had to live with a Bircher as a young child and attend their Freedom convention

and local talks in 60's so I know gow far out of reality they go with conspiracy theories

What is happening in this country now is giving me a mild form of total freak out flashbacks
Who tf ever thought this crap would surface again???

oh yea the Kochs and their money funders thats who!

p.s. one way to stop that" secret depopulation" from happening is to restrict birth control and ban reproductive choices...eh??

[Raven]

11. I think the birchers in the '60s were a little

saner and more decent...they were still crazy but I don't remember them being as nasty. Am I right? You would know better that I.

[oldhippydude]

12. the 60's version were pretty mean

in southern Idaho where they had a lot of members, it was insufferable

[lunasun]

13. Oh pleeez...... it was the civil rights era = terrible nasty racist shit

total haters
KKK's friends

MLK was the biggest hate on (Communist of course)
Sorta antisemetic too cuz some were helping the blacks with civil rights and had some communistic background in Russia or some link I didnt get

I have never heard of radical right wingers from any era that are sane or decent human beings

they hated the UN back then so nothing new with that either
UNICEF was most evil
they had a war on the War on Poverty ...limited government crap
Johnson was fighting in Vietnam to BRING communism to the USA
Hate on countries coming out of white colonialism too at that time(some moving to socialism) and funneled $$ from fundraising to keep those countries in civil war or pro Right wing govrnmts

and of course communists around every corner ...maybe your neighbor, kid's teacher ,librarian or a relative ...they needed to know ..every where treason...wanted to take over library programs ,school boards for God and freedom ....sound familiar????
They gave out a lot of gifts-dishware knifes/ a lot of cookingware that was fashionalbe back then
I often wonder if the baggers today get free shit or food bags at those meetings that keep them coming back since they cant pay them cash .

[pampango]

9. Didn't realize that opposition to Agenda 21 was in the GOP platform, but it is:

GOP Platform 2012:

Under our Constitution, treaties become the law of the land. So it is all the more important that the Congress – the Senate through its ratifying power and the House through its appropriating power – shall reject agreements whose long-range impact on the American sovereignty is ominous or unclear. These include the U.N. Convention on Women’s Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty as well as the various declarations from the U.N. Conference on Environment and Development.

Because of our concern for American sovereignty, domestic management of our fisheries, and our country’s long-term energy needs, we have deep reservations about the regulatory, legal, and tax regimes inherent in the Law of the Sea Treaty and congratulate Senate Republicans for blocking its ratification. We strongly reject the U.N. Agenda 21 as erosive of American sovereignty, and we oppose any form of U.N. Global Tax. We oppose any diplomatic efforts that could result in giving the United Nations unprecedented control over the Internet. International regulatory control over the open and free Internet would have disastrous consequences for the United States and the world.

To shield members of our Armed Forces and others in service to America from ideological prosecutions overseas, the Republican Party does not accept the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. We support statutory protection for U.S. personnel and officials as they act abroad to meet our global security requirements.

http://whitehouse12.com/republican-party-platform/#Item12

I knew republicans were paranoid about threats to American sovereignty but I didn't know that included opposition to Agenda 21 in their platform not that they opposed the Convention on Women’s Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty, as threats to our sovereignty.

Thanks for the thread, LuvNewcastle.