The great UN anti-property rights conspiracy: Wackitude from James B. Utt—to Newt Gingrich

     You’ll recall that, last month, I described late Congressman James B. Utt’s embrace of conspiracy theories about international bankers and the U.N. (James B. Utt: conspiracy theorist).
     Utt, who died in 1970, is the man after whom Saddleback College’s James B. Utt Memorial Library is named. (The Library was dedicated in 1973.)
     I noted that Utt had written an introduction to a loony conspiracy tome whose author had ties to like-minded theorists, at least one of whom has been championed in recent years by the likes of Glenn Beck.
     It was strange to think that those nutty theories and theorists of the era that brought us the John Birch Society were still alive and well. —Strange, and a bit worrisome.
     A couple of days ago, the New York Times published an article that explains that Tea Partiers in Virginia and elsewhere have embraced a conspiracy theory, again focusing on the UN (and its alleged agenda of “one world government”), that views efforts at sustainability and the like as part of a plot against private property rights and other individual rights.
     According to the article, these Tea nuts are having an impact. And the GOP, ever willing to toss red meat at the rubes, is exploiting the situation.
     Even Newt Gingrich is getting a piece of the action:

Activists Fight Green Projects, Seeing U.N. Plot

     Across the country, activists with ties to the Tea Party are railing against all sorts of local and state efforts to control sprawl and conserve energy. They brand government action for things like expanding public transportation routes and preserving open space as part of a United Nations-led conspiracy to deny property rights and herd citizens toward cities.
     They are showing up at planning meetings to denounce bike lanes on public streets and smart meters on home appliances — efforts they equate to a big-government blueprint against individual rights.
. . .
     The [anti-UN] protests date to 1992 when the United Nations passed a sweeping, but nonbinding, 100-plus-page resolution called Agenda 21 that was designed to encourage nations to use fewer resources and conserve open land by steering development to already dense areas. They have gained momentum in the past two years because of the emergence of the Tea Party movement, harnessing its suspicion about government power and belief that man-made global warming is a hoax.
     In January, the Republican Party adopted its own resolution against what it called “the destructive and insidious nature” of Agenda 21. And Newt Gingrich took aim at it during a Republican debate in November.
     Tom DeWeese, the founder of the American Policy Center, a Warrenton, Va.-based foundation that advocates limited government, says he has been a leader in the opposition to Agenda 21 since 1992….
. . .
     Fox News has also helped spread the message.…
. . .
     On the campaign trail, Mr. Gingrich has called Agenda 21 an important issue and has said, “I would explicitly repudiate what Obama has done on Agenda 21.”….

     I went to the website of DeWeese’s American Policy Center, where I found a video in which DeWeese “explains how the United Nations’ Agenda 21 is being implemented in your local community….”
     The video is “Brought to you by Liberty News Network – a project of The John Birch Society….”

Interview with Tom DeWeese at CPAC 2011 from The John Birch Society on Vimeo.