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In a new sign of antigovernment extremism creeping into the political mainstream, the Tennessee House of Representatives will vote tomorrow on a resolution condemning Agenda 21, a non-binding United Nations plan for sustainable development. In the world of far-right extremists, Agenda 21 is demonized as a sort of Trojan horse, part of a larger scheme to shatter Americans’ liberties and institute a totalitarian, one-world government known typically as the “New World Order.”

Of course, this bears no relation to the facts. Actually, the U.N. agreement is a rather benign, non-binding plan calling for governments to develop plans to meet current needs for natural resources without threatening the survival of future generations. It was adopted by 178 governments, including the U.S. under President George H.W. Bush, 20 years ago at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.

But to the John Birch Society (JBS), one of the main groups promoting the conspiracy theory about Agenda 21, it represents the end of America as we know it. This is the same group, of course, that claimed President Dwight D. Eisenhower was a secret communist.

In a big win for this big lie, the Republican National Committee (RNC) in January passed a resolution condemning Agenda 21 and calling for policymakers to be made aware of its “destructive strategies for ‘sustainable development.’” The RNC voted to give copies of its resolution to all Republican members of Congress as well as to the party’s presidential and congressional candidates. It also recommended that the anti-Agenda 21 policy be adopted in the party platform at the 2012 convention.

The Tennessee legislative proposal follows similar resolutions passed in New Jersey and North Carolina counties earlier this year.

“Is it a Communist plot to tell a landowner he can’t put a smelting plant in a residential neighborhood?” mused Bill Williams, 77, editor emeritus of The Post-Intelligencer of Paris, Tenn., in an editorial critical of the resolution last week. “Yet accusations of a U.N. plot have risen over non-partisan efforts in this state to set aside natural areas or to establish land trusts to protect areas that have scenic, historical or cultural significance.”

Parts of the state resolution are taken word-for-word from model legislation produced by JBS, he noted.

Joe McCarthy, “the senator who saw a Communist plot behind every door, could well be the guardian angel” of the legislative move “to label environmental planning as a scheme to take away citizens’ property rights,” Williams wrote.

FULL ARTICLE: Tennessee House Falls Victim to ‘Agenda 21′ Conspiracy Theory | Hatewatch | Southern Poverty Law Center.