LaMalfa and Agenda 21

Last week, I ventured to the Chico Tea Party meeting to hear Doug LaMalfa speak. Approximately 40 white, mostly older people gathered at Marie Callender’s to dine and listen and interact with our new congressman.

LaMalfa spoke at length about the Rand Paul filibuster, confirming that he did visit the Senate floor and yes, he did slip some peanut M&Ms to the rogue senator. He joked that, given his rice-farmer heritage, he wished he had slipped the upstart Kentuckian some Rice Krispies bars.

LaMalfa continued with anecdotes and rants against President Obama that had the audience nodding along.

Following his speech, LaMalfa took questions. Questions about all the “communist professors” at Butte College. Questions regarding Bill Ayers and his education program “Common Core,” a suspected indoctrination program affecting every kid in America. LaMalfa had a staffer take down the name of the program to investigate further.

But the most bizarre questions came regarding Agenda 21, a non-binding U.N. document from the early 1990s calling on its signatories to try to take care of the Earth. It is a feel-good ecotopian John Lennon song embedded in a government document. It has no requirements of any member nation to take any specific action by any specific deadline.

To some folks, however, Agenda 21 is the new “specter that hangs over Europe,” a new green Communist Manifesto. Karl Marx reborn in hemp T-shirts and Birkenstocks. Tea Party groups across the country are all aflutter with this paranoid conspiracy theory, with films and books circulated.

LaMalfa relayed grave concerns regarding Agenda 21. He sees it “creeping into local government,” adding it is “creeping in all the time.” He went on to state that Agenda 21 is the inspiration for the “removal of dams, high-speed rail and local county planning.” Really?

Afterward, I caught LaMalfa’s eye and read him my notes. I asked if he stood by his allegations that Agenda 21 “is creeping into local government” and that “dam removal, high-speed rail and local county planning” are results of Agenda 21.

“Yes,” he stated calmly, looking me directly in the eye. A short simple clear answer. No wiggling away from his statement. Wow!

Amazed that he would admit such, I then asked LaMalfa if he believed the United Nations was behind Butte County’s new general plan. “Well, maybe not the Butte County plan,” he conceded.