Last week, Iowa Republicans made state senator Joni Ernst their standardbearer in the race to succeed Tom Harkin in the U.S. Senate, even though Ernst ran on a no-questions-asked conservative platform. She will face Democratic Congressman Bruce Braley in November. Ernst was already under fire for calling May 24’s mass shooting in Santa Barbara “an unfortunate accident.” Now Ernst has been caught ranting about a thoroughly debunked anti-United Nations conspiracy theory.
On Thursday, the Iowa Democratic Party released audio of Ernst speaking at a campaign rally in Ida Grove, roughly an hour east of Sioux City, in November 2013. Ernst was railing about the perceived dangers of Agenda 21, a sustainable development plan adopted at Earth Summit 1992. Ernst claimed that it was a backdoor attempt to destroy private property rights. She claimed that it could be used to force farmers off their land and herd them into the cities. She also claimed to have attended an Agenda 21 conference at which she learned about the supposed evils of Agenda 21. If she wins in November, Ernst said, she vowed, “No more Agenda 21.” Listen here.
In truth, Agenda 21 is nothing of the sort. It is a voluntary program aimed at combating poverty, promoting health and protecting the environment. But as we all know, elements of the right want nothing to do with anything even remotely associated with the UN. This is no exception. According to Media Matters, the current right-wing fixation with Agenda 21 dates to a fictional book written by Glenn Beck in 2011 called “Agenda 21.” Its premise was that Agenda 21 was a prelude to a one-world government in which all movement would be monitored, babies would be taken from their mothers at birth, and all resources would be strictly rationed. On the contrary, Agenda 21 explicitly states that national governments are primarily responsible for carrying it out. Tariq Banuri, director of the UN’s Division for Sustainable Development, underlined this by stating that Agenda 21 does not give the UN any binding authority over member states, and added that one of the pillars of sustainable development is “national sovereignty over national resources.” When Ernst took to the podium in November, it’s hard to believe she wasn’t aware of op-eds published by The Des Moines Register and The (Cedar Rapids) Gazette calling this anti-Agenda 21 talk for the nonsense that it is.
Ernst’s statement can’t be dismissed as a rant from a a weapons-grade wingnut, however. One of the planks in the Republican platform explicitly denounces Agenda 21 as “erosive of national sovereignty.” Several states and several municipal governments have either banned participation in Agenda 21 or are seriously considering a ban. Small wonder that Newsweek recently denounced the anti-Agenda 21 talk as one of several conspiracy theories–along with anti-vaccine talk and 9-11 trutherism–that are poisoning the national debate and potentially endangering our health.
We already knew that the Iowa Republican Party’s primary voters are tilted so far to the right that they’re willing to give their nomination to a Sarah Palin clone. Now we know that she’s also a conspiracy theorist. Iowans–and this nation–deserve better. And with Bruce Braley, they’ll get better.
Darrell Lucus is a radical lefty Jesus-lover who has been blogging for change for a decade. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook.
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