For decades, the radical right proclaimed a conspiratorial “New World Order” as either in existence and being strengthened or in development. In cruel irony they have produced an actual New World Order right before our eyes.
Southwest Virginia witnessed the expression of wild ideas pushed by the Tea Party movement and the radical right. One was an anti-government conspiracy theory, perhaps best classified under the New World Order (NWO) conspiracy. The NWO conspiracy theory says that many elites are working behind the scenes to create events to enslave the global population. Adherents argued that many world leaders were part of this plot and that they manufactured events like the coronavirus pandemic and mass shootings to create social unrest.
In New River Valley in Southwest Virginia, the NRV Livability Initiative received a $1 million federal grant in 2011 to develop plans for housing, energy use, cultural heritage, and economic and job development across a four-county area. However, hundreds of radical right protesters showed up at community meetings held by local governments to discuss the Initiative. The protesters claimed it was part of the United Nations Agenda 21 and the New World Order conspiracy.
The UN Agenda 21 has admirable goals: end all poverty and hunger, ensure healthy lives, ensure inclusive and equitable quality education, achieve gender equality, and empower all women and girls. Yet the Tea Party people argued that the proposed planning was part of the NWO conspiracy that among other things would take their property. Consequently, they held up the planning for a while by disrupting local government meetings.
The Tea Party/NWO conspiracy adherents flexed their muscle again in 2013, blocking the likely establishment of the Crooked Road Music Heritage Trail as a National Heritage Area, managed by the National Park Service, and bringing billions of tourist dollars to the region.
The Crooked Road Trail is a state-designated highway trail stretching 330 miles and looping through 19 counties in Southwest Virginia. It marks the birthplace of country music. Country music’s “big bang” is considered to have started with the Carter family going into the studio in Bristol, Virginia (the bottom of the loop), in 1927, and recording six songs.
Significantly, for nearly 80 years, we had one major type of international “order.” First, there was the United Nations. And then NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization). After World War Two, Western European countries joined the US and Canada to set up NATO to counter the then Soviet Union. The alliance’s famous Article 5 holds that Nato members will defend an ally that comes under attack. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the United States became the only member to invoke Article 5, requiring Canada and European countries to come to its support.
During the last 80 years, the United States has been the “leader of the free world.”
Then, the Tea Party and the radical right produced the so-called MAGA movement, which brought us to this point.
Now—before our eyes—is the impending imposition of a new world order. The United States is no longer the leader of the free world—i.e., democracies—exemplified most recently by the treatment of Ukraine. Instead, the Trump regime is aligning the US with the non-free world—Russia, Hungary, North Korea.
Trump started the weakening of NATO in his first term and has accelerated it during this second term. Relatedly, Russian President Putin has long prioritized this issue.
It is morbidly interesting that Trump is dumping on our neighbor and friend, Canada, and favoring Russia when Canada has a larger economy than Russia.
Among its current rampage through vital federal agencies, the Trump-Musk regime stopped funding USAID with the expressed intent of abolishing the agency. “These cuts impact a wide range of critical programs,” UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres told reporters. Guterres expressed the UN’s gratitude “for the leading role” the US has played over decades in providing overseas aid. However, he said, “The consequences [of these cuts in funding] will be especially devastating for vulnerable people around the world… [The cuts] will make the world “less healthy, less safe, and less prosperous.”
Among USAID programs is the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a global health program started by Republican President George W. Bush; PEPFAR fights AIDS by providing services and supplies, training, and technical assistance. PEDFAR is credited with saving an estimated 25 million lives. Yet, it is being eliminated. If this new world order is not what the American people want, we had better get busy trying to thwart it.