I founded the American Policy Center (APC) 30 years ago, back in 1986. I had goals to accomplish and dreams of success. Mostly I just wanted to make a difference in protecting our culture and our unique American form of government as a republic that protects the individual, the free market, and the security of our homes.
Over the years, I’ve focused on issues including personal privacy, illegal immigration, public education, and of course the assault on our very way of life through the UN’s creation of Agenda 21. I know that APC has had an impact on these issues. But I never really knew just how to measure our reach or success. Have I been able to make the difference I had hoped for? Have I changed lives? Well, over the past few weeks I was finally able to get an idea of my reach and it came in several very surprising ways.
As the results came in that Donald Trump had won his surprise victory to the White House, I saw that, finally, we had a definite opportunity to make a real difference. Now we could change the national direction that has been barreling unchecked toward a federal dictatorship. It was equally crystal clear that, as with the Obama administration, under a Hillary Clinton administration there would have been no hope of affecting presidential policy.
So, my first reaction to the Trump victory was to help get the right people into positions in the administration where they could affect policy. I quickly sent out an APC Sledgehammer Action Alert asking supporters across the nation to write to the Trump team in support of two very able local officials. I nominated one to serve in the EPA and the other to serve as secretary of HUD. I felt nothing was more important than to have these two agencies run by people who would stop the assault on private property and industry. In fact, I believe that if this was the only accomplishment of a Donald Trump presidency, then it would be enough to assure a strong future for our nation.
To my surprise, after issuing the alert, I received many e-mails from supporters telling me they had sent in my name to be HUD secretary. That was very unexpected. It’s a heady feeling to know people have such respect for you. Of course, Ben Carson is now up for the job. But this was only the beginning of what was to come.
Next, a very powerful political leader from South Carolina contacted me to say he had offered my name to the Trump team for a position in the Department of Interior. Wow, I thought. I had never even considered such a thing. Yet, wouldn’t it be great for them to appoint me as head of the BLM. I’d free the Bundys from jail. I’d begin a process to give lands back to the states and open even more areas that have been locked away from human use. Yes, that would be interesting. I then posted this news on Facebook and was overwhelmed by the number of comments I received by very excited people who certainly wanted to see me in such a position.
Just a few of days later I was to receive an even bigger shock. Richard Viguerie — the long-time conservative leader and Washington, D.C., icon — posted an article in his daily online report “Conservative HQ,” listing what new HUD Secretary Carson would need to succeed in that post. As I read the article, my head almost blew off. It proposed three people Carson should add to his team. My name was included on that very short, impressive list. Said the report: “Mr. DeWeese has been a fierce opponent of HUD’s overreach and perhaps more than anyone has been able to capture the emotional impact Americans feel when they are deprived of their property rights by AFFH and other HUD overreaches.” Viguerie’s HQ Report is read by approximately 100,000 people, many of whom are major conservative and political leaders from around the nation. To be recognized by such a powerhouse is certainly an honor.
My heady couple of weeks in the sun was about to get even better as I was invited to attend a special climate-change briefing sponsored by the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), held in the Dirksen Senate Office Building hearing room on Capitol Hill. CEI heads up a group called the Cooler Heads Coalition, which is made up of groups and policy makers working to expose the global-warming scam and fight any policy to enforce it.
There were three speakers for the event, including Dr. Timothy Ball, a Canadian. He is an author of several books exposing the global-warming hype. The featured speaker for the briefing was recently elected Australian Senator Malcolm Roberts. He has caused quite a stir in the Australian government as he has already established himself as an aggressive opponent to that country’s climate-change policies.
I had never met or corresponded with either of these men. While I was talking to a few folks by the hearing room door, a man walked up to me and in his Australian accent said, “You’re Tom DeWeese, aren’t you?” It was Senator Roberts. Somehow he recognized me and complimented my “outstanding work.” He said he had been reading my materials for years.
As the program opened, Dr. Ball began to speak, using a Power Point presentation. To my surprise, he brought up a slide depicting the United Nations’ power structure clearly showing Agenda 21 as the center of the plans to enforce climate-change policy to bring about global governance.
The reason that was such a surprise to me was the fact that, in the 20 years I have led the fight against Agenda 21, I have been ignored and stonewalled by many leading conservative groups as they refused to even utter the words “Agenda 21.” Now, in a Senate hearing room was a man they respected and whose wisdom they had come to absorb. And what was he saying? Exactly the message I had been trying to get them to hear all these years! After the program, I went up to thank Dr. Ball for talking about Agenda 21. I mentioned my struggle to reach some of these folks about the issue. He said he understood, explaining how he hadn’t believed the dire warnings about Agenda 21 at first either. Then he started to read my articles, among others, and that had led him to the truth. He said he knew my work well.
Next up was Senator Roberts to address the group. He was magnificent in his presentation. He hit all the right points on the global-warming farce, backed by a genuine passion for the fight to stop it. But my biggest shock was about to be dropped on me. As he spoke, making his points, he suddenly said my name. In fact, not once, but three times during his talk! He told the crowd about how I was a leader in the fight, producing effective and important materials. To understand the significance of that fact, you must know the culture of Capitol Hill. When someone of influence and respect, such as Senator Roberts, starts pointing out your achievements, not once, but three times, it gets noticed! And it certainly was that day. Suddenly, after the program, a lot of people wanted to say hello to me.
I tell these stories not to toot my horn, but to make a specific point. These two weeks of activity, being endorsed to serve in the new administration and to be recognized by strong leaders, was vindication for the reach and impact that I and the American Policy Center have made. The excitement of so many supporters to accept that I might have an influence from inside the Trump administration is a testament to APC’s never-wavering battle to get out the truth. Senator Robert’s remarks simply confirmed to me that APC clearly has an international reach and is making a difference in worldwide policy. It certainly tells me that the fight thus far has been worth it. People are listening to APC and me. Now, with this new administration we really do have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to restore our precious Republic and stamp out the growing tyranny that has threatened it.
There is another lesson in this for all the local activists who work so hard in their own communities, those who sometimes get discouraged because they don’t win the fight. Please learn this truth: What you do has an impact, no matter how insignificant you think your efforts may be. Writing a letter to the editor or speaking out in a meeting just might be the spark that moves someone else to take major steps forward, like a random article that moves a future senator in Australia to lead the effort to change his nation’s policy.
I don’t know if I will get a position in this administration. To tell you the truth, all I want is an open line into some of the agencies I have been fighting all these years, especially HUD. If I can become a resource of ideas to Secretary Carson I couldn’t ask for more. I shall pursue that opportunity to make it reality.
However, all of us on the front lines in the battle to preserve property rights and stop government tyranny must recognize one vital fact: A Trump presidency will not solve these problems for us. We must continue to be in the trenches fighting. If this election has proven anything to us, it’s that those who have had power will stop at nothing to keep it. If we now go home and think all is solved, nothing will change.
Those non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and planning groups operating in every community in the nation are not going to give up their power and influence — and the money that goes with it. We are going to have to fight trench warfare to boot them out and restore local control over government. We must fight in the grass roots to force the Congress to act against these runaway agencies. We must teach elected officials of the dangers and how to stand up against such policy. And we must organize local activists to back them up when they do take a courageous stand.
That is the mission of the American Policy Center in this new era of Trump.
Tom DeWeese is one of the nation’s leading advocates of individual liberty, free enterprise, private property rights, personal privacy, back-to-basics education and American sovereignty and independence. He serves as founder and president of the American Policy Center and editor of The DeWeese Report.
