Lubbock County Judge Tom Head is not alone in thinking that Barack Obama has plans to turn the US over to the UN. It is just another one of those wacky conspiracy stories that bug-eyed, hair-pulling crazies have about a president they see as a Kenyan-born, Muslim, socialist, Nazi Antichrist.
What makes Head’s comments exceptional is that he is an elected official and refused to back down from his words. Head’s comments are both outrageous and offensive because they are part of an apocalyptic mindset that sees violence as the ultimate arbitrator to political questions. Head and others see a great struggle coming between the forces of freedom (their side) and the (imagined) socialist totalitarians who want to shred the Constitution.
It is the same bizarre mindset that caused the Civil War and imagined that freedom was about the right to hold slaves. Fortunately, we are a long way from civil unrest of that degree. That does not stop people like Head from envisioning that a civil war, invasion or some form of unrest is on the horizon.
Here is a recap of Head’s strangeness that got him into trouble in the first place:
“He’s [Obama] going to try to hand over the sovereignty of the U.S. to the United Nations, what’s going to happen when that happens?
“I’m thinking worse case scenario. Civil unrest, civil disobedience, civil war maybe…we’re not just talking a few riots or demonstrations.”
After his words went viral, Head shook his head about all the commotion and said that he was being misunderstood:
“My remarks yesterday: worst-case scenario in my opinion. And how do you prepare for it. Do I think those (scenarios) are going to happen, probably not.”
There, that takes Head off the hook of craziness, right? He was not just talking about a worst-case scenario, but a worst-case scenario that is probably not going to happen. In some way, Head thinks that is supposed to make all things good.
Head’s position in Lubbock County is not as a judge sitting on the bench, conducting trials and rendering sentences. In Texas, a county judge is head of the county commissioners. A county judge runs the county as a county executive of sorts. Head’s responsibilities include preparing the county budget, issuing alcohol licenses, directing elections, preparing emergency management and, get this, conducting mental competency hearings.
The guy who is in charge of determining sanity for Lubbock County also has his eyes peeled on the horizon for black helicopters.
Head is the guy who plastered photos of criminals on a bulletin board in 2009 and noted that they were all wearing Obama T-shirts.
“Did you ever see anyone arrested wearing a Bush T-shirt, or for you older folks, an Eisenhower?, Gerald Ford?, Ronald Reagan?”
As you can see, Head has not been a fan of Obama for a long time.
It was the emergency management responsibilities that got Head into trouble this time. He was advocating for a 1.7% sales tax increase for law enforcement. That 1.7% is supposed to fight crime and repel foreign invaders.
Lost in Head’s delusional theory is his tax increase. Head is a Republican. There is hardly a single Republican in Congress who will step forward to suggest even the slightest tax increase. Republican Party planks throughout the country oppose any tax increase because they kill jobs and will hurt the struggling economy.
Yet along comes Head who envisions a tax increase, not to fix the infrastructure and not to promote services to enhance health care, education or the welfare of the people, but to strengthen law enforcement so it can repell worst-case scenarios of blue helmets patrolling Lubbock County roads.
Someone needs to come out with a jester’s cap made from tin foil. It would fit Head perfectly.
Head’s statements even got the attention of the UN, which led a spokesperson for Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon to call the comments “absolutely ridiculous.”
As can be expected, Head’s comments generated quite a bit of controversy in Lubbock County. The Democratic Party condemned the words. The head of the Republican Party, Carl Tepper, also disavowed the comments while calling Head a professional and “soft-spoken.”
Yet then Tepper added this:
“I’ve seen outrageous things spoken on both sides of the aisle…Some of the rhetoric against him has been over the top.”
How much further can one go over the top than to suggest that an American president has treason in his game plan for a next term? Basically, that is what Head is stating. He believes that Barack Obama is going to bring the end to the United States in an international conspiracy. True, there are plenty of people out there in agreement with Head about this, but how can anything go over the top more than this?
Forty-four presidents have served the United States and the closest it has ever come to one being disloyal was James Buchanan who dwaddled as the Civil War approached. Even then, Buchanan did not conspire with Confederates to bring down the US. He felt that it was not in his constitutional powers to do anything.
No president from Richard Nixon to Bill Clinton to George W. Bush to Obama has tried to topple American sovereignty nor has there been any evidence of such a plan. Instead of debating the issues so that voters can make intelligent decisions, people like Head are running around like political Chicken Littles. Sadly, too many people are happy to follow phantom conspiracies. That is what is going to be the end of American democracy, not black helicopters.
