Quick Note: Republicans - They Just Can't Stop the Stupid

Texas State Senator Donna Campbell (R) and the Alamo, still under Texas ownership

In 2014, the U.S. Department of the Interior nominated a group of five former Spanish missions in San Antonio, Texas to the UN's Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) hoping to gain designation as a combined world Heritage Site.  One of the missions in the group is the Alamo.

The designation would bring international recognition and maintenance support; and, with proper promotion, could generate large sums of money for the San Antonio economy from visiting domestic and international tourist groups. Twenty-two of the current 1000 world heritage sites are located in the U.S., including the Grand Canyon, the Statue of Liberty and Yellowstone. 

For obvious reasons, World Heritage Site status is welcomed by governments around the world. Not so much for one Texas State Senator.

Donna Campbell (R)--obviously confused over what a World Heritage Site designation means and apparently too lazy to do any research on the subject--has introduced legislation that would ban foreign ownership of the Alamo.  Her proposed bill would prohibit Texas from signing "any ownership, control, or management" of the Alamo over to "an entity formed under the laws of another country."

In a speech before the Texas legislature, she said, "In the charge to the battle, the battle cry was 'Remember the Alamo,' and since then, the Alamo has been recognized as hallowed ground in Texas, and a shrine of Texas liberty.  The Alamo is a story of Texas, and it should be owned, operated, and maintained, controlled by Texans."

David Crockett, a political scientist at Trinity University in San Antonio and a distant relative of the Alamo's famous Davy Crockett, addressed the fact that Ms. Campbell is not the first conservative politican or even the first person to see the United Nations as a foreign threat to American autonomy.  He attempted to give her the benefit of the doubt by saying, "It's possible that she has tapped into that concern of some of her constituents." 

When it was pointed out to Ms. Campbell that the U.S. Department of the Interior was in no way planning to sell the Alamo to the U.N. or to anyone, she doubled down on her warning, telling the Houston Chronicle they should remember that "UNESCO starts with UN."

Mr. Crockett added, "The other option is she herself really does believe that there is a threat posed by internationalist forces to reduce sovereignty of the U.S."

Being a card carrying Stupid Conspiracy theorist earns you gold-card membership status in the modern Republican party.  Donna Campbell should be receiving her gilded ID any day now.