At least 26 states have "stand your ground" laws
in place. Almost as many have laws
to reduce the rights of unionized public employees and unionized workers in
general. Others have followed
Arizona's lead in passing draconian anti-immigration legislation including the
infamous, "...show us your papers" provision. Still others routinely pass legislation
benefitting insurance and other companies to the detriment of their customers
and even more are passing laws to limit or reduce who can vote in national elections,
particularly minority voters.
Would it surprise you to discover all these laws and ideas emanate from
a singular source? Would you be
shocked to learn one organization, researches, develops and writes model
legislation which can then be introduced in states around the nation? How amazed would you be to find out
this organization is a creation of the Koch brothers, and corporate America, to
institute their agenda of returning this country to the "Gilded Age"
of weak government regulation, low to non-existent taxes for the rich, no labor
movement and a dramatic gap between the rich 1% and everyone else? For over 30 years this shadow
organization has existed below the radar.
Most Americans have never heard of it. Almost no one knew it was bribing lawmakers and facilitating
contributions to their campaigns while doling out money to their wives and
children. The American Legislative
Exchange Council, (ALEC), is the name of this corporate shill and it lives to
do the bidding of regressives throughout the land.
Some of you may have heard of ALEC in conjunction with the Treyvon
Martin case in Florida. Police
sighted the state's "stand your ground" law as the reason they didn't
arrest George Zimmerman for the shooting.
Stories emerged about how the National Rifle Association went to ALEC
with an idea about a "castle" law. ALEC researched and wrote the language and ALEC members,
legislators in various states, then introduced the legislation. Studies now show homicides have
increased in states with stand your ground laws. In some states, gang members use the law to avoid
prosecution for killing rivals.
The law Wisconsin governor Scott Walker signed, giving him the authority
to bust public employee unions, was written by ALEC. ALEC is supported by dues from the biggest and most well
known corporations in this country.
Most of them do not want you to know about ALEC or their
involvement. When a number of grass
roots groups revealed which corporations supported ALEC, a number, including
Coca Cola and Kraft, cut their ties.
Pressure must increase from you, their customers, to force every
corporation to cut off their associations with ALEC completely. Every piece of legislation ALEC
champions is designed to benefit corporate America and dilute the rights and
power of middle class Americans.
Developing, researching and writing anti-regulation, anti-immigrant,
pro-gun legislation might be bad enough, but ALEC goes further. ALEC designed itself as a way for
corporate America to secretly contribute millions of dollars in bribes to
elected officials. ALEC has what
it calls a "scholarship" fund.
This is used to fly legislators to posh resorts, pay for their lodging
and expenses, allow them to bring their wives and children and even pays for
the child care while the "conference" is going on. In Ohio, ALEC provided prime baseball
tickets, along with food and beverages, to legislators and organized them to
meet lobbyists at the game or in other venues. Corporations and lobbyists can contribute to the scholarship
fund and then submit a list of legislators they wish to meet and contact. Since ALEC is a non-profit
organization, these contributions are tax deductible, and possibly anonymous,
so in reality you the taxpayer are subsidizing this regressive, secretive,
stealth group's attempts to undermine your rights and make your communities
more dangerous.
ALEC is an acknowledgement by the Koch brothers and others they can't
get enough of their agenda through Washington. It is a designed strategy to buy off regressive legislators
in 50 states and pass, piecemeal, what they cannot get enshrined in federal
law. It is an example of Newt
Gingrich's "new federalism" where the rich and powerful do an end-run
around Washington to push their radical plan on a state-by-state basis. It's brilliant in its design and
execution and for over 30 years it has been able to chip away at the social
safety net, water down civil liberties and advance the regressive cause without
anyone noticing. Belonging to ALEC
was a no brainer for corporate America.
It has no down side.
It's time for this to change.
It's time for membership in ALEC to be too costly to corporations. It's time for you, the consumer, to let
them know they will pay a price if they continue to support ALEC. It is also time for the I.R.S., and
individual states, to investigate ALEC and its "scholarship" fund and
other ways it passes on corporate contributions to sympathetic legislators. Calls for investigations are starting
in Ohio and other states. More are
necessary to stop op them from gaming the system anymore.
You can't say you don't know about ALEC now. You can't ignore them any longer. They mean to do you harm if you work for a living, care
about civil liberties, and believe bribing of public officials is corrupt and
wrong. Google ALEC. Find out what they are up to. Fight back and let corporate America
know the free lunch is over. Doing
nothing will finally hit you when you get pulled over and told to produce your
"papers" or you pay is cut or someone is shot and "stand your
ground" is invoked.... by then it will be too late.
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