{"id":130841,"date":"2012-05-09T10:17:20","date_gmt":"2012-05-09T14:17:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/?p=130841"},"modified":"2012-12-26T16:04:13","modified_gmt":"2012-12-26T21:04:13","slug":"alec-gop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/05\/09\/alec-gop\/","title":{"rendered":"ALEC: The Most Important Election Issue You Don’t Know About"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Article:<\/strong> ALEC: The Most Important Election Issue You Don’t Know About<\/a> by Savannah Cox on The Speckled Axe.<\/p>\n

The Text:<\/strong> The 2012 election season has already brought with it familiar cries of so-called class warfare, quadrennial culture wars, and most recently, several pieces of controversial legislation that many have dubbed key components of the \u201cwar on women.\u201d But as Americans and mainstream media spear each other with the same old political barbs, a far more sinister\u2014yet perfectly legal\u2014series of political maneuvering is taking place in boardrooms throughout the country. If successful, the subsequent victims won\u2019t be just women, a particular class or minority but rather democracy itself. But the absolute worst part? In a year supposedly rife with democracy in action, hardly anyone is talking about it.<\/p>\n

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC): Not Your Average Baldwin<\/strong><\/p>\n

While the 2010 Citizens United v. FEC Supreme Court decision gave a pulse and personhood to monolithic corporations throughout the United States, the corporate Frankenstein has been in the making for decades; it is only now that the monster is nearing completion and ready for unleashing against an otherwise distracted and disengaged populace. Funded almost entirely by billion dollar corporations since 1973, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) fuses together the worst of corporate and legislative corruption into one seamless copy and paste model policy package.<\/p>\n

Their goal is simple yet sweeping: reduce the size of government to that of a shrunken pea, get rid of regulations that impede upon what should be unrestricted growth of multinational corporations and by effect shift political power from the American people to the pinstriped pockets of the world\u2019s most affluent denizens. It should come as no surprise that its members, alumni, and award recipients are all familiar faces within the American conservative canon: current Speaker of the House John Boehner served as one of ALEC\u2019s earliest alumni, along with influential men like Senate Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Donald Rumsfeld, Charles and David Koch, and Milton Friedman among a whole slew of others.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Much like antibiotic resistant bacteria, ALEC describes itself as a \u201cunique\u2026unparalleled\u2026and unmatched\u201d organization of over 2,000 legislative members and 300 corporate members whose thousand plus introduced bills boast a staggering one in five enactment rate. To achieve this, ALEC\u2019s corporate and legislative boards meet at joint sessions to, a la Milton Friedman \u201cdevelop alternatives to existing policies [and] keep them alive and available.\u201d<\/p>\n

Naturally, as over 98% of the 501(c)(3) organization\u2019s tax-free revenue comes from sources other than the dues of its legislative members (ie companies like Exxon Mobil, the Koch Foundation, and Pfizer among others) these \u201calternatives\u201d play to corporate profiteering, not the promotion of public well-being. And so behind closed doors, lawmakers and lobbyists meet to go over frozen ALEC \u201cmodel\u201d legislation for politicians to defrost and take back to their constituents as their own innovative policies. The best part is that given ALEC\u2019s status, the organization isn\u2019t subject to the same laws that require the disclosure of a lobbyist\u2019s input into a bill, which means that these lawmakers don\u2019t have to tell a soul with whom they\u2019re working\u2014or in this case, for whom they\u2019re working.<\/p>\n

For a couple reasons, it all works out pretty well for everyone involved. The first and most obvious is that ALEC pays its lawmaker members to swap their ethics and responsibility for exotic, expense-free trips to the organization\u2019s meetings. The next being the likely downpour of out-of-state donations from fellow ALEC members come election season, so long as legislators push ALEC\u2019s corporatist ideas onto the public in the form of a bill. That\u2019s the most important part of it all. Says Rutgers University professor Alan Rosenthal, \u201cthe bottom line [for lawmakers] is \u2018get me a bill. I want a bill\u2026that can do what you\u2019re talking about.\u201d<\/p>\n

ALEC Comes Bearing Gifts At The Expense Of Democracy<\/strong><\/p>\n

Just what are these corporate-created and politician-pasted bills disseminated to the American public? The first one of note is Arizona\u2019s controversial anti-immigration SB 1070, the Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act, which has in essence led to racial profiling, consistent violations of individuals\u2019 4th Amendment rights, and an overall police state that targets minorities. It should come as no surprise that the Corrections Corporation of America, an ALEC member and the largest private prison company in the United States, aided substantially in the drafting of that piece of model legislation. It should also cease to surprise you that, as John Whitehead reports, \u201ctwo-thirds of the 36 immediate co-sponsors of the bill in the Arizona Senate were ALEC members or attendees at the legislation drafting meeting.\u201d<\/p>\n

ALEC has also been a strong proponent of stringent voter ID laws that passed in several Republican-led legislatures. Many claim that these laws make it more difficult for the poor, elderly and minorities to participate in one of the most basic facets of democracy which thereby makes it that much easier for big businesses to trounce upon their rights\u2014that is, at least until ALEC came under fire for pushing multiple states to pass the highly contentious Stand Your Ground legislation. Why? The highly vocal civil rights group and anti-ALEC crusader ColorofChange asserted that Florida\u2019s version of SYG was the reason why police didn\u2019t initially charge George Zimmerman for the death of Trayvon Martin.<\/p>\n

As a result, many former ALEC members including Coca Cola, Pepsi, Kraft and McDonald\u2019s dropped their membership from the organization in favor of a more positive public image. Not one to be outdone by its defectors, ALEC national chair David Frizzell announced that they would drop both voter ID and Stand Your Ground issues in favor of the organization\u2019s purportedly Jeffersonian principles of \u201cfree-market enterprise, limited government, and federalism at the state level.\u201d Meanwhile, ALEC plods on for corporate glut under the guise of the maxims of the Founding Fathers.<\/p>\n

Though given the fact that it was also Thomas Jefferson who vocalized his fears that a corporate aristocracy would present a great challenge to government and democracy as a whole, it\u2019s a bit ironic that he\u2019s their poster boy. But hey, it\u2019s 2012 now. What did Jefferson know, anyway?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Article: ALEC: The Most Important Election Issue You Don’t Know About by Savannah Cox on The Speckled Axe. The Text: The 2012 election season has already brought with it familiar cries of so-called class warfare, quadrennial culture wars, and most recently, several pieces of controversial legislation that many have dubbed key components of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[259],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nALEC: The Most Important Election Issue You Don't Know About<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The American Legislative Exchange Council fuses together the worst of corporate and legislative corruption into one seamless copy and paste model policy package.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/05\/09\/alec-gop\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"ALEC: The Most Important Election Issue You Don't Know About\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The American Legislative Exchange Council fuses together the worst of corporate and legislative corruption into one seamless copy and paste model policy package.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/05\/09\/alec-gop\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Prose Before Hos\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-05-09T14:17:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-12-26T21:04:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Article of the Day\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@pbhnetwork\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@pbhnetwork\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Article of the Day\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/05\/09\/alec-gop\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/05\/09\/alec-gop\/\",\"name\":\"ALEC: The Most Important Election Issue You Don't Know About\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-05-09T14:17:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-12-26T21:04:13+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1e19d7cf2b1a9aea1805fd7b4b4b2b4e\"},\"description\":\"The American Legislative Exchange Council fuses together the worst of corporate and legislative corruption into one seamless copy and paste model policy package.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/05\/09\/alec-gop\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/05\/09\/alec-gop\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/05\/09\/alec-gop\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"ALEC: The Most Important Election Issue You Don’t Know About\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/\",\"name\":\"Prose Before Hos\",\"description\":\"The Far Side Of Politics\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1e19d7cf2b1a9aea1805fd7b4b4b2b4e\",\"name\":\"Article of the Day\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/pbhnetwork\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/author\/article-of-the-day\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"ALEC: The Most Important Election Issue You Don't Know About","description":"The American Legislative Exchange Council fuses together the worst of corporate and legislative corruption into one seamless copy and paste model policy package.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/05\/09\/alec-gop\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"ALEC: The Most Important Election Issue You Don't Know About","og_description":"The American Legislative Exchange Council fuses together the worst of corporate and legislative corruption into one seamless copy and paste model policy package.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/05\/09\/alec-gop\/","og_site_name":"Prose Before Hos","article_published_time":"2012-05-09T14:17:20+00:00","article_modified_time":"2012-12-26T21:04:13+00:00","author":"Article of the Day","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@pbhnetwork","twitter_site":"@pbhnetwork","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Article of the Day","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/05\/09\/alec-gop\/","url":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/05\/09\/alec-gop\/","name":"ALEC: The Most Important Election Issue You Don't Know About","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-05-09T14:17:20+00:00","dateModified":"2012-12-26T21:04:13+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1e19d7cf2b1a9aea1805fd7b4b4b2b4e"},"description":"The American Legislative Exchange Council fuses together the worst of corporate and legislative corruption into one seamless copy and paste model policy package.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/05\/09\/alec-gop\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/05\/09\/alec-gop\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/05\/09\/alec-gop\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"ALEC: The Most Important Election Issue You Don’t Know About"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/","name":"Prose Before Hos","description":"The Far Side Of Politics","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1e19d7cf2b1a9aea1805fd7b4b4b2b4e","name":"Article of the Day","sameAs":["https:\/\/twitter.com\/pbhnetwork"],"url":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/author\/article-of-the-day\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130841"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130841"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130841\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":133596,"href":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130841\/revisions\/133596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}