As
LA
Progressive Publisher, I talk about ALEC and
how they help
Republicans win while the Democrats fail to
have anything that
supports progressives. In fact, the upcoming
ADEM elections could be
an opportunity to infuse the party with
progressives but the ADEM
election process, which is pretty confusing,
won’t likely result in
an infusion of progressives.
What
progressives need is an ALEC alternative.
Something that works for
progressives in some of the ways that the
American Legislative
Exchange Council works for conservatives.
According
to ALEC’s website, ALEC - which is an
acronym for The American
Legislative Exchange Council - is America’s
largest nonpartisan,
voluntary membership organization of state
legislators dedicated to
the principles of limited government, free
markets, and federalism.
That’s what their website states.
However,...
Lisa
Graves, an attorney who has devoted decades
to putting a spotlight on
ALEC and the Koch Brothers, uncovered some
of the most egregious ALEC
practices, including writing legislation for
state lawmakers who then
introduce that legislation as if they (the
lawmaker) authored it.
But
the real problem, aside from the obvious
deceit, is that ALEC is run
by corporations who benefit from and help to
craft the legislation.
ALEC claims it works for the benefit of the
taxpaying public and is,
in fact, a non-profit organization, but Lisa
Graves and her watchdog
organization, The Center for Media, and
Democracy’s PRWatch, have
successfully investigated ALEC and revealed
their true goal – to
erode the integrity of elections and “sap
taxpayer dollars away
from investments in public infrastructure,
education, and healthcare
to benefit narrow special interests and
global corporations.”
I
say, partly tongue in cheek, that
progressives need an ALEC. Of
course, I don’t mean to suggest that
progressives should engage in
all of the same tactics ALEC uses –
certainly not the corrupt
practices – but it would behoove
progressives to find a way to gain
power so that this country can begin to
function in the ways it
claims to function.
