In a stunning press release “Embracing Our Jeffersonian Principles and Transparency… we are disclosing donor and membership lists and legislation models”… well, not quite.
This ANALYSIS is on the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) reaction to public scrutiny and exposure and building pressures about public awareness of their true nature. ALEC which was been described as the “most powerful lobbyist no one has ever heard of” that is “ghostwriting the law” for American corporations and associations, has issued another press release responding to a number of blogs, articles and reports on ALEC, it’s roots and funders, and current events in Wisconsin and elsewhere. All Americans should be concerned about ALEC subversion of basic democratic principles through activities producing content for bills and draft legislation, and influencing hundreds of elected officials in multiple states across the Country.
"I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country."
- Thomas Jefferson in a letter to his friend George Logan, 1816
Our ‘moneyed corporations’ are writing our Nation’s laws. The advent of ALEC appears to be one of the most serious challenges to citizen driven democracy in US history, while only part of a national strategy or movement, ALEC is providing the content and materials for the execution of shaping America into something other than democracy, or even traditional capitalism, into something new.
ALEC is the execution arm of a conservative ‘industry’ or the conservative political power-for-profit environment (some call this the “vast ring wing conspiracy”) created and funded by mega-wealthy ideologues, right wing organizations, and finds it roots in the Council for National Policy and the Heritage Foundation, with which it is associated. Leaders in the GOP and conservative moment have been working on a stated national strategy to take their ‘revolution’ to the States.
While awareness of ALEC is starting to grow and action plans are starting to emerge, we will continue down our original path tracking ALEC through recent events.
This is a Line-by-Line examination of the ALEC’s most recent press release with related information and links for the informed reader.
Analysis continues below the fold….