If it feels like you
just can’t keep on top of the constantly more right-wing, not-to-say lunatic
legislation—well, there’s a reason. It’s being cranked out like Oscar Mayer
cranks out the wieners. And remember the old adage—there are two things you
don’t wanna know what went in to: a sausage and a legislative bill?
Well, relax—you won’t
know. And why not? Because for the last forty years, a shadowy triumvirate of
conservative state legislators, corporations, and think tanks have been
beavering away to create more than 800 pieces of legislation, all designed to
be tweaked according to state tastes, introduced as legitimate legislation, and
then jammed down the throats of the people.
The organization is
called ALEC,
American Legislative Exchange Council, though it started out a bit more
forthrightly as the Conservative Caucus of State Legislators. And according to
Wikipedia, the group has more than 2000 sitting state legislators, or nearly a
third of all state legislators.
And what does ALEC
espouse? Well, let’s start with the first of three concepts at the top of the
group’s website.
Limited government—of
course! But mind you, this is not the old Goldwater conservatism
of pay-as-you-go, the business of America is business, etc. Here’s what John Nichols,
who wrote an exposé
on ALEC for The Nation, said on NPR:
According to Nichols, legislation authored by ALEC has as a goal,
"the advancement of an agenda that seems to be dictated at almost every
turn by multinational corporations. It's to clear the way for lower taxes, less
regulation, a lot of protection against lawsuits, [and] ALEC is very, very
active in [the] opening up of areas via privatization for corporations to make
more money, particularly in places you might not usually expect like public
education."[52]
Hmmm—is that true? Well,
here’s a copy and paste from one of the 800 pieces of model education, taken
from the group’s own website:
The
Charter Schools Act allows groups of citizens to seek charters from the state
to create and operate innovative, outcomes-based schools. These schools would
be exempt from state laws and regulations that apply to public schools. Schools
are funded on a per-pupil rate, the same as public schools. Currently,
Minnesota operates the most well-known program.
How very convenient! So
does that mean that the school is free to teach “creation science,” and not
evolution? Is geology going to be taught as starting at 4000 years before the
birth of Christ? Is daily attendance at chapel going to be funded on my and
your dime?
As you might expect, it
gets worse; here’s
Wikipedia again, with another tidbit of conservative misdoing:
Corrections Corporation of America and The GEO Group,
two of the largest for-profit prison companies in the US, have been
contributors to the American Legislative Exchange Council. Under their Criminal
Justice Task Force, ALEC has developed bills which State legislators can then
consult when proposing “tough on crime” initiatives including “Truth in
Sentencing” and “Three Strikes” laws. Critics argue that by funding and
participating in ALEC’s Criminal Justice Task Forces, private prison companies
directly influence legislation for tougher, longer sentences.[38] ALEC has also worked to pass state laws
to create for-profit prisons, which served as a boon to both of the
aforementioned contributors.
Say whaaaa?
You’re telling me that
we have these draconian laws that have one
in three black males going to prison at some point in their lives—all
to support a prison industry?
Seems so, for ALEC is
divided into 9 task forces, and here they are:
1. Civil Justice
2. Commerce, Insurance and Economic Development
3. Communications and Technology
4. Education
5. Energy, Environment, and Agriculture
6. Health and Human Services
7. International Relations
8. Justice Performance Project
9. Tax and Fiscal Policy
Well, that does cover quite a large tract, hunh? And all of this in
secret, because you won’t know where the bills are coming from. Here’s what
Arizona Assistant Minority Leader Steve Farley had to say
about the group:
I just want to emphasize it’s fine for corporations to be involved in
the process. Corporations have the right to present their arguments, but they
don’t have the right to do it secretly. They don’t have the right to lobby
people and not register as lobbyists. They don’t have the right to take people
away on trips, convince them of it, send them back here, and then nobody has
seen what’s gone on and how that legislator had gotten that idea and where is
it coming from. All I’m asking... is to make sure that all of those expenses
are reported as if they are lobbying expenses and all those gifts that
legislators received are reported as if they’re receiving gifts from lobbyists.
So the public can find out and make up their own minds about who is influencing
what.
Seems reasonable, doesn’t it? Well, not according to J. B. Van Hollen, the
Wisconsin State Attorney General. He has just declared
Leah Vukmir, a state legislator from Wauwatosa, has immunity from turning over
her record in the state’s open record standards. And why? Because when in
session, the legislators have “immunity” from lawsuits requesting them to turn
over records. The problem? The legislature is almost always in session.
"I think the attorney general's position is a radical
misinterpretation of that (provisions that are supposed to outline a narrow
measure of legislative immunity),” Susan Crawford, a Madison attorney who
served as an assistant attorney general and as chief counsel to former Gov. Jim
Doyle, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "I've never heard a legislator
asserting they're above the law, which is what (Vukmir’s) doing. You have to
wonder what she's trying to hide."
Do you have
to wonder what she’s trying to hide? Probably, if you want the details. But let
me spell out to you the general idea:
Frustrated
at the national level, corporations have overtaken the state legislatures and
are secretly writing legislation that will make them richer, stifle regulation,
and ruin the environment at the expense of the American people.
It’s as
simple as it is cynical…..
