Have you heard of ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council? I hadn’t, until I viewed the stunning and horrifying documentary 13th with a group of fellow parishioners at my church. Looking at ALEC’s website, one might think it is a progressive organization that works extensively on such things as criminal justice and pension reform. The site boasts about ties with the ACLU and the National Black Caucus of State Legislators and has links to broadband, economic development (featuring a black man in the photo), education (featuring a black child in the photo) and even environmental stewardship.
The problem is, ALEC is a very powerful tool of the right wing. According to LA Progressive, ALEC “alleges to be a ‘non-partisan association of state legislators’ that introduces ‘model bills’ relating to workers and consumers rights, the environment, energy, agriculture, tax reform, gun laws, state budgets… In reality their ‘model bills’ introduced in Republican controlled states have always been anti-labor, anti-consumer, anti-public education, anti-green energy, anti-environment, anti-social program, anti-women, pro-gun, pro-big business, pro-private (for profit) prison, and pro-corporate agriculture masked in patriotism and fundamentalist Christianity.”
Since I am not an expert on this group and only recently learned about it myself, I will only here bring it to your attention. Perhaps in future posts we will explore it further. Take a look at ALEC Exposed if you want to learn more. Stay alert and stay tuned, for the sake of our country!
