Sunday, February 21, 2016

Dump ALEC for Effective, Efficient, and Truly Representative Government

Tell Your Local, State, and Federal Representative
(If you honestly want the kind of government you say you want)


Ford: The Latest Big Company to Dump ALEC

In the last five years, more than a hundred corporations have left the conservative non-profit.

Story from here (Bill Moyers report), in part. A very good article and congrats to Ford Motor Company for stepping up and doing what is right.

Ford Motor Company has announced it is dropping out of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the conservative think tank that passes along drafts of corporate-authored legislation to state politicians, who are then encouraged to introduce the bills as their own.

(I note: This is not how our system was set up or how it’s supposed to work, except I guess according to GOP “conservative” rules – you know those who stand for tradition and the Constitution and values, and stuff. Yeah, that GOP party).

Over the last several years, as reporters have shed a light on ALEC’s machinations, many companies have quit the organization. PR Watch, which tracks the group, has counted 108 corporations and 19 non-profits that have left ALEC since 2011, including Google, Microsoft, Shell, BP, American Electric Power, General Electric and eBay.

Who is ALEC? They are funded by wealthy right-wing donors, including the Koch brothers. ALEC has encouraged legislation at the state level that would weaken unions and combat gun control regulations, and such.

In recent years, the group has attracted deeper scrutiny as it was revealed to be a major force behind state voter ID laws that effectively disenfranchise millions, and the stand-your-ground self-defense laws that played a role in the Florida shooting death of Trayvon Martin for example.

Continue reading at the Moyers link.

Thanks for stopping by and tell your representatives to dump ALEC.

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