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Monday, September 5, 2011

Save Government Jobs - Eliminate ALEC

I’ve run into some frustrations over the past month as I have been reading about ALEC on the net and in some cases, it has been more than frustrating.

First of all I want to re-state my position that I do not want ALEC anywhere near our government.  When a private organization believes that they have the right to influence our government over and above the “will of the people” – this is inherently wrong.  ALEC needs to go away.  The only way we can make them go away is to remove ALL ALEC members from our legislatures at the State and Federal level.  We have to do that!

I put my position out there – because I don’t want anyone to think that I am defending ALEC. I hate the entire concept of ALEC.  I do not want them to exist as they currently do.  I want our nation to step forward and to work toward the disbandment of ALEC.  Only the people can do that - by removing ALL ALEC members from the legislatures.


Now to my first of many frustrations on ALEC reporting 
It is being stated on the web in multiple articles – accusations that American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is solely responsible for the union issues we are having in different states.  That is not entirely true – the union issues that we are having in different states is caused by the decisions made by the political leaders of that state - they are directly responsible for those decisions.  Those legislators are the problem and they need to be removed from office.

ALEC has repeatedly noted in the literature they distribute to their members that unions hold too much power in the "political arena".  They believe that the unions have too much "political power".  This hypocrisy on the part of ALEC is tantamount to ALEC’s unstated belief that ALEC is the “one and only true government”.  ALEC is the organization that is corrupting our political system through their involvement with legislators at the state and federal level.  ALEC is much more dangerous than the unions because their “model legislation” affects changes to state constitutions and is passed in statehouses and at the Federal level.

The only focus, for the most part, that is in ALEC literature, in regards to unions, is their focus of the political power of unions – they normally do not focus on “union members”.  ALEC doesn’t care about the union members – ALEC’s focus is on the government services that those union members provide.

So where does that take us?  The goal of ALEC is privatization of the government.  In multiple pieces of literature that they have distributed to their members – under the ALEC logo, letterhead, or banner – they have stated that it is more cost efficient to use the private-sector for government services.

It is not possible to privatize sections of government that have union employees in them.  The union contracts hamper movement to privatization of a unit of government.  So – the legislators in your state – they are the ones responsible – must bust up the unions in order to meet the ultimate goal of ALEC which is privatization of government services.  The union busting is only a means to an end.  No unions – opens the door for privatization – which opens the door for ALEC private-sector members to provide government services.

If you are foolish enough to think that “union-busting” is the end game for ALEC – you are sadly mistaken.  The end game of ALEC is privatization of government services, which has a direct relationship to their “free-market” philosophy and serves the purpose of their private-sector members.  The legislators that push ALEC legislation, including union busting, are only “foot soldiers” of ALEC - fighting the local battles to open the doors to privatization of government services.  Unions and union members are the “friendly fire casualties” in the skirmish for “free-market policy” based privatization of government services.

Serving the needs of their private-sector members is why ALEC wants to see government (EPA and labor) regulations eliminated.  Serving the needs of their private-sector members is why ALEC wants government assets sold to private companies.  Serving their private-sector members is why ALEC wants government services privatized.  I’ve

Serving the needs of their private-sector members is why ALEC pushes school vouchers, school choice, and other educational options.  When your legislators serve the needs of ALEC’s private-sector members – it leads to privatization of government services at all levels – federal, state and municipality.

If you want the ALEC private-sector members providing your state services then by all means leave your ALEC legislative members in office.  If you want ALEC private-sector members educating your kids then by all means leave your ALEC legislative members in office.  If you want Social Security and Medicare privatized to ALEC private-sector members – then by all means re-elect ALEC “Alumni” back into federal office. If you believe that ALL government should be privatized, then leave your ALEC members in office.  Your choice, may God forgive you.

The following is only one example of many that I have found that links ALEC to privatization of government services – in the name of free-market philosophy.  In an ALEC Policy Forum article by Adrian Moore of the “Reason Foundation” named “Making Privatization Work for State Governments” the following statements are made.

 Tight fiscal times often convince governments to cut costs to avoid raising taxes, and privatization is one way to accomplish this.

The first key to avoiding those [privatization] pitfalls is for the legislature and/or administration to take a decisive leadership role and take a coherent and consistent approach to encouraging privatization and competition in offering government services.

Privatizing to achieve a combination of cost savings, quality, innovation, speed, expertise and innovation is privatizing to achieve higher performance.
AND by the way privatization of government services provides more business for ALEC private-sector members – a fact which is never mentioned in ANY article about privatization of government or public school services!

This article was released to ALEC members before it was published publicly.

ALEC’s “free-market” philosophy equals privatization of public services and elimination of government regulations for all agencies at all levels! 

This is ALEC’s goal and they are using our elected officials - your ALEC legislator - to do their dirty work. 

ALEC legislative members at the state and federal level must not be re-elected - they are serving the needs of ALEC private-sector members and not serving the needs of the tax-payers who pay their salaries.

Republished with permission of MnDem999 of Daily Kos.


For more information on ALEC –

And watch this news video  from North Carolina on how other ALEC "model legislation" is going to screw the citizens of North Carolina - legislation introduced by ALEC legislators.

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A vote for an ALEC legislative candidate -
is a vote for greater pro-corporate representation and legislation  in your state,
is a vote against small and medium size business in your state,
is a vote against representative government for the people, and
is a vote against the very beliefs of the United States of America.

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