Yes, ALEC is Anti-democracy.

Two days ago, I found an article on the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) which made me feel good - because the article was pretty good.

Critics: Politics, business too cozy in group that includes state lawmakers Conservative organization ALEC seeks to recruit state lawmakers at S.F. event

Steve Terrell | The New Mexican

Posted: Sunday, January 22, 2012

Every year, a handful of New Mexico legislators attends the national conference of the American Legislative Exchange Council, a controversial conservative organization best known by its acronym ALEC

The article was good and the comment thread was pretty good.

One comment has bothered me for the past 48 hours and it wasn’t until lunch today that I finally found the answer that no one else had been able to post (yes, I’m slow sometime).

Here’s the comment (my emphasis)

As if legislators never sit down in face-to-face meetings with  representatives of all sorts of special interest groups, including  public and private sector union representatives, environmental groups,  AARP, NAACP, NOW, the NRA, and etc.. I'm sure all of those organizations have proposed model legislation related to the issues that concern  them, some good and some bad. I'm sure all of those groups have found at least a few sympathetic legislators to sponsor their bills. As long as  no legislators are somehow coerced into voting against their will I  don't see how anything anti-democracy is afoot

For those of us that follow ALEC we are so use to what we know

-  we are so aware of all the nastiness that ALEC is behind

-  that we forget that others don’t know - what we know.

Here’s my reply that would be too little, four days too late. 

 (Wish I could think faster, but I’m a muller.)

The rebuttal to that comment which never appeared in the comments (to the best of my knowledge)

has to do with the fact that

• ALEC is behind the voter ID bills that will disenfranchise 5 million voters.
• ALEC supports the concept of the electoral college and does not support popular vote
• ALEC is a proponent of the tenth amendment movement which includes nullification of the 17th amendment which is the election of state senators by popular vote - they want senators to be appointed.

Our democracy depends on one person, one vote – to exist as a democracy

– and when ALEC and their ALEC legislators take that away from us

– our democracy is damaged.

Yes, ALEC legislation is anti-democracy

and ALEC’s focus on destruction of voting rights

is the only thing we have to reference.

#Alec

.