Louisiana Voice

Editor’s note: We occasionally like to showcase the writing skills of guest columnists. Judith Howard is a regular columnist for the Morning Paper of Ruston. She has written a thought-provoking piece on the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and we are proud to have her essay grace our blog.

By Judith Howard

A year ago when newly elected governors in Wisconsin (Scott Walker), Ohio (John Kasich), Florida (Rick Scott), and Michigan (Rick Synder) simultaneously began their war on workers by trying to destroy collective bargaining, I thought this must have been a plan hatched at some national Republican meeting after the 2010 elections.

I thought the same thing about these Republican governors, including our own, when they started pushing the privatization of education and prisons. With a $500 million surplus, the Louisiana state office that administers health insurance is a gem Jindal can’t wait to sell, even though it will result in higher premiums for state retirees and workers.

I was half right and half wrong about the origin of these parallel Republican initiatives. The sponsor was the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). This organization describes itself thusly: “With more than 2,000 members, ALEC is the nation’s largest, non-partisan, individual public-private membership association of state legislators.”

So I was right in that it was a coordinated attack, but I was wrong that it must the Republican National Committee pushing this stuff. ALEC is, however, overwhelmingly Republican.

ALEC says it is interested in the conservative principles of free markets (translated—unregulated markets), limited government (translated–except in private affairs like family planning and how you die), and federalism (translated–state governments are cheaper to buy and control. You know, divide and conquer). It touts its benefit to private members this way:

“One of ALEC’s greatest strengths is the public-private partnership. ALEC provides the private sector with an unparalleled opportunity to have its voice heard, and its perspective appreciated, by the legislative members.” (Emphasis mine.)

Appreciated, indeed. ALEC develops model legislation that its legislative members take to their respective states. This way, it gives the public the impression that these ideas have widespread support across the country, and that said support just popped up independently.

Dues for corporations are $7,000, $12,000 or $25,000 depending on the membership level. The Koch Brothers, David and Charles, long-time drivers of ALEC are members at the $25,000 level. For the return they get on that minimal investment through legislation written by ALEC, you gotta figure these are pretty cheap dues.

Koch Industries, the second largest privately held business in the U.S., reports annual revenues of 100 billion dollars. For David and Charles, $25,000 is pocket change.

Dues for state legislators are just $100 for a two-year membership. There is no list of legislative members on the ALEC website, but the organization boasts that 1/3 of all legislators are members.

If legislators pay dues from their campaign funds rather than out of their pocket, it’s possible to find out which legislators are ALEC members.

Hollis Downs, for example, was a member of ALEC.

Each year ALEC legislative members in their respective states introduce about 1000 pieces of legislation, and estimates about 20% gets passed into law. Do you think legislators advertise that these legislative proposals were written by ALEC?

Of course not. It’s as if this legislation originated in their own minds as they contemplated what would be in the interests of the public they purport to serve. Who writes our legislation and who benefits from it should be public knowledge, especially when those two happen to be one and the same. As it stands now, ALEC is able to keep its fingerprints off laws that roll back environmental protection in order to increase energy company profits, roll back union rights for the same reason, and roll back voting rights in order to get more corporate-sponsored Republicans elected.

I should say are USUALLY able to keep their fingerprints off legislation. In November, Florida Rep. Rachel Burgin introduced a bill to reduce corporate taxes. She made the embarrassing mistake of using the model bill written by ALEC’s Tax and Fiscal Policy Task Force rather than changing the wording a little.

Rep. Burgin forgot to delete the following from the bill: “WHEREAS, it is the mission of the American Legislative Exchange Council to advance Jeffersonian principles of free markets, limited government, federalism, and individual liberty.” Oops.

So when you hear the constant drumbeat of privatizing public services like education and prisons, demolishing EPA regulations, initiating voter ID laws, destroying collective bargaining, remember where these ideas originated–ALEC. The reasons given for the need to do these things are not the real reason behind the push to do them.

To take just the first of these issues–why, you ask, is the Koch brothers-backed effort to privatize education such a priority? Well, I’m glad you asked. That effort has an interesting history.

Charles and David Koch’s father’s name was Fred. Ol’ Fred ranted and raved that public school books were filled with communist propaganda. His paranoia about communist infiltration extended to President Eisenhower, the Supreme Court, and the national teacher’s union. That man hated him some unions!

I suspect the Koch paranoia about public education and union hatred stems from Daddy Fred’s deranged mind. Plus, there is money to be made by privatizing schools, so what’s not to like? Of course the home schooling movement also fears that teachers might indoctrinate their kids with science, so there’s that too.

When David Koch ran for VP on the Libertarian Ticket in 1980, he pushed the idea of tax credits to encourage alternatives to public education. Over 30 years later, he’s still pushing for taxpayers to pay for private schools.

So what is the strategic goal in the legislation ALEC advocates for and that Republican governors push? Think about it.

They want to control what’s taught in schools (the Kochs now fund university departments IF they get to approve the professors and the content of the courses). They want to teach the scripture of unfettered capitalism, where unions are socialist Satans instead of being a countervailing force to corporate power.

It’s important to break up unions since they fund primarily Democratic candidates while corporations fund primarily Republican candidates. Disregard any noise about the need to break up public unions because of budgetary problems. That’s merely a convenient ruse.

As long as plutocrats can pit poor whites against blacks, blacks against Latinos, and private workers against public workers, that animosity keeps our attention off the real problem–corporate ownership of government.

The EPA is a favorite whipping boy for ALEC, and they are going berserk over the new consumer protection bureau. Heaven forbid that anybody in government look out for the interests of the little guy.

Until the sudden rush to crush unions by new Republican governors last January, I had never heard of ALEC. My colleague, Tom Aswell, wrote a column about ALEC sometime last year, but my guess is most Americans haven’t heard of the organization either.

Yet for 40 years about 300 of the largest corporations like Koch Industries, Exxon, Centerpoint, Verizon, AT&T, Bank of America, State Farm, Blue Cross, Pfizer, and Walmart have used ALEC to push legislation written by themselves to benefit themselves, but put forth by legislators. Local company Hunt-Guillot is also a member.

I envision ALEC as something like a computer virus, stealthily infecting our political system without our knowledge. We notice things slowing down as it spreads behind the scenes until, like a computer, our politics cease to function.

As if there weren’t already enough corporate influence in government, the Supreme Court two years ago allowed unlimited money into the political system with their Citizens United decision. Super Pacs will probably spend more money than political parties in this year’s election.

As someone once said, “Legislators ought to wear logos like NASCAR drivers so everyone would know who sponsors them.”