No one likes a smart aleck. No one likes the superiority implied in that role or the arrogance.
We do not like to be manipulated or fooled by clever words and fancy footwork. We like people who stand still and speak truth ... who are who they purport to be.
Well, there is an organization in our midst that operates in many of the ways we dislike and distrust. It is ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council. It is funded by some of the largest corporations and brings in state legislators to wine and dine them, allow them to rub shoulders with the financial movers and shakers and give them model bills and legislative suggestions to move the corporate agenda forward. It also connects them with lobbyists to help fund and shape campaigns to accomplish their ends and to help the legislators get re-elected.
In other words, state legislators are seduced by money and power to serve the corporate constituency rather than the, not so rich and powerful, constituency they were elected to serve.
In this state Rep. Mary Kiffmeyer, the reported state chair of ALEC, sponsors the Voter ID legislation coming from ALEC. This same legislation appears in many other states, coming from the same source.
The goals of ALEC are to consolidate power by suppressing the vote, playing to the right wing base and, most of all, to ultimately turn that control into profits by privatizing government functions such as prisons and education. So your taxes turn into their profits with no citizen voice or control.
No one likes a smart aleck but the hidden influence of ALEC loses its power when its manipulations have been exposed. Let’s not let them get away with their smart-alecky ways.
Bob Passi
Baxter
Comments (2)
Add commentRepublican legislators would be largely lost
if they didn't have big-money ALEC to lead them around by the nose.
Good deal for GOP legislators....
This is a great deal for the GOP legislators. They pay $50.00 for an annual membership and in return they get 4 all expenses paid weekends INCLUDING $500.00 in extra spending money each year. ALEC pays their travel fees, lodging, food, drinks, etc and hands them extra money on top of it.
But we don't call it lobbying because they pay a membership to belong. Right....when was the last time you could take 4 weekend trips for $12.50 each?
And what else do they get out of it? Well, they don't have to work to come up with solutions to our problems on their own. Corporations provide them with model language to take back and introduce in their states.
Do we really want Corporate America running the government? A vote for the GOP has become a vote for Fascism, and I don't think that's what any of us want.