[Corporations] FW: Creating a Right-Wing Nation, State by State

Sun Nov 20 13:25:03 CST 2005

Creating a Right-Wing Nation, State by State
By Joshua Holland, AlterNet
Posted on November 16, 2005, Printed on November 20, 2005
http://www.alternet.org/story/28259/

We've heard much talk of the states serving as "progressive laboratories" in
recent years. But conservatives have been working to shape state laws for
the past 30 years. The center of gravity for that effort is the American
Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the nation's largest network of state
legislators.

Founded in 1973, ALEC was the brainchild of paleocon Paul Weyrich, a leading
"Movement conservative" and the head of the Free Congress Foundation (in
1973 Weyrich also co-founded the Heritage Foundation). It is the connective
tissue that links state legislators with right-wing think tanks, leading
anti-tax activists and corporate money. ALEC is a public-policy mill that
churns out "model legislation" for the states that are unfailingly
pro-business. The organization fights against civil rights laws, as well as
consumer, labor and environmental initiatives.

According to the National Resources Defense Council, corporations "funnel
cash through ALEC to curry favor with state lawmakers through junkets and
other largesse in the hopes of enacting special interest legislation -- all
the while keeping safely outside the public eye."

Corporations that support ALEC "pay to play." In addition to dues of up to
$50,000 dollars per year, they also pay as much as $5,000 dollars to sit on
the "task force" committees that draft ALEC's legislative templates. You
pay, and you get to write state laws to your exquisite advantage.

ALEC's record of achievement makes it one of the most successful parts of
the conservative movement, but many progressives aren't aware of it. They
should be; ALEC claims as members 34 state Speakers of The House, 25 Senate
Presidents, 31 Senate Leaders and 33 House Leaders.

Given that ALEC claims to have successfully passed 200 bills into law in
2003, keeping tabs on the organization is a good way to get a handle on
where the right will train its sights next.

Two staffers for People For the American Way (PFAW) went to ALEC's August
meeting to get that scoop. Earlier this month I attended a conference of
labor and community activists in Washington, D.C. to hear a summary of what
PFAW's staffers picked up at the summit. This report draws heavily on their
work, for which I'm grateful (disclosure: during the past year I've received
modest support from PFAW for some of my own activism, and I'm an honorary
Fellow with its Young People For program).

On The Horizon

For the most part, there were few surprises at ALEC's August summit in
Plano, Texas. The usual suspects pushed policies we have come to expect from
the conservative movement. These, according to a profile by PFAW, include
"rolling back civil rights, challenging government restrictions on corporate
pollution," as well as "limiting government regulations of commerce [and]
privatizing public services."

George W. Bush was the keynote speaker, discussing how successful his tax
cuts have been (if you care to, you can read his speech here). Grover
Norquist, Dick Armey and Newt Gingrich rounded out the right's star power.
(According to one of PFAW's observers, Norquist told a room full of
legislators that "those on the left aren't stupid, they're evil.")

The main messages were that public pensions and Social Security should be
privatized and Bush's tax cuts should become permanent (clearly a federal
issue, but they pushed it nonetheless). Secretary of Education Margaret
Spellings defended No child Left behind, which she argued wasn't "just good
policy, it's good politics."

School vouchers -- a long-standing objective of ALEC -- were high on the
agenda. There were two pieces of model legislation that advance vouchers.
Related are the "Virtual Public Schools Act" and "The Family Tax Credit
Program Act." Both are alternatives to public education that, unlike
vouchers programs, divert public education funds to home-schooled children
as well as those enrolled in private schools. Apparently it is, among other
things, a sop to Christian conservatives.

Much was made of the need for "tort reform." There was talk of "judicial
hellholes," where pesky consumer groups and environmentalists were
"regulating" through litigation - ALEC's members call it a "tax on the
consumer" -- and of limiting damage awards and "reforming" class-action
suits.

Most of ALEC's model legislation sounds eminently reasonable at first
glance. One initiative, the "Jury Patriotism Act" -- already passed in 13
states -- makes it more difficult for people to skip jury duty, but would
also increase the amount paid to jurors, especially low-income jurors
serving on long cases. That sounds like a good idea until you come to the
fine print: the increased jury pay wouldn't come from general revenues, but
from significantly increased fees required to bring suit, closing the
courthouse doors to a growing number of people.

Another go-to issue for ALEC's members is the environment. In 2002, the
organization issued a widely read report, "Global Warming and the Kyoto
Protocol: Paper Tiger, Economic Dragon" [PDF], written by the CATO
institute's "climate skeptic" Patrick Michaels. Exxon - the leading funder
of efforts to "debunk" climatology - donated almost one million dollars to
ALEC since 1998, according to ExxonWatch. Dupont, Dow and Edison electric
are among the other firms that have paid millions to write ALEC's model
legislation.

Some of ALEC's environmental initiatives include "environmental audit
immunity" (wonky PDF), a legal regime whereby polluters could self-regulate
and any environmental violations could not be punished as long as they
inform the EPA of the damage done.

Another is attacking state and regional limits on greenhouse gas emissions.
ALEC has fought what have been called "sons of Kyoto" state laws tooth and
nail, calling global warming "the new mantra for environmentalists and
non-governmental organizations in their quest to redistribute international
and domestic wealth."

Perhaps the most troubling of ALEC's environmental aims is criminalizing
activism. Its model "Animal and Ecological Terrorism Act" does just that. As
Karen Charman wrote on TomPaine:

The Texas [version of the] bill defines an "animal rights or terrorist
organization" as "two or more persons organized for the purpose of
supporting any politically motivated activity intended to obstruct or deter
any person from participating in an activity involving animals or ...
natural resources." The bill adds that "'Political motivation' means an
intent to influence a government entity or the public to take a specific
political action." Language in the New York bill is similarly broad.

The Center for Constitutional Rights' Michael Ratner told Charman, "The
definitional sections of this legislation are so broad that they sweep
within them basically every environmental and animal-rights organization in
the country."

Activism clearly frightens the big-business right. Aside from the
over-the-top hostility towards environmental activists, there was much talk
of campaigns such as the current effort - of which AlterNet has played a
part -- to raise awareness of Wal-Mart's labor and environmental practices,
and the harm the firm inflicts on Main Street America.

A panel on socially responsible investing likened the practice to a new form
of Marxism. According to PFAW's observers, the moderator argued that
"progressives control campuses, control foundations, control the media --
corporations are the last bastion of conservatism and if they take them
over, it's game over."

A PLAN for Push-Back

The good news is that ALEC is not unopposed by groups on the left.
Established organizations like USPIRG and the Center for Policy Alternatives
offer progressive model legislation to state lawmakers, and community and
labor activists have worked to shine a hard light on ALEC and its proposals.

But as is often the case, many of these efforts are single-issue, as opposed
to ALEC's broad ideological umbrella of positions, and too often they act
state-by-state instead of working as well-coordinated nationwide networks.

That's beginning to change. ALICE (the American Legislative Issue Campaign
Exchange) is trying to create a similarly broad network at the local level.
A collaboration of the Center on Wisconsin Strategy, the Economic Analysis
and Research Network and several other progressive groups, ALICE is a
clearinghouse of information and legislation that's trying to back up tens
of thousands of progressives in local government.

Another organization that's promising -perhaps the most ambitious of its
kind -- is the Progressive Legislative Action Network (PLAN). Launched with
much fanfare in August and co-chaired by the Center for American Progress'
David Sirota and former Montana legislator Steve Doherty, PLAN most
resembles the structure of ALEC. It not only provides model legislation
across state and issue lines, it also helps push those bills by joining
grass-roots activists and state lawmakers with the "strategic advocacy
tools" they need to advance "progressive economic and social policies."

Stay tuned. 

Joshua Holland is an AlterNet staff writer.