In response to requests by constituents and the progressive
advocacy organization, ProgressVA, 35 Virginia legislators announced that they
are not part of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).[1]
Of the 35 VA legislators who made the announcement, most were Democrats along
with a few Republicans.[2]
ALEC promotes itself as an advocacy organization for the
advancement of free-market ideas, limited government, and “federalism at the
state level through a nonpartisan public-private partnership of America’s state
legislators, members of the private sector and the general public.”[3]
According to The
Washington Post, at least 115 current or former members of the Virginia
General Assembly have links to ALEC.[4]
The relationship has culminated in the sponsoring of ALEC bills, paying
membership dues or attending conferences, some of which are being paid for by
using state (i.e. taxpayer) money.[5]
Over 60 bills that have been introduced in Virginia have
been authored with the assistance of ALEC, according to an analysis conducted
by ProgressVA that studied data from a national report. This piece of data
represents a large reason why ALEC has come under the microscope of individuals
and groups concerned about its influence in the political process.
A closely related, if not completely intertwined, reason
that ALEC has been the seed of controversy is ALEC’s huge corporate list of
backers (as of July 2011)[6].
Judging from this list, it’s difficult to find many organizations that have the
public interest as their mission. Instead, what is exclusively found are
companies whose overriding goal is increasing their bottom-lines. The public
interest is at best peripheral.
Thus, Virginia’s General Assembly has been considerably
influenced by an organization whose main goal is opening the legislative
floodgates to policies that are harmful to small businesses and your average
private citizen in Virginia.
The implications for our democratic form of government are
clear. If groups like ALEC can have their way in the legislative process in
particular, then the concerns, wants, and demands of the people will be flooded
out by ALEC’s influence.
For all of the talk about the “American way” by members of
the Republican Party in particular, I don’t recall the U.S. Constitution or any
other document by the Founding Fathers concluding that Big Business will
constitute the voice of the people. There is little else more un-American than
our political institutions being almost completely commandeered by the few.
No comments:
Post a Comment