Monday, May 7, 2012

More on ALEC's Demise

I must say, I've been more than a little pleased to see all the negative press coming out about ALEC, especially considering how it has helped promote prison privatization and laws (like stricter immigration legislation and sentencing "reforms") that boost the industry's bottom line.  Many people are jumping on the Hate ALEC bandwagon, and I say, "Welcome aboard!"

Much of the coverage has focused on the corporations who have stopped sponsoring these conservative dbags, but not so much the thousands of state legislators who are members.  One of the first legislators to dissociate from ALEC is NM State Senator George Munoz, who basically said that ALEC's solutions to his constituents' problems were "not right for New Mexicans."  Soon after, the New Mexico ALEC State Chairman called the organization "too partisan," indicated that model legislation coming from the group is often altered to remove indications of its origin, and that its member list is actually larger than disclosed.

So maybe, hopefully, state legislators are beginning to see just how unpopular it is to support corporate-written legislation, and we're witnessing the beginning of the end of one of my pet peeves.  More likely, ALEC will just figure out new and inventive ways to disguise its insidious handiwork and push corporate welfare privatization on all of us.

No comments:

Post a Comment