Today, The BRAD BLOG’s legal analyst Ernie Canning joined me on KPFK/Pacifica Radio’s The BradCast to respond to my question: “What’s the problem with ALEC?”
As I note in the opening, American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), was co-founded in 1973 by Paul Weyrich (seen in the photo at right, and heard advocating in favor of vote suppression during the show). The group is a self-described “nonpartisan public-private partnership of America’s state legislators, members of the private sector, the federal government, and general public” and has been vilified by progressives for the abhorrent policies they advocate (eg. polling place Photo ID restrictions, “Stand Your Ground” laws, etc.)
But other than partisan and/or political differences, isn’t what ALEC does perfectly legal? Wouldn’t the same type of an organization that advocated for progressive legislation in the same aggressive manor be welcomed by folks on the non-right? And if there is a problem with ALEC, isn’t it one that underscores the systemic problems of our corporate lobbying and campaign finance laws, rather than a problem with ALEC themselves? In other words, aren’t they only doing what our horrible system allows them to do?
Canning, as you may imagine, has some thoughts on all of that, as do several of our callers — all of which you can hear in today’s episode below. Oh, and though ALEC has yet to respond to our invitation to appear today, we’d still be delighted for them to do so if they’d like to have equal time on a future show.
We also touched briefly on the breaking news of 2nd degree murder charge filed against Trayvon Martin’s killer George Zimmerman in Florida as the show got underway late today (after he had initially been allowed off the hook, thanks to his claim of being protected under ALEC’s horrible “Stand Your Ground” law), and Desi Doyen joins us as usual for the latest Green News Report and a bit more…
Download MP3 or listen online below [appx 58 mins]…
[audio:http://bradblog.com/audio/KPFK_BradFriedman_ErnestCanning_ALEC_041112.mp3]
P.S. Reminder: We don’t post all of The BradCasts here, but you can subscribe to the RSS feed to get all of our weekly shows as soon as they’re archived, or you can visit the KPFK archives page for the show anytime.
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Brad:
During the course of our dialogue I failed to adequately express why the narrow topic of whether ALEC violates the letter of the law entails an erroneous frame.
The question cannot be divorced from the real world impact of its member corporations. Doing so is analogous to the arguments presented on behalf of the Nuremberg defendants that their war crimes trials amounted to retroactive criminalization of “actions that had been legal [under German law], and even required under orders.”
You might suggest that Nuremberg is an extreme example.
I’m not so sure.
Amongst ALEC’s stellar members are giant corporations, like Exxon-Mobil and Koch Industries, who, in the interests of their corporate bottom lines, are leading the climate change denial campaign even as the CO2 & toxins they deposit into the environment and resultant global climate change contribute to an estimated 300,000 deaths per year — not to mention the threat this poses to planetary survival.
Then there are the 40,000 Americans who die each year from food contamination, the 45,000 Americans who die each year simply because they can’t afford health insurance, and the 300% to 400% increase in “justifiable homicides†following Florida’s adoption of its “stand-your-ground†law, which law, ALEC is seeking to see emulated in every state.
Add to that the wholesale slaughter brought on by the military-industrial complex and perpetual war and you begin to see numbers that sound a whole lot like genocide.
You may suggest that all of this cannot be laid upon ALEC, But ALEC, along with the Federalist Society, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Fox ‘News’/right-wing radio/right-wing think tanks, are simply tools through which a tiny group of radical, right-wing billionaires seek to eradicate constitutional democracy, the rule of law and the legal safeguards, like the EPA, which are designed to prevent the very environmental catastrophe that may be the result of their plutocratic manipulations.
“What is wrong with ALEC?” — Everything!
Ernie
This may sound like oversimplification, but I don’t have a lot of time.
ALEC’s main goal, as I see it, is to limit government. That’s fine if you’re talking about reducing funding for things the Constitution doesn’t specifically mandate.
What ALEC is doing is not just unconstitutional. I would call it treasonous. When you exclude certain voters from voting, you are in some cases changing the outcome of an election. Since elections determine the nature of the government, you are altering that government for your own ends, in effect committing a partial overthrow. That is treason.
The “Stand Your Ground” laws they espouse also erode government. If you can pass sentence on someone for whatever reason and get away with it, you’ve weakened the police and the courts, as well as public trust in those institutions. Why bother to have police at all? Why bother having a civilization at all?
After listening to the show and reading the above comments I agree with Brad. There just doesn’t seem to be a compelling enough reason to specifically target ALEC for illegality, although their tax exempt status could be promising and it would be nice to get some more clarification on that from a tax attorney. But the problem remains systemic to our plutocracy. I agree with Mr Canning in that ALEC is one piece of the entire right wing machine that places corporate interests above individual interests undermining many cornerstones of democratic freedom and personal liberty. But good luck trying to convince SCOTUS and its corporate shill chief justice of any of that.