Did you know that some of the biggest, baddest names in American business have funnybones?
Walmart, ExxonMobil, Pfizer, even the Koch brothers -- plus hundreds of others, actually -- are cut-ups. Who'd have guessed?
But it's true. Last week, as tens thousands of Americans voiced our collective outrage at the work of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a lobbying front underwritten by these and other major companies, they delivered a side-splitting response.
"This is an attempt to silence our organization... This is an all-out intimidation campaign," groused Ron Scheberle, ALEC's executive director. "America needs organizations like ALEC to foster the discussion and debate of policy differences in an open, transparent way and not fall back on bullying, intimidation and threats."
Scheberle's comment was written, so I can't tell if he was grinning when he uncorked it. But the notion that people like me, who've been publicly taking on ALEC and its political/policy agenda, are somehow intimidating, is a laugher. And the suggestion that ALEC fosters open, transparent debate is absolutely hilarious.
Think of it. We're just a bunch of everyday folks -- working moms and dads, students, retirees, small business owners, a cross-section of Americans -- who object to the way that multi-billion dollar companies, through ALEC, have been pushing laws that encourage vigilante justice, threaten to block millions of people from voting, attack our public schools and deny climate change. And somehow, because we dare to speak up and challenge these behemoths, we've become fearsome intimidators?
C'mon man! Nobody's trying to silence ALEC. Silence and secrecy are ALEC's biggest weapons. At Common Cause, where I work, we're trying to amplify -- not suppress -- ALEC's voice. That's what they don't like.
For years, ALEC's corporate members have quietly poured money into the campaign funds of thousands of our elected representatives, entertained and lobbied them at resort hotels far from the eyes and ears of the public and press, and used them to advance ALEC's "model" legislation. It worked because nobody knew about it.
Well, now folks are learning. Because Common Cause and other groups have picked up a megaphone and spread ALEC's message and tactics, companies are re-thinking their involvement with ALEC.
And some of them -- smart, responsible companies like Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Wendy's, Kraft Foods and Intuit, are getting out.
That's not bullying. It's democracy.
Follow Bob Edgar on Twitter: www.twitter.com/BobEdgarCC
country. its methods and purposes are anti-democratic in almost every action it takes,
particularly in ghost-writing the legislative measures making the round of various states to
restrict the rights of women, the rights of unions, the right of every citizen to vote and in
general insuring that all state laws allow them the greatest opportunities to operate without
restraint or supervisionl
Americans need to be able to separate their role as consumer with their role as citizen. That's why ALEC has been able to write legislation in the first place - something it has no business doing in a democracy.
The last line suggests that democracy and consumerism are interchangeable. They are not - even when the good guys get a win.
I
Perhaps Americans do need to "be able to separate their role as consumer with their role as citizen," but first I think corporations need to admit they aren't people, and the personal privileges they are granted (without the liability or accountability of a person, mind you) need to be rescinded. This seems like legitimate progress in making room for the distinction you are stressing as important.
ALEC has made the state governments; governments of the corporation, by the corporation, and for the corporation.
You had me on this article until you started spouting out the talking points of the liberal left. If you would have pointed out how corporations use their lobbying might to enact free trade agreements that damage our economy or deregulate necessary guards against unethical and criminal behavior then I would agree with you. However, all you have done is talk about a liberal social agenda that most Americans will probably disagree with. Corporations do not care about gun rights, illegal immigration, school vouchers or climate change. They care about money alone and anything else is just a ploy to get people to look the other way while they sell out their future.
http://www.alternet.org/economy/153093/privatization_nightmare%3A_5_public_services_that_should_never_be_handed_over_to_greedy_corporations/
Now I know, sort of: Shadowy organization with shadowy members (I still don't know exactly who has been hand carrying the bills or who runs the organization).
This isn't Democracy. It's - what? - a Corporatocracy? Oligarchy? Plutocracy?
It's like finding out your parents aren't your parents, but rather Russian spies that kidnapped you at birth. I wondered why they didn't seem to care about me.
Keep shining the light.
plenty there and it's eye-opening and scary to a simple citizen without millions of $.
Wal-Mart - who gives us endless goods at cheap prices, employs millions in useful jobs, and is on the leading end of innovation.
Politicians - who are corrupt beyond measure, getting into endless wars, increasing control in fascist ways such as controlling hot water temperatures, and creating poverty.
Why are their goods cheap? Because they are produced by U.S. Companies in the Far East!
No, I don't want the current crop of Republicans in the House. They are so corrupt they don't even know how to fix the cookie-cutter laws they get from ALEC. If they were real legislators they would take a model and create their own. But they can't even do that. They are incompetent.
VOTE DEMOCRATIC 2012
As to driving Mom and Pop stores out of business. Two points: why should I be forced to use higher priced stores because of your preferences? If you like them so much, you use them and leave me out of your personal decision. Second, explain to me how Americans are richer if more people “work” by sitting behind counters and managing small stores of limited items? What wealth is produced? Would we be richer if more of us did this? Labor saving efficiency has been the key to prosperity. See the case of the textile industry in labor saving England versus technology prohibition in India under Gandhi.
As to your "Wal-Mart runs politicans" see Bryan Caplan's book "The Myth of the Rational Voter".
Consumers fill their coffers, ... and consumers can empty them, unless they release their grip on our politicians. ALEC is inviting an endless boycott until they exit the political scene entirely.