The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is a massive right-wing lobbyist group which fosters the collusion between global corporations and state politicians to vote behind closed doors, rewriting state laws that govern all Americans.
- deregulating the tobacco industry to make it more accessible to youth
- protecting tobacco and pharmaceuticals companies by making it harder to sue for damages
- promoting anti-immigrant legislation which demands more incarceration, benefiting private prisons
In response to ALEC’s blatant attempts to undermine democracy, many groups, like ALEC Exposed, have been running campaigns of awareness to bring these dealings into the light.
While the anti-ALEC movements started off slow, they’ve recently been picking up tremendous support. So much so that six major corporations have now withdrawn their membership from ALEC.
Coke, Pepsi, Kraft, Intuit, McDonalds and Wendys have all said ‘No thanks’ to ALEC’s shady tactics, striking critical wounds to the behemoth organization.
In response, ALEC spokesperson Ron Scheberle lashed out at their opposition, calling them “extreme liberal activists committed to silencing anyone who disagrees with their agenda,” claiming ALEC’s agenda of free market reform stands in stark contrast to their “state-dependent utopia.”
Well, if ALEC’s agenda is so aligned with what Americans want, then why do it behind closed doors? Most likely because passing unscrupulous legislation that profits a few mega-corporations to the detriment of everyone else will not be seen as overly favorable by the ‘everyone else’ who gets the shaft.
While major corporations, like Coke and Pepsi, are not without their own scandalous policies, it is still quite refreshing to see that, given enough public pressure, these empires still care what the people think.
Or at least they act like they do, which is better than nothing.
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Tags: alec, america, American Legislative Exchange Council, corporations, corporatism, democracy, shady, states, united
