There is a movement in America and it has been active here
since the early 1970s. The amazing part is that very few
Americans are aware of it, and yet it affects every aspect of
their lives. I am speaking of ALEC, the American Legislative
Exchange Council.
In 1971, then lawyer, Lewis Powell, was commissioned
by the Central Chamber of Congress to write an opinion,
later to be known as the Powell Memorandum. It was in
response to the rise of consumer protectionism, championed
by men like Ralph Nader. In it, Powell called the consumer
movement a slippery slope to socialism. Powell was the first
to refer to the media as 'biased agents of socialism', and enemies
of America. It was Powell who advocated for the beginning of
funded conservative think tanks, such as the Heritage Foundation.
The Memorandum is the first step to the founding of the American
Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC. It also foreshadowed
the Supreme Court's opinion, especially the ruling on First
National Bank of Boston v Belotti, which was the precursor
of Citizens United. The anonymous Memorandum was
uncovered after Powell was confirmed to the Supreme Court,
by Jack Anderson of the Washington Post.
Here are some names you should recognize, they are the
founders and prominent members of ALEC: Henry Hyde,
Bob Kasten, Tommy Thompson, Scott Walker, Mitch Daniels,
John Boehner, Jesse Helms, Eric Cantor, and Newt Gingrich.
And this is but a handful of Senators and Congressmen who
belong to this organization, along with several Corporations,
such as: Exon-Mobile, Pfizer, AT&T, State Farm, and of course
Koch Industries. However, in 2012, sixty other prominent
companies were shamed into dropping their membership
after ALEC was exposed in the push for state 'Stand Your
Ground' laws which led to the death of Trayvon Martin'
When ALEC was formed in 1973, it put forth the following
agenda to work toward:
* Reduction in corporate taxes and regulations
* Crack down on illegal immigration
* Loosening of environmental regulations
* Tightening of voter registration
* Weakening of labor unions
* Opposition to gun control legislation
* Squashing the homosexual revolution
* Supporting anti-abortion legislation
* Expanding school choice
If all that sounds familiar, it is a page right out of Donald
Trump's election handbook, and every other conservative
legislator. For the last forty-five years ALEC has held true
to these beliefs. Just goes to show you, there is nothing
new under the sun.
To further this end, ALEC writes and distributes to its
members, at least 1000 bills every year to put forth
for approval in state and federal houses. Of those
1000 bills, approximately 20% are passed. ALEC
approaches every new conservative legislator, state
and federal, and demands they join with ALEC and
promote its agenda. If the congressman or congress-
woman demurs, they are threatened with being
'primaried' in the next election cycle. And, because
of gerrymandering, (another ALEC victory) a new
conservative will replace them. One who will go
along with the program.
And now ALEC has spread its poison across the Atlantic
to many foreign countries among them: the UK,
Germany, Poland, and Hungary. And of late to the
Australia and New Zealand, where Adani Mining,
owned by an Indian billionaire, got permission from
the Australian government, though protested by
environmentalists and scientists, to mine and
export coal from NE Australia. Adani is building a
$2billion coal fired electrical plant in India. They
intend to sell the electricity to Bangladesh. In
the interim, they will be releasing CO2 into the
atmosphere for the next 40 years
Where will it end? When there is no more air
to breathe and water to drink? We are poisoning
ourselves for the almighty dollar. Pretty soon
all the money in the world won't buy a drink
of clean water. Then where do we go?
I'm just sayin'...
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