Is the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) too powerful?

I think they have too much influence. But they have been very secretive. The way to counter them is to elect more Democrats, but mostly by organizing to support progressive causes instead of radical right wing causes.

ALEC is far too powerful, especially since it is supported by the KOCH brothers (among other billionaires). They actually write a lot of the ultra-conservative Laws that our Congress then passes & these billionaires are very careful to fund the re-election campaigns of the Congress members who have shown that they are responsive to these financial contributions. Most of the disenfranchisement of voters can be directly traced to the influence of ALEC, as can the War Against Women. These billionaires who fund ALEC are after more & more POWER, power that they can wield against those of us who are average American citizens.

ALEC is completely anti-American, anti-democratic, and fascist (corporate government). It a blight on the people of the U.S. unless you think corporations are the “persons” who matter in the U.S.
This recent article in TheNation gives plenty of information about ALEC.

It’s important to mention that ALEC would get nowhere without legislators who have their hands out for ALEC money and who are too lazy to write legislation. I mean, heck, the sold-out politicians used to write the legislation for corporations, now they just have to put their greedy lacky hands out and ALEC will fork over a bill ready for submission to congress.

It’s also important to note that ALEC is not the only organ of influence the same corporate overlords have working on their behalf. There is the “U.S. Chamber of Commerce” which has become a front group for all the stuff corporations want done but don’t want to be overtly connected to. It is also through the USCC that close to a billion dollars of corporate money if flowing into 2012 U.S. elections. The USCC is funded mostly by trade associations who are, in turn, funded by anonymous corporate donations.
Trade groups themselves often also conduct political activities independent of the USCC. The count on the opacity of their funding to isolate the beneficiaries of their efforts from political backlash.

Lobbying organizations that have all the money corporate America can provide them and that actually write model legislation that then gets written into law, particularly at the state level to the enormous benefit of their corporate donors? When the Constitution was written, the Founders had just won a brutally bloody war largely sparked by the corporatism of the British East India Company. Does anyone seriously believe they wrote the cConstitution intending to make corporations people with inalienable rights like citizens but bank accounts allowing one lobbying group to outspend all the real human people of America? This is the Republican road to a Fascist corporatocracy, not democracy.

The way I understand it, ALEC writes most of the laws presented by the Republican Tea Party. That is not only dishonest but fascist in nature. Hitler, Mussolini, and fascist governments in Spain and Argentina operated in the same way. The had big industry write and administer the law with the assumption that a CEO is much more qualified to lead than ordinary citizens. I expect much more of this type of legislation in the future because no matter who wins the presidency, the right wing will still be under the influence of the tea party and ALEC.

@Ron_C I think we need to be especially vigilant at the state level.

@Yetanotheruser “I think we need to be especially vigilant at the state level” you have that right. I live in Pennsylvania and the far right is fighting for complete control of the election process and the ability to exclude people from the process. I feel that democracy diminishes daily.