Harry Targ
The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)
was founded in 1973 by Paul Weyrich, other noted conservatives such as Senator
Jesse Helms, and the billionaire Koch Brothers, to raise money and to
coordinate the creation of a counter-revolution in the American political
system. Its vision was one of deregulation, privatization, weakening workers’
rights, and the facilitation of the unbridled accumulation of private wealth.
The result of these policies would reverse positive
government; the idea that for societies to function public energies,
resources, and commitments are needed to create and maintain institutions to
serve the people.
ALEC established a network of prominent
politicians at the national and state levels, created well-funded lobby
groups, supported “research” to justify
reactionary public policies, and funneled money to conservative political
candidates running for office virtually everywhere and at all levels of government. ALEC created “model” legislation to be
introduced verbatim in legislative bodies everywhere on subjects including
right-to-work, charter schools, and privatization of pensions. While
politicians pay dues to join ALEC, over 98 percent of ALEC’s budget comes from corporate contributions
from such economic and political influentials as Exxon/Mobil, the Koch Brothers,
the Coors family, and the Scaife family.
ALEC claims to have 2,000 legislative members
and over 300 corporate members. Corporations which have benefited legislatively
from their affiliations with ALEC include but are not limited to Altria/Philip
Morris USA, Humana, United Healthcare, Corrections Corporation of America, and
Connections Academy.
One of ALEC’s prominent projects is the
creation of the “State Policy Network,” a collection of think tanks in almost every
state (funded up to $83 million) to generate research “findings” to justify the
rightwing model legislation generated by ALEC. SPN studies have been
disseminated on education, healthcare, workers’ rights, energy and the
environment, taxes, government spending, and wages and income equality (Center
For Media and Democracy, “Exposed: The State Policy Network,” November, 2013,
p.6, alecexposed.org).
Of particular concern to workers are the ALEC
model bills that have been introduced in states including:
-right-to-work legislation
-rules increasing the freedom of governments to
hire non-union contractors
-reducing pensions for government employees
-repealing minimum wage laws
- eliminating prevailing wage laws for
construction workers
-encouraging so-called “free trade” to
outsource work
-privatizing public services
-gutting workers’ compensation
The
Deep State
The role of ALEC, the Koch Brothers,
and the largest multinational corporations and banks in America suggest that
politics increasingly occurs at two levels. First, at the level of transparency
we observe politics as “games,” largely about electoral contests, gossip and
frivolous rhetoric. News junkies avidly consume this first level glued to the
television or computer.
However, Mike Lofgren, a former
Republican Congressional aide has introduced the idea of another level of
politics, what he calls the “deep state.” Lofgren defines the “deep state”
as “… a hybrid association of elements
of government and parts of top-level finance and industry that is effectively
able to govern in the United States without reference to the consent of the
governed as expressed through the formal political process.” (Mike Lofgren, “Anatomy of the ‘Deep State’:
Hiding in Plain Sight,” Online University
of the Left, February 23, 2014).
Others have referred in similar ways to invisible power structures that
rule America (from C. W. Mills’ 1950s classic The Power Elite, Oxford University Press, 2000 to Robert Perrucci,
Earl Wysong, and David Wright, The New
Class Society: Goodbye American Dream?, Rowman and Littlefield, 2013).
The distinction between politics as contests
vs. the deep state suggest that the power to make critical decisions reside not
in the superstructure of the political process; the place where competitive
games are played for all to see, but in powerful institutions embedded in
society that can make decisions without requiring popular approval. In domestic
politics, the “deep state” apparatus such as ALEC and its network of
organizational ties has initiated a resource-rich campaign--from the school
board and city council to the state and nation--to destroy the links between
government and the people. And the public face of the deep state includes the
selective and manipulative character of experts, pundits, and major sources of
news in the media.
Indiana
Politics
Perhaps the starkest fact to note in
reference to the growing economic insecurity in the state of Indiana over time
is that in 1970 forty percent of Hoosier workers were in unions. Today only 11
percent of Indiana workers are in trade unions. The most recent legislative
defeats Indiana workers have suffered include passage of a right- to-work law
and repeal of the state version of prevailing wage. The Daniels/Pence
administrations have used charter schools and vouchers to destroy teachers
unions. (In addition, in his first day in office in January, 2004, newly
elected Governor Mitch Daniels signed an executive order disallowing state
employees the right to form unions).
In 2005 the Indiana state government
(legislature and governor) passed the first and most extreme voter
identification law. Michael Macdonald a University of Florida political
scientist estimated that requiring voter IDs reduces voter participation by 4-5
percent, hitting the poor and elderly the hardest. In addition, Indiana law
ends voter registration in the state one month before election day (the polar
opposite of same-day registration). And, polls close at 6 p.m. election day,
among the earliest closing times in the country. Finally, requests for absentee
ballots require written excuses.
Republican control of the executive and
both legislative branches since 2010 led to redistricting which further
empowered Republicans and weakened not only Democrats but the young and old and
the African American community. As to the state legislature, in 2014 of 125
state legislative seats up for election, 69 were uncontested. Most shockingly,
2014 Indiana voter turnout was 28 percent, the lowest state turnout in the
country.
Traditionally when Democrats were in
the Governor’s mansion and/or controlled a branch of the legislature, they too
tended to support neoliberal economic policies, but less draconian, and had
been more moderate on social policy questions. In recent years, in part as a
result of support from ALEC, the two most recent governors and the state
legislature have become Republican and most of the draconian ALEC legislative
agenda has been passed.
With ALEC money, some active Tea
Party organizations, the growth of rightwing Republican power, and centrist
Democrats, Indiana government has initiated some of the most regressive
policies in the country in reference to voting rights, education, taxing, and
deregulation. And the political economy of Indiana has increased the suffering
of the vast majority of working families in the state including the worsening
of access to health care, education, the environment, transportation, and
physical infrastructure.
ALEC money, influence, and control
have played a significant role in shifting state policy in a reactionary
direction, weakening public institutions, redistributing wealth and income to
the very few, increasingly marginalizing people of color, and threatening the
foundations of democratic institutions. And perhaps most threatening for the
state’s future is the fact that transparency is being subverted by the
emergence of the “deep state.”
For further information see “ALEC Exposed” at www.alecexposed.org
