What is ALEC? They write our Republican laws for us. How easy is that?

This is a great piece on the corporate shell group, ALEC, and how it's guided the conservative agenda since 1973. ALEC took over America without much resistance, convincing even Democrats that what is best for big money, is best for the country. ALEC is in protect mode now, with no intention of ceding their political and corporate power to anyone. (See below the Wisconsin/Walker connection.)

MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell talks with Allan Gillum, from People for the American Way, about the movement to privatize and populate prisons throughout the country. The "Show me your papers" law in Arizona is their handiwork:



Here's the complete story of ALEC:



From Counterpunch, the Walker/GOP connection in Wisconsin:

Walker’s Bill was not Walker’s brainchild, but the opening gambit of a coordinated assault on labor was illuminated by University of Wisconsin historian William Cronon, a self-styled political centrist and independent, who set out to trace the political roots of this sudden “explosion of radical conservative legislation” and surprised himself by finding that these roots lead, not only to groups like Koch’s Americans for Prosperity, but to a shadowy group called ALEC (The American Legislative Exchange Council). 

ALEC, it appears, is a murky legislative body that drafts right-wing “model bills” that Republicans across the 50 states can implement to gut progressive programs. ALEC was founded in 1973 by none other than Wisconsin’s Paul Weirich, also founder of The Heritage Foundation and The Moral Majority which ignited the think-tank Republican revival. In a fit of pique at Cronon’s temerity for exposing this history in the blogosphere, the Republicans lashed back, calling on UW under the Open Records law to release Cronon’s (evidently humdrum) emails for Republican scrutiny. His emails duly vetted, Cronon was exonerated of any untoward evildoing. Undaunted, Rep. Robin Vos called on UW to “discipline” all professors using university email for “inappropriate politics.” 

As it happens, Vos is the Wisconsin Chair of ALEC. Michigan’s Mackinac Center has quietly followed suit, calling for the release of emails by three University of Michigan’s labor history professors with incriminating words like “protests,” “unions” and “Rachel Maddow.”