A smart ALEC complaint?
Right-wing legislative think tank ALEC seems to be whining that it’s getting smeared. Pity.
Politico Arena asks:
Common Cause has filed a complaint accusing the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) of violating its tax-exempt status by lobbying state legislators. Critics have seized on ALEC’s support of so-called “Stand Your Ground” laws, coordinating a campaign against the group in the wake of the shooting of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin.
Is this a valid complaint? Or a smear against a successful conservative advocacy group?
My Response:
Thank goodness ALEC is being challenged. Sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander and right-wing groups have never hesitated to smear any group standing the way of their total domination of the policy agenda.
That said, the only lasting antidote to ALEC’s twisted use of the tools of democracy is for the rest of us to participate in the democratic process more and better, in order to vote down laws like Stand Your Ground and throw ALEC-leaning legislators out of office.
GLORIA FELDT is the New York Times bestselling author of several books including No Excuses: 9 Ways Women Can Change How We Think About Power, a sought-after speaker and frequent contributor to major news outlets, and the Co-Founder and President of Take The Lead. People has called her “the voice of experience,” and among the many honors she has been given, Vanity Fair called her one of America’s “Top 200 Women Legends, Leaders, and Trailblazers,” and Glamour chose her as a “Woman of the Year.”
As co-founder and president of Take The Lead, a leading women’s leadership nonprofit, her mission is to achieve gender parity by 2025 through innovative training programs, workshops, a groundbreaking 50 Women Can Change The World immersive, online courses, a free weekly newsletter, and events including a monthly Virtual Happy Hour program and a Take The Lead Day symposium that reached over 400,000 women globally in 2017.