More about that "Meeting"

When I started blogging again a couple of weeks ago, I took note of the current political scene and wondered when the meeting was at which the Republicans coordinated and developed their current strategy for what I, with no hyperbole intended, call their blitzkrieg against regular Americans. That is to say, the seemingly coordinated effort in statehouses from Madison, to Indianapolis, to Columbus, to Harrisburg to attack public employee unions and public education funding and the Affordable Care Act, promote "voter i.d." laws, and a range of other actions that seemed to come out of lets-git-em discussions around the campfire at Republican Fantasy Camp.

I was thinking that a meeting was mainly true in a metaphorical sense, but silly me. Thanks to an article in the New York Times today calling attention to Republican demands for the e-mails of a University of Wisconsin professor, William Cronon, I learned about the American Legislative Exchange Council, which is the Washington-based clearinghouse for many of the current assaults on the American public being carried out in statehouses, including Harrisburg. Cronon wrote a blogpiece, "Who's Really Behind Republican Legislation in Wisconsin and Elsewhere?" that exposed the role of ALEC, as it is known. Every Democrat and every Republican who is upset about the direction of his or her party since it was taken over by the Tea Party radicals should read this piece.

The Times article, with its link to Cronon's blog piece, alarmed ALEC to the extent that it took down its website in the early morning hours of today. But you can still find its slimy fingerprints elsewhere on the Internet.

ALEC charges $100 to conservative legislators, who must be vetted, for membership, but charges much more to corporations. I found this 2009 news release from the Amoore Group, a legislative affairs group with an office here in Harrisburg, soliciting sponsors for big ticket "Pennsylvania Night" events, including one at the ALEC meeting in Atlanta. PPL and FirstEnergy Corporation (MetEd, Penelec) muckety-mucks were the hosts for that event.

More to the point on the impact of ALEC was this ALEC news release dated Jan. 26, 2009--note that date, six days after the Obama inauguration--lauding two Pennsylvania Republican legislators, Rep. Matthew Baker of Tioga County and Rep. Curt Schroder of Chester County for introducing legislation, HB 2053, which would make it illegal to require individuals or corporations to purchase or offer health insurance coverage--the financial heart of what became the Affordable Care Act enacted by Congress in 2010, and HB 2079, which would enshrine that ban in the state constitution. Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett, when he was still attorney general, joined a number of other Republican AG's in attacking the Affordable Care Act in court.

ALEC boasted that the Pennsylvania legislation was styled on its own "Freedom of Choice in Health Care" model legislation, that legislators in 19 other states had filed or pre-filed similar bills modeled on what ALEC suggested, and that legislators in 11 other states were considering the idea. The news release said ALEC's Christie Herrera--I know I've seen that name somewhere, perhaps in op-ed bylines--directed a task force that was "coordinating the nationwide effort."

One hesitates to use the phrase, but if this isn't a vast rightwing conspiracy, what is? More than a year before Congress passed the Affordable Care Act, rightwing Republicans and corporations around the nation were plotting to destroy national health care. Rep. Baker in Pennsylvania now chairs the House Health Committee and continues to work against the interests of his rural constituents in Tioga County by fighting against the Affordable Care Act, which he predicted recently would put "three million people" on welfare. Or maybe everyone in Tioga County has good health insurance.

All journalists and political bloggers need to pay close attention to ALEC and find out which members of the Legislature are members. Letting an undemocratic, secret organization call the tune on laws important to our lives doesn't strike me as very American.