“There are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.” James Madison, Speech to the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 16, 1788
American Legislative Exchange Council
Paul Weyrich also founded American Legislative Exchange Council.(ALEC) and was Director/President from 1975-1978. ALEC first came into being in 1973 in Chicago as the “Conservative Caucus of State Legislators.” In 1975, with the support of the American Conservative Union, ALEC registered as a federal non-profit agency. Through the corporate-funded American Legislative Exchange Council, global corporations and state politicians vote behind closed doors to try to rewrite state laws that govern your rights. These so-called “model bills” reach into almost every area of American life and, more often than not, directly benefit huge corporations. In ALEC’s own words, corporations have “a VOICE and a VOTE” on specific changes to the law that are then proposed in your state, and sometimes in the federal legislature.
The Madison Group, the predecessor to the State Policy Network (SPN – mini Heritage Foundation’s in each state), was “launched by ALEC,” and housed in the Chicago-based Heartland Institute, so says a 1991 report by the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP). Heartland is funded by the Koch brothers, David and Charles, the former being a member of the globalist Aspen Institute. Remember Aspen Institute’s Director was none other than Maurice Strong, author and promoter of UN Agenda 21. NCRP also reported that the Madison Group’s annual meeting was, at that time, “sponsored by Heritage Foundation and the Free Congress Foundation,” which was led by Paul Weyrich.
The NCRP report also notes that ALEC was then “housed in the Washington, D.C. headquarters of the Heritage Foundation, a seven-story brick building on Capitol Hill, appointed with thick rugs, chandeliers and enormous floral arrangements. On the second floor, near the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America and Amway headquarters, ALEC had a suite of offices.” Today, they are housed in Arlington, VA.
Former Amway President, and CNP charter member, Dick DeVos, and his wife Betsy DeVos, (former chair of the Michigan Republican Party and brother of Erik D. Prince, founder of Blackwater/Xe/Academi) are long-time supporters of the Heritage Foundation and SPN affiliates such as Michigan’s influential Mackinac Center for Public Policy. ALEC has a huge list of corporate donors. Here is a list of their many corporate members, and here is a partial list of politicians that are known to be involved in, or previously involved in ALEC. Not all dues-paying members of ALEC are included because ALEC does not post its full list, but the list includes politicians who have been in a leadership role in ALEC, as a member of a task force, or other publicly known role. It also includes politicians who have been featured speakers or who have accepted awards at ALEC meetings.
ALEC’s membership is 95% corporate along with 2500 of the 7500 legislators from every state. This is where state legislation originates. For Tennesseans, remember that state Senator Mark Norris, the bagman for our neo-conservative Trotskyite governor, is a long time member of ALEC. I would bet every state has members of ALEC.
Public-Private Partnerships (P-3)
NCRP reported, “Privatization is the altar at which the American Legislative Exchange Council and the Madison Group worship. The state think tanks’ agenda includes privatization of most public services, from mass transit to health clinics to environmental protection, and even libraries; vouchers and tax credits; deregulation of business; opposition to labor-backed policies like the minimum wage and family leave; and rollback of taxes.”
In Bill Jasper’s New American Magazine article, The Not-So-Smart ALEC, of April 21, 2014, he states, “ALEC’s model legislation for states promotes a “Public-Private Partnership (P3) Authority Act,” the summary of which states:
“This Act establishes a state Partnership Committee and an Office of Public-Private Partnerships to identify and establish public-private partnerships and approve qualified bidders, requests for proposals, and template contracts. The Act is designed to improve public operational efficiency and environmental performance, promote public safety, attract private investment in the state, and minimize governmental liabilities.”
“In this area, the supposedly “conservative” ALEC is perfectly in step with the “progressive” Obama administration, which has made public-private partnerships (P3) a centrepiece of its statist program. Many of ALEC’s member corporations are also partners in Obama’s Fedgov/Big Business “Manufacturing Innovation” consortiums and other P3 endeavours. They include such well-known names as Boeing, General Electric, Microsoft, Caterpillar, Dow Chemical, ALCOA, and ExxonMobil. Hillary Clinton, while Obama’s secretary of state, launched the administration’s P3 Global Partnership Initiative, spreading hundreds of billions of dollars in corporate welfare to the well-connected.”
ALEC is in the forefront of spreading the P3 gospel at the state level, along with its progressive partner, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (USCC), which, like ALEC, talks a good game of “free markets” while actually promoting corporate subsidies and economic fascism. Please read Erica Carle’s short three part article on the Chamber of Commerce and the New World Order
ALEC’s corporate P3 members are well represented by:
- Big Pharma (Abbott, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Genetech, GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer);
- Big Farm (Altria Group, Archer Daniels Midland, Kraft Food, J.R. Simplot, Monsanto);
- Big Oil (Shell, BP, Peabody, Marathon, Texaco, Tenneco, Chevron, ExxonMobil);
- Big Banking (Bank of America, Coldwell Banker, Wells Fargo, First Chicago NBD);
- Big Gambling (Hollywood Casino Corp., Argosy Gaming Co., Boyd Gaming Corp., GTECH Corp.);
- Big Media (Cox Communications, Comcast, the Wall Street Journal, News Corp., Thompson Reuters, Time Warner Cable);
- Big Insurance (Blue Cross Blue Shield, Farmers Group, GEICO, Liberty Mutual, State Farm, Travelers);
- Big Tech (Yahoo, Face book, Google, AT&T, eBay, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, Sony);
- Big Soda (Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola, Dr. Pepper Snapple Group);
- Big Liquor (Seagram & Sons, Hiram Walker, Miller-Coors);
- Big Box Stores (Best Buy, Home Depot, JC Penney, Lowe’s);
- Big Auto (Ford, GM, Toyota, Chrysler).
ALEC’s critics on the Left erroneously cite these cosy corporate ties as evidence of the corruption inherent in “free market” capitalism. But the ALEC/Obama P3 “partnerships” are the antithesis of genuine free markets, in which entrepreneurs risk their own capital — not that of the captive taxpayers — to build businesses that provide goods and services consumers freely choose to purchase, not those determined for them by politicians and government planners. This information all came from Bill Jasper’s amazing article, check it out here.
ALEC and the Article V Convention
ALEC has long promoted an Article V Constitutional Convention using the excuse that we need a Balanced Budget Amendment. If you’ve read Publius Huldah’s articles on same, here and here, then you understand what a terrible danger the BBA actually is to our Constitution. ALEC even produced a “Resolution for Limitations on Authority of Delegates to a ‘Convention for Proposing Amendments’ (Article V, United States of America Constitution).” ALEC claims this resolution will curtail and eliminate the possibility of a “runaway convention.” The resolution restricts delegates to work only on those amendments authorized in their legislative instructions and calls for the immediate recall of any delegate that works on an unauthorized amendment.” This is total balderdash! Once a Convention is opened, all is fair game!
The very reason most often cited by scholars for their opposition to an Article V Convention is because the 1787 Convention set the precedent. There is absolutely no way that a new Constitutional Convention can possibly be controlled, no matter the circumstances or restrictions set down prior to the Convention.
The precedent was set in the 1787 Convention when the states convened simply to revise the Articles of Confederation, and ended up throwing out the Articles, and writing a new Constitution. The intention from the outset of many of its proponents, chief among them James Madison and Alexander Hamilton, was to create a new government rather than fixing the existing one. This is also what exists today. George Soros and his leftist groups, along with the neo-conservative Trotskyites on the right, Michael Farris, Mike Levin, Goldwater Institute, I Am America, David Barton, Glenn Beck, etc. etc. ad nauseam, are all fomenting change to our Constitution through an Article V convention. What is waiting in the wings is the New States Constitution written over a period of 10 years, at a cost of $25 million, by the Ford Foundation, which eliminates everything after “We The People,” and that includes our God given, unalienable rights.
Countless authorities have stated that there is no Constitutional Convention that can be controlled. Once a Con-Con is opened, the entire document can be taken down and changed. There are no statesmen today like our founders, and the risk of opening a Convention for any reason, would result in the destruction of the last threads binding us to a representative Republic.
Here is ALEC’s handbook on the Constitutional Convention, and of note, the Church of Scientology is also an ALEC member. Link
ALEC and Common Core
In the Washington Post article of June 7, 2014, it states what we already knew, “The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation didn’t just bankroll the development of what became known as the Common Core State Standards. With more than $200 million, the foundation also built political support across the country, persuading state governments to make systemic and costly changes.”
Gates money flowed to policy groups on the left and the right, which funded research by scholars of varying political persuasions who promoted the idea of common standards. None of this is new, of course. Back in the 60s, we had Mastery Learning and then Outcome Based Education, then Goals 2000, etc. ad nauseam, all of which were the same exact thing with a different name. Those fighting Communist Core have failed to realize that liberals at the Center for American Progress and so-called conservatives affiliated with the American Legislative Exchange Council, both accepted money from Gates to promote Communist Core. Normally these groups disagree on every issue that comes down the pike, but they found common ground on Common Core, the diversion from the danger of charters, vouchers and choice, the real Trojan Horse!
ALEC and Trade Agreements
Again, in The Not-So-Smart ALEC, Bill Jasper tells about ALEC members adopting a “Resolution Supporting the Successful Negotiation of a Comprehensive and Commercially Meaningful Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).” ALEC also adopted a “Resolution Urging Congress to Pass the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP).”
Jasper goes on to say:
“One of the most important facts, if not the most important, to know about both the TTIP and TPP is that they would, if adopted, steadily strip away our national sovereignty, allowing the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the United Nations, as well as regional tribunals and regulatory bodies created by these agreements, to override our local, state, and federal laws. This feature alone makes them very subversive, revolutionary proposals that should be opposed by every elected or appointed official who has taken an oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States.” This is no longer a matter of theoretical speculation; as The New American has reported previously, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the WTO agreement have amply proved this. As a result of adopting both of those agreements, NAFTA and WTO rules and rulings increasingly trump our laws.”
This is what Paul Weyrich, the Grand Poobah of the phony right, has given us with ALEC.
Weyrich was also a Member of The Interfaith Council for Environmental Stewardship (ICES), which amounts to a “green” Evangelicals and Catholics Together document, with many involved already having signed the ECTI or ECT II or other ecumenical ventures. Their Cornwall Declaration on Environmental Stewardship, a dominionist group and effort, signed by Evangelicals, Catholics and Jews, many from the CNP, is an environmental statement of faith uniting these same groups in yet another venue.
In Part 8, we’ll discuss Weyrich’s and Morton Blackwell’s membership in The Society for the Protection of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP). Again, the name is the antithesis of TFP’s real strategy and purpose, just like many of the laws our Congress passes where the names sound so good, but the law is so unconstitutional.
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