Remember the election of 2010, where Scott Walker promised to add 250,000 jobs in Wisconsin. Where are the jobs?
Mostly, Scott Walker, with the aid of Rep. Kevin Petersen and Sen. Luther Olson, have been busy passing conservative social legislation drawn up by ALEC. Who is ALEC and why are they writing laws for the people of Wisconsin?
The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a tax -xempt organization, is financed by corporations, many of which are household names. There are approximately 300 corporate partners and over 80 percent of ALEC’s finances come from corporate contributions.
ALEC serves as a means for corporations to advise, lobby and sway legislators. In order to draft and promote their “model legislation,” ALEC operates task forces that bring representatives from corporations together with lawmakers. Through ALEC, global corporations and state politicians vote behind closed doors to try to rewrite state laws that govern your rights.
What kinds of laws have been put forward by ALEC? Here is a list; many will sound familiar to Wisconsinites:
• Undercutting health care reform by encouraging members to introduce bills that would prohibit the law’s insurance mandate and defund Planned Parenthood.
• Promote laws that would shield corporations from legal action and allow them to limit the rights of workers. ALEC is a main proponent of bills that undermine organized labor by stripping public employees of collective bargaining rights.
• ALEC sees private school vouchers as a way to radically privatize the public education system. This is despite constitutional problems, negative impacts on public schools, bias against disadvantaged students, and comprehensive studies in cities like Milwaukee which demonstrate that private school voucher programs failed to make any improvements to the education system.
• ALEC is directly tied to the emerging trend among state legislators to consider voter ID laws. Using false allegations of “voter fraud,” right-wing politicians are pursuing policies that disenfranchise students and other at risk voters, including the elderly and the poor who are unlikely to have a photo ID.
• At the bidding of its major donors, ALEC is behind state-level legislation that would hinder the ability of government to regulate and curb polluters.
• Kill-at-will laws, that prevent police and prosecutors from effectively investigating shootings such as that of Trayvon Martin in Florida, Bo Morrison here in Wisconsin and others who have been killed since states began to enact so-called “Castle Doctrine” and “Stand Your Ground” laws.
In conclusion, it is easy to see that Scott Walker has been largely ineffective when it comes to creating jobs in Wisconsin. Wisconsin has had the largest number of job losses in the nation in the last 12 months. He and his fellow Republicans seem to have forgotten their “laser like focus on jobs” and have been too busy working on ALEC’s agenda of right-wing social change.
Scott Walker does not represent the people of Wisconsin; he represents the interests of large corporations and the rich. I urge you to vote to rid Wisconsin of Scott Walker in the recall election.