August 24, 2017
By Jim Hightower
Just days after last November’s election, (click here) jubilant members and top staffers of the notorious corporate front group called the American Legislative Exchange Council gathered for a celebratory lunch and planning session at the group’s D.C. headquarters. But rather than looking toward Congress and the newly Republicanized White House, these schemers were drooling over so many right-wing state governments. “There’s a sea of red,” gushed an ALEC official, asking with delight, “What are we going to do with these new legislatures?”...
...ALEC has pushed preemption with a vengeance, rapidly turning it from a cautiously used power to the corporate-politico cabal’s weapon of choice. In 2014, for example, Jobs with Justice, Fight for 15 and other activist groups began winning campaigns in major cities for minimum wage hikes. ALEC responded by holding a how-to forum on stopping such local actions and circulated a model bill called the “Living Wage Preemption Act.” Sure enough, nearly half of states have passed a version of it, with Ohio being the latest.
Used properly, preemption can be a democracy-enhancing tool for balancing governing powers. But when perverted and used badly, as is increasingly the norm, it asserts corporate interests over public good. The anti-democracy extremism of corporate profiteers and their corrupted political hacks was bluntly expressed a couple of years ago by ALEC member Howard Stephenson. The Utah state senator announced at one of the organization’s private forums: “We need to stamp out local control.”
It’s hardly news to the great majority of Americans, including most Republicans, that corporations already have way too much power over us. Letting elites quash our local decisions by pulling the money strings they’ve attached to state officials goes against all that America stands for. Yet the arrogance of these autocratic state officials has no limit – they’re grabbing for total domination over grassroots democracy.
People hate, hate, hate such pomposity and political overreach. So, let’s run right at them. Protecting corporate profits and power by overruling democratically made local policies is a crime that’s easily understood and loathed by nearly all Americans. As progressives, let’s take hold of this issue; passionately challenge the preemption thugs at all levels of political action; rally a broad-based right-and-left, bottom-up coalition to reclaim our democratic rights; and beat the bejeezus out of these sorry bastards. Learn how to get involved by visiting http://DefendLocal.com.
