A left-wing ‘temper tantrum’ to short-circuit elections and their consequences
Three years ago, the combination of a $787 billion stimulus and multibillion-dollar bailouts sparked the first tea party rallies. The tea partyers protested, yes, but most importantly they pledged to “remember in November” — that is, November of the following year, when the next congressional elections would be held.
Liberals, confident the tea parties would fail, called it a “temper tantrum.” That “tantrum” wound up sweeping many a Democrat out of office. Now, liberals are throwing a fit of their own. But they aren’t waiting for the next elections. They want their way, now.
That’s the upshot of both the threatened boycotts of a conservative legislative group’s corporate sponsors and the attempted recall of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. The left, having lost last time, is too impatient to bide its time.
The conservative group in question, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), has been around since 1973. It has been quite active in Georgia since Republicans took the reins here a decade ago.
By ALEC’s count, each year one in five bills based on the group’s model texts becomes law. That rate hardly signals a rampant rubber-stamping of laws written in secret and railroaded through statehouses.
The two ALEC-approved laws at the heart of the boycott threats are one requiring voters to provide photo identification and the “stand your ground” self-defense law that gained national notoriety after the shooting death of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin.
But states began passing voter ID laws nearly a decade ago. The U.S. Supreme Court in 2008 upheld Indiana’s version, one of the strictest, noting plaintiffs presented no one denied the vote because of the law. “Stand your ground,” meanwhile, is a century-old legal concept long approved by courts. In recent years, it has been codified by a number of states — including eight with Democratic governors at the time.
Now, suddenly, these court-approved laws have made ALEC public enemy No. 1. Companies that donated to it are shrinking in the face of boycott threats. What changed? Why now?
Permit a theory: The urgency stems from the conservative wave that swept over numerous statehouses in 2010. Republicans now control 26 statehouses and 29 governor’s mansions. That’s a stark change from before the 2010 elections, which produced the largest loss of statehouse seats for one party in decades and the most GOP state legislators in 82 years. Suddenly, ALEC has a lot more influence. And the left doesn’t want to wait for the next elections — and to have to win a reversal at the polls — to stop it.
In Wisconsin, labor unions aghast at the changes Walker and GOP legislators enacted — including limiting collective bargaining rights for some public workers and requiring them to contribute more toward their health care and pensions — will try to recall him in an election next month.
Never mind that Walker campaigned on most of these changes, won the election and followed through. The unions want to remove him from office more than two years early. There’s talk Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder could face a recall as well due to his union-limiting law.
Fledgling democracies mark a significant milestone when they transfer power safely from one group to another. We haven’t fallen that far.
But it is disturbing to see some groups try to lessen the effect of their electoral losses by making threats and seeking to remove officers carrying out an electoral mandate. They tread on dangerous ground.
– By Kyle Wingfield
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327 comments Add your comment
td
April 22nd, 2012
10:45 am
AmVet
April 22nd, 2012
9:35 am
I insulted you and your family at 9:36? By doing what? Telling everyone what your true belief system is? Where is the personal attack? If I am wrong then tell us all what was wrong with my statement. Tell us all how much you hate the social welfare state and love free enterprise. Tell us how you think people should be held accountable for their actions and there should be consequences for bad choices. We shall be waiting patiently.
Right Wing Love Fester
April 22nd, 2012
10:45 am
Do they even care? They talk about it. Does that count for anything.
Right Wing Love Fester
April 22nd, 2012
10:50 am
I love my phone. I hate dropped phone calls. I love my computer. I hate a slow connection. I love to hate and hate to love. I am so emotional. I’m jealous.
RW-(the original)
April 22nd, 2012
10:59 am
We shall be waiting patiently.
We will??? I think not…btdtgtts
So I did a little research on this evil, subversive monster the moonbats are warning us about. Turns out this beast know as ALEC presents ideas to the duly elected representatives of the people who then in turn debate them and vote on the ones they deem worthy, all in the light of day… Oh the horror!!!!
RAMZAD
April 22nd, 2012
11:25 am
Because Stand Your Ground was around before Kyle laid down his Civil War weapon does not mean that it is relevant today. When morons like George Zimmerman can walk out of a pawn shop with an AK-47 over his shoulder Stand Your Ground is not as attractive. We hear of very few cases where a citizen lawfully kills an intruder of a criminal about to cause him/her harm.
Stand your ground is really a smoke screen law that authorizes land owning upper class people to kill the poor and minorities who have supposedly come to take what the former has. Stand your ground is a vigilante approval law. So, we ought to review it and how it is working. It is dumb to espouse that because it has been here a long time it is fine as it is, but that is Right Wing logic for you.
td
April 22nd, 2012
11:35 am
RAMZAD
April 22nd, 2012
11:25 am
“Stand your ground is really a smoke screen law that authorizes land owning upper class people to kill the poor and minorities ”
Have you looked at who some of the biggest supporters of the law in Florida are? Yes African Americans. You really need to do a little research before you try to pull out that tired old race card crap.
Right Wing Love Fester
April 22nd, 2012
11:36 am
Georgia is known as a particularly difficult state when it comes to accessing TANF. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), in 2008-09 for every 100 poor families with children in Georgia, only eight received cash aid.
Now the state is set to make its TANF application process even more onerous.
On Monday, Republican Governor Nathan Deal signed a law requiring that people approved for TANF receive a drug test within forty-eight hours. They also have to pay a $17 fee for the test and it isn’t refunded, even if a person passes. In addition to the financial burden, forty-eight hours can be tough for someone who may need to arrange for childcare, or find transportation to a testing site.
Good job! Georgia’s poor should be grateful to those that have helped them pick themselves up by their bootstraps and not be a burden on the rest of us that had to earn our way.
td
April 22nd, 2012
11:38 am
RAMZAD
April 22nd, 2012
11:25 am
Oops don’t you feel like a fool now?
“NAACP weighs in on what they say is a “Stand Your Ground” case against Jacksonville woman
Woman faces 20 years in prison in Jacksonville case involving shooting”
Read more at Jacksonville.com: http://jacksonville.com/news/crime/2012-04-21/story/naacp-weighs-what-they-say-stand-your-ground-case-against-jacksonville-0#ixzz1smflCEw0
AmVet
April 22nd, 2012
11:39 am
…all in the light of day…
Factually incorrect. The public is kept in the dark about who ALEC really is.
Up until 2009 almost no one had even heard of them. And they have operated quietly and virtually unobserved in the United States for decades
…I would experience over the next three days at the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) annual convention.
Its membership lists are kept secret.
No one outside of he organization had any detail information on how much money the organization gets from which corporations.
AmVet
April 22nd, 2012
11:42 am
When you went to one of the task force meetings where the corporate model legislation was actually approved, only task force members could even get a copy of what was presented.
Only now is the media and others subjecting them to some serious scrutiny.
AmVet
April 22nd, 2012
11:43 am
And their laughably false assertion that they are non-partisan (Of the 23 members of the public sector board in 2010, only three are Democrats. Of the 72 filled state chairmen seats, only three are held by Democrats) may explain why eleven major corporations have left their semi-secret society very recently – Blue Cross Blue Shield, Coca Cola, Pepsi, Kraft, Intuit, McDonalds, Wendys, Mars and others.
I expect that that number, like former Limbaugh advertisers, will keep climbing…
td
April 22nd, 2012
11:46 am
AmVet
April 22nd, 2012
11:39 am
ALEC is just another lobbying group but are on the conservative side. Unions spend as much money on lobbying, so does the ACLU, and such groups as Teacher associations. You libs are just trying to find a boogy man to get your base excited.
Right Wing Love Fester
April 22nd, 2012
11:48 am
New Census data shows that Georgia’s poverty rate was the third highest in the country in 2010, up two spots from last year, with more than 1.8 million residents counted among the poor.
The only states with higher poverty rates in 2010 were Louisiana and Mississippi. Nationally, 15.1 percent of Americans were living in poverty last year.
Most excellent work. Only two more states to pass. Good job. Give yourselves a pat on the back. Just think off all the people in need of charity now. That should keep conservatives busy and prove beyond a doubt that conservatives take care of those in need once Georgia is compared to those no good uncaring liberals in liberal states.
RW-(the original)
April 22nd, 2012
11:51 am
Anyone capable of reading and understanding the English language would understand that “the light of day” portion of the sentence applies to the “duly elected representatives of the people” portion of the sentence, but for the reason stated at the beginning of this sentence you’re excused.
Dr. Pangloss
April 22nd, 2012
11:52 am
Lil’ Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
April 21st, 2012
8:10 am
“The Tea Party came to life because black people were living in the White House.”
——-
Ayn Rant: Racist.
The Tea Party came about because of the unprecedented spending an deficits of your Idiot Klown.
You do know what “unprecedented” means, right?
————————-
Some of us even know the difference between “an” and “and,” Barry.
And a lot of know that Reagan tripled the deficit, that it had quadrupled by the time Bush #1 was out of office and that Bush #2 doubled it. So what is it that is unprecedented?
Dr. Pangloss
April 22nd, 2012
11:56 am
Left-wing temper tantrum?
Which side has been seen carrying signs with guns on them and slogans like “If Brown can’t do it, Browning can”?
Which side has been seen carrying actual guns to a rally held by the President?
Which side keeps coming on these forums and fantasizing about a violent overthrow of the democratically-elected US government?
Which side claims Ted Nugent?
RW-(the original)
April 22nd, 2012
11:59 am
Well the boat is out of it’s slip so I’ll bid you all adieu.
Later
Rafe Hollister
April 22nd, 2012
12:05 pm
Am Vet
You told me to go to Lockheed and spit on those workers. Conservatives have more consideration and manners than liberals and would not do something so vulgar. The overwhelming majority of people working there are excellent workers and fine Americans.
Well, matter of fact I worked at Lockheed for many years, not eligible for the union, thank god, or I might have been intimidated into joining. Here is just two examples of union damage to the company.
Saw many engineers sitting at their desks with nothing to do for days, because an “electrician” was unavailable to move their PC from their old department.
Saw an office repainted after the executive had taken the time to paint it himself on his own time using his own paint. Unfair Labor Practice filed. Office, 8X10, took two union painters two weeks to paint. He was unable to work effectively as he pleaded for them to speed up.
I could go on and on, but the company succeeds in spite of the union, but taxpayers lose as the company passes on the silly union costs to the taxpayer.
AmVet
April 22nd, 2012
12:09 pm
Niiice.
Interesting that RW, who continues years of insulting me from out of the blue, as he did at 4:06 yesterday, but who never uses my name (LOL!), does not try to defend the facts as I asserted.
They are anything but an out in the open organization.
ALEC is just another lobbying group…
More uninformed misinformation.
From the horse’s mouth:
ALEC describes its role as providing a forum for legislators and the private sector to discuss model legislation. ALEC has stated that because actual “laws are not passed, debated or adopted during this process,” “therefore no lobbying takes place. That process is done at the state legislatures.”
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
April 22nd, 2012
12:41 pm
Dr. Pangloss: So what is it that is unprecedented?
—————-
Obozo is the only one to hold the office to run trillion-dollar deficits. He’s run up as much debt in 3+ years as our President George W. Bush did in eight. Our President Reagan added about $1.6 trillion to the national debt in eight years. Your Idiot Klown adds almost that much EVERY YEAR.
Do you understand what “unprecedented” means now?
carlosgvv
April 22nd, 2012
12:41 pm
Our predatory capitalistic system, complete with the best Congress money can buy, is rotten to the core. No amount of statistic twisting or conservative spinning will change this. When a majority of the voters realize this, it’s anybody’s guess what third party they will put in power. You can only fool the people for so long with your conservative spins and lies.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Bookman Got Tired of Losing Arguments With Me, Too!)
April 22nd, 2012
12:43 pm
“ALEC describes its role as providing a forum for legislators and the private sector to discuss model legislation.”
—————-
Frightening stuff, that. But only to folks who get nervous when others think for themselves about things off the libtard plantation.
Right Wing Love Fester
April 22nd, 2012
12:56 pm
So much fantasizing from the banned about winning an argument. The banned live in a fantasy world.
Rick in Grayson
April 22nd, 2012
1:01 pm
Rafe Hollister April 22nd, 2012 12:05 pm
I loved some of your examples about how union workers “help” their employers!
“Here is just two examples of union damage to the company.
Saw many engineers sitting at their desks with nothing to do for days, because an “electrician” was unavailable to move their PC from their old department.
Saw an office repainted after the executive had taken the time to paint it himself on his own time using his own paint. Unfair Labor Practice filed. Office, 8X10, took two union painters two weeks to paint. He was unable to work effectively as he pleaded for them to speed up.”
============================
I’ve had similar experiences with union members:
A union worker takes his 10 minute break (that really is 20 to 30 minutes) to play some bridge with other union members. A metallurgical operation is pending in another building (we are in the lab) and calls the lab for elemental test results needed to blend the final product. The union lab tech states he is on his break and it will have to wait (while a dozen other people wait for his test results in the other building). My boss tells me to jump in and do the test. It only takes two minutes of time, but chemists were not allowed to do “union” work (we just standardized procedures and instruments). The union lab tech got 4 hours of time and a half (overtime without having to actually work those hours) pay and I got written up for doing union work.
This happened quite frequently and the union members were unwilling to show any kind of flexibility to insure that work was performed as needed when it was needed!
Unions and their rules continue to hamper companies who must employ them. I understand why so many would want to establish facilities in “right-to-work” states.
This
getalife
April 22nd, 2012
1:01 pm
Alec makes the headline of the NyTimes.
I would like to see pols heads roll like the Secret Service on this corruption.
Fair is fair.
Right Wing Love Fester
April 22nd, 2012
1:12 pm
“If you look at the ALEC method of operating, it’s all based on nonpartisan research and analysis,” he said. “They have consensus building, pros and cons, everyone has a say.”
Critics dismiss that argument as misleading. Lisa Graves, the executive director of the Center for Media and Democracy, which teamed up with The Nation magazine to publicize a cache of 800 ALEC model bills last year, said that as of last August, all but one of 104 leadership positions within the organization were filled by Republicans and that the policies ALEC promoted were almost uniformly conservative.
ALEC has one non-Republican so that make them bi-partisan. Right.
Rafe Hollister
April 22nd, 2012
1:35 pm
Love fest
ALEC has one non-Republican so that make them bi-partisan. Right.
Have you ever thought that maybe the Dems were all on unemployment, union break, or at a lodge meeting, when the notice of ALEC hiring was passed out. If they do not apply, they can’t claim discrimination. So, how many applied and were turned down for membership? Until you come up with that number, you are just barking.
AmVet
April 22nd, 2012
1:39 pm
Have you ever thought that maybe the Dems were all on unemployment, union break, or at a lodge meeting,
THIS response perfectly illustrates the near impossibility of having adult,cogent discourse here.
Perhaps the host needs to give this forum a byline – Can You Blog Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?
Right Wing Love Fester
April 22nd, 2012
1:39 pm
Rafe,
According to your “logic”, we must take into account, not just the members of an organization, but those that did not join as well, when determining its partisanship. That is some funny stuff you post. Seriously. Funny, as in whacked out crazy, funny.
getalife
April 22nd, 2012
1:44 pm
Same ole con deflection to blame the dems to make them feel better for their own corruption.
Pathetic rafe.
Right Wing Love Fester
April 22nd, 2012
1:50 pm
“This concept that private companies are writing the bills and handing them to gullible legislators to trundle off and pass is false,” Mr. Seitz said. “There is nothing new, surprising or sinister about private-sector organizations coming together with legislators to share ideas and learn from each other.”
Think state legislators wouldn’t just copy-paste bills written by corporations and other special interests? Think again. Earlier this year, a legislator in Florida introduced an ALEC bill but forgot to take out the ALEC preamble before doing so. Oops. That would be on line five. The second sentence in the bill. There must have been so much review that the second sentence just got lost in the shuffle.
Rafe Hollister
April 22nd, 2012
1:50 pm
Love Fester
Many organizations are homogeneous. Are there white people in the Congressional Black Caucus? Is that the Caucus’ fault? Are they bipartisan? Probably not, as white congressmen do not wish to join. I doubt that NOW has many male members, is that NOW’s fault? Are they bipartisan?
ALEC probably is wide open if Dems wanted to join, but, I am not a member and like you do not know their rules. So, as I said, until you know how many have applied and been rejected you are in no position to judge their membership. So, get a grip, not everything in life is fair, bipartisan, or equal.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
April 22nd, 2012
1:58 pm
Alec makes the headline of the NyTimes.
I would like to see pols heads roll like the Secret Service on this corruption.
———————-
Getting points of view from a variety of sources scares small minds and Democrats. Oops, redundant.
“Heads roll” in Democrat circles when an idea from off the plantation is raised.
Rafe Hollister
April 22nd, 2012
1:58 pm
Am Vet
THIS response perfectly illustrates the near impossibility of having adult,cogent discourse here.
Their was nothing childish about my response, I did have a good time with the opening line, but the rest of the response was accurate. As I said to Love Fester, we do not know that the Dems “wanted” or applied to be a member of ALEC. If my responses were usually “feelings based”, I do not think I would want to sit in a room and argue with logical thought based individuals trying to address problems through legislation.
Right Wing Love Fester
April 22nd, 2012
1:58 pm
Rafe,
I’m sure your lame deflections go over really big, really, really big amongst your peers. Not with me though. 103 of 104 leadership positions in ALEC were filled by Republicans. How do you spell partisan.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
April 22nd, 2012
2:01 pm
Democrats don’t need no stinkin’ ideas…they already know everything. Just look at the magic they’ve worked on public schools, for example.
Right Wing Love Fester
April 22nd, 2012
2:02 pm
And ALEC’s membership really needs to establish some basic rules for introducing their “bi-partisan” legislation. FIrst and foremost, read the first two sentences and remove an reference to ALEC before submitting the bill as though it were some collaborative effort, “bi-partisan” or otherwise.
AmVet
April 22nd, 2012
2:06 pm
If they do not apply, they can’t claim discrimination.
Of course, and completely irrelevant.
The American Legislative Exchange Council works to advance the fundamental principles of free-market enterprise, limited government, and federalism at the state level through a nonpartisan public-private partnership of America’s state legislators, members of the private sector and the general public.
Unless of course non-partisan actually means EXTREMELY partisan…
Right Wing Love Fester
April 22nd, 2012
2:07 pm
ALEC also has that “education” legislation covered. A comparison between students in public schools versus those in the voucher schools pushed by ALEC showed the primary difference to be that the ones in the voucher schools had to pay more for the education. That is part of what ALEC is promoting after all. A for-profit education system. Not a better education system.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
April 22nd, 2012
2:38 pm
@@
April 22nd, 2012
8:47 am
Andy:
Even I’m not banned anymore.
Yes you are. Your latest comment was quickly removed as was mine.
@@- So I see. Now there only remains a hole in the middle of a conversation I had with several moonbats who seemed genuinely glad to see me back, after such a long absence. I guess the lib isolation bubble starts become confining after a while and you welcome back even your worst adversaries.
I made two previous comments to that blog in the last 18 months or however long it was that I was “banned for life,” both of them special occasions in which I taunted Miss kookman. Neither were sent to moderation and both were dutifully answered by the full time resident psychotic al-gitmo.
I think Miss kookman would do well to take a Pamprin. It seems as though that time of the month overwhelms her. I haven’t changed IP addresses in the last 18 months but my privileges are switched on and off as though they are controlled by outbursts of hysteria.
Kyle is a vastly more stable blog moderator, witness all of the left wing lunatics that he allows free reign to babble mindlessly at every Conservative idea put forth. Free speech is far more tolerable to some.
getalife
April 22nd, 2012
2:48 pm
“Neither were sent to moderation and both were dutifully answered by the full time resident psychotic al-gitmo. ”
You are getting better with your tolerance of other American opinions problem but still have a long way to go in civil discourse.
Lets face reality , the American voters marginalized you con kooks because you went hard right and became radical rw extremists. I tried to tell you.
getalife
April 22nd, 2012
2:53 pm
And now you are forced to vote for a weird Mormon moderate that leans left.
tiberius your lightning rod of hate!
April 22nd, 2012
3:14 pm
Another religious intolerant statement from the bigoted leftist, getaclue.
tiberius your lightning rod of hate!
April 22nd, 2012
3:17 pm
Getaclue. Really: your 2:48?
2010 sure wasn’t a marginalized election unless you were a clueless liberal.
Which is kind of a redundant term when you think about it.
tiberius your lightning rod of hate!
April 22nd, 2012
3:23 pm
And for you Bookman lovers over here, I’m proud to have been banned from his site because I told that two-faced little pi$$ant dictator exactly what I thought of his inconsistent standards for conservatives and haven’t regretted a day since.
getalife
April 22nd, 2012
3:26 pm
ti,
Do you know where planet Kolob is?
tiberius your lightning rod of hate!
April 22nd, 2012
3:28 pm
No, and I suspect you don’t either. Your point?
Rafe Hollister
April 22nd, 2012
3:37 pm
Am Vet
The American Legislative Exchange Council works to advance the fundamental principles of free-market enterprise, limited government, and federalism at the state level through a nonpartisan public-private partnership of America’s state legislators, members of the private sector and the general public.
Is there a Democrat left in America that believes in any of that?
Rafe Hollister
April 22nd, 2012
3:40 pm
Fester
A for-profit education system. Not a better education system.
Who says a for-profit education system is not better than a public education system. We have tried one and it is a total failure, maybe the other one would work. “work” didn’t mean to scare you!
getalife
April 22nd, 2012
3:41 pm
“No.”
The cons favorite word.
I was talking about the 12 election where the voters marginalized you cons.