Reply #174: Center for Amer Prog Weighs in.. Finally "Think Again: Conserv Class Warfare Against Free Speech" [View All]

It focused on the role of the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, which drafts model laws that are then introduced by Republicans in state legislatures as apparently happened in Wisconsin with the new law that seeks to strip the collective bargaining rights of state employee unions. ALEC, which has been around for more than three decades now, proudly claims responsibility for more than 1,000 bills a year and in every state of the union.

Cronon held ALEC significantly responsible for what he termed “this explosion of radical conservative legislation”—an argument he made a few days later as well on the op-ed pages of The New York Times.

Cronon was right about ALEC. His naiveté arises in his argument that he never belonged to any political party and he thought letting people know of ALEC’s role in the drafting of the kinds of laws now sweeping conservative-dominated state legislatures across America was a purely educational endeavor that wouldn’t draw the ire of those seeking to dominate politics through this avenue.